Once 1994 was upon us, people were wondering where Boyz II Men went. They were nowhere to be seen, only through their Cooleyhighharmony songs and videos. They tried to record their second album in Philly, but as they say, it was too hard for them with people constantly bugging them if their new album would be a hit and their friends and family could get in the way sometimes when they had to be in a creative mood. So, they had no choice but to regroup somewhere else. That somewhere else was a studio in Nevada, Granny's House. The studio was just like a house with a cook and a place where they could cook themselves. It did not take them long at all to record their second album, only a few months. The name of the album was important and it took a lot of thinking. One day at Granny's House, Shawn thought a perfect name would simply be II. The name made sense since it was their second album and the middle of their name. The name was perfect. But, before II could be recognized, Qadree El-Amin & John Dukakis replaced Dick Scott as their manager who could not even hold the position for a year. Right before Boyz II Men were ready to promote and release II, they appeared on the Jason's Lyric Soundtrack on the song, "U Will Know," a song with many other male R&B artists. In August, Boyz II Men were going to just about every TV show promoting their new album. From Regis & Kathie Lee to a special with Queen Latifah. Along with the release of II was a home video, Then II Now, a behind the scenes video with Boyz II Men. It showed every scene in the "Motownphilly" video, showed how they really were, they answered questions about various topics, they went to their high school to sing, and included most of their videos. It included two from the new album, "Thank You" and "I'll Make Love to You." The video would end up selling more than a million copies. The first single, "I'll Make Love to You" had to be perfect and be able to compete with the success of their previous hit single, "End of the Road." Surprisingly, "I'll Make Love to You" was not going to be on II, Boyz II Men actually were not too crazy about the song, too "End of the Road"-ish, and a little too mature since they were all still in their early twenties. When the song and video was released, everyone knew Boyz II Men still had the talent and touch. When the single was released it debuted in the 20's, but the next week, it went straight to #1. The song ended up selling over a million copies, being the third biggest song of 1994 (a pretty good accomplish since it came out late in 1994), and it tied Whitney Houston's record of 14 weeks at #1 (more on that story later). On August 30, 1994 II was released. The fans and critics LOVED it. It sold over 350,000 copies in it's first week, it debuted at #1 (the first album to do so from Motown since a Stevie Wonder album), it dethroned rock legend, Eric Clapton's album from #1, and stayed #1 for five weeks on the Top 200 Albums Chart, even beating Madonna's album, Bedtime Stories from becoming a #1 album. She didn't like that and said "why do Boyz II Men always have to be #1?, I want to be #1." Kurt Loder from MTV was with her and said no one even knows their names and said they'll get run over next week. Boyz II Men heard that a few months later and responded saying that they know that if they get hit by a bus, Kurt was driving. II would end up being the most successful album on Motown Records ever, the most successful album by a R&B group ever (replacing their previous album, Cooleyhighharmony as the best-selling R&B album ever), and it sold 12 million copies in the United States ALONE, and sold 4 million copies outside of the U.S. The final total was 16 million copies sold, a feat Boyz II Men will probably never duplicate. It would rank at #22 on the biggest selling albums ever for the United States. Back to 1994, "I'll Make Love to You" was still #1 and the video for the song was a hit. For the video, Boyz II Men were still using the only director they ever used, Lionel C. Martin. The video was a HUGE success on MTV's and VH1's year-end charts. On MTV, it was only #2 to Green Day's "Basket Case" and it was #10 on VH1's countdown.
By December of 1994, "I'll Make Love to You" was #1 for 14 weeks on the Hot 100 Singles Chart. It was #1 for 10 weeks (I think) on the R&B Singles Chart, but Brandy's debut single, "I Wanna Be Down," kicked them off. When Wanya, her future boyfriend and duet partner, heard about that, he called Brandy and congratulated her on kicking them off. Boyz II Men remains one of her favorite artists. Back on the Pop Charts, Boyz II Men were #1 for 14 weeks. At that point, they were tied with Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You." They would get some revenge over Ms. Houston if they could stay just one more week and break her record like she broke their record a year before. Well, the week after Boyz II Men broke the record, the #3 single on the Hot 100 took "I'll Make Love to You"'s place at #1. Ironically, that single was....the second single off of II, "On Bended Knee." That means that Boyz II Men replaced themselves at the #1 position, something only Elvis, and the Beatles had done previously. "On Bended Knee" ended up going platinum, staying at the #1 position for 6 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles, but only getting to #2 on Billboard's R&B Singles Chart. Boyz II Men were making a ton of promotional appearances still, one showcased some of their acting talents. That show was the John Laraquete Show where Boyz II Men's tour bus broke down and the only way they could get it fixed without paying was to sing. It was short, but nice to see them act again. Also in December, Billboard Magazine came out with their annual year-end Billboard Charts. "I'll Make Love to You" was the 3rd biggest song of 1994. That's pretty good considering the fact that the song came out in late summer/early fall of 1994. Boyz II Men were becoming the princes of music, and were the biggest group in America; nothing was going to stop them now.
1995 rolled in and Boyz II Men had just gotten off one of the biggest years of their only four year career. II had already gone six times platinum only in America. They were performing everywhere, from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to every award show you can think of. They were also touring the country, but that'll come later in this bio. 1995 would end up being undoubtedly the biggest year of Boyz II Men's career. As Boyz II Men now knew, the beginning of each year was time to accept awards, and 1995 was no different. They started off award show season at the American Music Awards. Boyz II Men were no stranger to that award show, they've been there two times before, won three awards, and their two performances received standing ovations from the audience. This time was no different. The fellas were the biggest winners of the night, winning 3 out of the 4 awards they were nominated for, (they only lost to Michael Bolton for Best Adult Contemporary Artist). They won Favorite Pop/Rock Single, Favorite Soul/R&B Single (both for "I'll Make Love to You" of course), and Favorite Duo, or Group in Soul/R&B. Their performance of "On Bended Knee" remains one of the favorite Boyz II Men performances by every fan. That performance, led by an emotional performance by Wanya, got a standing ovation. A month after the AMA's came the prestigious Grammy awards. Every time Boyz II Men were nominated, they won at least one award. They were nominated for many awards, including Song of the Year, Record of the Year, etc. But, they only won two. They won Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group (for "I'll Make Love to You") and Best R&B Album for II. Babyface won R&B Song of the Year for writing "I'll Make Love to You." They also gave one of their best performances of "I'll Make Love to You" ever. They were all on key in their beautiful white suits, spinning in a circle, and having a woman dancing in the back of them. One thing that disappointed Boyz II Men about that year at the Grammies was the fact that they lost Song of the Year. Critics everywhere were predicting a win for them, but they lost to someone that I forget now. After the Grammies always came the Soul Train Music Awards where Boyz II Men have always been winners at in previous years. They opened the show with a medley of "Thank You" and "I'll Make Love to You." They ended up being the big winners of the night winning two awards for Best R&B/soul Single by a Group, Band, or Duo for "I'll Make Love to You," and Best R&B/Soul Album of the Year by a Group, Band, or Duo for II. In May of 1995, Boyz II Men flew to Montego (I think) to go to their second World Music Awards. They ended up winning Best International Group and performed a very good version of "Water Runs Dry." After their performance, they presented an award to future record-breaking duet partner, Mariah Carey, who couldn't make it to the award ceremony. In June of 1995, Nickelodeon's annual award show, The Kids' Choice Awards (kids vote for every award) aired, and Boyz II Men were also the biggest winners of the night there, even though they had to accept their awards while on the road. They won the Best Group Award and they won their way into the Kids' Choice Hall of Fame (Brandy accepted that award for the fellas). Another award show for the people made its debut in 1995. The award show was the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards. Boyz II Men were yet again the big winners of the night winning Favorite CD of the Year and Favorite R&B CD of the Year which were both for II. They later performed "Yesterday." The last award show appearance by the fellas was in July of 1995. The award show was the VH1 Honors which honors artists who do good things in the community, not just on the stage. Boyz II Men received an award for their work with the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Association of America. They performed "Thank You," and Michael Jackson's "Heal the World" and ""We Are the World." They performed "We Are the World" with one of their idols, Michael Jackson. They now call that experience one of the biggest moments of their career.
After Boyz II Men had collected a ton of awards, they toured the world in support of II. It was their first time headlining a tour, but their second time on a major tour (Hammer's Too Legit to Quit Tour was the first tour they went on). The tour started in December of 1994 in Asia, Australia, and other countries around the world. By January of 1995, Boyz II Men started to tour the United States of America with co-headliner Babyface, and opening acts Brandy and Subway for about one month. That first month of concerts got good reviews, but got its share of bad reviews also. Boyz II Men only had two weeks to rehearse for the tour, so that's one reason why. By February of 1995, Boyz II Men were constantly rehearsing, making sure the second half of the first leg of the tour would be much better than the first part of it. They toured with Brandy and Subway as opening acts until the summer time. This part of the tour received much better reviews and was selling out everywhere. The All Around the World Tour was already looking to be the biggest tour of 1995.
While the Boyz were touring and gathering awards, II was still lodged in the top 10 of the Billboard Top 200 Albums. Once "On Bended Knee" had run its course on radio and the charts, a third single from the album was released. The song was called "Thank You." The song was written by Dallas Austin and the Boyz. The song was basically thanking everyone before and after their career had begun. The song was different from most Boyz II Men songs because it was acapella that's no different, but it was a fast acapella song. Something that no many groups do for a whole song. The song didn't do as well as the two previous singles, getting to #21 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles and #17 on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart.
When April of 1995 was upon us, Boyz II Men were still touring in cities across the United States to sold out crowds. II was still one of the top albums in the nation, and it wasn't going to slow down anytime soon. Since "Thank You" had run its course very quickly, Boyz II Men had decide for a fourth single from the album. The single they went for was the very popular, "Water Runs Dry." A beautiful song, written by Mr. Babyface, was the perfect song for Boyz II Men. It was different from any song that they have done, it was very acoustic, Babyface played the acoustic guitar in the song. The song was an instant hit everywhere. The song almost was Boyz II Men's 4th #1 single because it got to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 (DARN!!), and it got to #4 on the Billboard Hot R&B Singles. It also sold 500,000 copies, going gold. The song also marked a time when Boyz II Men changed something that they have been doing since 1991. They did not use Lionel C. Martin, the man who directed every single one of Boyz II Men's videos before. Instead, Motown made them choose a different director to experiment. They chose Wayne Isham, a director who directed videos for metal groups like Shawn's favorite group, Metallica. The video was a hit. It was filmed in White Sands, New Mexico. The video had Boyz II Men singing in the white sand, which made it look like there was no water anywhere, but it was actually very cold, even though you couldn't tell from watching the video. "Water Runs Dry" is now one of the favorites of Boyz II Men fans, themselves, and other celebrities. It's also one of the best performances they give live. During the All Around the World Tour, they had it rain on stage during the song, and they had the entire audience do a sway with them. For the Evolution World Tour in 1998, they got rid of the rain, but they had more audience participation by making the audience sway and snap their fingers.
On May 19, 1995, Boyz II Men did something they never thought that they would be able to do, but always dreamed of doing. They opening their own studio in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, named Stonecreek Studios. The studio was named Stonecreek due to a creek running next to the studio which had stones in it. Stonecreek Studios were made for them with everything Boyz II Men wanted in a studio, but never had before. From basketball courts to their own offices, Stonecreek Studios would remain a home away from home for the fellas on their rare off days. It will also mark the beginning of more of a hands on approach in the music biz then ever before.
By the summer of 1995, Boyz II Men were signed on to headline the Budweiser Super Fest, an annual concert series given by Budweiser every year. Their opening acts were TLC (who missed many shows due to T-Boz's sickle cell anemia), Montell Jordan, Adina Howard, and Mary J. Blige. The tour was now much more rehearsed and it was still selling out everywhere. They were getting more and more fans by the minute, people just loved Boyz II Men. This love made Boyz II Men release a fifth and final single from II. The song they decided to release was "Vibin'," another song written by them along with Dallas Austin, about relaxing and doing what they do best. The song had two videos released. The first, was the "Vibin' Remix" which only really had Boyz II Men singing the chorus, and had four rappers doing all of the verses. Those four rappers were Treach from Naughty by Nature, Craig Mack, Busta Rhymes, and Method Man (Puffy also appeared in the video, but not for a very long time). Boyz II Men also went back to Lionel C. Martin for the video. The second video was the regular version of "Vibin'." It was all filmed in Philly in the summer of 1995. At Stonecreek Studios, and at a park in Philly. The single "Vibin'" was destined to do bad (sorry, fellas) since II was now out for over a year, and Boyz II Men's fast songs never will do as well as their slow songs do. On the Billboard Hot 100 Singles, it got to #56, and on the Billboard R&B Singles, it got to an impressive #7. II had basically run its course at this time, but it was still selling heavily since Boyz II Men were still touring.