One sister, Bunny DeBarge (b. 15 March 1955), and four brothers, Mark (b. 19 June 1959), James (b. 22 August 1963), Randy (b. 6 August 1958) and El DeBarge (b. 4 June 1961), combined to form this family group in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, in 1978. Signed to Motown Records in 1979, they were viewed and marketed as successors to the young Jackson Five, a ploy helped by the physical similarity between El DeBarge and Michael Jackson.

After several years of grooming from Motown's A&R department, the group (then known as the DeBarges) were launched with the album The DeBarges in March 1981, and gained their initial soul hit 18 months later. "I Like It" repeated this success and crossed over into the pop charts, while two 1983 hits, "All This Love" and "Time Will Reveal", established DeBarge as one of America's most popular acts in the teenage market.

A support slot on Luther Vandross' 1984 US tour brought them to a wider audience, and in 1985 they scored their biggest hit with the seductive "Rhythm Of The Night", taken from the soundtrack to Motown's movie The Last Dragon, in which the group also appeared. This single reached number 3 in the US charts, a success that the follow-up release, "Who's Holding Donna Now?" came close to repeating.