To some, it seems like only yesterday that the Temptations were burning up the music charts with "My Girl" and thrilling audiences with their relaxed stage presence and smooth vocals.
For the record, it was 30 years' ago when the Motown group "crossed over" to appeal to black and white audiences, men and women, young and old, "My Girl" was Motown's first hit from a male vocal group.
Today, the post-Temptations foursome Boyz II Men are doing what the "Temps" did: Harmonizing, looking like a million bucks, appealing to a wide audience.
And there is no end in sight for the four men-Nathan Morris, Wanya Morris, Shawn Stockman, Michael McCary - who knew each other from the Creative and Performing Arts High School in Philadelphia.
Their second album, II, was #9 on the Billbaord pop charts last week, according to Sandy Bean of Harmony House music stores. The disc, featuring the hits "On Bended Knee," "Water Runs Dry," "Thank You," and a cover of the Bealtes "Yesterday," was consistently a Top 20 Harmony House seller between August '94 and January '95, says Bean.
Since the release of II last August, Harmony House has sold in excess of 9,000 discs. Take Bean's word for it - that's "amazing."
Cooleyhighharmony, the first disc, has sold more than 7 million copies worldwide, earning the group two Grammy Awards and three American Music Awards. The single "End of the Road" from the film Boomerang stuck to the charts for 13 weeks and shot the quartet to fame.
Boyz II Men, another chapter in the story of Motown, will appear in their spiritual homeland-the Detroit area, if not Detroit - at 7 PM tonight at Pine Knob Music Theatre.
"They're amazingly popular here," says Dave Levesque, a manager for Harmony House. "Everybody likes them-male, female, black, white, young, old."
The music is a blend between the old Motown sound and a hip-hop flavor, says Levesque.
"They have great voices, they have strong material and they're young and good-looking-they've got all the things thatare right for the times," he says. "Why did the Rolling Stones hit when they hit? They happened to be good-looking guys, they were English when English music started to become hip here, they had a sound that was right for the time. That's exactly how it is with Boyz II Men."
Karen Hall, a clerk at the Berkley Harmony House agrees.
The three reasons she likes Boyz II Men?
"They can sing," she says, "they're smooth and you can understand what they're saying."
She says there is no angry edge to them, like some rap music, and that helps make them appealing to a wider audience.
"They're kind of like the Temptations of our time," she says. "The Temptations had that crossover appeal."
Hall's favorite Boyz II Men cut lately is "Water Runs Dry." She admits she'd "like to hear a little more up-tempo" from the Philly group.
Do Boyz II Men, with their emphasis on relastionship songs like "On Bended Knee" and "I'll Make Love to You," appeal differently to men and women?
"Women," Hall observes, "think they're sexy, they're smooth, and guys know that. So, that's what a guy is gonna play when you come over to his house."