In the middle of the 90s, they seemed to be a boyband like many, many others. The 4 Australian boys of Human Nature made their global debut with new jack swing songs. This made them direct competition for R&B accepted groups like Color Me Badd and All 4 One, as well as teen heart throbs like the US Backstreet Boys, Dutch boyband Caught In The Act (immensely popular in Germany) and even the Australian CDB (Create Dream Believe).
However, this boyband, at that time, actually started out as a doo-wop group (much like Boyz II Men) and only stepped out as the typical 90s boyband, because Sony Music could market them that way. It did introduce them to an international audience, and to a massive audience down under, but Human Nature disappeared pretty quickly for the rest of the world.
I would’ve probably never heard of them again if I hadn’t visited Las Vegas a few times, in recent years. A billboard on the Strip caught my eye that mentioned them. It turned out, that after their boyband days, they pretty quickly returned to where they started: Doo-wop and old classic soul songs.
They took a show full of these songs to Vegas and have been residents there now, for 7 years. They’ve just started a new run of their show, but they are also about to release their new album: Gimme Some Lovin’: Jukebox Vol II. It’s their 13th album.
The album is filled with classic 50s and 60 pop songs, which includes much of Phil Spector’s work as well as a Beatles song. They’ve been releasing audio tracks on YouTube for weeks now, but unfortunately, they are only set to be viewed from certain countries. Luckily, their Facebook page is a little more public. There, you can find the lead single, with video, called “Be My Baby”.
If you’re my generation, this will most likely remind you of the Dirty Dancing movie, which re-charted the Ronettes’ song in the 80s, but the song was originally released in 1963. Because they’ve kept the original feel of the song, it will appeal to a selected group of people, but nevertheless, I wouldn’t mind mixing up their full album with some music from all eras on my miscellaneous Spotify playlist. I expect great harmonies and lots of innocent lyrics to balance out some of the direct hits in today’s music. So, good old fashioned fun, basically.
The album also includes “Shout” (originally by LuLu) and one of my favorite classic songs “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” (Righteous Brothers). It’s out July 22nd.
