Biography
The production team Foster & McElroy scored major successes alongside En Vogue, Club Nouveau (Life Love & Pain, The Collection, Vol. 1, Lean on Me), Tony!, Toni! Tone’!, and Silk-E (Urban Therapy and additional projects). Recording under their own names, the pair released the Top Ten R&B single “Dr. Soul” featuring M.C. Lyte plus the Atlantic album Fm2 as Foster & McElroy, while as Fmob they delivered the hit “Runaway Love” with En Vogue.
Born in 1962, Denzil Foster absorbed the Philly soul sound then prevalent and also gravitated toward the Beatles, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, and Sly and the Family Stone. Thomas McElroy, meanwhile, was raised amid jazz because his father played the instrument professionally. The two first crossed paths on the basketball court at Laney College in Oakland, California; McElroy was then attending San Francisco State while Foster studied at U.S.C.
In the early ’80s they observed R&B’s waning commercial appeal and chose to refresh the style by incorporating rap rhythms. After linking with producer Jay King, they issued several recordings on the independent Triangle label; the approach later produced the three-million-selling “Rumours” by Timex Social Club and Club Nouveau’s number-one pop gold version of Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me.”
Foster & McElroy next conceived a vocal ensemble they envisioned as a ’90s counterpart to the Emotions and proceeded to form En Vogue. The quartet achieved multiple number-one R&B singles—“Hold On,” “Lies,” “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It),” the Aretha Franklin remake “Givin’ Him Something He Can Feel,” “You Don’t Have to Worry,” and “Don’t Let Go (Love)”—along with two platinum albums, Born to Sing and EV3, and the triple-platinum Funky Divas.
Born in 1962, Denzil Foster absorbed the Philly soul sound then prevalent and also gravitated toward the Beatles, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, and Sly and the Family Stone. Thomas McElroy, meanwhile, was raised amid jazz because his father played the instrument professionally. The two first crossed paths on the basketball court at Laney College in Oakland, California; McElroy was then attending San Francisco State while Foster studied at U.S.C.
In the early ’80s they observed R&B’s waning commercial appeal and chose to refresh the style by incorporating rap rhythms. After linking with producer Jay King, they issued several recordings on the independent Triangle label; the approach later produced the three-million-selling “Rumours” by Timex Social Club and Club Nouveau’s number-one pop gold version of Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me.”
Foster & McElroy next conceived a vocal ensemble they envisioned as a ’90s counterpart to the Emotions and proceeded to form En Vogue. The quartet achieved multiple number-one R&B singles—“Hold On,” “Lies,” “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It),” the Aretha Franklin remake “Givin’ Him Something He Can Feel,” “You Don’t Have to Worry,” and “Don’t Let Go (Love)”—along with two platinum albums, Born to Sing and EV3, and the triple-platinum Funky Divas.
Albums