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Foster & McElroy Biography

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The hit production duo of Foster & McElroy has had hits with En Vogue, Club Noveau (Life Love & Pain, The Collection, Vol. 1, Lean on Me), Tony!, Toni! Tone'!, and Silk-E (Urban Therapy, among others. They had their own recording career as both Foster & McElroy (the Top Ten R&B hit "Dr. Soul" with M.C. Lyte and the Atlantic album Fm2) and Fmob (the smash "Runaway Love" with En Vogue). Denzil Foster was born in 1962 and greatly influenced by the Philly soul of the day. He also liked the Beatles, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, and Sly and the Family Stone. Thomas McElroy grew up in house that was filled with jazz, partly because his father was a jazz piano player. Foster and McElroy met at Oakland, CA's Laney College on a basketball court. Both were enrolled in college: McElroy at San Francisco State, Foster at U.S.C. In the early '80s, the two saw that the popularity of R&B was declining and decided to reinvigorate the genre by adding rap beats. After hooking up with producer Jay King, they had several releases on the independent Triangle label before the formula yielded hits like the three-million selling "Rumours" by the Timex Social Club and Club Noveau's number one pop gold remake of Bill Withers' "Lean on Me." Coming with a concept for a vocal group that could be described as a '90s version of the Emotions, Foster & McElroy assembled En Vogue. The group had several number one R&B hits: "Hold On," "Lies," "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)," a remake of the Aretha Franklin hit "Givin' Him Something He Can Feel," "You Don't Have to Worry," and "Don't Let Go (Love)." They had two platinum LPs, Born to Sing and EV3, and one triple-platinum album, Funky Divas. ~ Ed Hogan, Rovi

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