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Authors: Bobby Brown, Nick Chiles
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he actually said, “Oops.” But I saw it in the mirror and thought we might be onto something. I liked the way my hair swerved asymmetrically. I told him to give me some parts coming down here and over there. Then I wet my hair and put some gel on it. My hair is naturally curly, so that completed the look.
“Yeah, this is gonna work,” I said when I looked in the mirror. I was feeling it.
After I wore the style in the “Every Little Step” video, I started seeing it everywhere. To this day there’s a whole little society in Japan called the Bobby O’s, thousands of kids who follow everything related to Bobby Brown. They cut their hair like me and even dye their skin. It’s been more than twenty years and the Bobby O’s are still going strong.
A FEW WORDS FROM KENNETH “BABYFACE” EDMONDS
The creation of Bobby’s Don’t Be Cruel album was like the forming of a perfect storm. In the late eighties, LA Reid and I were out in Los Angeles, trying to sell records as the Deele and also trying to establish ourselves as writers for other artists. During a meeting we had at Universal, they mentioned that we might want to meet with an artist named Pebbles [who eventually became LA’s wife], and they also mentioned Bobby Brown. At the time Bobby had that song out, “Girlfriend,” and of course we remembered him from New Edition, but we didn’t exactly jump on it.
We left the meeting and got in our car to drive back to our apartment on Highland. As we were driving, Bobby Brown came on the radio. He happened to be on a radio show where he would do a live performance. He was singing his song “Girlfriend” and at some point he went for a note he couldn’t reach. Bobby got mad and he said, “I don’t want to sing this song anyway.” We were shocked. We said, “Can you believe he did that?” That changed everything for us. That told us this guy was crazy. We loved his crazy energy; he just didn’t care. We loved who he was. Right then we knew, This guy is a star . That made the decision easy for us. We wanted to work with him.
When we finally got with Bobby, I don’t know that he was that crazy about working with us, to be honest. He fought us on a couple of things. He fought us on “Don’t Be Cruel.” Hedidn’t necessarily think it was a good song. He fought us on the vocals. He was trying to sing and we were trying to keep him simple. When we put all the songs together, we did the best we could. But nobody knew Bobby was going to blow up.
We thought we did a good job. We knew it was unlike anything that had been out before. There were no songs like “Don’t Be Cruel.” It was unique; nothing that followed “Don’t Be Cruel” has sounded like it. The whole structure of it was kind of different, the whole choral thing in the beginning. When Elvis did “Don’t Be Cruel,” we liked the words, and we wanted Bobby to have that kind of energy.
When the record came out, there was a moment that we knew it was really happening. Bobby was on tour with Al B. Sure and New Edition. We went to see the show, somewhere in North or South Carolina. Bobby started that tour opening up the show. He had already performed when we got there; a lot of people didn’t see him. Al B. Sure was on the stage at the time. We visited Bobby backstage. We had seen that “Don’t Be Cruel” was going into the top ten and would maybe even be a number one record. That was great. But what happened at that concert was more significant. We walked to the side of the stage with Bobby. The people who saw Bobby on the side of the stage just lost it. While Al B. Sure was onstage. Al was hotter than you could get at that point, but Bobby standing on the side of the stage caused such pandemonium that we were like, “Oh shit, this is crazy. He’s getting ready to blow.”It was based on the song that was playing on the radio. It had already started.
We saw his energy in the video, we knew he brought something to the table as a
“Yeah, this is gonna work,” I said when I looked in the mirror. I was feeling it.
After I wore the style in the “Every Little Step” video, I started seeing it everywhere. To this day there’s a whole little society in Japan called the Bobby O’s, thousands of kids who follow everything related to Bobby Brown. They cut their hair like me and even dye their skin. It’s been more than twenty years and the Bobby O’s are still going strong.
A FEW WORDS FROM KENNETH “BABYFACE” EDMONDS
The creation of Bobby’s Don’t Be Cruel album was like the forming of a perfect storm. In the late eighties, LA Reid and I were out in Los Angeles, trying to sell records as the Deele and also trying to establish ourselves as writers for other artists. During a meeting we had at Universal, they mentioned that we might want to meet with an artist named Pebbles [who eventually became LA’s wife], and they also mentioned Bobby Brown. At the time Bobby had that song out, “Girlfriend,” and of course we remembered him from New Edition, but we didn’t exactly jump on it.
We left the meeting and got in our car to drive back to our apartment on Highland. As we were driving, Bobby Brown came on the radio. He happened to be on a radio show where he would do a live performance. He was singing his song “Girlfriend” and at some point he went for a note he couldn’t reach. Bobby got mad and he said, “I don’t want to sing this song anyway.” We were shocked. We said, “Can you believe he did that?” That changed everything for us. That told us this guy was crazy. We loved his crazy energy; he just didn’t care. We loved who he was. Right then we knew, This guy is a star . That made the decision easy for us. We wanted to work with him.
When we finally got with Bobby, I don’t know that he was that crazy about working with us, to be honest. He fought us on a couple of things. He fought us on “Don’t Be Cruel.” Hedidn’t necessarily think it was a good song. He fought us on the vocals. He was trying to sing and we were trying to keep him simple. When we put all the songs together, we did the best we could. But nobody knew Bobby was going to blow up.
We thought we did a good job. We knew it was unlike anything that had been out before. There were no songs like “Don’t Be Cruel.” It was unique; nothing that followed “Don’t Be Cruel” has sounded like it. The whole structure of it was kind of different, the whole choral thing in the beginning. When Elvis did “Don’t Be Cruel,” we liked the words, and we wanted Bobby to have that kind of energy.
When the record came out, there was a moment that we knew it was really happening. Bobby was on tour with Al B. Sure and New Edition. We went to see the show, somewhere in North or South Carolina. Bobby started that tour opening up the show. He had already performed when we got there; a lot of people didn’t see him. Al B. Sure was on the stage at the time. We visited Bobby backstage. We had seen that “Don’t Be Cruel” was going into the top ten and would maybe even be a number one record. That was great. But what happened at that concert was more significant. We walked to the side of the stage with Bobby. The people who saw Bobby on the side of the stage just lost it. While Al B. Sure was onstage. Al was hotter than you could get at that point, but Bobby standing on the side of the stage caused such pandemonium that we were like, “Oh shit, this is crazy. He’s getting ready to blow.”It was based on the song that was playing on the radio. It had already started.
We saw his energy in the video, we knew he brought something to the table as a
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