This includes two singles recorded by Boyz II Men which set chart records at the time-“End of the Road” was #1 for 13 consecutive weeks and “I’ll Make Love to You” was #1 for 14 consecutive weeks. Of the hits that Babyface wrote or co-wrote, seven singles went to number one. He’s also written 16 additional songs that reached the Top 40 chart, for a total of 63 Top 40 hit singles. He is truly one of the giants of pop songwriting, having written a remarkable 47 Top 10 pop hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, that ranks him with the most celebrated songwriters in pop music history. Notwithstanding his success as an artist and producer, Babyface’s greatest achievement is probably his tremendous career as a songwriter.
As an artist, he’s released 10 studio albums, three which have been certified multi-platinum, plus another platinum album and a gold album. He has won 11 Grammy Awards-four times for Producer of the Year, three times for Best R&B Song, and for Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Best R&B Album. Moreover, these activities are far from their end.Recently named by the Songwriters Hall of Fame as a new inductee, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds has had a legendary career as a songwriter, artist and producer.
Nevertheless, this person’s contribution to the contemporary music is not only his own albums, but also a great and prominent job done in the frames of different activities. With the lack of time, Babyface was able to release in 2009 only the compilation From the Heart. It took the artist four more years to release the next studio album, Grown & Sexy, and in 2007, he issued Playlist composed by covers. After a long pause, the artist released the compilation A Collection of His Greatest Hits (2000). The producing activity was as energetic as always before, while the music productivity kept sinking. Thus, the following MTV Unplugged (1997), and Christmas with Babyface (1998) were live records instead of studio works and could not compete with their predecessors. Occupied heavily with cinematography, Babyface reduced his music activity. It debuted in 1997 with the comedy Soul Food, soundtrack, naturally, written by Babyface. In the mid-nineties, Babyface and his wife, Tracy Edmonds, founded their own film producing company. Babyface released a very powerful album, entitled The Day and received another Grammy for producing Eric Clapton’sChange the World. I 1996, the artist’s career kept climbing high to the top. It was the year when he grabbed Grammy as Best Producer. He wrote all the featured songs, including Whitney Houston’s Exhale (Shoop, Shoop).
In two years, he produced the excellent soundtrack to the movie Waiting to Exhale. The same year, the artist won his first Grammy. The acoustic ballad When Can I See You Again appeared a sensation to enter Top 5, while the CD became triple platinum. Only in 1993, Babyface found time to prepare his third album, For the Cool in You.
LaFace worked hard too to produce the works of Toni Braxton, TLC and Usher. His composition End of the Road for Boyz II Men was one of the longest pop chart-toppers of that time. Following that, Babyface focused once again on creating material for many artists, including the celebrated Celine Dion and Madonna. The album squeezed to the charts with the smashes It's No Crime, and Whip Appeal and ranked double platinum. However, as an established producer and songwriter after cooperation with several stars, he managed to draw attention to his subsequent work Tender Lover (1989). His debut solo album, Lovers, saw light in 1986 to find low interest. Both took up producing and songwriting for other performers.Īt that time, the music career of Babyface had moderate results. In 1988, Babyface and his partner Antonio Reid quit the group and launched the famous LaFace label. After the demise of the band, Babyface cofounded The Deele to produce a few popular songs spotted in R&B charts. The artist made his first big steps with Manchild, the outfit that released three albums on the breach of the seventies and eighties. It was the Bootsy Collins group where he received his Babyface nickname, the future stage name. He began performing with the local R&B bands as a teenager. Babyface (Kenneth Edmonds) is one of the most prominent figures in R&B, producer, songwriter and performer.