All-4-One is a male
R&B group best known for their cover hit
single "
I Swear" from their self-titled 1994
debut album. The group comprises Jamie Jones, Delious Kennedy, Alfred Nevarez, and Tony Borowiak. all from the
Antelope Valley and
Mojave, California areas, but are based in the
Los Angeles area.
History
Dubbed the "Dukes of R&B",
[www.examiner.com/x-10090-Columbia-Urban-Music-Examiner~y2009m5d21-Topten-1990s-male-RB-groups] All-4-One's hit "I Swear" won a
Grammy Award in 1995 for
Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and enjoyed an eleven-week run at #1 on the
Billboard Hot 100 and a seven-week run at #2 in the UK. It has been named by
ASCAP as one of the greatest love songs of the 20th Century. It was also nominated for Song Of The Year, as was the single Top 5 smash hit "I Can Love You Like That,". The group was popular before the #1 success of "
I Swear", as their previous single "So Much in Love" (originally a #1 US hit for
The Tymes in 1963) had reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 earlier in the year. Other hits include She's Got Skillz, These Arms, Beautiful as U, I Will Be Right Here & Someday (the title single from the Disney animated feature The Hunchback of Notre Dame).
A rift between their independent label, Blitzz Records, and their major label, Atlantic Records, led to the group leaving
Atlantic Records as well as Blitzz Records after the release of the album
On and On in 1999. The shift in labels left the group in limbo for a few years as they contemplated their next move. In 2001, the follow-up album,
A41, was released on AMC Records yielding, "Beautiful As U", a Top 20 hit on the Radio & Records Adult Contemporary chart. The group's 2004 album,
Split Personality, was given an Asia-only release, and subsequently gave them Asian hits with "Someone Who Lives in Your Heart & "I Just Wanna Be Your Everything". For much of the 2000s All-4-One has spent their time touring South East Asia, in cities such as Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Seoul, Bangkok and Shanghai.