"On Bended Knee" | ||||
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Single by Boyz II Men | ||||
from the album II | ||||
B-side |
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Released | November 11, 1994 | |||
Genre | R&B | |||
Length | 5:29 | |||
Label | Motown | |||
Songwriter(s) | Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis | |||
Producer(s) | Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis | |||
Boyz II Men singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"On Bended Knee" on YouTube |
"On Bended Knee" is a song by American R&B group Boyz II Men for the Motown label. It was written and produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and released in November 1994 as the second single from the group's second album, II (1994). The song reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart and number two on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart on December 3, 1994. It stayed at number one for a total of six non-consecutive weeks. The accompanying music video was directed by Lionel C. Martin.
The single is notable for having replaced the previous Boyz II Men single, "I'll Make Love to You", as the top song on the Billboard Hot 100. This was the first time that an act had replaced itself at number one since the Beatles, when "I Want to Hold Your Hand", "She Loves You", and "Can't Buy Me Love" monopolized the top of the chart for a total of 14 weeks. In the lyrics of the song, the speaker begs "on bended knee" for his ex-lover to come back to him, and apologizes for his wrongdoing.
Sheet music for "On Bended Knee" shows a slow tempo of 60 beats per minute and the song starts in the key of A-flat major for the intro, then modulates to E-flat major for most of the song, but is also modulated to E major for the third chorus, then to F major for the final chorus, and then again to B-flat major for the outro. [1]
Gerald Martinez from New Sunday Times wrote that the song, along with its predecessor "I'll Make Love to You", "tries to recapture the magic of "End of the Road", and they come close. Big production numbers with solid hooks, they should be flooding our airwaves for the next few months." [2] Paul Evans from Rolling Stone declared it as a "lush swoon-and-croon" ballad "of the kind the Boyz' hard-core fans demand." [3]
The accompanying music video for "On Bended Knee", directed by Lionel C. Martin, featured the Boyz II Men band members and their breakup and eventual reconciliation with four famous actresses: Kim Fields, Renée Jones, Lark Voorhies, and Victoria Rowell. The video was filmed in New Orleans, Louisiana. It includes footage from Audubon Park, a streetcar, and the French Quarter.
The video begins with Wanyá Morris' girlfriend (Voorhies) in the car with him, accusing him of looking at another woman at the grocery store, and she gets out of the car, leaving Morris alone. He eventually finds her sitting on bleachers where they make up. Shawn Stockman meets a girl (Rowell) with a dog at the park and falls in love with her after just meeting her. Michael McCary gets into a fight with his girlfriend (Jones) on his birthday and he's shown alone, drawing a picture of her, but then she comes back to him. Nathan Morris is shown concentrating more on writing music than spending time with his girlfriend (Fields), which frustrates her so she writes a breakup note on his mirror and leaves him, but she eventually returns to him. The band appears singing on the subway and in the rain.
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Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
Decade-end charts
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Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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United States (RIAA) [36] | 3× Platinum | 3,000,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref. |
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United States | November 1, 1994 |
| Motown | [ citation needed ] |
United Kingdom | November 14, 1994 | [37] | ||
Japan | December 1, 1994 | Mini-CD | [38] |
"End of the Road" is a song by American R&B group Boyz II Men for the Boomerang soundtrack. It was released in June 1992 by LaFace, Arista and Motown, and is written by Babyface, Antonio L.A. Reid and Daryl Simmons. It is written and composed in the key of E-flat major and is set in time signature of 6/8 with a tempo of 150 beats per minute. The song achieved domestic and international success. In the United States, it spent a then record breaking 13 weeks at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, a record broken later in the year by Whitney Houston's 14-week number one hit "I Will Always Love You"; Boyz II Men would later match Houston's record with "I'll Make Love to You", which spent 14 weeks at number one in 1994, and then reclaim the record with "One Sweet Day", which spent 16 weeks at number one from 1995 to 1996.
"One Sweet Day" is a song by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey and American vocal group Boyz II Men. The song was released on November 14, 1995, as the second single from the former's fifth studio album, Daydream (1995) by Columbia Records. The artists co-wrote the song with Walter Afanasieff, who co-produced it with Carey. Lyrically, the song speaks about the death of a loved one, how the protagonist took their presence for granted and misses them, and finally about seeing the person in heaven. The artists wrote the song about specific people in their lives, being inspired by sufferers of the AIDS epidemic, which was globally prevalent at the time.
"I'll Make Love to You" is a song by American R&B group Boyz II Men for the Motown label. Written by Babyface, it was released in July 1994 as the lead single from their second album, II (1994). The song was a commercial success, spending 14 weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100. It was also the third best performing song in the 1990s on Billboard, as well as ranking on Billboard Greatest of All-Time chart. "I'll Make Love to You" won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and was nominated for Record of the Year at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards. Its accompanying music video was directed by Lionel C. Martin.
II is the third studio album by American R&B quartet Boyz II Men, released on August 30, 1994, on Motown Records. It contained the No. 1 singles "I'll Make Love to You" and "On Bended Knee", the latter of which replaced the former at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, making the group the third artist to replace themselves at No. 1 in the United States after Elvis Presley and The Beatles and the first to achieve the feat in 30 years.
"Kiss from a Rose" is a song from British singer-songwriter Seal's second eponymous album (1994). The song was first released as a single in July 1994 by ZTT, Sire and Warner Bros., and included in the film The NeverEnding Story III that year.
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"In the Still of the Nite", also subsequently titled "In the Still of the Night", is a song written by Fred Parris and recorded by his band the Five Satins. Originally the song was titled "(I'll Remember) In the Still of the Nite" to distinguish itself from Cole Porter's "In the Still of the Night.” Later the title was changed to "In the Still of the Night".
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"I Swear" is a song written by Gary Baker and Frank J. Myers that became a hit for American country music artist John Michael Montgomery in 1993, and for American R&B group All-4-One in 1994.
"Missing" is a song by British musical duo Everything but the Girl, taken from their eighth studio album, Amplified Heart (1994). It was written by the two band members, Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt, and was produced by Watt and John Coxon. It was taken as the second single off the album on 8 August 1994 by Blanco y Negro Records in the United Kingdom and by Atlantic Records in the United States. It initially did not achieve much success until it was remixed by Todd Terry and re-released in 1995, resulting in worldwide success, peaking at or near the top of the charts in many countries. The release of the remixed version of "Missing" gave an indication of the band's future experimentation with more electronic dance music on subsequent albums. Its music video was directed by Mark Szaszy.
"It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" is an R&B song written by Motown husband-and-wife songwriting team Freddie Perren and Christine Yarian for the 1975 film Cooley High. In the film, the song is performed by Motown artist G.C. Cameron, whose rendition peaked at number 38 on the Billboard R&B singles chart that same year. Perren also composed the instrumental score for Cooley High, and the B-side to "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" features two of his score compositions from the film.
"Hey Lover" is a song by American rapper LL Cool J, released as the first single from his sixth album, Mr. Smith (1995). The song features vocals from American R&B group Boyz II Men. It was released on October 31, 1995, for Def Jam Recordings and was produced by The Trackmasters and LL Cool J. The song samples Michael Jackson's "The Lady in My Life" from his 1982 hit album Thriller; thus Rod Temperton, the writer of that song, was given credit as a writer of this song. On the B-side is the "I Shot Ya" remix.
"Water Runs Dry" is a song by American vocal harmony group Boyz II Men, written and produced by Babyface. The single, the fourth released from the album II, reached number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number four in Canada. It also contains a version of the group's previous number one hit from the same album, "I'll Make Love to You". A Spanish version, "No dejemos que muera el amor", was also recorded and peaked at number 10 on the US Latin Pop Airplay chart.
"Now That We Found Love" is a song written by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff and originally recorded by American R&B/soul vocal group The O'Jays for their seventh album, Ship Ahoy (1973).
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