Posted by: ssuttoneaton on: June 23, 2009
Boys II men are a Grammy winning African American R’n’B/Soul singing group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The group got together in 1986 as a quintet, which included Marc Nelson; they found fame when they originally included Nathan Morris, Michael McCary, Shawn Stockman and Wanya Morris. Marc Nelson left the band to pursue a solo career.
Boys II Men is the most successful R’n’B male vocal group of all time, based on their music sales. They have recorded five number one successes between 1992 and 1997 and have sold more than 60 million albums.
The band were contracted to Motown Records from 1990 to 2000, but then moved to parent label Universal records. After their album in 2000 named Nathan Michael Shawn Wayne, Boys II Men moved over to Arista records. In 2003, Michael McCary left the group due to chronic back problems resulting from scoliosis. As of 2009 Wayna Morris, Shawn Stockman and Nathan Morris continue to tour as a trio.
The Beginning
At the very beginning of their career Boys II Men were known as Unique Attraction and were founded at their high school, Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts in Philadelphia. They found inspiration in New Edition’s harmonies and routines, and eventually renamed the group Boys II Men, after one of New Editions songs.
A year before they released their debut album, they made an appearance on a solo album by Robbie Mychals. They are listed as singing background vocals on the song ‘One Mile From Paradise’.
Cooleyhighharmony
Boys II Men’s first album was released on Motown in 1991 and was produced by Michael Bivins. This album could be seen to be similar to work by Bell Biv Devoe as it included multi-layered sampled backdrops just like theirs, but at the same time featured classic soul styled vocals in place of Bell Biv Devoes’ rapping and heavy singing. This was classed as ‘Hip hop doo wop’ by the group.
From the beginning of the band, all four members of the band were lead singers, avoiding the usual R’n’B group arrangement of one or two lead singers and a few background singers. All band members being lead singers became Boys 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 trading bars in each song.
The album’s liner notes also identified nicknames for each of the boys in the band. They were devised as an attempt at marketing. Wayna was ‘Squirt’, Shawn was ‘Slim’. Michael was ‘Bass’ and Nathan was ‘Alex Vanderpool’ after a soap opera character who had a nerdy style.
As time went on Nathan Morris began handling the bands operations and business interests but the group never presented one man as more important than the other.
Cooleyhighharmony was a major success and managed to sell over nine million copies and won the 1992 Grammy Award for Best R’n’B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. The group joined MC Hammer’s high profile 2 Legit 2 Quit tour as an opening act. While travelling the country their tour manager Khalil Roundtree was murdered and the groups future performances ‘It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday’ were dedicated to him.
End of The Road
While they were touring in 1992, Boys II Men recorded their ‘End of the Road’ album for the soundtrack to Eddie Murphy’s film Boomerang. This album also became a record-breaking success remaning at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for thirteen weeks.
II
During 1994 Boys II Men released their second album, several of these tracks became major singles. At the 37th Grammy Awards on March 1st 1995 the group won two Grammys, one being Best R’n’B album for ‘II’ whilst the other was Best R’n’B Performance by a Duo or group with vocals for ‘I’ll Make Love to You’.
Inspirations influence and impact
By this time Boys II Men were a popular act worldwide and became Motowns best selling male group act. The members of Boys II Men were particularly noted for their vocal abilities, and helped continue a trend in R’n’B towards an emphasis on emotive singing with significant use of melisma, a trademark of Wayna Morris’ singing.
Many R’n’B competitors began showing obvious inspiration from the band and their singing style. Shai, Soul for Real, Blackstreet, All 4 One and later Dru Hill, Jagged Edge and Az Yet. Boys II Men’s closest competitors were Uptown Records act Jodeci, however their style was more sexually charged and their overall influence of the music industry was not as widespread as Boys II Men’s.
Evolution and label Conflicts
The Motown company issued ‘The Remix Collection’ a completion of remixes from Cooleyhighharmony and II. The group itself opposed the release of the collection, and due to this there was a dispute between the group and the company. Boys II Men then initiated their own recording company ‘Stone Creek’ to be distributed by Epic Records, not Motown.
Evolution was released during 1997 and had very mixed reviews but still sold 3 million copies although this w3as below II’s 12 million and Cooleyhighharmonys 9 million. Only one of the songs from this album reached number one whilst one more made it into the top ten and the follow up track underperformed.
As label problems mounted, health problems also took a toll on the band. While they were on tour to support their Evolution album, Wayna Morris developed a polyp on his vocal cords, and the group was forced to postpone part of their tour.
Nathan Michael Shawn Wayna
In 1999, Motowon’s parent company PolyGram was bought by Universal Music Group. The ‘Nathan Michael Shawn Wayna’ album was their only album for Universal. The album was chiefly written and produced by the group itself an as attempt to update their sound and ward off critics who questioned the groups reliance on Babyface’s hit making song craft.
None of their singles became hits from this album but two received media attention.
Meanwhile Michael McCary was diagnosed with scoliosis, making him unable to dance live at performances. The other three members resorted to having him seated on a stall while they did the dancing themselves.
Full Circle and The Color of Love
Boys II men left Universal in 2001, and the label released a greatest hits collection called Legacy: The Greats Hits Collection, to close out their contract. Boys II Men then moved o to Arista Records in 2002 and began recording their album ‘Full Circle’. For their single ‘The Color of Love’ Arista commissioned a high budget music video, shot in four different locations. One of each Boys shot scenes in Tokyo, Ghana, Puerto Rico and New York. The resulting video had a debut on BET, but failed to have a great effect.
On January 30th 2003, Michael McCary retired from performing due to ongoing problems with his health and Arista terminated Boys II Men’s contract on April 30th.
In mid 2007 the group resigned with Universal Records and released the LP Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA through Decca Records. On November the 7th the group performed on ITV’s talent show, The X Factor.
On February 21st 2008 the group went on the show ‘Don’t Forget The Lyrics!’ and appeared as guests, playing for charity. After blazing through categories such as Motown, R’n’B and even one named Boys II Men the group won $500,000 and split the sum between two charities.
