I forgot to add "Once in a Lifetime Groove" and "Helplessly in Love" from the Running Scared and Dragnet Soundtracks respectively. These non-album tracks are definitely the jams for days. Especially the 12" version of Once in a lifetime... Oh lord.

Timmy84 said:

Unlike New Edition's members, including Bobby, Jermaine in the first half of the 80's, had quite an amazing run of hits internationally.

His duet with Pia Zadora When The Rain Begins To Fall topped the European Chart, selling 4 million + in Europe alone, including 1 million in Germany (#1 hit there) and 1 million in France (#1 hit here too).
Do What You Do was a top 10 hit in UK, #1 in Belgium.
In 1980, Let's Get Serious was R&B #1 single of the year according to Billboard, outshining his brother's Rock With You.
LGS sold 2 million copies in the US as much as his parent album did (Remember, Motown didn't certify any of their records back then.).
1984's Dynamite sold well over 1 million in the US.
He had 2 additional million sellers: Let Me Tickle Your Fancy and his 1972 hit Daddy's Home.

The Jackson 5 were the only black group worth being mentioned as the Black Beatles.
And all the group you mentioned, including NE, were actually shaped in the mold of the J5. There were no such resurgence, they've always existed in each decade ever seen the J5 get big. The white J5 (Osmonds), the female J5( Honey Cone), the Japanese J5 (Finger 5), the British J5 (Five Star), the 70's version( Sylvers), 80's (N.E), 90's (Hi-Five, ABC (like the song), B5,...). The original formula came from them, not N.E.




Damn, what about Off The Wall, man?



That might be right, even though Guy and Keith Sweat already enjoyed massive success with that merged style, they never crossed over like BBD did.

Speeddemon, you're pooping the NE party, shoo, go away.

But anyway, we compare the Jacksons and New Edition and they do got one similarity:

Both of them got at least ONE number-one UK hit.

As "The Jacksons" (meaning WITHOUT Jermaine and INCLUDING Randy), their "Show You the Way to Go" hit number-one in 1977.

New Edition's "Candy Girl" - their very first hit in 1983 - hit number-one in the UK too!

Notice neither one of the Jackson 5 singles went to number one between 1969 and 1975. The highest, I think, was #2 ("I Want You Back").

Plus how many groups can you see having number-one hits on any Billboard list either together or apart:

NE ("Candy Girl", "Mr. Telephone Man", "Cool It Now", "Can You Stand the Rain?", "Hit Me Off")
Bobby ("Girlfriend", "My Prerogative", "Don't Be Cruel", "Every Little Step", "On Our Own", "Humpin' Around")
Ralph ("Sensitivity")
Johnny ("Where Do We Go From Here" (w/Stacy Lattisaw), "Rub You the Right Way", "My, My, My", "Wrap My Body Tight", "My Body" (w/LSG))
BBD ("Poison", "Do Me", "Word to the Mutha")

Oddly enough, Bobby's the only one who had a number-one pop hit least three times in his career.

I'll add up how many number-ones are split between the solo and group work of NE in a minute...

About 20 different number-one hits on Billboard's R&B singles chart.
[Edited 9/28/07 0:13am]

I'm still interested in New Edition. I will buy a NE album if it comes out. Hell, I bought that new RT "Rizzwafaire." There are two solid tracks on that.

I am waiting for the new Bobby Brown cd.

Timmy84 said:

how did janet have all that time for being with bobby and new edition.. and NO i don't believe janet would be with someone like bobby... that doesn't even seem right...

TotalAlisa said:

If you don't think that sounds right, then you don't know Janet.

But in truth, who really knows what went on anyways?

Timmy84 said:

Actually many of the members in NE play instruments. The best being Johnny Gill and Ralph Tresvant. On Gill's debut he credited with guitar, bass and drums. On Ralph's second LP he played a lot of the instruments on the record. Hell, on an episode of Being Bobby Brown a saw B Brown getting down on the piano.


http://youtube.com/watch?v=oNfqweFml-I

I like mainly that Bell Biv Devoe was born out of New Edition.



http://youtube.com/watch?v=6wUzNSa_Hx0

LittleBLUECorvette said:

I meant onstage.

Lovesexy82 said:

Ralph was going through his MJ phase during "Once In A Lifetime Groove"

and "Helplessly In love" is one of my favorite all time slow jams

bboy87 said:[quote]

Lovesexy82 said:

Ralph was going through his MJ phase during "Once In A Lifetime Groove"

and "Helplessly In love" is one of my favorite all time slow jams [/quote]

Never knew the closing of a door,
Could open up a heart.
Since the day we met, I've needed you,
In my life.

To do and say the things
that I needed to feel and hear

I'm just helplessly in love....

Lovesexy82 said:[quote]

bboy87 said:

all I need now is red lightbulb and fine lady!

TotalAlisa said:

I won't get into the gay rumors about johnny. I am quite sure he packed plenty of pussy during his my my my days. True he really didn't fit in as a member of new edition because his style of singing was more after 7 like than new edition's teen hearthrob style. Michael Bivins knew adding johnny gill to the group would help new edition attract an older audience as well as their teen core audience.

phunkdaddy said:

yep!

and BLASPHEMY to ya'll calling Johnny gay!

I love new edition!

Most people have forgotten his 1983 jam called "Super Love". That was his first single and was hard and funky as hell. He should have continued making stuff like that instead of that slow, dull shit he made later.

I always thought it was rediculous for Johnny Gill to become part of New Edition. Probably the only reason they chose him, is because he was one of the very few teenage stars of the 1980s. If New Edition needed a new member, they should have done like other groups did and got an unknown person.
.
.
[Edited 9/30/07 8:01am]

vainandy said:

Yeah it was like the group was known as Johnny Gill & New Edition when he was included in the group had Ralph Tresvant not agreed to stay in the group and forge a solo career. Ralph decided before JG was in the group that he wouldn't go the solo route only to be upset to hear about JG joining the group. In a way, Ralph was always going to be the official lead singer of the group despite pleas made by Bobby Brown and Johnny to sing more leads since they were apparently the stronger lead singers (them and Ricky) over Ralph. Ralph and Johnny admitted it took them getting used to each other and they were friends by the end of the "Heartbreak" recording sessions. How odd "Heartbreak" became a landmark record for a group that was then known for "Candy Girl", "Popcorn Love" and "Mr. Telephone Man".

Timmy84 said:

I always thought making Ralph the lead always had a lot to do with the fact that he had a light, poppy or "crossover" voice. Like Dinan Ross' very easy to sing along with. Johnny and Bobby always had very R&B, strong sounding voices and I think that the powers that be at MCA (and Streetwise) would limit their audience to an R&B one.
I always thought it was similar to the situation with Diana Ross and Florence Ballard (I even think that Mary's inging voice technically a bit stronger).

Lovesexy82 said:

This isn't true, Bobby and Ralph sound exactly alike when they were young, shit how many people actually knew Bobby was the voice on Jealous Girl, Only reason why Ralph got it, is becuase he sounded more a little more like Michael Jackson on Candy Girl,But in the end run Ralph voice became passe while Bobby's light voice with a lil attitude and charisma, blew past Ralph with DBC

qvgangsta18 said:

It sure did.

speeddemon said:

Teen-age singing acts were passe in the soul music scene from the mid-1970s until New Edition made the model popular again in the mid-1980s. So for at least 10 years the model went away. The Osmonds, The Sylvers and some of those obscure acts you named came around in the early to mid-1970s.

Surely, you're not going to consider Boyz II Men -- a group discovered by Michael Bivins and whose name came from one of New Edition's songs -- a variation of The Jacksons concept. For that matter, New Kids On The Block was created as a white male version of New Edition, and NKOTB was a direct progenitor of acts like N'Sync and The Backstreet Boys. There is nothing J5-related about them -- all those acts are N.E.-derivative.

speeddemon said:

What about "Off the Wall?" It was a disco-influenced album that was more crossover-oriented than what The Jacksons were doing in the late 1970s and early 1980s. And surely you don't think "Off the Wall" Michael Jackson was more representative of harder-edge sounds of soul music than Bobby Brown was during his late 1980s run.

speeddemon said:

What Keith Sweat and Guy did was basically take soul music with different dance beats with some of rap's attitude. What Bell Biv DeVoe did is actually used rap producers like The Bomb Squad to help create songs. Bell Biv DeVoe's music actually sounded like the rap scene of the time -- you can't say that about Sweat or Guy's music.
[Edited 9/30/07 20:28pm]

new edition is one of the best groups 2 ever do it and their live show is still tight,they do best at what they do and they are great entertainers