Boyz II Men Bring Soulful Sound to Schuster Center
Boyz II Men, hailed as the most commercially successful R&B group of all time, bring their soulful vocal harmonizing to the Schuster Center on Saturday, November 29.
“American Idol’s” Randy Jackson, who produced their most recent album, says: “All of the greats have a natural talent that continually bubbles up no matter what’s going on. Boyz II Men are like that – just naturally gifted, and the most talented vocal group of our era.”
Boyz II Men’s clean-cut “retro nouveau” image, synchronized dance routines, and polished stage act fueled their rapid rise to stardom in the 1990s. Their debut album, Cooleyhighharmony is considered a classic of ’90s “new jack swing” and spun off three major crossover hits: “Motownphilly,”, “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday,” and “Uhh Ahh.” Cooleyhighharmony hung on the Billboard Top 200 for an astound ing 133 weeks and sold more than nine million copies in the United States alone.
Their second album, simply titled II, was a massive, chart-topping hit that won the Grammy for Best R&B Album, and sold more than 12 million copies, thanks to its two Number One pop singles, “I’ll Make Love to You” and “On Bended Knee.” When “On Bended Knee” replaced “I’ll Make Love to You” at the top of the Hot 100, Boyz II Men became only the third act in chart history, after Elvis and The Beatles, to replace themselves at Number One.
In a spectacular 17-year career, Boyz II Men have scored fi ve Number One pop hits and 12 Top Ten R&B singles, sold over 60 million records worldwide, and earned a host of awards, including four Grammy Awards.
The three members of Boyz II Men (Michael McCary left the group in 2003) are currently touring in support of their most recent album, Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA, which finds them recording many of the famous Motown anthems that originally inspired them. Teaming with producer Randy Jackson, the Boyz bring their special brand of musical magic to 12 Motown classics, including “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology),” “The Tracks of My Tears,” “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me),” “War,” “I Was Made to Love Her” and “Ribbon In the Sky.”
“Our approach was not to taint or take away from the integrity of the original records,” explains Shawn Stockman, “but to add a little thing, here or there, and put our Boyz II Men flavor on it …We wanted to pay tribute to an era that had such a major infl uence on our sound.”
Wanya Morris adds: “The fact that we were able to do these songs live, the way they made the original records, gives a whole ‘nother twist to what this album is really about.”
“We took everything from before and brought it up to now, just to let everyone know that we haven’t forgotten it,” says Nate Morris.
For video clips of their greatest hits and newest recordings, click here to visit our Boyz II Men Playlist on YouTube. For more about about all things Boyz II Men, visit their website at www.boyziimen.com.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 4:46 pm and is filed under Schuster Center, Star Attractions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
