Club Nouveau is a contemporary R&B-pop band that was formed in Sacremento, California by record producer/performer Jay King in 1986 in Sacramento, California, subsequent to the breakup of his first group, the Timex Social Club. The original members of Club Nouveau included Denzil Foster, Thomas McElroy, Samuelle Prater, and Valerie Watson. Later members include James L. Richard II, Kevin Irving, David Agent, Walter Phillips, and Mario Corbino. The band's name (French for New Club) was changed from its original incarnation, Jet Set, to exploit the breakup of the Timex Social Club. King was also the creative force behind their hit
Rumors, released in 1986.
Club Noveau were signed by Warner Brothers Records, which released their first three albums; the debut album,
Life, Love, and Pain, released in 1986, scored the group four consecutive hits:
Jealousy (essentially an answer song responding to
Rumors),
Situation #9, a cover of Bill Withers's
Lean on Me, and
Why You Treat Me So Bad (The latter was interpolated by the Luniz on that group's hit single
I Got Five on It and by Puff Daddy on
Satisfy You).
Lean on Me and
Why You Treat Me So Bad both made it to no.2 on the Billboard R&B chart the next year, with
Lean on Me becoming a big Billboard Hot 100 hit.
Jealousy also made an appearance on the soundtrack of the film
Modern Girls.The band also recorded a song for the
Who's That Girl soundtrack called
Step by Step. Club Nouveau's version of
Lean on Me won a Grammy award.
Foster and McElroy soon left to form their own production team and focus on working with other acts with some success, most notably with En Vogue and Tony! Toni! Toné!. Prater, who had performed the lead vocals on
Lean on Me eventually left as well to pursue a solo career, tasting solo success with the 1990 smash
So You Like What You See, produced by McElroy & Foster. The replacements were David Agent and Kevin Irving.
The group's next albums - beginning with
Listen to the Message - were laced with an evolving social consciousness, though these later albums were not as successful commercially as the group's debut. Notable recordings include a dancehall - influenced version of the gospel classic
Oh, Happy Day from the album
A New Beginning, and the track featured here;
Share your Love, from the 1989 album
Under a Nouveau Groove. Never released as a single,
Share Your Love is yet another one of those Quiet Storm-style tracks that deserves more recogition; it also proved (along with the slow jams
Time and
Money Can't Buy You Love from the same album) that even though the line-up of the group had changed by this point, 'Noveau could stand comparison with the best soul acts of the time.
Under A Noveau Groove was a better album than 1988's
Listen To The Message, but most people slept on it because no one wanted to hear Club Nouveau after the overly message-laden album predecessor; in my mind that setback plus the change in musical tastes (New Jack Swing was now the sound of the day) meant they never relaimed the lofty heights of their earlier material.
As of 2011, the current Club Nouveau roster consists of Jay King, Valerie Watson English, and Samuelle Prater, (vocals), with James L. Richard II, (guitar, keyboards, vocals).
Thump Records issued a greatest hits compilation album, and Club Nouveau occasionally regroups to record.
