Songoftheday 6/17/18 - Said we'd be forever said it'd never die, how could you love me and leave me and never say goodbye?
from the albums Boomerang (Original Soundtrack) (1992) and Cooleyhighharmony (Reissue) (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (13 weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 28
Today's song of the day comes from the soulful vocal group from Philadelphia, Boyz II Men, whose debut album Cooleyhighharmony had scored them a trio of big pop hits with "Motownphilly", "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday", and "Uhhh Ahhh" (a fourth, "Please Don't Go", reached the R&B top ten as well). They started out 1992 by winning a Grammy Award and going on tour with MC Hammer, but tragically losing their manager who was killed in Chicago. In the spring of that year, they recorded a song to contribute to the soundtrack of the Eddie Murphy rom-com film Boomerang. The resulting "End Of The Road" was written and produced by the team of Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, L.A. Reid, and Daryl Simmons, and the anthemic ballad would send them into heights they (and at that point no one else) had ever been at on pop radio...
"End Of The Road" became Boyz II Men's first #1 pop hit in August of 1992, spending a record-breaking thirteen weeks at the top (only to be upped one later that year). The song also topped Billboard's R&B chart for four weeks, and crosssed over to their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart for the first time at #35. Internationally, the single topped the charts in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and The Netherlands, and reached the top ten in Sweden (#2), Canada (#3), Belgium (#3), Norway (#3), Germany (#6), France (#7), and Switzerland (#7). It would end up Billboard's #1 Hot 100 hit of 1992, and win two Grammy Awards for R&B Song and R&B Duo/Group Vocal Performance the following year. Because of its popularity, their debut album Cooleyhighharmony was re-released with this song in both English and Spanish.
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Here's the group performing the song at the American Music Awards...
..and again, in a TV appearance...
I don't know where this was from, but it had a public access TV feel to the biggest hit at that time...
and again on the Arsenio Hall show...
In 1994, soul icon Gladys Knight popped on to the R&B chart at #74 with a live medley of songs including "End Of The Road"...
Which caused the both of them to get together for a UNCF telethon...
The group ended their TV Disney special with the song...
Fast forward to a concert (as a trio now) in 2009...
And since I can't get enough of Gladys, here she is again with Estelle and Martina on a collaboration show of McBride's, and for Martina to take a back seat, you know this is something...
Back to the Boyz, this time with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for a quite different sound...
Finally, I'll leave them vamping with
Up tomorrow: A touch of banana remains.
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