98 Degrees | |
|---|---|
 98 Degrees performing onThe Package Tour in 2013. | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | 98° |
| Origin | Los Angeles,California, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Years active |
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| Labels | Motown,Universal,Entertainment One,Hollywood,SONGZBank |
| Members | |
| Past members | Jonathan Lippman |
| Website | www |
98 Degrees (stylized as98°) is an American vocal group and boy band consisting of brothersNick andDrew Lachey,Jeff Timmons, and Justin Jeffre. Their first Christmas albumThis Christmas has sold over two million copies and is widely recognized as one of the most successful holiday albums ever.
Thepop andR&B group was started independently by Jeff Timmons inLos Angeles,California, although all of its members originate from Ohio. Unlike most boy bands, they were later picked up by arecord label, rather than being assembled by a label or a producer. They have sold over 15 million records worldwide and achieved eighttop 40singles in the U.S. Between late 1997 and 2000, the group reached top-twenty status on theBillboard U.S. Hot 100 chart, with their debut single "Invisible Man" peaking at No. 12, and 1999's pop/R&B cover of the country ballad "I Do (Cherish You)" peaking at No. 13. The group successfully charted in the U.S. top five with "Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche)", "Because of You", "The Hardest Thing", and "Thank God I Found You"—the latter as a guest artist backingMariah Carey to give 98 Degrees their only number-one song, which earned aGrammy Award nomination forBest Pop Collaboration with Vocals.
Beginning with an August 2012 performance at theMixtape Festival inHershey, Pennsylvania, the group reunited and continues to record new music.[1]
The founding members of 98 Degrees met afterMassillon, Ohio nativeJeff Timmons decided to quit college and pursue a music career with best friend Jeremy Volk. He studied psychology atKent State University in his home state of Ohio, and planned on a career playing football in theNFL. In 1995 he sang at a college party with three friends and received a positive reaction from the female audience about his voice. The following day he left college and headed out to Los Angeles, California.[2] "It was a pretty hasty decision, looking back, but I was young and dumb. Sometimes ignorance is bliss," he said in 2004.[3] He met a former student of the CincinnatiSchool for Creative and Performing Arts who passed his name on to another graduate,Nick Lachey,[4] who was attendingMiami (of Ohio) University to study sports medicine.[5] Lachey flew to Los Angeles and, after hitting it off, decided to form a boyband. Lachey suggested inviting one of his friends, Justin Jeffre, to join them. Jeffre, a history student atUniversity of Cincinnati, had attended SCPA with Lachey and they had performed together before in various outfits such as abarbershop quartet at theKings Island amusement park[6][7] and acover band.[2] The final member to join the band was Lachey's younger brotherDrew, who was working in New York City as anemergency medical technician, as a replacement for founding member Jonathan Lippman.[8]
After rejecting a series of names (including Just Us and Next Issue), upon the suggestion by their manager Paris D'Jon, they decided on "98 Degrees" describing body temperature and their music.
Taking a series of jobs including landscaping, working as club security officers and delivering take-out food, the band refined its harmonies and presentation, looking to groups such asBoyz II Men,Take 6, andJodeci for inspiration. The new group also made the rounds of auditions inLos Angeles and gradually built up its contacts in the music industry. The group's wait for a manager and a recording contract did not take long, as they seized an opportunity to perform during a radio broadcast of a Boyz II Men concert, which they attended in the hope of passing a demo tape to the band. They were discovered by music manager Paris D'Jon, who was co-managingMontell Jordan at the time.
Just before the group signed their deal, founding member Jonathan Lippman departed the group due to his religious beliefs; he later went on to formCCM groupTrue Vibe.
The group's emergence at a time when teen-oriented acts like theSpice Girls, theBackstreet Boys andNSYNC were just hitting the top of the charts around the world compelled them to differentiate themselves from the mere "boy band" status that they derided. From the start, they emphasized that they wrote much of their own material, which reflected R&B influences rather than mainstream pop roots. Drew Lachey commented in an interview with theChicago Tribune in April 1999, "Anybody who has listened to Backstreet [Boys]'s album, our album and *NSYNC's album will definitely see that there are major differences musically between groups, not to mention the fact that we were signed toMotown, which gives us a little more credibility as far asR&B andsoul music goes. Not to mention that we’ve been influenced by more of those type of artists." Directly referring to NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, he added, "We are singers, songwriters, and producers all in one, not just one of those manufactured pop groups that is put together as a marketing scheme. We are actually in this for the music, which is our first love. That is the major difference."[9]
With their debut single "Invisible Man", which peaked at No. 12 on theBillboard Hot 100, achieving gold-record status after its June 1997 release, 98 Degrees was off to a promising start. Although critical response to the group'sself-titled debut album was mixed, a Billboard review of their first single noted their vocal abilities, and the addition of a new track helped to keep the band in the public eye. The group also toured extensively, including concert dates inAsia. They also opened for several dates ofJanet Jackson'sVelvet Rope Tour, exposing them to a wider audience.[10]
After building popularity with their appearance in the animatedDisney movieMulan, and singing "True to Your Heart", a duet with labelmateStevie Wonder, their album98 Degrees and Rising was released in October 1998 and became the group's breakthrough album, eventually going 4×platinum. Production credits included Atlanta-based producer andBabyface co-writing partnerDaryl Simmons, while musician credits featured Atlanta-based session musician and formerEarth, Wind & Fire guitaristDick Smith. After the album's release, 98 Degrees left Motown for its parent company,Universal Records.
The band's first major hit "Because of You" reached number three on the U.S.Hot 100 and number five on theCanadian Singles Chart, and also went platinum. "The Hardest Thing" followed the success by reaching No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold.
In 1999, 98 Degrees released their Christmas albumThis Christmas, which spawned the Canadian top 40 single "This Gift". Within a month after its release the album was certified platinum. The group appeared as featured guests onAmy Grant's 1999 CBS Christmas special,A Christmas to Remember. Nick Lachey was featured on singerJessica Simpson's debut albumSweet Kisses on the track "Where You Are", which was released as a single and reached the top 40 in Canada but missed the top 40 in the US. The group appeared in the album calledJesus: The Epic Mini Series with their song "The Love That You've Been Looking For".
The group scored aBillboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit in the U.S. with the single "Thank God I Found You", a collaboration withMariah Carey andJoe. The single went gold, selling 700,000 copies. It stayed at No. 1 on the Hot 100 for one week and the top 200 singles sales chart for 51 weeks. The single went to the top 10 in the UK charts and the group also received aGrammy Award nomination forBest Pop Collaboration with Vocals for the same song.
In the summer of 2000, 98 Degrees released "Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche)", the first single off their upcoming albumRevelation; the single went to No. 2 on theBillboard Hot 100 and was certifiedgold. In September 2000,Revelation was released, peaking at No. 2 on theBillboard 200 and being certified 2× Platinum. The band's next singles from that album were "My Everything" and "The Way You Want Me To", the former reaching the Top 40.
In September 2001, the band appeared atMadison Square Garden alongsideLuther Vandross andUsher singingMichael Jackson's hit song "Man in the Mirror". The performance was part of a show to celebrateMichael Jackson's 30 years as a solo artist.
In 2002, 98 Degrees released a compilation album calledThe Collection, with the new single "Why (Are We Still Friends)". At that point the group had sold over 10 million records and released 12 singles.
In 2003, the group went on hiatus. At the time, Drew Lachey stated that 98 Degrees had not broken up.[11] During the hiatus, Drew and his wife had their first daughter shortly after he won the second season ofDancing with the Stars. Nick Lachey married Jessica Simpson in October 2002 and released two solo albums,SoulO andWhat's Left of Me, with the latter being released around the time of his divorce from Simpson in 2006. Timmons released the solo albumWhisper That Way and participated in theVH1 reality TV series,Mission Man Band. Jeffre ran for mayor ofCincinnati,Ohio, and worked on independent media projects.
The band reunited in 2004 to perform onNick & Jessica's Family Christmas TV special. In September 2005, 98 Degrees performed at Club Purgatory inOver-the-Rhine to support Jeffre in his candidacy for mayor of Cincinnati.
On June 20, 2012, Nick and Drew Lachey announced onRyan Seacrest that the group would reunite for a one-time performance atMixtape Festival in Hershey, PA in August.[1] The group also performed atThe Today Show on August 17.[12]
In an interview withRolling Stone on July 26, 2012, Drew Lachey revealed that a week before, the group had their first rehearsal in over a decade. He also explained the group decided to come back together because they were all at that place in their lives where they felt comfortable committing to being in a group again, and they also felt the timing was right because the pop music genre has come back around. "Music is very cyclical. You go through rock stages, R&B stages, rap stages... It's an uphill battle if you try and do pop during a rap stage," says Lachey. Regarding the group's future, he said at this time, they currently have no plan beyond their performances atThe Today Show and the Mixtape Festival.[13] However, in September 2012, he revealed the group was going to go back into the studio to record a new album in October.[14]
On January 22, 2013, the group appeared onThe View along withNew Kids on the Block andBoyz II Men to announce their joint tour would take place in summer 2013.[15] This tour is named "The Package" and the 12 members on tour (Boyz II Men with 3 members, NKOTB with 5 members and 98 Degrees with 4 members) jokingly refer to themselves as "The Dirty Dozen". The North American tour began on May 28, 2013. The band also performed a song during the season finale ofNBC'sThe Sing-Off, which Nick Lachey hosts, on December 23, 2013.
The band released their new album,2.0, their first studio album in 13 years, on May 7, 2013.
In summer 2016, they regrouped again to headline theMy2K Tour, their first headlining tour in 15 years. They were supported byO-Town,Ryan Cabrera, andDream, putting together a bill of pop acts that were first popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s at larger venues.
In 2017, they returned to Universal Music and put out their second Christmas album,Let it Snow, because of their 20th anniversary.[16] They promoted it with a series of concerts across the United States called the "At Christmas Tour".[17]
On November 23, 2017, the band made a 90-second musical appearance inMacy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, performed in New York City.
On May 21, 2018, the band made a musical appearance at Miss USA, singing "The Hardest Thing" and "I Do", as the three final girls did their last walk on the stage.
From October 15 to October 16, 2018, 98 Degrees appeared at Epcot at Walt Disney World as part of the Eat To The Beat concert series during the annual Food and Wine Festival.
On July 9, 2021, the band released a new single titled "Where Do You Want To Go". They joined Canadiancountry singerBrett Kissel on the single "Ain't the Same" in April 2022.[18][19]
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | "Thank God I Found You" (withMariah Carey &Joe) | Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals | Nominated |
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 98° | Top Pop Artist - Duo/Group | Nominated |
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | "The Hardest Thing" | Best Jazz/AC Clip | Nominated | [29] |
| Best New Artist Clip - Jazz/AC | Nominated | |||
| "I Do (Cherish You)" | Best New Artist Clip - Pop | Nominated |
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 98° | Favorite Music Group | Nominated |
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 98° | Choice Music: Breakout Artist | Won |
| Choice Music Group | Nominated | ||
| "Because of You" | Choice Music: Love Song | Nominated | |
| 2000 | "Thank God I Found You" (withMariah Carey &Joe) | Nominated | |
| 98° | Choice Music Group | Nominated | |
| 2001 | Nominated |
| International | |
|---|---|
| Artists | |
