Boyz II Men are an American vocal harmony group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Originally formed in 1985, they are currently a trio composed of baritone Nathan Morris, tenor Wanyá Morris, and tenor Shawn Stockman. Previously, Boyz II Men was a quartet including bass singer Michael McCary, who left the group in 2003 due to health issues.
The group first saw commercial success in 1991 with the release of their debut studio album, Cooleyhighharmony, which included the singles "Motownphilly" and "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday," both of which peaked within the top five of the Billboard Hot 100. Their 1992 single, "End of the Road," peaked atop the Hot 100 and set a then-record for spending thirteen weeks at the top of the chart. Boyz II Men later broke this record twice more with "I'll Make Love to You" in 1994 and "One Sweet Day" (with Mariah Carey) in 1995, which each set new records for spending the most weeks at number one. Additionally, when "On Bended Knee" took the number one spot away from "I'll Make Love to You" in 1994, Boyz II Men became only the second musical act, after The Beatles (in 1964), to replace themselves atop the Hot 100. In addition to their success on the charts, Boyz II Men received widespread critical acclaim, and they won four Grammy Awards in the 1990s. These achievements, among others, led Billboard to recognize Boyz II Men as the "biggest boy band" in a 2012 retrospective. Their work is frequently cited as influential on the R&B genre, and Boyz II Men have been listed among the greatest doo-wop vocal groups of all time.
Boyz II Men's latest studio album, Under the Streetlight, was released in 2017. They performed in concerts around the world throughout the 2010s and 2020s.
History
1985–1990: Group formation and beginnings
The group, originally named "Unique Attraction," was formed in 1985 by Nathan Morris and Marc Nelson at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA). Morris and Nelson joined with fellow schoolmates George Baldi, Jon Shoats, and Marguerite Walker to create the original lineup. Two years later, in 1987, the group added freshman Wanyá Morris (who has no blood relation to Nathan), a singer in the school choir. In 1988, Baldi, Shoats and Walker left the group upon graduating from the school. Later that year, the group added Shawn Stockman after his impressive solo performance as a fellow member of the school choir. The fifth and final member to join the group was Michael McCary, who one day in 1988 encountered Unique Attraction rehearsing in a school bathroom (because of the acoustics), when he added some bass notes. With this five-person lineup, the group began to attract many fans and significant support at their high school, where they were mentored by the renowned CAPA teacher LaDeva Davis. The group was heavily inspired by New Edition, so much so that they renamed the group as "Boyz II Men," after New Edition's hit song "Boys to Men" (from their 1988 album Heart Break).
The group soon developed a plan to sing for (and win the support of) a celebrity to quickly earn a record deal with a major label. One night in 1989, after performing at a Valentine's Day party at their high school, they snuck into a concert put on by local radio station "Power 99" at the Philadelphia Civic Center. Boyz II Men managed to talk their way into the backstage area, where they had planned to find Philadelphia celebrity Will Smith to perform for him. However, while looking for Smith, they happened to cross paths with New Edition member Michael Bivins. On the spot, they sang their a cappella rendition of New Edition's "Can You Stand the Rain" for him. Bivins and everyone else who witnessed the impromptu performance (including other celebrities) were impressed. Despite having no experience as a manager, Bivens gave the group his telephone number, and invited them to call him sometime soon. Nathan Morris took Bivens up on that invitation, calling Bivens on the telephone repeatedly. Eventually, Bivens agreed to help get Boyz II Men signed to a record contract, and to help manage the young artists.
After some time, Bivens successfully worked to get Boyz II Men signed to a major label: Motown Records. The president of Motown at the time was Jheryl Busby, who personally met with Boyz II Men and approved their initial contracts. However, it took over a year before Boyz II Men would find their way into a studio to record an album. During that time, the group worked with Bivens on several projects (including contributing vocals to songs with other Bivens-led groups like Another Bad Creation). The delay before Boyz II Men would record their own material, among other unspecified conflicts, led to the departure of founding member Marc Nelson. Nelson left Boyz II Men before the recording sessions for their debut album. Boyz II Men moved forward as the quartet that would soon find international fame: Michael McCary, Nathan Morris, Wanyá Morris, and Shawn Stockman.
1991–1993: Cooleyhighharmony and "End of the Road" Boyz II Men's first album, Cooleyhighharmony, was released on Motown in 1991 and was mainly produced by Dallas Austin. Cooleyhighharmonys drum-heavy new jack swing sound and multi-layered sampled backdrops were similar to that of New Edition offshoot Bell Biv DeVoe (BBD), but Boyz II Men 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 Another Bad Creation to the public as BBD's protégés.
From the beginning, Boyz II Men featured all four members as leads, avoiding the typical 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: Wanyá Morris' melismatic tenor, Shawn Stockman's crystal-clear falsetto, Nathan Morris' husky baritone, and Michael McCary's true bass (often featured in spoken-word sections) trading bars in each song.
The album's liner notes identified unique nicknames for each group member. These nicknames were devised in collaboration with Bivins in an attempt at marketing. Wanyá 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.The character in question, Alfred Vanderpool, appeared on ABC's All My Children.
Boyz II Men's debut single, "Motownphilly," featured a rap cameo by Michael Bivins that describes how he discovered Boyz II Men. The single's release was accompanied by a music video that presented the group in hip-hop style. (The video also included cameos from fellow CAPA alumni Black Thought and Questlove of The Roots.) Cooleyhighharmonys second single was an a cappella 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. The sensual "Uhh Ahh" served as the third single.
Cooleyhighharmony achieved remarkable commercial and critical success, 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. That year, Boyz II Men were also nominated for Best New Artist, along with British singer-songwriter Seal, fellow R&B group Color Me Badd, and dance group C+C Music Factory, but the Grammy was awarded to singer-songwriter Marc Cohn.
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 Roderick 'Khalil' Rountree 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 helped advance their success.
While touring during 1992, Boyz II Men returned briefly to the studio to record the single "End of the Road," co-written and produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, for the soundtrack to Eddie Murphy's film Boomerang. This song, released as a single on June 30, 1992, would become one of the most successful songs of the decade. It reached the number one position on the Billboard Hot 100 on August 15, remaining there for a record-setting 13 weeks, until November 14, 1992. The unprecedented success of "End of the Road" instantly transformed Boyz II Men from up-and-coming R&B stars into mainstream music celebrities.
A revamped Cooleyhighharmony was reissued during 1993, with "End of the Road" added as a special bonus track. Later, the song was also included in a collection produced by Michael Bivins, featuring his most celebrated acts, called "East Coast Family, Vol. 1". Shortly after the release of this compilation, Boyz II Men and Bivins parted ways professionally. Boyz II Men continued to work with Babyface and other high-profile record producers over the next several years.
1994–1996: II and "I'll Make Love to You"
After releasing a Christmas compilation, Christmas Interpretations 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. II later won two awards at the 1995 Grammy Awards, including Best R&B Album.
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 and 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 the second act ever to replace itself at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart after the Beatles.
In 1995, the group appeared as backing vocalists on "HIStory" from Michael Jackson's Grammy-nominated ninth album of the same name.
In 1995, 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 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.
1997–1998: Evolution and label conflicts 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 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. While on tour to support the Evolution album, Wanyá Morris developed a polyp on his vocal cords, and the group was forced to postpone part of the tour until he recovered. McCary's multiple sclerosis meant that he was unable to participate in most of the group's dance routines.