∻ryan was always the best salesman out of all of us. We went and sat in back of Jon Bon Jovi while he watched a boring movie, Watters said. Abrams and Thornton both worked at the Penn Square Mall multiplex, where the band sang an impromptu audition for heavy metal heroes Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora after spotting the groups tour jacket. One way or another, we were going to get their attention.Īnother big break came in 1989. Either they were going to blow us off or they were going to invite us and let us hang out with them. We actually got to meet a ton of artists that came through town: Huey Lewis and the News we actually sang with them up in their room at the Waterford Hotel Ronnie Milsap, Sheila E. The dream that we had was to contact any of the big artists that would come through Oklahoma City, he said. Instead of asking for autographs, they started singing, Calderon said. KOOL PLACES When members of CMB heard of a Kool & the Gang party appearance for students with perfect attendance, they skipped school. Sam actually found the name looking through the newspaper. Remington Park was open, and there was this horse called Color Me Bad, he said. The foursome originally formed as Take One in 1985, but changed to CMB to avoid an identity crisis with an a cappella band named Take 6, Calderon said. Thornton, who was a year older than his three bandmates in the class of 1988, said the group coined their music hip-hop doo-wop. The band formed during the new jack swing genre popularized by Bobby Brown, Guy and Keith Sweat.
COLOR ME BADD THEN AND NOW HOW TO
We knew how to blend our voices well, so it really caught on. ∺ lot of people in the 1980s werent really hip to the doo-wop sound, so it was sort of a new thing, he said. The boys thought they could one-up the success of New Edition and New Kids on the Block, Calderon said, so they perfected performing a then-popular Levis commercial. He just completely blew me away, said Calderon, who joined the choir that included bass vocalist Thornton.
Calderon had heard about Abrams vocal prowess in Northwest Classens Cry-Slurs choir and challenged him. PRIMARY COLOR It started with a sing-off. But whenever you explode all of a sudden like that, and the next seven years are slowing going back in the other direction, that takes its toll. Like anything else in life, when youre moving up and youre moving forward, everything is good because its relative to where you were before. Its a real challenge to maintain that kind of thing. I think the only reason we didnt make it long-term was because we kind of imploded from the inside, said Watters, now a successful record producer married to former ∺merican Idol finalist Tamyra Gray. If you dismiss the Grammy-nominated act as another pop-culture cast-off, consider this: The unforgettable single lampooned by ∻eavis and Butt-head lives on, recently appearing in the Adam Sandler film You Dont Mess with the Zohan. And Bryan Abrams mug makes the most post-Badd headlines, although theyre from the police blotter. Kevin Thornton, the Milli Vanilli lookalike, battled sex addiction and suicidal thoughts before Jesus told him to quit the group. Sam Watters, dogged by Kenny G comparisons, is haunted by the sax-y similarity to this day. Thrust into the pop-culture spotlight, the quartets members each had a celebrity lookalike: Mark Calderon, who serenaded the ∻everly Hills, 90210 crew at the Peach Pit, was a dead ringer for ex-Wham! singer George Michael. This is that group with George Michael and Kenny G and Snow, Butt-head said. 1 singles, a triple-platinum debut album and nine Top 40 hits before disbanding in 1998. Wearing brightly colored suits and gyrating to rehearsed choreography, the pop supernova exploded with two follow-up No. The MTV cartoon character was commenting on Color Me Badd, a band from Oklahoma Citys Northwest Classen High School hitting it big with I Wanna Sex You Up in 1991.
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