Joe Public is an American
new jack swing group from
Buffalo,
New York. The group consists of lead singer and bass guitarist Kevin Scott, keyboardist and guitarist Jake Carter, percussionist and drummer Dwight "Mr. Dew" Wyatt and lead guitarist Joe "J.R." Sayles. They are best known for their
hit single "
Live and Learn," which reached #4 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...
in 1992.
Musical work
Joe Public evolved from the group Atension, signed to
Island Records
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...
in 1989. Their debut album on
, ''
Joe Public'', contained their hit single
"Live and Learn" which became their
only top-40 hit peaking at #4 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100. Their follow-up
single, "I Miss You" reached #55 on the same chart. Joe Public was the first-ever R&B group to perform on MTV's ''
Unplugged'' series where they were also the back up band for
Boyz II Men
Boyz II Men ( ) is an American vocal harmony group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. Formed in 1985, they have been a trio composed of baritone Nathan Morris, tenor Wanya Morris, Wanyá Mo ...
and
Shanice
Shanice Lorraine Wilson-Knox (née Wilson; born May 14, 1973) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actress and dancer. She had the ''Billboard'' hit singles "I Love Your Smile" and "Silent Prayer" in 1991 and "Saving Forever for ...
. Joe Public was also the back up band for
Kris Kross on ''
The Arsenio Hall Show'', which featured
Jermaine Dupri
Jermaine Dupri Mauldin (born September 23, 1972) is an American rapper and record producer. Raised in Atlanta, Georgia as the son of Columbia Records executive Michael Mauldin, he began his career in music at the age of nine. He discovered th ...
's first national TV appearance.
They hosted the "NBA Jams Music Video," a
VHS promotional release for the
video game
A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
''
NBA Jam: Tournament Edition'' that contained
music video
A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...
s intercut with professional
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
highlight footage. The video for "Live and Learn" is contained on it, as well as improvised live footage between video segments.
They later released their second studio album ''
Easy Come, Easy Go'' in 1994, also under Columbia Records.
They continued to act as
songwriters
A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...
, writing the song "
Keep It Comin'" for fellow New Jack Swing artist
Keith Sweat
Keith Sweat (born July 22, 1961) is an American singer, producer and songwriter. An early figure in the new jack swing musical movement, he is known for his collection of hits including "I Want Her," "Make It Last Forever (song), Make It Last For ...
in 1991 as well as songs for
Tyrese.
Discography
Albums
*1992: ''
Joe Public'' #111
U.S., #23 U.S.
R&B, #137 AUS
[ N.B. The High Point number in the NAT column represents the release's peak on the national chart.]
*1994: ''
Easy Come, Easy Go''
Singles
References
External links
*
American contemporary R&B musical groups
Musical groups from Buffalo, New York
Musical groups established in 1989
New jack swing music groups
{{US-R&B-band-stub