Boyz II Men

Boyz II Men is an American R&B/soul singing group from Philadelphia. Founded in 1988 as a quintet, Boyz II Men found fame as a quartet, with members Wanya Morris, Michael McCary, Shawn Stockman, and Nathan Morris, on Motown Records during the early 1990s.

History

Beginnings

The group that later became Boyz II Men was founded in 1988 at the High School of the Creative and Performing Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There, friends Nathan Morris and Marc Nelson had put together several various R&B singing groups, all of which fell through. Eventually, they recruited tenors Wanya Morris and Shawn Stockman and bass Michael McCary, and began performing as "Unique Attraction".

Related Topics:
1988 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Nathan Morris - Marc Nelson - Wanya Morris - Shawn Stockman - Bass - Michael McCary

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The members of Unique Attraction idolized New Edition, one of the most popular R&B groups of the 1980s. They found inspiration in New Edition's harmonies and routines, and eventually renamed itself "Boyz II Men" after the title of one of New Edition's songs.

Related Topics:
New Edition - 1980s

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Sneaking backstage after a 1989 concert performed by BellBivDeVoe (a New Edition spin-off group consisting of Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, and Ronnie DeVoe), Boyz II Men performed an a cappella rendition of New Edition's "Can You Stand the Rain" for New Editon/BBD leader Michael Bivins. Bivins was impressed by the group, and began plans to sign them to Motown Records through a production deal with his Biv Ten Records company. Before the group began recording, however, Marc Nelson left Boyz II Men because of personality conflicts, reducing the quintet to a quartet.

Related Topics:
1989 - BellBivDeVoe - Ricky Bell - Michael Bivins - Ronnie DeVoe - Motown Records

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Cooleyhighharmony

Boyz II Men's first album, Cooleyhighharmony, was released on Motown in 1991, executive produced by Michael Bivins. Cooleyhighharmony's drum-heavy new jack swing sound and multi-layered sampled backdrops were similar to that of BellBivDeVoe's own work, but featured smooth 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.

Related Topics:
Cooleyhighharmony - 1991 - New jack swing - Sampled - Rapping - Singing - Hip hop - Doo wop - Another Bad Creation

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Boyz II Men's first single, the Dallas Austin-produced "Motownphilly" featured BBD as guest performers, and was accompanied with a music video that presented the group in hip hop style. Their second single was a 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.

Related Topics:
Dallas Austin - Music video - Hip hop - G.C. Cameron - 1975 - Cooley High

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From the beginning, Boyz II Men featured all four members trading leads, avoiding the usual R&B group arrangement of one or two lead singers and a team of background singers. The multiple-lead arrangements became a Boyz II Men trademark, and it became typical to hear Wanya Morris' vibrato-heavy tenor, Shawn Stockman's smoother tenor voice, Nathan Morris' more low-key second tenor/baritone, and Michael McCary's deep bass (notably used in spoken-word sections of many Boyz II Men hits) trading bars in each song. In time, Wanya Morris would become something of the de-facto leader of the group, handling its operations and business interests, but the group never presented one man as more important than the other.

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Cooleyhighharmony was a major success for the group, Bivins, and Motown. It eventually sold over nine million copies, "Motownphilly" and "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" were #1 R&B hits and top five U.S. pop hits, the album won the 1992 Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and Boyz II Men joined Hammer's high-profile 2 Legit 2 Quit tour as an opening act. While traveling the country, their tour manager Khalil Roundtree was murdered, and the group's future performances of "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" were dedicated to him.

Related Topics:
1992 - Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals - Hammer

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"End of the Road"

In 1992, Boyz II Men recorded the single "End of the Road", written and produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, for the soundtrack to Eddie Murphy's film Boomerang. "End of the Road became a record-breaking success, remaining at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for thirteen weeks, breaking the previous record of 11 weeks set by Elvis Presley with "Don't Be Cruel"/"Hound Dog" in 1956. Cooleyhighharmony was reissued in 1993, with "End of the Road" added as a special bonus track.

Related Topics:
End of the Road - Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds - Eddie Murphy - Boomerang - Elvis Presley - 1956 - 1993

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II

Ninteen ninety-four saw the release of Boyz II Men's second album, II. Most of the tracks on II were written and produced by Babyface and the successful team of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis; Michael Bivins distanced himself from Boyz II Men to focus on developing new acts. Several of II's tracks became major hit singles, among them Jam & Lewis's "On Bended Knee", and Babyface's "I'll Make Love to You" and "Water Runs Dry". "Thank You" and the hip hop soul track "Vibin'" both missed the U.S. Top 20; but "Water Runs Dry" peaked at #2, and "I'll Make Love to You and "On Bended Knee" became #1 hits.

Related Topics:
Ninteen ninety-four - II - Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis - On Bended Knee - I'll Make Love to You - Hip hop soul

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"I'll Make Love to You" notably broke "End of the Road's" thirteen-week record at #1, by spending fourteen 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 #1, making Boyz II Men the third act to replace themselves at #1, after Elvis and The Beatles. Meanwhile, II sold over twelve million copies in the United States alone, becoming the best-selling album ever released by an R&B group act.

Related Topics:
Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You - The Beatles

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1995: Collaborations

During 1995, Boyz II Men made several notable appearances on other artists' recordings. Wanya Morris appeared on Brandy's single "Brokenhearted", while the group as a whole support LL Cool J on his 1995 hit "Hey Lover".

Related Topics:
1995 - Brandy - LL Cool J

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It was the group's collaboration with Mariah Carey that proved to be the most notable. "One Sweet Day", a duet between Carey and Boyz II Men included on Carey's 1995 LP Daydream, became a smash success, and topped the US pop charts for sixteen weeks, a record which the song holds to this day.

Related Topics:
Mariah Carey - One Sweet Day - Daydream

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Inspirations, influence, and impact

By this point, Boyz II Men were among the most popular acts in the country. Popular with both mainstream and R&B audiences, Boyz II men became recognized as something of a 1990s version of The Temptations, the 1960s Motown act that became the label's best-selling male group act. Many of the elements that made The Temptations, classic Motown artists such as The Four Tops and Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, and Boyz II Men's mentors New Edition successful were adapted by the group, including a clean-cut image, smooth harmonies, and synchronized dance and performance movements. The members of Boyz II Men were particularly noted for their vocal abilities, and helped continue a trend in R&B towards an emphasis on emotive singing with significant use of melisma, a trademark of Wanya Morris' singing.

Related Topics:
1990s - The Temptations - 1960s - The Four Tops - Smokey Robinson & the Miracles - New Edition - Melisma

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The influences of the group were felt and heard across throughout the R&B world, with several R&B competitors ? among them, Shai, Soul for Real, BLACKstreet, and later Dru Hill, Jagged Edge, and, featuring old Boyz II Men member Marc Nelson, Az Yet ? showing obvious inspiration from Boyz II Men's work and singing style. Boyz II Men's closest competitor, Uptown Records act Jodeci, were, with their grittier and more sexually charged style, the polar opposite of Boyz II Men's wholesomeness. Jodeci's style had its own followers (many of them, Dru Hill and Jagged Edge in particular, they shared with Boyz II Men), but their influence on the music industry as a whole was not as widespread as that of Boyz II Men.

Related Topics:
Shai - Soul for Real - BLACKstreet - Dru Hill - Jagged Edge - Az Yet - Uptown Records - Jodeci

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Perhaps even more notable is that several record producers, Lou Pearlman in particular, saw Boyz II Men's popularity with white audiences, and developed several acts in the same vein as Boyz II Men, but with white male singers instead of black ones. Because of this, Boyz II Men is often considered to have started the "boy band" craze that reached a 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.

Related Topics:
Lou Pearlman - Boy band - 1990s - The Backstreet Boys - *NSYNC - 98 Degrees

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Evolution and label conflicts

Riding high on the success of the most successful act ever on the label, Motown issued The Remix Collection, a compilation of remixes of various Boyz II men songs from Cooleyhighharmony and II. The group itself had opposed the release of the collection, and as a result friction arose between the label and the group. Boyz II Men set up their record label Stonecreek (which released material by artists such as Uncle Sam) to be distributed by Columbia Records, not Motown. As a result, tensions were high when it came time to release the next Boyz II Men album.

Related Topics:
Remix - Uncle Sam - Columbia Records

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Evolution, released in 1997 to mixed reviews, and sold two million copies, far below II's 12 million and Cooleyhighharmony's 9 million. Only one of Evolution's singles, the Jam/Lewis-penned "Four Seasons of Loneliness", made it to #1. The second single, the Babyface-helmed "A Song for Mama" (the theme song to the Babyface-produced film Soul Food) was a Top 10 hit, but the follow-up "Can't Let Her Go" underperformed.

Related Topics:
Evolution - 1997 - Soul Food

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As the label problems mounted, health problems began to take their toll on the group. 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. Meanwhile, Michael McCary was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, which limited his ability to dance at live performances; the other three members eventually resorted to having McCary seated on a stool while they did all the dancing themselves.

Related Topics:
Polyp - Vocal cords - Rheumatoid arthritis

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Boyz II Men's final Top 40 hit was "I Will Get There", a Diane Warren-penned single released in support of the soundtrack to DreamWorks' first animated feature, The Prince of Egypt. "I Will Get There" is also notable for being one of the few Boyz II Men hit singles completely sung a capella.

Related Topics:
Diane Warren - DreamWorks - The Prince of Egypt

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Nathan Shawn Michael Wanya

In 1999, amidst a major corporate shift at Motown's parent company MCA Records, Boyz II Men found themselves assigned to Universal Records.

Related Topics:
1999 - MCA Records - Universal Records

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Their only studio LP for Universal, 2000's Nathan Shawn Michael 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 Shawn Michael Wanya than they had been to its predecessor, the LP only sold 500,000 copies, and neither of its singles, "Pass You By" and "Thank You in Advance", became hits.

Related Topics:
2000 - Nathan Shawn Michael Wanya

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Full Circle and "The Color of Love"

Boyz II Men departed from Universal in 2001, and the label released a greatest hits collection, Legacy: The Greatest Hits Collection, to close out their contract. Singing a new deal with Arista Records in 2002, Boyz II Men began recording the Full Circle album, and recruited Babyface for a new single, "The Color of Love". Arista commissioned a high-budget music video, shot in four different locals by four different directors: erent locales by four different directors: supervising director Little X filmed scenes featuring Michael McCary in India, Hype Williams filmed Sean Stockman in Tokyo, Benny Boom filmed Nathan Morris in Ghana, and Chris Robinson filmed Wanya Morris in Puerto Rico. The resulting music video had a high-profile debut on BET, but failed to make an impact, and Full Circle, like Nathan Shawn Michael Wanya before it, sold just over 500,000 copies.

Related Topics:
2001 - Greatest hits - Arista Records - 2002 - Full Circle - Little X - India - Hype Williams - Tokyo - Benny Boom - Ghana - Chris Robinson - Puerto Rico - BET

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Throwback

On January 30, 2003, Michael McCary left the group and retired from performing. Arista terminated Boyz II Men's contract on April 30, and the remaining three members took a temporary hiatus from the music industry. After a year out of the spotlight, Boyz II Men created the independent label MSM Music (distributed through Koch Records), and released the Throwback, Vol. 1 LP, a collection of covers of 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". Throwback, Vol. 1 reached #59 on the Billboard 200, and Vol. 2 is expected in the near future.

Related Topics:
January 30 - 2003 - April 30 - Koch Records - The Dazz Band - Michael Jackson - Bobby Caldwell

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