Bell Biv DeVoe

In pop music you get two kinds of one hit wonders. The more common kind is the group or artist that is so ridiculously of their time that it makes one wonder how anyone took them seriously in the first place. These are the kind of hits that make the people who saw their rise up the charts first-hand wince in pain at the very thought of them. Bell Biv Devoe, it’s safe to say, are not one of those bands. They are the other kind of one hit wonder, the kind that has a pretty consistent level of love that passes from generation to generation, and few bands deserve that kind of respect more than these guys.

The band were formed during the hiatus of their previous band New Edition, who were a pop quintet formed in 1978 when most of its members were around ten and eleven. By the time they were fifteen and sixteen they were headlining national concert tours and scoring top five singles and albums regularly. However, all was not well behind the scenes. Throughout their time together the group were plagued by label and management problems, and by the end of the decade most of the band wanted out. In the wake of this, Bell, Bivins and Devoe were put together to form their own group by legendary production duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

By 1990, the band had recorded “Poison”, their first album, which featured the production skills of Eric Sadler, and Hank and Keith Shocklee, otherwise known as Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad. This mix of hard edged hip-hop and smooth pop sensibilities basically created the genre of new jack swing as we know it and their debut single, their album’s title track, was a smash hit that’s gone on to be one of the most enduring pop songs of the early 90’s. “Do Me!” the bands follow up single, was equally as succesful, getting to number three on the Billboard Hot 100.

Since then the band has released two further albums, both favouring their hip-hop influences over the pop sounds that made their name. The band have also frequently reunited with their New Edition bandmates to perform concerts and record new albums. In Bell Biv DeVoe we have a group that the pop world would sorely miss if they went away, the music world is a brighter place with their presence, and to this day they can still put on a killer live show. Highly recommended.