Boyz II Men and Michael Bivins were now a team. Throughout 1990, Boyz II Men, Michael Bivins, Dallas Austin, and Troy Taylor all went into the studio and recorded Boyz II Men's first album, Cooleyhighharmony. Unlike most debut artists, Boyz II Men wrote or co-wrote seven out of the ten songs on the album, very impressive! By November of 1990, Michael Bivins was ready to show what talent he had found with Another Bad Creation (the now gone teenage rap boy group), and Boyz II Men. Michael Bivins first introduced the two groups to the world on the Donnie Simpson's BET show, Video Soul. The fellas were very young when they first appeared on the show. Nate was 20, Mike was 19, Shawn was 18, and Wanya was 17. They talked about what they planned to do with their career, and sang "Mary" a cappella, a song done by their other idols, Take 6. It was done very well considering all of the pressure that was on them for their first television appearance. Boyz II Men were now ready to take the R&B music world by storm.
On February 14, 1991, Cooleyhighharmony was released. The album would end up going to the #1 position for two weeks on Billboard's R&B Albums Chart, and it peaked at #2 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums Chart. Cooleyhighharmony's totals are very impressive. The album ended up selling over 10 million copies worldwide making it the best selling album by any R&B group until 1995, but that comes a little later. The remix album even spawned a #1 single, but that also comes a little later. Here is what Boyz II Men's first few years in the biz were like. "Motownphilly" hit radio stations and MTV in January of 1991. Boyz II Men always remember where they were when they first heard it on the radio in Philly. They were all going to Nate's house after bowling and heard the song on the radio, they almost crashed! "Motownphilly" was an autobiographical song about how Boyz II Men came to be and what they wanted to do. The song ended up being Boyz II Men's first platinum single (selling over 1 million copies), it went to the #1 spot on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart, and peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. The song was on the Billboard Hot 100 for 24 weeks. The video was all shot in Philly and showed what they did to become what they are. This was also the first time the world saw what actually the "Alex Vanderpool" style was. As Boyz II Men explain it, the Alex Vanderpool style is about being loose and looking good doing it. Meaning wearing bow ties, sweaters, jeans, shorts, whatever is comfortable. More phases of the Alex Vanderpool Era were still coming. Once the hype of "Motownphilly" calmed, the very sensual single, "Uhh Ahh" was released. It was reluctantly written by Nate and Wanya along with Michael Bivins. The story about "Uhh Ahh" is that Michael Bivins wanted to have a song for the ladies on their album, but no one wanted to write it. So, they flipped a coin and Wanya was forced to write the song. He then submitted it to Nate and as Wanya says it, "Nate put all the nasty stuff in the song." The video marked the first and only time (so far) that Boyz II Men were actually not wearing much clothes-wise. Wearing boxer shorts, and robes, this video showed that the Alex Vanderpool style can also mean being very sexy. There was also a second video to "Uhh Ahh," the song was "Uhh Ahh: The Sequel." The video just had new clips from the old video and had a performance to it, with them covering every inch of their body! The single did pretty well. It went to #1 on Billboard's R&B Singles Chart, and only to #16 on Billboard's Hot 100. Not to worry though, in a year, Boyz II Men were going to be ruling the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. One of Boyz II Men's best ballads ever was released next. The song was "It's So Hard to Say Good-bye to Yesterday," a cover of the song done in the 70's from the movie, Coolly High, half of where Boyz II Men got the album name from. It became Boyz II Men's first gold (selling 500,000 copies) single, it went to #1 on Billboard's Hot R&B Singles Chart, went to #2 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles and stayed there for four weeks. The song is a favorite among many people today and is really a special song. Next, "Please Don't Go" was released as a single, but had no video. The song was very popular on the radio. With no video, it amazingly went to #9 on Billboard's Hot 100, and to #8 on Billboard's R&B Singles Chart.
1992 proved to be one of Boyz II Men's biggest year for accomplishments and a sad year. At that point, Cooleyhighharmony had become four times platinum with four singles released. In the beginning of 1992 was of course award show time. Boyz II Men's first award ever was given to them at the NAACP Image Awards, they were named Best New Artist. Later in January came Boyz II Men's first and definitely NOT last American Music Awards. They won Favorite R&B New Artist. When they performed "It's So Hard to Say Good-bye to Yesterday," they received a standing ovation from the crowd, proving that Boyz II Men really had what it took to be superstars. The dream of most artists is to win the coveted Grammy award. In February of 1992, that dream came true for Boyz II Men. Before the show, during the categories that cannot be announced live on the show due to time, Boyz II Men were named Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, an award that they would win again soon. Shortly after the Grammies came the Soul Train Music Awards. The fellas ended up winning two awards, Best R&B Single for "Motownphilly," and Best New R&B Artist. During their performance of "Motownphilly," Michael Bivins joined them on stage not just to do his rap, but also dance along with them, which is a priceless sight to see now. The success had come rolling in for Boyz II Men and it was not going to stop there. One more single was released from the first version of Cooleyhighharmony, "Sympin'." "Sympin'" did not do as well as Boyz II Men's previous singles had, it only got to #72 on Billboard's R&B Singles Chart. During the filming of the video in Philly, Boyz II Men had a day named after them in Philly. The day was April 22, 1992, and it was of course named Boyz II Men Day in Philly, a really great honor. In early of 1992, Boyz II Men joined MC Hammer, and other popular new groups, TLC and Jodeci. The decision to join the Too Legit to Quit Tour would soon become deadly.
In May of 1992, the Too Legit to Quit Tour had landed in Chicago, Illinois. Michael Bivins was still their manager at the time, and they had a tour manager who was like a father to them, Khalil Roundtree, and another man, Qadree El-Amin, Boyz II Men's soon to be manager. It was a night that Boyz II Men and Qadree would never forget. Khalil and Qadree were at a different Chicago hotel than they were at before since the owner persuaded them to come, the choice would end up ending a life. Early on May 24, 1992, Memorial Day, Khalil and Qadree were shot, Khalil twice and Qadree once. Qadree's kneecap was shattered, but now he is OK. Sadly, Khalil had died. The three men that shot them were Christopher Babbington, Kenneth Copeland, and Christopher Foley. The three men were later convicted of first degree murder and attempted murder of Qadree. Boyz II Men now had to grow closer together, closer than ever before. They were forced to take a week off from The Too Legit to Quit Tour to grieve and get their minds back together. At the funeral, they sang "It's So Hard to Say Good-bye to Yesterday," (while crying at the end), the song they never thought would have such a deep meaning to them. Boyz II Men's new road manager would be Marvin McIntyre, but he would later be replaced by Qadree. Boyz II Men now had a resurgence that someone was always watching them no matter what. Getting on with their career was what Khalil would have wanted them to do, and Boyz II Men sure did get their career back together, historically. Boyz II Men's next song would have more meaning to it than any other song and it's ironic title made the success of that song very eerie. *FYI-I did not go too in depth with this story, it's pretty self-explanatory. If you do want to see the entire story, check out the book, The Boyz II Men Success Story, Defying the Odds.*