Boyz II Men recorded End of the Road in three hours, then spent “13 weeks at No. 1”
Shawn Stockman says Boyz II Men cut "End of the Road" in three hours during a break from the MC Hammer tour. The Boomerang ballad then led the Hot 100 for 13 weeks.
Boyz II Men recorded "End of the Road" at Studio Four in Philadelphia during a day off from the MC Hammer tour. Shawn Stockman told LA Weekly that the group finished the session in three hours, in the same studio where it had recorded Cooleyhighharmony.
“On one of our days off, we went to Studio Four in Philadelphia, the same place where we recorded our first album Cooleyhighharmony and recorded "End of the Road" in three hours. We went back on the road and heard it was climbing the charts and then that it had hit number one.”
— Shawn Stockman, LA Weekly, 2013
Written for Boomerang
Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Antonio "L.A." Reid and Daryl Simmons wrote the song for the soundtrack to Eddie Murphy's 1992 film Boomerang. Babyface and Reid produced it. Songfacts reports that Babyface sang the demo and considered retaining the song for himself before it went to the group.
Nathan Morris, Wanya Morris, Shawn Stockman and Michael McCary trade lead passages before joining on the final choruses. McCary delivers the spoken interlude, using the bass voice in a speaking role familiar from earlier vocal-group records. The lyric asks for one more chance without promising that the separation can be reversed.
- Song
- End of the Road
- Writers
- Babyface · L.A. Reid · Daryl Simmons
- Producers
- Babyface · L.A. Reid
- Recorded
- Studio Four, Philadelphia
- US release
- June 30, 1992 · Boomerang soundtrack
- Hot 100
- No. 1 for 13 consecutive weeks
Thirteen weeks, and a LaFace one-two
"End of the Road" reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 dated August 15, 1992 and stayed there through the November 7 chart. During its first six weeks at the summit, TLC's "Baby-Baby-Baby" held at No. 2. Babyface, Reid and Simmons wrote and produced both singles.
The 13-week run surpassed the 11 weeks Elvis Presley's double-sided "Hound Dog"/"Don't Be Cruel" spent at No. 1 on Billboard's pre-Hot 100 Best Sellers in Stores chart in 1956. Within the Hot 100 era, Billboard's chart rewind notes that Boyz II Men moved past the ten-week runs of Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life" and Olivia Newton-John's "Physical".
Whitney Houston took the overall longevity record in 1993 when "I Will Always Love You" reached a 14th week at No. 1. Boyz II Men then spent 14 weeks at the top with "I'll Make Love to You" in 1994 and 16 weeks with Mariah Carey on "One Sweet Day" in 1995 and 1996.
The song won Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best R&B Song at the 1993 Grammy Awards. It appeared on the Boomerang soundtrack rather than on the original 1991 edition of Cooleyhighharmony.
