Vince Clarke (born Vincent John Martin in South Woodford, London, on July 3, 1960) is an English pop musician and songwriter, who has been involved with a number of successful pop groups, including Depeche Mode, Yazoo, The Assembly and Erasure.
Raised in Basildon, Essex, Clarke initially studied the violin and then the piano.
In the late 1970s, Clarke and schoolmate Andrew Fletcher formed the short-lived band No Romance in China. In 1979, he teamed up with Fletcher to form French Look, an early incarnation of Depeche Mode that was later re-named Composition of Sound, following the addition of Martin Gore. Clarke initially handled vocals. "Only You" is a ballad written by musician Vince Clarke. He wrote it while with Depeche Mode, and offered it to them when he was leaving. They declined, and Clarke recorded it after forming the duo Yazoo with Alison Moyet. It was an instant success, hitting number two in the UK, and charting in the U.S. (number sixty-seven, Billboard Hot 100), a feat only attained by one other Yazoo single (coincidentally, that single was "Situation," the original UK B-side of "Only You"). "Only You" also made the U.S. Adult.