Jon B., before his rise to fame, used to be a songwriter and wrote songs for After 7, Toni Braxton, Michael Jackson, Color Me Badd, the Spice Girls and others. He spent the summer after high school writing, producing and recording 40 songs and began making his rounds to all major record labels.ġ994–97: Bonafide and Cool Relax Jon B's early influences as a musician include: Duran Duran, INXS, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Babyface, Prince, and Sade. was shopping demos when he caught the attention of Tracey Edmonds, then-president and CEO of Yab-Yum Records. His mother is Jewish and his father has Dutch ancestry. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.Born in Providence, Rhode Island, United States and raised in Altadena, California, Buck comes from a musical family with his father David, a professor of music, his mother Linda, a concert pianist and his siblings Deborah, a violinist and his brother Kevin, a cellist. Michael Thompson – guitar, electric guitar.Alvin Speights – mixing, mixing assistant.Brian Smith – engineer, mixing assistant.Colin Sauers – engineer, assistant engineer, mixing assistant.Bob Robinson – keyboards, producer, vocal arrangement.Michael Rich – assistant engineer, mixing assistant.Ali Shaheed Muhammad – producer, engineer, mixing.Tim Kelley – keyboards, producer, engineer, vocal arrangement, drum programming, mixing.Bernard Jacobs – illustrations, stylist.Simon Franglen – synthesizer, programming.Greg Collins – assistant engineer, mixing assistant.Paul Boutin – engineer, mixing assistant.– backing vocals, producer, Vocoder, vocal arrangement, mixing Keith Andes – keyboards, producer, vocal arrangement.Track listing Ĭredits adapted from liner notes and Allmusic. A little over a decade later, he included the song on his 2008 album Helpless Romantic. One song that didn't make the track list was 'Paradise in U'.

Almost a decade later, the song would be covered by Mexican pop group RBD for their English language album Rebels. Jon felt the song didn't fit in with the rest of the album and was done at the request of Epic Records in seeing the potential of the song becoming a huge hit. The last song on Cool Relax- 'Tu Amor'- was penned by songwriter Diane Warren. Jon later recorded the song for himself, while giving her the song 'In the Late of Night' for her album. 'Pride & Joy' was originally recorded by Toni Braxton for her sophomore album Secrets, but the song never made the final track listing. The song was produced by Ali Shaheed Muhammad, who Jon sought out due to being a longtime fan of A Tribe Called Quest. The final single was the title track, which had a remix that featured Guru from the hip hop group Gang Starr. The song originally appeared on his demo tape prior to recording Bonafide- as did the album track 'Can We Get Down'. The next single was the song 'I Do (Whatcha Say Boo)'. He would record a sequel to 'Are U Still Down' called 'Part 2' with a posthumous appearance by Shakur on his 2004 album Stronger Everyday. Jon received assistance from Shakur's mother Afeni Shakur, who gave Jon permission to clear his vocals for the song.

The song's B-side ' Are U Still Down' was also issued despite objections from the record company, as it featured vocals from the then-deceased Tupac Shakur who died when Jon started recording the album. 'They Don't Know' was released as the next single, with a music video directed by Christopher Erskin. The music video for the single featured a then-unknown Sanaa Lathan as the female love interest. Jon overheard Nelson playing the song in the record company's parking lot and asked to record it for his album.

The song that became the first single 'Don't Say', was written by former Boyz II Men and Az Yet member Marc Nelson. Īside from his work, Jon sought outside production from Tim & Bob, Johnny J, David Foster and Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest, among others. Jon was confident in the material for his new album, but fought with Edmonds and Babyface over certain songs to keep on the project. On his debut, he was given leeway to write and produce, but Edmonds and her then-husband Babyface were heavily involved in the making of Bonafide. Jon assumed the role of having more creative control on his second album. Cool Relax was the follow-up to his 1995 debut Bonafide.

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