Inner City

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Inner City was an American Dance - band , which the Detroit techno comes from and had the late 1980s their greatest successes.

history

Inner City is a project by Kevin Saunderson , one of the founders of Detroit techno . He had written a piece with others for which he was still looking for a singer. Paris Gray, real name Shanna Jackson, had already had some success in the local scene with songs like Don't Make Me Jack and took over the vocals. They recorded the song Big Fun in 1988 under the name Inner City featuring Kevin Saunderson . It was released on the British compilation Techno: The New Dance Sound of Detroit by a sub-label of Virgin Records , which attracted a lot of attention and coined the term Detroit Techno in Europe.

As a result, the song quickly gained popularity, it was released as a single and immediately became a number one hit on the US dance charts. They didn't get into the official Billboard Hot 100 , but they were all the more successful in Western Europe. In the British charts they reached the top 10 and in Germany even the top 5 of the singles charts. The second single Good Life was even more successful in the same year , making it into the official US charts and coming in at number two in Germany. In England it reached number four and a silver award for sales.

As the first representatives of Detroit Techno, they then produced an entire album that was released in spring 1989. Named after the first hit, Big Fun , the album hit the official US album charts and brought two more number one dance hits with Ain't Nobody Better and Do You Love What You Feel . In Europe, the album was released under the title Paradise and was a great success, especially in Great Britain, where it reached number 3 and platinum status. The remix version of the album also made it to the UK charts again. With Whatcha Gonna Do with My Lovin ' a smaller hit followed at the end of the year, but it was not as dance-typical and was a second hit in the US Hot 100 and the R&B charts.

Album number two with the title Fire followed in the following year . While the sound on the first album was still a mixture of techno , house and pop , this time those responsible wanted to go more towards soul pop , with which Soul II Soul was even more successful in the USA than Inner City. But the album flopped in both the US and Europe. Only in Great Britain did they enter the charts with two songs, but missed the top 40.

For the third album, Praise , they took more time. It was released in 1992 and brought the band the fifth number one hit on the US dance charts with the song Pennies from Heaven . The straggler Follow Your Heart made it to second place. But they never made it into the pop charts. The chart successes were also absent abroad, with the exception of Great Britain, where, in addition to the album, they brought four songs into the official hit lists. Great Britain also remained the only country in which they continued to be successful on a regular basis. Until 1996 they released more singles, but no more albums. Then the project came to an end, and Saunderson had also been promoting other projects and other musical directions with The Reese Project , E-Dancer and others since the early 1990s. In addition, singer Gray gave preference to family life, so that there were hardly any appearances.

After 1996 there were still occasional releases under the name Inner City and reissues of the two biggest hits Good Life and Big Fun , which still attracted attention, but after that the days of the band were over. There were attempts to revive the project on the occasion of the 25th or 30th anniversary, but this resulted in no further success.

Members

  • Kevin Saunderson (born September 5, 1964 in New York)
  • Paris Gray (actually Shanna V. Jackson, born November 5, 1965 in Glencoe)

Kevin White as bassist and Tommy Munnell aka Tommy Onyx as keyboardist were part of the project during live performances. Kevin's wife Ann Saunderson was also involved in the production and composition.

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1989 Paradise DE21 (12 weeks)
DE 		- CH18 (4 weeks)
CH 		UK3
platinum
platinum

(30 weeks)UK 		US162 (4 weeks)
US
First published: May 1989
in US as Big Fun
1990 Fire - - - - -
First published: 1990
1992 Praise - - - UK52 (1 week)
UK 		-
First published: June 1992

Remix albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1990 Paradise Remixed - - - UK17 (6 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: January 1990
1993 Testament '93 - - - UK33 (2 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: May 1993

Compilations

year title Remarks
2003 Good Life - The Best of Inner City First published: May 27, 2003
2012 Big Fun - Big Hits! The Collection First published: April 16, 2012

Singles

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1988 Big Fun
Paradise 		DE5 (19 weeks)
DE 		AT15 (12 weeks)
AT 		CH4 (12 weeks)
CH 		UK8 (14 weeks)
UK 		-
Authors: K. Saunderson, JP Pennington , AL Forest, SV Jackson
First published August 1988
Good Life
Paradise 		DE2 (17 weeks)
DE 		AT12 (10 weeks)
AT 		CH5 (9 weeks)
CH 		UK4th
silver
silver

(12 weeks)UK 		US73 (11 weeks)
US
Authors: K. Saunderson, SV Jackson, RD Holman
First published: November 1988
1989 Ain't Nobody Better
Paradise 		DE21 (17 weeks)
DE 		- CH9 (11 weeks)
CH 		UK10 (7 weeks)
UK 		-
Authors: K. Saunderson, SV Jackson
First published: April 1989
Do You Love What You Feel
Paradise 		- - - UK16 (7 weeks)
UK 		-
Authors: K. Saunderson, SV Jackson
First published: July 1989
Whatcha Gonna Do with My Lovin '
Big Fun 		- - - UK12 (9 weeks)
UK 		US76 (6 weeks)
US
Authors: J. Mtume , R. Lucas
First published: November 1989
1990 That Man (He's All Mine)
Fire 		- - - UK42 (4 weeks)
UK 		-
Authors: K. Saunderson, SV Jackson
First published: October 1990
1991 Till We Meet Again
Fire 		- - - UK47 (4 weeks)
UK 		-
Authors: K. Saunderson, SV Jackson
First published: February 1991
Let It Reign
Praise 		- - - UK51 (2 weeks)
UK 		-
Authors: K. Saunderson, A. Saunderson, C. Peat, M. Archer , SV Jackson
First published: November 1991
1992 Hallelujah '92
Praise 		- - - UK22 (4 weeks)
UK 		-
Authors: K. Saunderson, D. McCoy, T. Munnell
First published: March 1992
Pennies from Heaven
Praise 		- - - UK24 (4 weeks)
UK 		-
Authors: K. Saunderson, A. Saunderson, SV Jackson, V. Whitehead
First published: June 1992
Praise
Praise 		- - - UK59 (2 weeks)
UK 		-
Authors: K. Saunderson, A. Saunderson, SV Jackson, V. Whitehead
First published: September 1992
1993 Back Together Again
Big Fun - Big Hits! The Collection 		- - - UK49 (1 week)
UK 		-
Authors: J. Mtume, R. Lucas
First published: August 1993
1994 Do Ya
Big Fun - Big Hits! The Collection 		- - - UK44 (2 weeks)
UK 		-
Authors: K. Saunderson, SV Jackson
First published: January 1994
Share My Life
Big Fun - Big Hits! The Collection 		- - - UK62 (2 weeks)
UK 		-
Authors: K. Saunderson, A. Saunderson, SV Jackson
First published: July 1994
1995 Ahnonghay
Big Fun - Big Hits! The Collection 		- - - UK97 (1 week)
UK 		-
Authors: K. Saunderson
First published: February 1996
1996 Your Love
Big Fun - Big Hits! The Collection 		- - - UK28 (2 weeks)
UK 		-
Authors: K. Saunderson, A. Saunderson, N. Howard, T. Howard
First published: February 1996
Do Me Right
Big Fun - Big Hits! The Collection 		- - - UK47 (2 weeks)
UK 		-
Authors: K. Saunderson, A. Saunderson, SV Jackson
First published: September 1996
1999 Good Life (Buena Vida)
Big Fun - Big Hits! The Collection 		- - - UK10 (6 weeks)
UK 		-
Authors: K. Saunderson, A. Saunderson, SV Jackson, RD Holman
First published: February 1999
2001 Good Love
single track 		- - - UK81 (1 week)
UK 		-
Authors: K. Saunderson, A. Saunderson
First published: May 2001
2003 Big Fun (Remix)
single track 		- - - UK86 (1 week)
UK 		-
First published: October 2003

swell

  1. ↑ Kevin Saunderson: "I had no idea what racism was!" (Interview), Alexis Waltz, Groove, November 14, 2017
  2. ↑ Kevin Saunderson, Inner City and the inside story of 'Big Fun' , Kevin Saunderson, Fact, Sept. 2, 2014
  3. ↑ Game Changer: Inner City 'Good Life' , Andrew Whitehurst, DJ Mag, February 4, 2014
  4. ↑ a b c d Music Sales Awards: UK
  5. ↑ Kevin Saunderson Revives Inner City, 'We Were Ahead of Our Time,' Gary Graff, Billboard, June 7, 2012
  6. ↑ a b It's 30 years of big fun as Kevin Saunderson marks Inner City anniversary , Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press, May 24, 2018
  7. ↑ a b c Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US

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