Boyz II Men
Encyclopedia
Boyz II Men is an American R&B vocal group best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. They are the most successful R&B group of all time, having sold more than albums worldwide. In the 1990s, Boyz II Men found fame on Motown Records
as a quartet
, but original member Michael McCary
left the group in 2003 due to health issues. Currently the group is a trio
signed to Decca Records
, with members Nathan Morris
, Wanya Morris
, and Shawn Stockman
. The group won four Grammy Awards in the 1990s, and the trio was nominated for two Grammies in 2009.
Boyz II Men formed at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts
in 1988 as a quintet
; however, original member Marc Nelson
left the group before its first studio recording to pursue a solo career. In the 1990s, Boyz II Men gained international celebrity behind unprecedented success on the pop charts. The group's first single to reach number 1, 1992's "End of the Road
", a phenomenal hit, reached the top of charts across the globe. "End of the Road" would set a new record for longevity, staying at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100
for 13 weeks, breaking a decades-old record held by Elvis Presley
.
Boyz II Men would exceed even that record later in the decade with hits "I'll Make Love to You
" and "One Sweet Day
" (with Mariah Carey
), which each exceeded records for the longest period of time a single remained at number 1. As of 2010, "One Sweet Day" still holds the all-time record with 16 weeks at the top of the Hot 100. Although "On Bended Knee
" did not exceed any records, it was still a very popular song that reached number 1 and made Boyz II Men the third artist (the other two are The Beatles
and Elvis) to replace themselves at the number one rating of the Billboard Hot 100. Because of this, Boyz II Men are the only artists that have stayed at the number one spot cumulatively 50 times, just fourth behind Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and Mariah Carey. They also hold the numbers one, three and four spots for 3 of the longest running singles in music history with "One Sweet Day," "I'll Make Love to You" and "End of the Road." These achievements were enough to earn Boyz II Men recognition as Billboard Magazine's most successful musical group of the 1990s.
. There, friends Nathan Morris and Marc Nelson organized several R&B singing groups, most of which ended quickly. Eventually, they found a winning formula by recruiting tenors Wanya Morris and Shawn Stockman and bass
Michael McCary. The group would rehearse in the high school's bathrooms, due to the excellent acoustics. They found inspiration in New Edition
's harmonies and routines, and eventually renamed the group "Boyz II Men", after one of New Edition's songs.
In 1989, the group managed to go backstage after a concert performed by Bell Biv DeVoe
, a New Edition spin-off group. In a famous episode that would be retold in Boyz II Men's first hit, while backstage, they met Bell Biv DeVoe member and aspiring record producer Michael Bivins
. On the spot, Boyz II Men performed an a cappella rendition of New Edition's "Can You Stand the Rain
". Bivins was impressed by the group, and began plans to contract them to Motown Records through a production deal with his Biv Ten Records company. The group signed shortly thereafter.
Some time would pass, however, before Bivins was able to secure Boyz II Men recording time for their first album. A year before releasing their debut album, in 1990, they made an appearance on a solo album by Robbie Mychals. They are listed in the credits as singing background vocals on the song "One Mile from Paradise" as "Boy's to Men".
The delay before recording their own material and reported personality conflicts led founding member Marc Nelson to leave the group, making Boyz II Men into the quartet that would find international fame: Michael McCary, Nathan Morris, Wanya Morris, and Shawn Stockman.
, was released on Motown in 1991 and was produced by Michael Bivins. Cooleyhighharmonys drum-heavy new jack swing
sound and multi-layered sampled
backdrops were similar to that of Bell Biv DeVoe's own work, but featured classic-soul styled vocals in place of BBD's rapping
and brassier singing
. This style was dubbed "hip hop
doo wop" by the group and Bivins, who presented Boyz II Men and adolescent R&B group Another Bad Creation
to the public as BBD's protégés.
From the beginning, Boyz II Men featured all four members as leads, avoiding the usual R&B group arrangement of one or two lead singers and a team of background singers. The multiple-lead arrangement became a Boyz II Men trademark, and it became typical to hear Wanya Morris' vibrato-heavy tenor
, Shawn Stockman's tenor voice, Nathan Morris' baritone
, and Michael McCary's bass (often used in spoken-word sections of many Boyz II Men hits) trading bars in each song.
The album's liner notes identified unique nicknames for each member of the group. These nicknames were devised in collaboration with Bivins in an attempt at marketing. Wanya was "Squirt", Shawn was "Slim", Michael was simply "Bass", and Nathan assumed the name "Alex Vanderpool", after a soap opera character who brandished a nerdy style.
Boyz II Men's first single, the Dallas Austin
-produced "Motownphilly
" featured a rap cameo by Michael Bivins that gives the story of how he met Boyz II Men. The single's release was accompanied with a music video
that presented the group in hip hop style. (The video also included cameos from fellow Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts alumni Black Thought
and Questlove of The Roots
.) Cooleyhighharmonys second single was an a capella cover of a classic Motown tune, G.C. Cameron's "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday
" from the 1975 film Cooley High
, while "Uhh Ahh" served as the third single.
Cooleyhighharmony achieved major success, eventually selling over nine million copies and winning the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals
at the 1992 Grammy Awards
. Boyz II Men were also nominated for Best New Artist
, alongside with British singer-songwriter Seal, fellow R&B group Color Me Badd
, as well as dance group C+C Music Factory
, but the Grammy was awarded to singer-songwriter Marc Cohn
. "Motownphilly" and "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" were number 1 R&B hits and top five U.S. pop hits.
In 1992, Boyz II Men joined MC Hammer
's high-profile 2 Legit 2 Quit tour as an opening act
. While traveling the country, their tour manager Khalil Roundtree was murdered in Chicago
, and the group's future performances of "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" were dedicated to him. As a result of this unfortunate experience, the song would prove to help advance their success.
", co-written and produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, for the soundtrack to Eddie Murphy
's film Boomerang. It has been said that the song was recorded in only four hours.
A revamped Cooleyhighharmony would be reissued during 1993, with "End of the Road" added as a special bonus track, but "End of the Road" initially appeared only on the Boomerang soundtrack. Later the track would land on a collection of singles produced by Michael Bivins called "East Coast Family, Vol. 1". Shortly after the release of this compilation, Boyz II Men and Michael Bivins parted ways professionally. Boyz II Men would continue to work with Babyface and other high-profile record producers over the next several years.
in 1993, Boyz II Men returned to the studio for their highly anticipated sophomore effort. In 1994, II
was released. II sold more than copies in the United States alone, becoming one of the best-selling albums ever released by an R&B group act, and one of the biggest albums of the decade.
Most of the tracks on II were written and produced by Tim & Bob
Tim Kelley and Bob Robinson (5) Babyface (2) and the successful team of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis (2)
. Several of IIs tracks became major singles, among them Jam & Lewis's "On Bended Knee", and Babyface's "I'll Make Love to You" and "Water Runs Dry
".
"I'll Make Love to You" broke "End of the Road's" 13-week record at number 1, by spending 14 weeks at the top of the chart (a feat equaled earlier that year by Whitney Houston
's cover of "I Will Always Love You"). "On Bended Knee" replaced "I'll Make Love to You" at number 1, making Boyz II Men only the third act ever to replace itself at number 1 on the Hot 100, after Elvis Presley and The Beatles.
At the 37th Grammy Awards
on , 1995
, the group won two Grammy Award
s: Best R&B Album
for II and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals
. for "I'll Make Love to You".
es of various Boyz II Men songs from Cooleyhighharmony and II. The group itself had opposed the release of the collection, because they felt the compilation did not represent Boyz II Men's best work. After the label released the album without their permission, there was a dispute between the company and the group. Boyz II Men initiated their own recording company Stonecreek (which released material by artists such as Uncle Sam
), and they arranged for Stonecreek's distribution by Epic Records
, not Motown.
Boyz II Men's third studio album, Evolution
, was released during 1997 to mixed reviews and sold three million copies, far below the stratospheric success of IIs ( copies) and Cooleyhighharmony . Only one of Evolutions singles, the Jam/Lewis-penned "Four Seasons of Loneliness
", reached number 1 on the Hot 100 chart. The second single, the Babyface-helmed "A Song for Mama
" (the theme song to the Babyface-produced film Soul Food
) was a Top 10 success, but the follow-up "Can't Let Her Go" underperformed.
The global tour began in 1997 to promote Evolution was very successful in terms of ticket sales, but behind the scenes, Boyz II Men was wracked by conflicts with their record label and internal conflicts among the members of the group. Making matters worse, health problems began to take their toll on the group as well. While on tour to support the Evolution album, Wanya Morris developed a polyp
on his vocal cords, and the group was forced to postpone part of the tour until he recovered. McCary's scoliosis
meant that he was unable to participate in most of the group's dance routines.
Boyz II Men were nominated for 2 Grammys in 1998: Best R&B Album for Evolution and Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "A Song for Mama".
, was bought by Universal Music Group
. Amidst the major corporate restructure, Motown was merged with UMG's Universal Records, where Boyz II Men found themselves reassigned.
Their only studio LP album for Universal, 2000's Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya
, was chiefly written and produced by the group itself, in an attempt to update their sound and ward off critics who questioned the group's reliance on Babyface's hit-making songcraft. While the critics were more receptive to Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya than they had been to its predecessor, the LP sold only 500,000 copies in the US, copies worldwide, and although its two singles, "Pass You By" and "Thank You in Advance" received media attention, neither became hits.
Boyz II Men departed from Universal in 2001, ending their relationship with the company that brought them to international stardom in 1991. The label released a very successful greatest hits
compilation, Legacy: The Greatest Hits Collection, to close out their contract.
album, and recruited Babyface for a new single, "The Color of Love". In an attempt to recapture the massive success the group had enjoyed a decade earlier, the album received a significant promotional budget. Arista commissioned a high-budget music video, shot in four different locales by four different directors: supervising director Little X
filmed scenes featuring Michael McCary in India, Hype Williams
filmed Shawn Stockman in Tokyo
, Benny Boom
filmed Nathan Morris in Ghana
, and Chris Robinson
filmed Wanya Morris in Puerto Rico
and finally all were filmed in New York. The resulting music video had a debut on BET
, but failed to have a great effect, and Full Circle, like Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya before it, sold slightly more than 500,000 copies in the US and copies worldwide.
Full Circle would become Boyz II Men's final album as a quartet, and their last effort to receive extensive promotion from a major record company. On , 2003, Michael McCary retired from performing due to his ongoing battle with scoliosis
. Arista terminated Boyz II Men's contract on , and the remaining three members took a temporary hiatus from the music industry.
), and released the Throwback, Vol. 1 LP in 2004. The album is a collection of covers of classic R&B and soul songs such as The Dazz Band's "Let It Whip
", Michael Jackson
's "Human Nature
", and, as the single, Bobby Caldwell
's "What You Won't Do for Love". For this record, Nathan took on the bass lines as well as the baritone vocals that he sang when Boyz II men was a quartet. Throwback, Vol. 1 reached number 59 on the Billboard 200. The group launched an independent tour of North America and Asia in support of the Throwback series. The album sold over 200,000 copies with little to no promotion aside from the group's independent tour.
In 2006, Boyz II Men's seventh studio album, The Remedy, was released exclusively in Japan, where they found a thriving fan base. In other regions, The Remedy was made available online through the group's website on , 2007.
through the Decca Records
label. The LP is a cover album
featuring songs from the Motown Records catalog, co-produced by Randy Jackson
of American Idol
fame. The Motown album includes covers of songs by The Temptations ("Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)
"), Marvin Gaye
("Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing
", "Mercy Mercy Me"), Smokey Robinson & the Miracles ("The Tracks of My Tears
"), and even Boyz II Men themselves (an a cappella version of "End of the Road").
Commercially, Motown found some success. It peaked at number 6 on the US R&B chart, and was certified Gold in the UK. The album was also a critical success. For the 51st Annual Grammy Awards in 2009, Boyz II Men received two nominations for the album Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA (Best R&B Album and Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals for "Ribbon In The Sky").
In 2008, Boyz II Men's three members appeared on Celebrity 'Don't Forget the Lyrics' and created a sensation with their performance. They earned $500,000 for their two nominated charities; the appearance also generated interest in their next release.
. The cruise took place –14, 2011, and traveled from Miami, Florida
, to Nassau, Bahamas
. Cruise passengers received a Boyz II Men welcome cocktail party, a concert performance by Boyz II Men, an additional fan appreciation concert by Boyz II Men, a photo session with Boyz II Men (in small groups), a formal prom
night, a poker
tournament, a deck party with Boyz II Men and a guest DJ, a singles mixer, a gift bag, and onboard drawings for other Boyz II Men events. Couples were able to renew their wedding vows in a special ceremony with Boyz II Men.
But soon after, Mccary declined and did not join the project and instead he is going to be on AZ Yet's upcoming album, The project which is called "Twenty
" named after 20 years in the business will feature a double CD album, 13 new material songs and 8 rerecorded Boyz II Men classics, is set to be released October 25th 2011.
Twenty is the group's fourth release through MSM Music Group. It was released in Japan 13 days before its official US release date with the help of Avex Group, the biggest Japan
ese independent record label
.
. Many of the elements that made The Temptations and other classic Motown artists such as The Four Tops and Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
, and Boyz II Men following in Europe and East Asia.
In 2005 they made a CD with Anderson Cameau called "Apocalypse" for a project for Haiti.
In the 1990s, several of Boyz II Men's R&B contemporaries began showing obvious inspiration from Boyz II Men's work and singing style, among them, Shai
, Soul for Real
, BLACKstreet
, All-4-One
, and later Dru Hill
, Jagged Edge
, and (featuring Boyz II Men co-founder Marc Nelson) Az Yet
. Boyz II Men's closest competitor, Uptown Records
act Jodeci
, with their more sexually charged style, presented a style quite different from Boyz II Men's overt wholesomeness and family-friendly image. Jodeci's style had its own followers, but their influence on the music industry as a whole was not as widespread as that of Boyz II Men.
Also notable is that several record producers, Lou Pearlman
in particular, developed a large number of popular acts in the same style as Boyz II Men. Because of this, Boyz II Men is often considered to have reignited the "boy band
" craze started by New Edition
in the US. The "boy band" trend reached a new climax by the end of the 1990s, with groups such as The Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, going on to widespread international success, and others, such as Motown act 98 Degrees
, finding more moderate mainstream success.
They have also sang with teen heart throb Justin Bieber on his movie "Never Say Never" And they have also made a music video with him and sang on his new christmas album, "Under The Mistletoe".
Motown Records
Motown is a record label originally founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, United States, on April 14, 1960. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit...
as a quartet
Quartet
In music, a quartet is a method of instrumentation , used to perform a musical composition, and consisting of four parts.-Western art music:...
, but original member Michael McCary
Michael McCary
Michael Sean McCary is an American R&B singer, best known as the former bass singer of the popular R&B group, Boyz II Men....
left the group in 2003 due to health issues. Currently the group is a trio
Trio
- Musical ensembles and forms :*Trio , three people performing music in some way*Piano trio *String trio *Trio *Clarinet-violin-piano trio...
signed to Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
, with members Nathan Morris
Nathan Morris
Nathan Bartholomew Morris is an American singer and a founding member of Boyz II Men. Morris sings baritone and soprano.Morris released a single entitled "Wishes" for the Touchstone Pictures film Kazaam starring NBA Star Shaquille O'Neal. Morris most recently discovered Def Jam recording artist...
, Wanya Morris
Wanya Morris
Wanyá Jermaine Morris is an American R&B singer, best known as a member of the R&B group Boyz II Men.Aside from Boyz II Men, Wanyá has his own record label, "The Company Entertainment"....
, and Shawn Stockman
Shawn Stockman
Shawn Patrick Stockman is an American R&B singer, best known as a member of the vocal group Boyz II Men. He is also a judge on the television show The Sing-Off, alongside Sara Bareilles and Ben Folds....
. The group won four Grammy Awards in the 1990s, and the trio was nominated for two Grammies in 2009.
Boyz II Men formed at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts
Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts
The Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts is a magnet school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Students major in one of six areas: Creative Writing, Instrumental Music, Visual Arts, Theater, Dance, and Vocal Music...
in 1988 as a quintet
Quintet
A quintet is a group containing five members.It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single unit....
; however, original member Marc Nelson
Marc Nelson
Marc Nelson is an American singer. His mother was the late R&B/Dance singer Phyllis Nelson, known for the songs 'I Like You' and 'Move Closer'. He was an original member of Boyz II Men while still attending Philadelphia's High School of Performing Arts...
left the group before its first studio recording to pursue a solo career. In the 1990s, Boyz II Men gained international celebrity behind unprecedented success on the pop charts. The group's first single to reach number 1, 1992's "End of the Road
End of the Road
"End of the Road" is a 1992 Grammy Award-winning, number-one song recorded in May 1992 by Boyz II Men for the Motown label. Written and produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Antonio "L.A." Reid and Daryl Simmons. It is Boyz II Men's most successful single and replaced Diana Ross and Lionel...
", a phenomenal hit, reached the top of charts across the globe. "End of the Road" would set a new record for longevity, staying at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
for 13 weeks, breaking a decades-old record held by Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
.
Boyz II Men would exceed even that record later in the decade with hits "I'll Make Love to You
I'll Make Love to You
"I'll Make Love to You" is a 1994 number-one hit single by R&B group Boyz II Men for the Motown label. The song, which was written by Babyface, was the lead single from their second album II. It was at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for 14 weeks, from August 27 to November 26, 1994...
" and "One Sweet Day
One Sweet Day
"One Sweet Day" is a song by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey and R&B group Boyz II Men. The song was written by Carey, Walter Afanasieff and the members of Boyz II Men: Wanya Morris, Shawn Stockman, Nathan Morris, and Michael McCary. "One Sweet Day" was produced by Carey and Afanasieff for...
" (with Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...
), which each exceeded records for the longest period of time a single remained at number 1. As of 2010, "One Sweet Day" still holds the all-time record with 16 weeks at the top of the Hot 100. Although "On Bended Knee
On Bended Knee
"On Bended Knee" is a 1994 number-one hit single by Boyz II Men for the Motown label.Written and produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the single is notable for having replaced the previous Boyz II Men single, "I'll Make Love to You", as the top song on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States...
" did not exceed any records, it was still a very popular song that reached number 1 and made Boyz II Men the third artist (the other two are The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and Elvis) to replace themselves at the number one rating of the Billboard Hot 100. Because of this, Boyz II Men are the only artists that have stayed at the number one spot cumulatively 50 times, just fourth behind Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and Mariah Carey. They also hold the numbers one, three and four spots for 3 of the longest running singles in music history with "One Sweet Day," "I'll Make Love to You" and "End of the Road." These achievements were enough to earn Boyz II Men recognition as Billboard Magazine's most successful musical group of the 1990s.
Beginnings
The group, known originally as Unique Attraction, was founded during 1988 at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts, in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
. There, friends Nathan Morris and Marc Nelson organized several R&B singing groups, most of which ended quickly. Eventually, they found a winning formula by recruiting tenors Wanya Morris and Shawn Stockman and bass
Bass (voice type)
A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...
Michael McCary. The group would rehearse in the high school's bathrooms, due to the excellent acoustics. They found inspiration in New Edition
New Edition
New Edition is an R&B group formed in Boston in 1978. The group reached its height of popularity during the 1980s. They were the progenitors of the boy band movement of the 1980s and 1990s and led the way for groups like New Kids on the Block, Boyz II Men, Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync...
's harmonies and routines, and eventually renamed the group "Boyz II Men", after one of New Edition's songs.
In 1989, the group managed to go backstage after a concert performed by Bell Biv DeVoe
Bell Biv DeVoe
Bell Biv DeVoe is an American R&B musical group which branched off from New Edition. It consists of three of New Edition's previous members, Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, and Ronnie DeVoe...
, a New Edition spin-off group. In a famous episode that would be retold in Boyz II Men's first hit, while backstage, they met Bell Biv DeVoe member and aspiring record producer Michael Bivins
Michael Bivins
Michael Lamont Bivins, a.k.a. Biv , is the founder and member of the R&B group New Edition and the hip hop group Bell Biv DeVoe...
. On the spot, Boyz II Men performed an a cappella rendition of New Edition's "Can You Stand the Rain
Can You Stand the Rain
"Can You Stand the Rain" is a ballad by R&B/Pop group New Edition. Released in 1988, it is the third single from their fifth studio album, Heart Break.-Overview:...
". Bivins was impressed by the group, and began plans to contract them to Motown Records through a production deal with his Biv Ten Records company. The group signed shortly thereafter.
Some time would pass, however, before Bivins was able to secure Boyz II Men recording time for their first album. A year before releasing their debut album, in 1990, they made an appearance on a solo album by Robbie Mychals. They are listed in the credits as singing background vocals on the song "One Mile from Paradise" as "Boy's to Men".
The delay before recording their own material and reported personality conflicts led founding member Marc Nelson to leave the group, making Boyz II Men into the quartet that would find international fame: Michael McCary, Nathan Morris, Wanya Morris, and Shawn Stockman.
Cooleyhighharmony
Boyz II Men's first album, CooleyhighharmonyCooleyhighharmony
Cooleyhighharmony is the 1991 debut album by Motown group Boyz II Men. Executive produced by Michael Bivins of New Edition and Bell Biv DeVoe, the album features the hit singles "Motownphilly" and "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday", a G.C...
, was released on Motown in 1991 and was produced by Michael Bivins. Cooleyhighharmonys drum-heavy new jack swing
New jack swing
New jack swing or swingbeat is a fusion genre spearheaded by Teddy Riley and Bernard Belle which became extremely popular from the late-1980s into the mid-1990s. Its influence, along with hip-hop, seeped into pop culture and was the definitive sound of the inventive Black New York club scene...
sound and multi-layered sampled
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
backdrops were similar to that of Bell Biv DeVoe's own work, but featured classic-soul styled vocals in place of BBD's rapping
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
and brassier singing
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
. This style was dubbed "hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
doo wop" by the group and Bivins, who presented Boyz II Men and adolescent R&B group Another Bad Creation
Another Bad Creation
Another Bad Creation were an American R&B and rap musical group from Atlanta, Georgia.-History:ABC consists of Romell “RoRo” Chapman, Chris Sellers, David Shelton and brothers Demetrius and Marliss Pugh, as well as “unofficial” member Adrian “G.A.” Witcher...
to the public as BBD's protégés.
From the beginning, Boyz II Men featured all four members as leads, avoiding the usual R&B group arrangement of one or two lead singers and a team of background singers. The multiple-lead arrangement became a Boyz II Men trademark, and it became typical to hear Wanya Morris' vibrato-heavy tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
, Shawn Stockman's tenor voice, Nathan Morris' baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
, and Michael McCary's bass (often used in spoken-word sections of many Boyz II Men hits) trading bars in each song.
The album's liner notes identified unique nicknames for each member of the group. These nicknames were devised in collaboration with Bivins in an attempt at marketing. Wanya was "Squirt", Shawn was "Slim", Michael was simply "Bass", and Nathan assumed the name "Alex Vanderpool", after a soap opera character who brandished a nerdy style.
Boyz II Men's first single, the Dallas Austin
Dallas Austin
Dallas Austin is an American songwriter, record producer, and musician, based in Atlanta, Georgia. Some of his most notable clients include Michael Jackson, TLC, Boyz II Men, Pink, Monica, Madonna, Gwen Stefani, Stacie Orrico, Another Bad Creation, Fishbone, Sugababes, Anastacia, Namie Amuro, Kim...
-produced "Motownphilly
Motownphilly
"Motownphilly" is Boyz II Men's 1991 debut single for their debut album Cooleyhighharmony. The single was a success peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Michael Bivins, who co-wrote the song, provides a guest rap on the song...
" featured a rap cameo by Michael Bivins that gives the story of how he met Boyz II Men. The single's release was accompanied with a music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
that presented the group in hip hop style. (The video also included cameos from fellow Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts alumni Black Thought
Black Thought
Tariq Trotter , better known as Black Thought, is an American hip-hop artist who is the lead MC of the Philadelphia-based hip hop group The Roots and occasional actor...
and Questlove of The Roots
The Roots
The Roots is an American hip hop/neo soul band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals...
.) Cooleyhighharmonys second single was an a capella cover of a classic Motown tune, G.C. Cameron's "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday
It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday
"It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" is an R&B song written by Motown husband-and-wife songwriting team Freddie Perren and Christine Yarian for the 1975 film Cooley High. In the film, the song is performed by Motown artist G.C. Cameron, whose rendition peaked at number 38 on the Billboard R&B...
" from the 1975 film Cooley High
Cooley High
Cooley High is a 1975 American film based upon the real high school located on the near north side of Chicago produced and released by American International Pictures and written by Eric Monte...
, while "Uhh Ahh" served as the third single.
Cooleyhighharmony achieved major success, eventually selling over nine million copies and winning the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals
Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals
The Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded between 1970 and 2011. From 1967 to 1969 and in 1971 the award included instrumental performances...
at the 1992 Grammy Awards
Grammy Awards of 1992
The 34th Grammy Awards were held on February 26, 1992. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year . Natalie Cole was the big winner winning three awards including Album of the Year.-Award winners:*Record of the Year...
. Boyz II Men were also nominated for Best New Artist
Grammy Award for Best New Artist
The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967...
, alongside with British singer-songwriter Seal, fellow R&B group Color Me Badd
Color Me Badd
Color Me Badd was an R&B vocal group that was formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S. The original members of the group were Bryan Abrams ; Mark Calderon ; Sam Watters and Kevin Thornton...
, as well as dance group C+C Music Factory
C+C Music Factory
C+C Music Factory is a dance-pop and hip hop group formed in 1989 by David Cole and Robert Clivillés which stopped recording 1996, following Cole's death...
, but the Grammy was awarded to singer-songwriter Marc Cohn
Marc Cohn
Marc Craig Cohn is an American folk rock singer-songwriter and musician.- Personal life :Cohn was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from Beachwood High School in Beachwood, a Cleveland suburb. He then attended Oberlin College....
. "Motownphilly" and "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" were number 1 R&B hits and top five U.S. pop hits.
In 1992, Boyz II Men joined MC Hammer
MC Hammer
Stanley Kirk Burrell , better known by his stage name MC Hammer , is an American rapper, entertainer, business entrepreneur, dancer and actor. He had his greatest commercial success and popularity from the late 1980s until the mid-1990s...
's high-profile 2 Legit 2 Quit tour as an opening act
Opening act
An opening act or warm-up act is an entertainer or entertainment act that performs at a concert before the featured entertainer...
. While traveling the country, their tour manager Khalil Roundtree was murdered in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and the group's future performances of "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" were dedicated to him. As a result of this unfortunate experience, the song would prove to help advance their success.
"End of the Road"
While touring during 1992, Boyz II Men returned briefly to the studio to record the single "End of the RoadEnd of the Road
"End of the Road" is a 1992 Grammy Award-winning, number-one song recorded in May 1992 by Boyz II Men for the Motown label. Written and produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Antonio "L.A." Reid and Daryl Simmons. It is Boyz II Men's most successful single and replaced Diana Ross and Lionel...
", co-written and produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, for the soundtrack to Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....
's film Boomerang. It has been said that the song was recorded in only four hours.
A revamped Cooleyhighharmony would be reissued during 1993, with "End of the Road" added as a special bonus track, but "End of the Road" initially appeared only on the Boomerang soundtrack. Later the track would land on a collection of singles produced by Michael Bivins called "East Coast Family, Vol. 1". Shortly after the release of this compilation, Boyz II Men and Michael Bivins parted ways professionally. Boyz II Men would continue to work with Babyface and other high-profile record producers over the next several years.
II
After releasing a Christmas compilation, Christmas InterpretationsChristmas Interpretations
Christmas Interpretations is a 1993 Christmas album by R&B group Boyz II Men for the Motown label. Several of the tracks are originals, written by the group and labelmate Brian McKnight; others are cover versions of traditional Christmas songs....
in 1993, Boyz II Men returned to the studio for their highly anticipated sophomore effort. In 1994, II
II (Boyz II Men album)
II is the second studio album by boy band Boyz II Men, released in August 1994 on Motown Records. It contained the #1 singles "I'll Make Love To You" and "On Bended Knee", the latter of which replaced the former at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, making the group the third artist to replace...
was released. II sold more than copies in the United States alone, becoming one of the best-selling albums ever released by an R&B group act, and one of the biggest albums of the decade.
Most of the tracks on II were written and produced by Tim & Bob
Tim & Bob
Tim & Bob aka Funktwons, are Grammy Award-winning songwriting musicians and a Hip-hop/R&B pop production duo. Tim & Bob have discovered and or worked on some of the biggest artists in the music industry and has helped develop the Atlanta music scene as it is widely known for today...
Tim Kelley and Bob Robinson (5) Babyface (2) and the successful team of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis (2)
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
James Samuel "Jimmy Jam" Harris III and Terry Steven Lewis are an American R&B and pop-music songwriting and record production team...
. Several of IIs tracks became major singles, among them Jam & Lewis's "On Bended Knee", and Babyface's "I'll Make Love to You" and "Water Runs Dry
Water Runs Dry
"Water Runs Dry" is a 1995 single by Boyz II Men for the Motown label, written and produced by Babyface. The single, number four from the album II, reached number 2 in the United States, and number 24 in the UK...
".
"I'll Make Love to You" broke "End of the Road's" 13-week record at number 1, by spending 14 weeks at the top of the chart (a feat equaled earlier that year by Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...
's cover of "I Will Always Love You"). "On Bended Knee" replaced "I'll Make Love to You" at number 1, making Boyz II Men only the third act ever to replace itself at number 1 on the Hot 100, after Elvis Presley and The Beatles.
At the 37th Grammy Awards
Grammy Awards of 1995
The 37th Grammy Awards were presented March 1, 1995. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year.-Award winners:*Record of the Year**Bill Bottrell & Sheryl Crow for "All I Wanna Do"*Album of the Year...
on , 1995
1995 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1995.- January–February :*January 18 – Jerry Garcia crashes his rented BMW into a guard rail near Mill Valley, California, USA, but is not injured in the accident....
, the group won two Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s: Best R&B Album
Grammy Award for Best R&B Album
The Grammy Award for Best R&B Album is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality works on albums in the R&B music genre...
for II and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals
Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals
The Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded between 1970 and 2011. From 1967 to 1969 and in 1971 the award included instrumental performances...
. for "I'll Make Love to You".
Evolution and label conflicts
Motown issued The Remix Collection, a compilation of remixRemix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
es of various Boyz II Men songs from Cooleyhighharmony and II. The group itself had opposed the release of the collection, because they felt the compilation did not represent Boyz II Men's best work. After the label released the album without their permission, there was a dispute between the company and the group. Boyz II Men initiated their own recording company Stonecreek (which released material by artists such as Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam (singer)
Uncle Sam is an African American R&B singer. He is best known for being signed to Boyz II Men's Stonecreek Records imprint in the late 1990s....
), and they arranged for Stonecreek's distribution by Epic Records
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...
, not Motown.
Boyz II Men's third studio album, Evolution
Evolution (Boyz II Men album)
Evolution is an album by R&B group Boyz II Men, released in September 1997. It is their final album released on Motown Records. A Spanish language version, Evolución, was also issued.- History :...
, was released during 1997 to mixed reviews and sold three million copies, far below the stratospheric success of IIs ( copies) and Cooleyhighharmony . Only one of Evolutions singles, the Jam/Lewis-penned "Four Seasons of Loneliness
4 Seasons of Loneliness
"4 Seasons of Loneliness" is a R&B/pop ballad recorded by Philadelphia-based vocal quartet Boyz II Men. Written and produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the song was issued as the first single from the Evolution album in 1997....
", reached number 1 on the Hot 100 chart. The second single, the Babyface-helmed "A Song for Mama
A Song for Mama
"A Song for Mama" is the title of a number-one R&B single by the American R&B group Boyz II Men. The tune, which was written and produced by Babyface, served as the theme song to the 1997 motion picture Soul Food, and spent two weeks at number one on the US R&B chart. To date, it is their last top...
" (the theme song to the Babyface-produced film Soul Food
Soul Food (film)
Soul Food is a 1997 American comedy-drama film, produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Tracey Edmonds, and Robert Teitel, and released by Fox 2000 Pictures. Featuring an ensemble cast, the film stars Vanessa L. Williams, Vivica A. Fox, Nia Long, Michael Beach, Mekhi Phifer, Jeffrey D. Sams, Irma...
) was a Top 10 success, but the follow-up "Can't Let Her Go" underperformed.
The global tour began in 1997 to promote Evolution was very successful in terms of ticket sales, but behind the scenes, Boyz II Men was wracked by conflicts with their record label and internal conflicts among the members of the group. Making matters worse, health problems began to take their toll on the group as well. While on tour to support the Evolution album, Wanya Morris developed a polyp
Polyp (medicine)
A polyp is an abnormal growth of tissue projecting from a mucous membrane. If it is attached to the surface by a narrow elongated stalk, it is said to be pedunculated. If no stalk is present, it is said to be sessile. Polyps are commonly found in the colon, stomach, nose, sinus, urinary bladder...
on his vocal cords, and the group was forced to postpone part of the tour until he recovered. McCary's scoliosis
Scoliosis
Scoliosis is a medical condition in which a person's spine is curved from side to side. Although it is a complex three-dimensional deformity, on an X-ray, viewed from the rear, the spine of an individual with scoliosis may look more like an "S" or a "C" than a straight line...
meant that he was unable to participate in most of the group's dance routines.
Boyz II Men were nominated for 2 Grammys in 1998: Best R&B Album for Evolution and Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "A Song for Mama".
Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya
In 1999, Motown's parent company, PolygramPolyGram
PolyGram was the name of the major label recording company started by Philips from as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. In 1999 it was sold to Seagram and merged into Universal Music Group.-Hollandsche Decca Distributie , 1929-1950:...
, was bought by Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
. Amidst the major corporate restructure, Motown was merged with UMG's Universal Records, where Boyz II Men found themselves reassigned.
Their only studio LP album for Universal, 2000's Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya
Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya
Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya is a 2000 LP by R&B group Boyz II Men. It was their first LP on which they received more creative control, and their only LP for Universal Records...
, was chiefly written and produced by the group itself, in an attempt to update their sound and ward off critics who questioned the group's reliance on Babyface's hit-making songcraft. While the critics were more receptive to Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya than they had been to its predecessor, the LP sold only 500,000 copies in the US, copies worldwide, and although its two singles, "Pass You By" and "Thank You in Advance" received media attention, neither became hits.
Boyz II Men departed from Universal in 2001, ending their relationship with the company that brought them to international stardom in 1991. The label released a very successful greatest hits
Greatest hits
A greatest hits album is a music compilation album of successful, previously released songs by a particular artist or band...
compilation, Legacy: The Greatest Hits Collection, to close out their contract.
Full Circle and "The Color of Love"
Signing a new deal with Arista Records in 2002, Boyz II Men began recording the Full CircleFull Circle (Boyz II Men album)
- Charts :- Release history :-External links:* *...
album, and recruited Babyface for a new single, "The Color of Love". In an attempt to recapture the massive success the group had enjoyed a decade earlier, the album received a significant promotional budget. Arista commissioned a high-budget music video, shot in four different locales by four different directors: supervising director Little X
Little X
Julien Christian Lutz , better known as Little X, X or Director X, is a Canadian music video director. He also has his own clothing line X Fit...
filmed scenes featuring Michael McCary in India, Hype Williams
Hype Williams
Harold "Hype" Williams , previously known as HYPE, is an American music video and film director of African-American and Honduran descent. His nickname "Hype" comes from his hyperactive nature as a child....
filmed Shawn Stockman in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Benny Boom
Benny Boom
Benny Boom is a music video director and current director of Gorilla Flix, Inc. He trained at Temple University's School of Radio, Television, & Film, and also served as a protégé of veteran director Little X and Hype Williams....
filmed Nathan Morris in Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, and Chris Robinson
Chris Robinson (director)
Chris Robinson is an American film director working mostly with music videos and commercials. He has directed commercials for brands such as iPod, Coca Cola and Verizon and music videos for songs like "Fallin'" and "You Don't Know My Name" by Alicia Keys, "Roc Boys" by Jay-Z, the grammy nominated...
filmed Wanya Morris in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
and finally all were filmed in New York. The resulting music video had a debut on BET
Black Entertainment Television
Black Entertainment Television is an American, Viacom-owned cable network based in Washington, D.C.. Currently viewed in more than 90 million homes worldwide, it is the most prominent television network targeting young Black-American audiences. The network was launched on January 25, 1980, by its...
, but failed to have a great effect, and Full Circle, like Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya before it, sold slightly more than 500,000 copies in the US and copies worldwide.
Full Circle would become Boyz II Men's final album as a quartet, and their last effort to receive extensive promotion from a major record company. On , 2003, Michael McCary retired from performing due to his ongoing battle with scoliosis
Scoliosis
Scoliosis is a medical condition in which a person's spine is curved from side to side. Although it is a complex three-dimensional deformity, on an X-ray, viewed from the rear, the spine of an individual with scoliosis may look more like an "S" or a "C" than a straight line...
. Arista terminated Boyz II Men's contract on , and the remaining three members took a temporary hiatus from the music industry.
Throwback, Vol. 1 and The Remedy
After a year out of the spotlight, Boyz II Men created the independent label MSM Music Group (distributed through Koch RecordsKoch Records
E1 Music , the primary subsidiary of E1 Entertainment LP, is the largest independent record label in the United States. It is also distributed by the Universal Music Group in Europe under the name E1 Universal...
), and released the Throwback, Vol. 1 LP in 2004. The album is a collection of covers of classic R&B and soul songs such as The Dazz Band's "Let It Whip
Let it Whip
"Let It Whip" is a 1982 hit single by the Dazz Band and their biggest hit, peaking at number one on the R&B chart for five non-consecutive weeks. The single also reached number two on the Dance chart and number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart...
", Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
's "Human Nature
Human Nature (Michael Jackson song)
"Human Nature" is a song by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was written and composed by Steve Porcaro and John Bettis, and produced by Quincy Jones. It is the fifth single from the singer's sixth solo album, Thriller . Initially, Porcaro had recorded a rough demo of the song on a...
", and, as the single, Bobby Caldwell
Bobby Caldwell
Bobby Caldwell is an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who, despite a prolific musical output over his 30-year career, is still best known for his 1978 hit single "What You Won't Do for Love". While he has always maintained a devoted fan base in the United States, a legendary...
's "What You Won't Do for Love". For this record, Nathan took on the bass lines as well as the baritone vocals that he sang when Boyz II men was a quartet. Throwback, Vol. 1 reached number 59 on the Billboard 200. The group launched an independent tour of North America and Asia in support of the Throwback series. The album sold over 200,000 copies with little to no promotion aside from the group's independent tour.
In 2006, Boyz II Men's seventh studio album, The Remedy, was released exclusively in Japan, where they found a thriving fan base. In other regions, The Remedy was made available online through the group's website on , 2007.
Hitsville USA
In mid-2007, the group resigned with Universal Records and released the LP Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USAMotown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA
Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA is a Grammy nominated album by Boyz II Men that was released on November 13, 2007 by Decca Records. The album was produced by American Idols Randy Jackson and Boyz II Men. David Simone and Winston Simone were Executive Producers for the album...
through the Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
label. The LP is a cover album
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
featuring songs from the Motown Records catalog, co-produced by Randy Jackson
Randy Jackson
Randall Darius "Randy" Jackson is an American bassist, singer, record producer, music manager, A&R executive, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is best known as a judge on American Idol and executive producer for MTV's America's Best Dance Crew...
of American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
fame. The Motown album includes covers of songs by The Temptations ("Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)
Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)
"Just My Imagination " is a song by American soul group The Temptations. Released on the Gordy label, and produced by Norman Whitfield, it features on the group's 1971 album, Sky's the Limit. When released as a single, "Just My Imagination" became the third Temptations song to reach number one on...
"), Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
("Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing
Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing
-Marcella Detroit & Elton John version:"Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing" was recorded by Elton John as a duet with Marcella Detroit, and featured on his 1993 album Duets. It was also later included on Detroit's 1994 album Jewel. Released as a two-part CD single single in May 1994, it peaked at...
", "Mercy Mercy Me"), Smokey Robinson & the Miracles ("The Tracks of My Tears
The Tracks of My Tears
"The Tracks of My Tears" is a much recorded love ballad introduced in 1965 by The Miracles on Motown's' Tamla label. This song is considered to be among the finest recordings of The Miracles, and it sold over one million records within two years, making it The Miracles' fourth million-selling...
"), and even Boyz II Men themselves (an a cappella version of "End of the Road").
Commercially, Motown found some success. It peaked at number 6 on the US R&B chart, and was certified Gold in the UK. The album was also a critical success. For the 51st Annual Grammy Awards in 2009, Boyz II Men received two nominations for the album Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA (Best R&B Album and Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals for "Ribbon In The Sky").
In 2008, Boyz II Men's three members appeared on Celebrity 'Don't Forget the Lyrics' and created a sensation with their performance. They earned $500,000 for their two nominated charities; the appearance also generated interest in their next release.
Love
In 2009, Boyz II Men announced plans for a new cover album, that covers "artists I don't think people would expect us to cover!" according to Shawn Stockman. Entitled Love, the album was released on , 2009. The album contains remakes of love songs from outside the R&B genre.Love Cruise
Boyz II Men headlined a "Love Cruise" in honor of their 20th anniversary and in observance of Valentine's DayValentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...
. The cruise took place –14, 2011, and traveled from Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, to Nassau, Bahamas
Nassau, Bahamas
Nassau is the capital, largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has a population of 248,948 , 70 percent of the entire population of The Bahamas...
. Cruise passengers received a Boyz II Men welcome cocktail party, a concert performance by Boyz II Men, an additional fan appreciation concert by Boyz II Men, a photo session with Boyz II Men (in small groups), a formal prom
Prom
In the United States and Canada, a prom, short for promenade, is a formal dance, or gathering of high school students. It is typically held near the end of the senior year. It figures greatly in popular culture and is a major event among high school students...
night, a poker
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
tournament, a deck party with Boyz II Men and a guest DJ, a singles mixer, a gift bag, and onboard drawings for other Boyz II Men events. Couples were able to renew their wedding vows in a special ceremony with Boyz II Men.
Twenty
On September 6, 2009, at a concert in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Shawn announced a planned Boyz II Men 20th anniversary album, scheduled for release in 2011 that would "include all 4 members," sparking a tremendous applause at the news of Michael McCary's return to the group after a six year absence.But soon after, Mccary declined and did not join the project and instead he is going to be on AZ Yet's upcoming album, The project which is called "Twenty
Twenty (Boyz II Men album)
Twenty is the tenth album released by the R&B group Boyz II Men in the United States on 25 October 2011. The first single off the album is "More Than You'll Ever Know" featuring Charlie Wilson...
" named after 20 years in the business will feature a double CD album, 13 new material songs and 8 rerecorded Boyz II Men classics, is set to be released October 25th 2011.
Twenty is the group's fourth release through MSM Music Group. It was released in Japan 13 days before its official US release date with the help of Avex Group, the biggest Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
.
Inspirations, influence and impact
Boyz II Men are among the biggest names in a capella and R&B. They were among the groups responsible for changing hip hop into a mainstream popular music genre in the 1990s. Boyz II Men remain the world's most popular R&B male vocal group in terms of record sales. Boyz II Men are often positively compared with the legendary acts of Motown's heyday, making them something of a contemporary version of The TemptationsThe Temptations
The Temptations is an American vocal group having achieved fame as one of the most successful acts to record for Motown Records. The group's repertoire has included, at various times during its five-decade career, R&B, doo-wop, funk, disco, soul, and adult contemporary music.Formed in Detroit,...
. Many of the elements that made The Temptations and other classic Motown artists such as The Four Tops and Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
The Miracles
The Miracles are an American rhythm and blues group from Detroit, Michigan, notable as the first successful group act for Berry Gordy's Motown Record Corporation . Their single "Shop Around" was Motown's first million-selling hit record, and the group went on to become one of Motown's signature...
, and Boyz II Men following in Europe and East Asia.
In 2005 they made a CD with Anderson Cameau called "Apocalypse" for a project for Haiti.
In the 1990s, several of Boyz II Men's R&B contemporaries began showing obvious inspiration from Boyz II Men's work and singing style, among them, Shai
Shai (band)
Shai is an early 1990s vocal R&B/soul quartet. Their biggest hit was "If I Ever Fall in Love," which reached #2 in the U.S. Top 40.-History:...
, Soul for Real
Soul for Real
Soul for Real is an R&B group from Wheatley Heights, New York, made up of brothers Andre , Brian , Christopher , and Jason Dalyrimple...
, BLACKstreet
BLACKstreet
Blackstreet is an American R&B group founded in 1991 by Thomas Taliaferro and Teddy Riley, the inventor of New Jack Swing known for his work as a member of Guy. Chauncey Hannibal and Levi Little were signed under production and management contracts with Thomas Taliaferro and were merged into what...
, All-4-One
All-4-One
All-4-One is a male R&B/pop group best known for their cover hit single "I Swear" from their self-titled 1994 debut album. The group comprises Jamie Jones, Delious Kennedy, Alfred Nevarez, and Tony Borowiak, all from the Antelope Valley and Mojave, California areas, but are based in the Los Angeles...
, and later Dru Hill
Dru Hill
Dru Hill is an American singing group, most popular during the late 1990s, whose repertoire included R&B, soul, and gospel music. Founded in Baltimore, Maryland, and active since 1992, Dru Hill recorded seven Top 40 hits, and is best known for the R&B #1 hits "In My Bed", "Never Make a Promise", ...
, Jagged Edge
Jagged Edge (band)
Jagged Edge is an American R&B group, with the lead singers, Brandon & Brian, born in Hartford, CT on October 13, 1975, Kyle Norman of Decatur, GA born on February 26,1976 and Richard Wingo of College Park, GA born on September 3, 1975. Wingo was a late addition to the group, added after Kandi...
, and (featuring Boyz II Men co-founder Marc Nelson) Az Yet
Az Yet
Az Yet is an American R&B group from Philadelphia, best known for their hit "Last Night" and their cover of the Chicago song "Hard to Say I'm Sorry."-Formation:...
. Boyz II Men's closest competitor, Uptown Records
Uptown Records
Uptown Records was an American record label, founded by Andre Harrell in 1986. It went on to become one of the most popular Hip-Hop and R&B labels of the late 1980's and early 1990s. Featured on the roster were such luminaries as Guy, Heavy D & The Boyz, Jodeci, Mary J. Blige, and Soul for Real...
act Jodeci
Jodeci
Jodeci is an American band, whose repertoire includes R&B, soul music, and new jack swing. The group consists of two pairs of brothers from Hampton, Virginia and Charlotte, North Carolina: Cedric & Joel Hailey and Donald & Dalvin DeGrate, all respectively known by their stage names: K-Ci & Jojo,...
, with their more sexually charged style, presented a style quite different from Boyz II Men's overt wholesomeness and family-friendly image. Jodeci's style had its own followers, but their influence on the music industry as a whole was not as widespread as that of Boyz II Men.
Also notable is that several record producers, Lou Pearlman
Lou Pearlman
Louis Jay "Lou" Pearlman is a former impresario of the successful 1990s boy bands such as The Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Take 5, O-Town and US5. In 2006, it was discovered that Pearlman had perpetrated one of the largest and longest-running Ponzi schemes in American history, leaving more than $300...
in particular, developed a large number of popular acts in the same style as Boyz II Men. Because of this, Boyz II Men is often considered to have reignited the "boy band
Boy band
A boy band is loosely defined as a popular music act consisting of only male singers. The members are expected to dance as well as sing, usually giving highly choreographed performances. More often than not, boy band members do not play musical instruments, either in recording sessions or on...
" craze started by New Edition
New Edition
New Edition is an R&B group formed in Boston in 1978. The group reached its height of popularity during the 1980s. They were the progenitors of the boy band movement of the 1980s and 1990s and led the way for groups like New Kids on the Block, Boyz II Men, Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync...
in the US. The "boy band" trend reached a new climax by the end of the 1990s, with groups such as The Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, going on to widespread international success, and others, such as Motown act 98 Degrees
98 Degrees
98 Degrees is an American adult contemporary boy band consisting of four vocalists: brothers Nick and Drew Lachey, Justin Jeffre, and Jeff Timmons. The group was formed by Timmons in Los Angeles, California....
, finding more moderate mainstream success.
They have also sang with teen heart throb Justin Bieber on his movie "Never Say Never" And they have also made a music video with him and sang on his new christmas album, "Under The Mistletoe".
Discography
Studio albums- CooleyhighharmonyCooleyhighharmonyCooleyhighharmony is the 1991 debut album by Motown group Boyz II Men. Executive produced by Michael Bivins of New Edition and Bell Biv DeVoe, the album features the hit singles "Motownphilly" and "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday", a G.C...
(1991) - IIII (Boyz II Men album)II is the second studio album by boy band Boyz II Men, released in August 1994 on Motown Records. It contained the #1 singles "I'll Make Love To You" and "On Bended Knee", the latter of which replaced the former at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, making the group the third artist to replace...
(1994) - EvolutionEvolution (Boyz II Men album)Evolution is an album by R&B group Boyz II Men, released in September 1997. It is their final album released on Motown Records. A Spanish language version, Evolución, was also issued.- History :...
(1997) - Nathan Michael Shawn WanyaNathan Michael Shawn WanyaNathan Michael Shawn Wanya is a 2000 LP by R&B group Boyz II Men. It was their first LP on which they received more creative control, and their only LP for Universal Records...
(2000) - Full CircleFull Circle (Boyz II Men album)- Charts :- Release history :-External links:* *...
(2002) - Throwback, Vol. 1Throwback, Vol. 1Throwback, Vol. 1 is a 2004 covers album by R&B group Boyz II Men, released by Koch Records, and featuring covers of classic R&B songs from such artists as Teddy Pendergrass, The Isley Brothers and Michael Jackson...
(2004) - The RemedyThe Remedy (Boyz II Men album)The Remedy is the seventh studio album by Boyz II Men, released in Japan on October 25, 2006 and in the U.S. February 14, 2007 as an internet release only. It sold over one million copies in the U.S. The U.S...
(2006) - Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USAMotown: A Journey Through Hitsville USAMotown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA is a Grammy nominated album by Boyz II Men that was released on November 13, 2007 by Decca Records. The album was produced by American Idols Randy Jackson and Boyz II Men. David Simone and Winston Simone were Executive Producers for the album...
(2007) - Love (2009)
- TwentyTwenty (Boyz II Men album)Twenty is the tenth album released by the R&B group Boyz II Men in the United States on 25 October 2011. The first single off the album is "More Than You'll Ever Know" featuring Charlie Wilson...
(2011)
See also
- Boyz II Men discographyBoyz II Men discographyThis is the discography of R&B/soul singing group Boyz II Men. Boyz II Men have sold over 28 million albums in the US and over 34 million worldwide.- Studio albums :- Compilation albums :- Singles :- Guest singles :...
- Best selling music artists
- List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)
External links
- Boyz II Men – Official Website
- Boyz II Men – French Family
- Boyz II Men – Japan Portal