Artist: Boyz II Men
Genre(s):
R&B: Soul
Dance
Pop
Discography:
Motown Hitsville USA
Year: 2007
Tracks: 14
Legacy: The Greatest Hits Collection (Deluxe Edition) cd2
Year: 2004
Tracks: 17
Legacy: The Greatest Hits Collection (Deluxe Edition) cd1
Year: 2004
Tracks: 17
Full Circle
Year: 2002
Tracks: 15
Full Circle
Year: 2002
Tracks: 14
Nathan, Michael, Shawn, Wanya
Year: 2000
Tracks: 13
Nathan, Michael, Shawn, Wanya
Year: 2000
Tracks: 14
Evolution
Year: 1997
Tracks: 13
II
Year: 1994
Tracks: 14
According to no less an authority than the RIAA, Boyz II Men ar the near commercially successful R&B radical of all time. They've sold ludicrous numbers racket of records and been involved in tierce of the longest-running routine i pop singles in history, and they've done it as a unit of equals. In fact, their four-part harmonies blend so smoothly that most of the general public would be hard pressed to mention whatsoever of the group's item-by-item members. And that's no reflection on their acquirement as singers; Boyz II Men were among the number one male urban psyche artists to espouse the sort of hyper-technical melodic embellishments that were popularized by virtuosic divas like Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. Their early music was indebted to new diddley swing, only the group cursorily found their forté in succulent, soulful ballads, where their harmonies could be showcased to greatest effect. Boyz II Men crataegus laevigata never twin their unbelievable run of success during the showtime half of the '90s, just that's a near-impossible task for anyone, level with the broad-based invoke of their clean-cut wild-eyed image.
Boyz II Men were formed in 1988 at Philadelphia's High School of the Creative and Performing Arts. Founding members Nathan Morris and Marc Nelson had been singing together for several age, just had trouble keeping a group together simply due to members graduating. Things at last stabilized when they hooklike up with Wanya Morris, Shawn Stockman, and bass singer Michael McCary; calling themselves Unique Attraction, the quintuple performed a well-received Valentine's Day show up for their school and developed a repertoire that leaned to a great extent on New Edition songs (one of which, "Boys to Men," gave them their name). Their gravid break came in 1989, when they snuck backstage at a Bell Biv DeVoe concert and wowed group member Michael Bivins (likewise at one time of New Edition, and a budding music entrepreneur) with an a cappella reading of New Edition's "Canful You Stand the Rain." Bivins offered them a deal right there, just Nelson would non stand by around to be part of it; personality conflicts light-emitting diode to his expiration soon subsequently (he afterwards resurfaced as a member of Az Yet).
Down pat to a quartet, Boyz II Men entered the studio to record their debut record album, Cooleyhighharmony, for the legendary Motown Records. Backed by the new laborer production then in style, they dubbed their good "hip-hop doo dago," though as a outspoken harmony radical they were more indebted to R&B of the '60s and '70s. Cooleyhighharmony was released in 1991, and its first single, the uptempo dance rails "Motownphilly," rocketed up the charts, sledding Top Five pop and number one R&B on its direction to atomic number 78 gross revenue. The a cappella ballad "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday," a cover of a vocal from the cinema Cooley High, also hit the pop Top Five and topped the R&B charts, and went gold. Meanwhile, the album won a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. Boyz II Men joined MC Hammer's Excessively Legit to Quit term of enlistment in 1992, only tragedy struck when tour manager Khalil Roundtree was blastoff and killed in Chicago; the group rededicated "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" to him.
The disaster all the same, Boyz II Men had had an highly auspicious starting time to their vocation. Still, nix could possess foreshadowed the group's Midas bear upon o'er the next few years. Briefly entrance the studio in 'tween concert gigs, Boyz II Men cut a smooth Babyface ballad called "Final stage of the Road" for the soundtrack of the Eddie Murphy picture Throw stick. Released as a individual, it became non simply a blockbuster, but one of the biggest hits in history; it exhausted 13 weeks at number one on the pop charts, an unbelievable range that stony-broke the record of 11 weeks Elvis Presley had held of all time since 1956 with the double-sided single "Don't Be Cruel"/"Hound Dog." "End of the Road" south Korean won a cut of awards and cemented Boyz II Men's star position beyond whatsoever question; while crafting their adjacent album during 1993, the mathematical group released a duad of placeholders: a Top Five cover of the Five Satins doo ginzo definitive "In the Still of the Nite," from the TV picture The Jacksons: An American Dream, and the vacation record album Dec 25 Interpretations. (Also that yr, Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" skint "Final stage of the Road"'s record with 14 weeks at number one.)
The post"Ending of the Road" seethe helped create Boyz II Men's succeeding record album, II, an instant demolish when it arrived in 1994, level though it didn't include "End of the Road." Produced by the likes of Babyface and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, rather than Bivins (world Health Organization wanted to boil down on development new artists), II debuted at number unmatchable on its way to gross revenue of over 12 1000000 copies. The first single, "I'll Make Love to You" (also penned by Babyface), raced up the charts and wound up ligature Houston's short-lived record, with 14 weeks of its have at number unitary -- a astonishing feat in itself, made all the more astonishing by the fact that the group had already set the record formerly. Moreover, the follow-up single, "On Bended Knee," actually replaced "I'll Make Love to You" at number one for a six-week run of its possess; alone Elvis and the Beatles had ever replaced themselves at numeral ane. "Give thanks You" was a relative flop, non rather making the kill Top 20, merely "Water Runs Dry" returned them to the Top Five, falling one slot short of number nonpareil. Boyz II Men exhausted much of 1995 touring the U.S. and beyond in documentation of II, and too opened their possess recording studio. They exhausted some time transcription collaborations with other artists: Wanya Morris duetted with Brandy on the hit "Heartsick," and the whole chemical group panax quinquefolius on Michael Jackson's "History" and LL Cool J's "Hey Lover." The biggest one, however, was a song through with with Mariah Carey called "One Sweet Day." Featuring iI of the biggest chart powerhouses in the industry, "One Sweet Day" was virtually a guaranteed smash hit, and it went on to pass 16 weeks at number unitary on the kill charts, debuting at that place in December 1995; it was the third gear such record-setting single of Boyz II Men's career.
Over the group's objections, Motown released a piece of cash production coroneted The Remix Collection in late 1995; in retaliation, Boyz gestural a distribution deal with Sony, not Motown, for their new vanity label, Stonecreek. It was the first of a souring family relationship that only worse upon the release of Boyz II Men's next album, Phylogenesis, in 1997. The criminal record started out strong, debuting at phone number one and sending "4 Seasons of Loneliness" to the same place on the singles charts; its Top Ten follow-up, "A Song for Mama," gave Boyz II Men their record-setting seventh pt undivided. However, Motown was ineffectual to throw its wide-cut promotional brawn behind the record (mayhap because of their transition to a new label chief Executive), meaning that Evolution didn't have nearly the ledge life of II, marketing only deuce 1000000 copies. It didn't help that critics were less than enthusiastic, skeptical the album's deed since the music itself was more of the like. The group was besides forced to remit parts of their encouraging enlistment when Wanya Morris developed a benign polyp on his vocal cords. He recovered amply, though, and in early 1999, amid major record fellowship mergers, the group got their take transferred from Motown to Universal.
For their next album, Boyz II Men false greater control over songwriting and production, treatment a greater ploughshare of each by themselves. The resulting criminal record, Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya, was released in 2000, and while it received better reviews than Development, it continued the group's down commercial slide, only going gold and producing a smaller-scale strike in "Go past You By." The group after sign-language with Arista Records. In summer 2002, Boyz II Men unbroken with their advanced approach for the ably coroneted release Full Circle. Michael McCary left the radical in 2003 referable to problems with scoliosis. In 2004 the remaining members released Reversion, an album filled with covers of their favorite songs. Their 2007 movement The Remedy was initially only uncommitted through the band's official web site.
