In the list of artists who have worked with Baby Face, although they are all the most famous top figures in music, including Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Madonna, Boyz II Men, eric clapton, toni braxton, etc., there are also some popular artists groups who are famous for him. Some of these potential and powerful artists are fledgling and have no background (such as TLC, Jon. B, Pebbles, toni braxton, Karyn White, paula abdul, and seven generations later, the band formed by Baby Face's brother, or the critical moment of bottleneck transformation (such as Whitney Houston, sheena easton, The Whispers), or the unpredictable variables at the beginning of leaving the team and starting their own business (such as bobby brown and Johnny Gill), are all appreciated by Baby Face. Through his participation in the creation and production of album works, or both, and with the endorsement and strength of his gold-lettered signboard, he will become a new generation superstar in music or stabilize his existing country! By the end of 1996, his single and album sales had reached an astonishing 26 million and 72 million respectively. Even Rolling Stone magazine, the leader of professional music magazine, honored him as "the most possible best songwriter and producer in the music industry"!
Baby face, whose real name is Kenneth Edmonds, 1959 was born in Indianapolis, the capital of Indiana, USA, and was one of six brothers in the family. Baby Face had her first performance experience in the sixth grade. He participated in the performance of his brother Melvin's band at the high school dance. I wrote my first song in the seventh grade, and then I joined many schools one after another. Lead singer and guitarist of Band B (now also good at keyboard instruments). Before entering high school, Baby Face began to perform in clubs and hotel lobbies in the Midwest.
From 65438 to 0979, Babyface formed a funk rock band Manchild and officially started his professional music career. Manchild recorded two albums in Chi-Sound's * * *, which has a good reputation.
198 1 year, the turning point of baby face's life. While performing in the lobby of the Michigan Hotel, Babyface received an invitation call to join a band named Deele from Cincinnati, Ohio, so he met Antonio "L.A." Reid, the drummer and songwriter of the band, and they immediately hit it off and became close friends and working partners. "From the beginning, our personalities were completely complementary and compatible." Baby face recalled. "I am a quiet person, but Los Angeles is very active." Both Babyface and L.A. shoulder the heavy responsibility of composing music, writing lyrics and planning their musical careers for The Deele, and began to participate in the production work (although they were still ignorant of production at that time), and their musical talents were fully demonstrated for the first time. In addition, the nickname "Baby Face" was also taken by another Ohio musician, Bootsy Collins, at that time, and it has been used ever since.
1983, the six-member band Deele signed a contract with Solar Records to release their debut album Street Beat. During the period of 1984, they composed two famous songs, Body Language and My Luck. 1985, they successfully published their own album "Material Tangzi", but what really made them occupy a place in the music map was the album "A Stranger's Eyes" from 1987.
The album "The Eyes of a Stranger" not only became the highest-ranked album of Deele, but also became the single "Two Occasions" written by Babyface and performed on the bridge, becoming the former 10, R&; The fourth classic music on the b list. Many people may not know that Babyface, who won the Grammy Award for "Best Rhythm and Blues Male Singer", didn't think he could be a supporting role at the beginning of joining Deere's band, so he didn't participate in singing in Deere's first album until he sang his own song "Sweet 1 1 Month" in the second album, and his thoughts changed accordingly, and even began to be produced. Babyface's debut album "Lovers" was also published at the beginning of 1987, which was quickly praised by major radio stations in the United States, and her personal popularity was also opened.
Despite being busy with the development of the orchestra and individuals, Babyface later continued to cooperate with L.A. Reid and Daryl Simmons to tailor songs and make albums for other artists. The earliest successful works of this music group are Pop List #7 and R&; Since then, the single "Rock Steady", which won the B list, has been invited by various artist groups, and their works have also appeared on the list, and more than once, songs written by two people for different artists have appeared at Top 10 at the same time!
1989, Babyfac's second solo album "Gentle Lover" was released. The album "Gentle Lover" has released four Top 3 best-selling singles, such as "This is not a crime", "Gentle Lover", "Whip Clothes" and "My Kind of A Girl", which made the album sales exceed 2 million copies and pushed the baby face into the ranks of kings and superstars.
Although Baby Face had to leave Deere because of his busy personal career, his cooperation with Los Angeles was not limited to this. They even set up a record company called Laface, because he thinks that his personal singing career and cooperation with L.A. are two things that are not in conflict, and they can take care of each other and have achieved good results, which he is proud of! As a branch of arista Records, a leading record company in Atlanta, Georgia, Lafayette Records not only quickly became the number one record company in Atlanta, Georgia, but also created 3 million platinum records of TLC "ooooh" in TLC tips "1992, 1993 and 1994. Toni braxton's album of the same name, the champion of pop and R&B, and TLC's 8 million platinum album Crazysexycool have brought a vigorous new force to the pop and black music circles!
199 1 year, the record company released a special album called "Take a closer look" for Baby Face, and it still became a double platinum album without expectation. This album contains many of his famous works, including the lyric masterpiece "Love Saw" and "Soul" performed with Karyh White. The love song "Love Makes Things Happen" sung by female singer Pebble.
1992 was a very successful and fruitful year for Baby Face. The song "The End Of R&" written and produced by him for Boyz II Men not only won a record number of singles on 13 week bulletin board, but also became one of the best-selling singles, and even won him a Grammy for "Best R & ampB Song" (shared with L.A. and Daryl Simmons) and "Best Album Producer" (shared with L.A. Coincidentally, Babyface's best-selling single "I will have sex with you" for Boyz II Men in 1994 also broke its new record just set in 1992, and became the number one song on the Billboard pop chart in 14, and won the Grammy again in 1995. In addition, the body mass index award also awarded him the "Best Song" trophy, making his collection of body mass index trophies more than 40!
1In August, 993, Babyface published his third studio solo album "For Your Cool Body". The album * * * released four 10 hit singles, namely R &；; The number one song "For Your Cool" and two R&; Top 10 works Never Keep a Secret, list B, and our feelings, list 4, When can I see you? "When can I see you", a beautiful fairy song? Lyrics has sold more than 500,000 copies, making it the highest-ranked gold record single on the baby face pop music charts. As of June 1994 1 1, the album "To Be Cool on You" has sold more than two million copies in the United States and won double platinum glory.
Also in 1993, Baby Face tapped the female singer toni braxton with a thunderous attitude and produced the above-mentioned album for her. Babyface and L.A. Reid's singles "Another Sad Love Song" and "Breathe Again" achieved excellent results. Tony also shined in the Grammy Awards ceremony the following year and won the Best Newcomer Award, which had to be attributed to the joint training of Babyface and L.A. Reid.
Although his music peripheral career has reached the peak of diamond brilliance, his heart of repaying and caring for society has not slackened. 1994, Babyface volunteered to be the national spokesperson for the Boarder Baby Project, headquartered in Washington, D.C., which aims to help thousands of abandoned babies born in maternity wards of hospitals every year, and built a residence called "Little Blue House" for them as a temporary residence for these abandoned babies. "I swear I will do my best," said Baby Face. "Go and help these dumb babies." In order to support her vows, Babyface also held her first concert in her career on1994165438+10/2 to raise money for the plan to build the "Blue House". Later, he also convened artists groups such as After 7 and El DeBarge, and launched a recording plan called "Boarding Children Plan".
1994 65438+On February 27th, Babyface set off from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and began a series of his first solo concerts. Singing with him is Boyz II Men. "Kenneth' Baby Face' edmonds has established himself as the supreme position in the field of pop music and R&B music," USA Today wrote. "Now he has proved himself to be a perfect artist ... Babyface has created a top-level and changeable performance for this concert." 1June, 995, Newsweek wrote: "Baby Face is probably the most successful writer and producer of pop music ... It seems that everyone wants to have a broken heart."
1995 1 1 In June, 2006, Babyface was first released as a compilation of film soundtrack, which realized what he thought was "one of the once-in-a-lifetime dreams that any songwriter and producer would yearn for." The original sound contains 16 songs, all made by Babyface. According to the personalities and characteristics of female singers such as Whitney Houston, toni braxton, aretha franklin, Brandi, TLC, Mary J. Blige, SWB and Patty Rabel, he personally tailored the lyrics for 15 songs. Now this soundtrack has become a pop chart. "B List" 10 week champion album, 7 platinum sales records, with sales exceeding 7 million copies.
1June, 1996, Babyface released his latest work "That Day" after the double platinum album "For Your Cool Body" in 1993, which is also his fourth studio album. "That Day" contains 65,438+00 works, except that the first single "This is for the lover in your heart" is 65,438+09,865,438+0 famous songs covered by Sharma Orchestra, and the other nine works are still completed by Babyface in partnership or alone. The popular Babyface also invited friends from all walks of life to join his series. In addition to the song "This is for the lover in your heart" in the platinum sales chart Top 10, LL Cool J was invited to help rap, and Jody Watley and other three former Shalamar members sang for him behind the scenes. There is also another Top 10 hit song by Mariah Carey and kenneth gorelick Saxos, Whenever I Close My Eyes, eric clapton participated in the guitar performance and created the iconic "Talk to me" with baby face, and Stevie Wonder participated in the lyrics, composition, harmony and discussion of marital violence, How come, how long? In addition, the album "That Day (You gave me a son)" with the same name is his work expressing gratitude and love for the birth of his son Brandon and dedicating it to his wife, Tracy edmonds (president of Yabim Records), which is the most touching work that can express his personal feelings! "In love songs, you can find more emotion in the melody than in the lyrics," Babyface said in an interview with Robert Shearburn, a reporter of the Los Angeles Times, on10.5/65438. "You can only write' I love you' in one way, but there are millions of changes in music and sound, which is why we can always write love songs and find new ways to interpret them." The highest score of this series is #6, and its sales exceeded 2 million copies in one year.
At the beginning of 1997, the shortlist of the 39th Grammy Awards was announced. Babyface included 12 nominations in one fell swoop, equalling the record set by pop king Michael Jackson, and won three awards at the Grammy ceremony on February 26th. Babyface won three awards, namely "Record of the Year" (obtained by participating in the production of eric clapton's Top 10 single "Change The World"), Best Rhythm and Blues Song (the theme song "Breathe Out" for Whitney Houston and "Producer of the Year" (due to
It was also during 1997 that Baby Face had her first experience as a feature film producer in her life. The film, called Soul Food, was written and directed by George Tillman Jr. and was released by 20th Century Fox Film Company on September 26th. 1997. Of course, the soundtrack of this film was produced by Babyface, which not only quickly won the record of millions of platinum sales, but also stayed in the top of the charts 10, and created two best-selling songs, namely "How do we do" ranked by Total # 16 and "I care about you" ranked by Milestone #23.
1On September 25th, 997, Babyface held the first acoustic concert at the invitation of MTV unplugged program, especially invited some close relatives and friends who had no chance to cooperate in the past, as well as many outstanding musicians in his mind, and created an impromptu, casual and warm acoustic concert with him. So, eric clapton, Stevie Wonder, Jojo, K-Ci brothers in Jodeci, and two brothers of Babyface, Kevon and Melvin…, who are also members of the famous R&B group after 7, came to help out, and all the stars gathered! In the same year165438+1October 25th, Babyface's first solo concert album "MTV Unplugged NYC 1997" was released. The whole content of this album is to record the live recording of the above-mentioned acoustic concert he held in Hammerstein Hall in the center of Manhattan, new york. Among the wonderful works of 1 1, in addition to Whip Dress, the sixth best-selling song in Tender Love album, and How Come, How Long, a double-platinum selling album, caring for battered women and girls in marital violence, and That Day (You gave me a son), I thank my wife. These well-known works include Boyz II Men's Team/KOOC-0/3 and/KOOC-0/4 super platinum champion singles "The End of the Road" and "I will make love with you", and Whitney Houston's champion movie theme song "Shoop Shoop". Toni braxton's famous works Breathe Again, Michael Jackson's Gone Too Sone and so on, as well as the winners of "Song of the Year" and "Record of the Year" in the 39th Grammy Music Awards, the wonderful degree can be imagined.
After 1998, Babyface not only continued to write songs for some musicians, but also continued to write or sing theme songs and episodes for some movies. One of the most famous works is Bruce Springsteen's old song Fire, which he sang with the famous British singer Des'ree. The theme song of the movie Hav Plenty was interpreted by two people, which changed from the original rock style to the relaxed atmosphere of rhythm and blues.
At the end of the year, Babyface released his first Christmas album "Christmas with Babyface" since he entered the music world. This album, also produced by Babyface, also has the help of pop music producer Walter Afanasieff (Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Mike Burton ...). This album contains many popular Christmas songs, such as Silent Night, White Christmas, Christmas Songs, Winter Wonderland, Little Drummer Boy and so on. Babyface put on new costumes of jazz and rhythm and blues for these famous songs that have been sung for many years, and cooperated with many hot jazz and blues musicians to add a warm and pleasant atmosphere to this Christmas. In addition, this special edition also includes the theme song "You were there" written, produced, written and sung by Babyface for the film "Simon Burch". It is full of warm arrangement and delicate multi-level feelings with a baby-faced immature voice, which echoes the inspirational and warm content of the film and adds a sweet and intimate atmosphere to this Christmas.