|
Standing Up (from left): Shawn Stockman, Wanya Morris, Nathan Morris
Sitting Down: Michael McCary |
This versatile close-harmony teenage soul quartet enjoyed an almost unprecedented level of success during the early 90s, beginning with the US Top 3 debut single "Motownphilly". They comprise Wanya "Squirt" Morris (b. 29 July 1973, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA), Michael "Bass" McCary (b. 16 December 1972, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA), Shawn "Slim" Stockman (b. 26 September 1972, USA) and Nathan "Alex-Vanderpool" Morris (b. 18 June 1971, USA). The four men met at the Philadelphia High School Of Creative And Performing Arts, forming the band in 1988. Michael Bivins of Bell Biv DeVoe took the quartet under his wing and brought them, fittingly, to Motown Records. Their debut album was one side dance, one side ballad, and was a huge seller in the USA. By the middle of 1993 the album was still high on the US chart with sales of over seven million copies. The previous autumn, the soundtrack song "End Of The Road" topped the US charts for a mammoth 13 weeks and provided the quartet with a UK chart-topper. Their winning formula was repeated with uncanny accuracy in 1994, the follow-up album (imaginatively titled II) becoming a huge hit. It spawned three of the best-selling singles in US chart history, with "I'll Make Love To You" (at the top for 14 weeks), "On Bended Knee" (at the top for 6 weeks) and "One Sweet Day" (with Mariah Carey, number 1 for an astonishing 16 weeks). Evolution featured all-star contributions from Sean "Puffy" Combs, Keith Crouch, Babyface and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. The quartet also set up their own label, Stonecreek, and after a three year hiatus launched Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya onto a market now saturated with a new generation of R&B vocal groups. The quartet's brand of smooth, inoffensive soul, though classy as always, struggled to make a commercial impact in a less discerning and more sexually explicit climate. Full Circle followed in 2002. The following year, McCary decided to the leave the group due to a chronic back problem. In early 2007, the three remaining members released The Remedy.
Sound Files (MP3)
Muzak - from the album The Remedy
*Roll Wit Me - from the album Full Circle
*End of the Road - from the album Cooleyhighharmony (Spanish)
In The Still Of The Nite - from the album Cooleyhighharmony (Spanish)
Motownphilly - from the album Cooleyhighharmony
It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday - from the album Cooleyhighharmony
I'll Make Love To You - from the album II
On Bended Knee - from the album II
4 Seasons Of Loneliness - from the album Evolution
A Song For Mama - from the album Evolution
NB: MP3s with a * next to it indicates that it is located on another server. Reason being is because these MP3s exceed 5 MB and Geocities (the web host for this site) will not accept MP3s over 5 MB. These MP3s are located under the server Angelfire. So in order to download MP3s that are under this server, you must left click once on the name of the MP3 that you want to download, which will take you onto a different page (because it is on a different server, and Geocities do not allow direct links to files located on other servers) and then either left click (if you want to download the MP3 but do not want to save it) or right click, then "Save Target As..." (if you want to the save the MP3) on the name of the MP3 that you want to listen to. Easy as...
|
