Every New Zealand #1 single…
4
I’ll Make Love To You by Boyz II Men
Topped the NZ chart: from 11 September 1994 for 4 weeks.
Philadelphia vocal harmony quartet Boyz II Men were successful on the New Zealand single charts during the 1990s. They enjoyed the third-most number-one hits (four) of the decade, behind Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson.
They formed at Philadelphia High School in 1985, originally known as Unique Attraction. The four members adopted unique personalities. Wanyá Morris was known as “Squirt” and Shawn Stockman was “Slim”. Michael McCary was nicknamed “Bass”, and Nathan Morris took the name “Alex Vanderpool”. The four became co-lead singers, trading lines.
Boys II Men signed to Motown and enjoyed immediate success. Their 1991 debut album contained the hits ‘Motownphilly’ and a cover of G.C. Cameron’s ‘It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday’. 1992’s ‘End of the Road‘ took them into pop music’s stratosphere.
The band’s close harmony singing is admirable, and their vocals have personality. Yet ‘l’ll Make Love To You’ feels like an unimaginative retread of ‘End of the Road’. Lacking that song’s emotional punch, it feels perfunctory. Like ‘End of the Road’ it was written and produced by Babyface.
“Weeell, in their favour are the facts that they are still the meanest warblers in pop and that soul doesn’t come much more silky or supersmooth than this. Against them is the fact that this is basically just “End of the Road” with new lyrics – and blimmin’ presumptuous lyrics at that.
Mark Sutherland, Smash Hits
The song’s redeeming feature is a soaring bridge. It’s alive and vibrant where the rest of the song feels phoned in.
Boyz II Men’s albums don’t get much attention. It doesn’t help that ‘End of the Road’ was from a movie soundtrack, not a studio album. Here’s the final song from 1994’s II, an a capella cover of The Beatles’ ‘Yesterday’. It’s nice but monotonous and loses shape when they improvise.
Read more
11 Comments
Leave a Reply
Review Pages
Read about the discographies of musical acts from the 1960s to the present day. Browse this site's review archives or enjoy these random selections:
Blog Posts
I add new blog posts to this website every week. Browse the archives or enjoy these random selections:
I agree with your assessment. Boyz II Men have strong harmony vocals. The song as such isn’t particularly exciting/memorable.
Yeah, I really like One Sweet Day (with Mariah Carey) and End of the Road, but this one’s just OK.
This is a real guilty pleasure. It’s too much, way too much, but I like it. Surely if anyone ever did try to play this in the bedroom they’d be unable to do the deed for laughing too much…
It’s more for foreplay than the deed itself right? It’s in the future tense, not the present. Agreed, it’s pretty ridiculous.
I have to keep reminding myself that Boyz II Men had four members previously!
I’ve never really heard any of their songs after they went down to three members – all their songs I know are from the 1990s.
Ah ok, we grew up with them at different times, so makes sense.
I agree that ‘I’ll Make Love to You’ doesn’t hit as hard as ‘End of the Road,’ but I think it still has that signature Boyz II Men magic.
It’s hard not to like those voices. Both songs you featured have great harmonies… the songs don’t really grab me but I do respect them…great harmonizing.
Pretty old school, right? Can imagine them on Motown in the 1960s.
Yes I could totally. They are a throwback to a different era but did it in a modern way.