ROBBIE NEVIL: SOUL’S NEW WHITE SHEEP

The other day at lunch, singer Robbie Nevil, unknown a few months ago, talked about the hassles of maintaining perspective--and sanity--when your life is turned upside-down by sudden fame.

“I’ve always done things in a simple way,” said Nevil, who’s arguably the finest white soul singer to come along since Michael McDonald and Daryl Hall surfaced in the mid-’70s.

“I pride myself on not putting on airs and trying to be something I’m not. But now people are treating me like I’m an idol or a star. Me, a star? C’mon!”

Nevil’s soulful, up-tempo pop-rock single “C’est La Vie” reached No. 2 on the national pop chart late last year. It was his first single, and now the follow-up, “Dominoes,” has rocketed into the Top 25. It could be another Top 10 hit and will certainly push his debut album, “Robbie Nevil”--on Manhattan Records--over the 500,000 mark in copies sold.

“In the back of your mind, there’s a fantasy that you might be an overnight sensation with the first single, but that’s just a fantasy,” he said. “You never think it will happen. But if it does, you’re not quite ready. You try to carry on a normal life even though your life isn’t normal anymore.”

Nevil and his wife have been struggling for normalcy amid his disruptive, chaotic schedule, which has included extensive travel.

“We’re still living in the same place,” he said. “She travels with me when she can. As much as possible, we try not to notice the recognition.”

That gets more difficult as he becomes more popular. And Nevil, whose long hair makes him look like a throwback to the ‘60s, isn’t resisting the star-making machinery. He’s even been asked to do fashion layouts.

“The irony of me doing fashion layouts is that I don’t know how to dress fashionably,” he said. “I’m sort of a slob, actually.”

Though Nevil, who grew up in Cheviot Hills and went to Palisades High School, did sing in local clubs for a while in his late teens, he focused exclusively on songwriting after wangling a deal with MCA Music publishing in 1983. He’s had some success as a songwriter. Though there were no hit singles, artists like Eddie Kendricks, Sheena Easton, Vanity and the Pointer Sisters have recorded his compositions.

Actually, co-compositions is the right word. Unlike most young songwriters, Nevil prefers collaborating.

“I get stuck when I’m writing songs,” he said. “I can waste a lot of time with lyrics. Why do that when there’s so many good lyricists around, like Brock Walsh and so on, who can help me though the rough spots? I get the ideas and then call for help.”

He might still be strictly a composer if pal Bobby Colomby--then a Capitol Records executive--hadn’t helped get him a deal with Manhattan Records in 1984.

“I wasn’t really looking for a deal,” Nevil said. “I was happy doing what I had been doing--being a recording star wasn’t a driving goal of mine. But I decided to give it a shot anyway.”

Nevil was in no hurry. He didn’t record until 1986 because he was waiting for British producer Alex Sadkin to complete assorted projects. When it finally came out, “Robbie Nevil” turned out to be one of the best debut albums of 1986.

Good white soul singers are rare. The best ones are mistaken for black singers. This happened often to Nevil when “C’est La Vie” first came out. Many thought he was one of the soulful Neville Brothers. Nevil’s song was even a hit on the black charts.

As a youngster, Nevil was a passionate fan of soul singers--especially Stevie Wonder.

“There’s a certain passion and intense feeling in soul singing that attracted me to it,” he said. “It’s not really there in any other music.”

But, Nevil insisted, he’s not trying to sound like a black singer. Nor does he particularly care for the white-soul tag.

“I’m white. How could I ever hope to sound like a black singer? But I am a product of my influences--and soul is just one of them.”