Johnny Gill

Johnny Gill

Artist

Johnny Gill is a singer-songwriter and producer who entered the music business when he was 16 years old. He released his self-titled debut in 1983, a duet album with Stacy Lattisaw titled Perfect Combination in 1984, and his second solo album Chemistry in 1985. It was his next move that turned him into a star as Johnny joined the popular R&B group New Edition in 1987 following the departure of Bobby Brown. He was featured on their 1988 album Heart Break and closed the album as the lead vocalist on the classic song “Boys To Men.”

After Heart Break, New Edition decided to focus on solo projects, leading Johnny to release his third album, a second self-titled album, in 1990. He enlisted the top two R&B super-producer duos at the time to produce the album—L.A. Reid & Babyface and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, who he worked with on N.E.’s Heart Break album. These collaborations led to the three #1 R&B singles (“Rub You the Right Way,” “Wrap My Body Tight,” and “My, My, My”), while “Fairweather Friend” peaked at #2. The album peaked at #8 on the Billboard 200 and hit #1 on the R&B Albums chart, while also getting a couple of Grammy nominations for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male and Best R&B Song for “My, My, My.”

He released two more solo albums—Provocative in 1993 and Let’s Get the Mood Right in 1996—before re-joining New Edition in 1996 for the album Home Again and joining another supergroup with Keith Sweat and Gerald Levert, forming LSG in 1997. They released the album Levert Sweat Gill featuring the #1 R&B hit “My Body.” He would go on to make another album with LSG (LSG2 in 2003) and New Edition (One Love in 2004), appear on TV and in stage plays as well as release several solo albums such as 2014’s Game Changer, which features the New Edition reunion track “This One’s For Me and You.”