But much of 1991 was Bivins' year to shine, as he was busy helping out a Philadelphia quartet that had managed to get backstage during a B.B.D. This set actually did provide the band with another Top 20 hit, a remix of "Word to the Mutha!" featuring Tresvant, Brown and Gill - effectively, one of the first major reunions of New Edition. Sure, some of us may associate those beats with the fancy footwork of Donald Faison in Scrubs, but that subtext of dangerously wild women - especially as AIDS was starting to become a mainstream concern - isn't the kind of thing you expect to think about from a hit pop song.Īs was so often the case in the early '90s, Poison was initially followed-up with a stopgap release, the remix album WBBD-Bootcity!, in 1991. The lyrics and sound of the album still pack a pretty strong punch in an era when it seems like nothing can shock America without looking calculated. Our good friend Mike Heyliger astutely pointed out, in a piece on Poison written last year, that part of the record's success hinged on the fact that it was, by and large, the anti-New Edition record. Bomb Squad members Hank and Keith Shocklee and Eric "Vietnam" Sadler also received co-writing credits on several album tracks. (I Thought It Was Me)?", however, was produced by The Bomb Squad, the collective behind the in-your-face, sample-heavy production technique of rap group Public Enemy. Freeze, produced the percussive "Poison." (The producer would go on to write for Color Me Badd, Another Bad Creation and penned "Break of Dawn" for Michael Jackson's Invincible in 2001.) Third single "B.B.D. That said, the biggest singles were from unexpected sources.
(The story goes that when someone at MCA wrote all their last names down, Bivins himself suggested halving his surname.) But Jam and Lewis didn't handle production on Poison much of the album was self-produced along with keyboardist Carl Bourelly. The trio about to be known as Bell Biv DeVoe came together under the suggestion of Heart Break producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. By the end of the '80s, though the group was still riding high - 1988's Heart Break had a Top 10 hit with "If It Isn't Love" - the band ultimately took a hiatus for much of the 1990s. Bobby Brown ultimately left the group for a successful solo career, and the group hired up-and-comer Johnny Gill (later a moderately successful solo artist for Motown). Telephone Man" and a cover of "Earth Angel" for The Karate Kid Part II. The quick-working ensemble pressed on, securing a deal with MCA and releasing hit singles like "Cool It Now," "Mr. (When the group left Starr's employ, he took their group dynamic and applied it to a quintet of white Boston teens, under the name New Kids on the Block.) Along with singers Ralph Tresvant and Bobby Brown, the quintet was first discovered by music impresario Maurice Starr, who proceeded to railroad the group despite respectable sales of debut album Candy Girl, released on Streetwise Records in 1983. Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins and Ronnie DeVoe were already known to fans of R&B and dance music at the time, as three-fifths of the Boston-based ensemble New Edition. While you may not want to trust a big butt and a smile, we hope you find today's Reissue Theory look at Bell Biv DeVoe a fun read, after the jump. It spawned three Top 40 singles and moved some 4 million units in the U.S., and provided one of the better "second acts" in late '80s/early '90s R&B. And they won't let go. Since its release more than two decades ago, BBD's first album remains a pioneering LP in the New Jack Swing genre, itself one of the most insanely addictive musical genres of the 1990s. Warn youuuu.that if you listen to "Poison" by Bell Biv DeVoe one too many times, those herky-jerky New Jack beats will affix themselves to your brain. One of the biggest R&B hits of 1990 is still an earworm today - but is there more lurking underneath the surface? The debut of Bell Biv DeVoe is reassessed.
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we reflect on notable albums and the reissues they may someday see.
0 kommentar(er)
