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Jules Mark Shear (born March 7, 1952) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He wrote the Cyndi Lauper hit single "All Through the Night" and The Bangles' hit "If She Knew What She
Wants", and charted a hit as a performer with "Steady" in 1985.

"Whispering Your Name" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Jules Shear. It was originally performed by Ignatius Jones in 1983, however Shear also recorded the song, which was issued as a single within months of Jones' recording and included on his 1983 album Watch Dog. It has been covered numerous times, including a charting version by Alison Moyet in 1994.

Shear has recorded more than 20 albums to date. He made his first appearance on vinyl with Funky Kings (along with two other songwriters, Jack Tempchin and Richard Stekol). After their second album was rejected by the record label, he formed a new band, the critically acclaimed (but commercially unsuccessful) pop group, Jules and the Polar Bears. This band, with Shear writing and singing all songs, would release two albums (Got No Breeding and fəˈnet̬·ɪks), merging a tight rock sound with the emerging synth-pop of the early 1980s. Their third album was rejected by their record label but released as Bad For Business in 1996, long after the band had broken up. With Jules and the Polar Bears finished, Shear bounced back with several solo albums. The first, Watch Dog, was produced by Todd Rundgren, and featured such players as Tony Levin on bass and Elliot Easton of The Cars on lead guitar. During the sessions, Shear and Easton struck up a friendship, based on their shared musical tastes, which would lead to various collaborations later on. The album featured the original version of "All Through the Night", which Cyndi Lauper would eventually turn into a top-five hit. The album's opening number, "Whispering Your Name", would reach No. 18 in the UK Singles Chart when Alison Moyet recorded her version of it; Moyet also performed the song on Top of the Pops.

Shear then released an EP, Jules, which contained selections from Watch Dog on one side, and two mixes of a club-style dance number, "When Love Surges", on the other side. Shear's next full-length album, The Eternal Return, was a highly polished, synthesizer-heavy effort, produced by Bill Drescher (of Rick Springfield fame). The album opened with "If She Knew What She Wants", which The Bangles would make into a hit. It also featured what would prove to be Shear's only hit single under his own name, "Steady" which he wrote in collaboration with Cyndi Lauper. The single reached No. 48 in the U.S.

Shear would go on to form two more bands, Reckless Sleepers and Raisins in the Sun. He also conceived (and hosted the first 13 episodes of) the MTV series Unplugged. His songs have been more commercially successful in the hands of other artists, notably Cyndi Lauper, whose recording of "All Through the Night" reached number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984, and The Bangles, whose recording of "If She Knew What She Wants" reached number 29 in 1986.[3] In 1988, singer-songwriter Iain Matthews (still using the spelling "Ian" for his first name at the time) recorded an album of Shear's material, Walking A Changing Line: The Songs of Jules Shear, with synthesizer-dominated arrangements. Some of these Jules Shear songs were previously unreleased. Matthews previously recorded Jules Shear songs on other albums.

Shear was the subject of a song by 'Til Tuesday, "J for Jules", after the end of his relationship with that band's singer, Aimee Mann. Shear co-wrote the title track of that album, Everything's Different Now, with Matthew Sweet, and collaborated with Mann on the album's leading single, "(Believed You Were) Lucky", which performed respectably, reaching No. 30 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks and No. 95 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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