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Jude Cole

American manager, record producer, singer, songwriter and guitarist

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ6302349
Source-derived summary

Jude Anthony Cole (born June 18, 1960) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and talent manager from Carbon Cliff, Illinois. He began his career as part of Moon Martin's backing group the Ravens, and joined the English power pop band the Records in 1980, by the age of 19. After his work on their album Crashes (1980), he signed with Reprise Records to pursue a solo recording career and released his eponymous debut studio album (1987), which was followed by four subsequent releases—A View from 3rd Street (1990), Start the Car (1992), I Don't Know Why I Act This Way (1995), and Falling Home (2000). Afterward, he outsourced his work onto management, production, and songwriting for the alternative rock band Lifehouse. Cole was credited on most of their singles throughout the 2000s, including "You and Me", "First Time", "Whatever It Takes" and "Halfway Gone"—each became hit songs on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Top 40, Adult Top 40, and Adult Contemporary charts.

He co-founded the Ironworks record label in 2003 along with actor and business partner Kiefer Sutherland. Lifehouse signed with the label in 2013 to release their seventh album, Out of the Wasteland (2015).

Career

After spending two years as guitarist and backing vocalist for Moon Martin and The Ravens, Cole joined English pop band The Records as a guitarist for their second album, Crashes, in 1980. When the band returned to Britain, Cole remained in the United States to pursue a solo recording career.

His first three solo albums, Jude Cole (1987), A View from 3rd Street (1990), and Start the Car (1992) were released by Reprise Records and featured a lighthearted, romance-inspired pop sound in an adult contemporary format.

Editorial summary

“Jude Cole” enters the record as american manager, record producer, singer, songwriter and guitarist. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Jude, Cole and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1960, 1980, 1987, 1990—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1960-06-18. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Jude, Cole and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Jude Cole” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Jude, Cole and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6302349. VIAF identifies the subject as 86488301. The Library of Congress control number is n92027801. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1960, 1980, 1987 and 1990.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Jude Cole”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Jude Cole primary sources, Jude Cole archive and Jude research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Jude Cole”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Jude Cole” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.