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Inner City is an American electronic music group that formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1987. The group was originally composed of the record producer and composer Kevin Saunderson (born September 5, 1964) and the Chicago, Illinois, vocalist Paris Grey (born November 5, 1965). Saunderson is renowned as one of the Belleville Three—along with Juan Atkins and Derrick May—high school friends who later originated the Detroit techno sound. In February 2018, Billboard magazine ranked them as the 69th most successful dance artists of all-time.[1]
Inner City | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Detroit, Michigan, United States |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Labels | KMS |
| Members |
|
| Past members |
|
Inner City topped the US Billboard dance chart five times,[2] and had nine top 40 hits on the UK Singles Chart. The group is best known for its early dancefloor-pop music crossover tracks "Big Fun" (UK #8, US Dance #1[2]) and "Good Life" (UK #4, US Dance #1[2]). Other hits include "Do You Love What You Feel" (UK #16, US Dance #1[2]) and "Whatcha Gonna Do with My Lovin'" (UK #12, US Dance #8[2]). The music videos to these songs received significant airplay throughout the world. Later work introduced a hybrid of techno, jazz and swing beats with a more soulful sound in the vein of downtempo British groups such as Soul II Soul and Massive Attack. The group recorded three albums for Virgin/EMI Records and two singles for Columbia/SME Records.
In the early nineties, Tommy Onyx was brought on to be the band leader for Inner City live shows.[3] Onyx co wrote the hits “Hallelujah”, “Fire” & “Bad Girl” and produced the Spanish language version of Good Life, “Buena Vida”.
In 2017, a new incarnation of the group was formed with Kevin Saunderson's youngest son Dantiez joining as a permanent fixture.[4] Dantiez and Kevin’s first single as Inner City, “Good Luck”, was released April 14, 2017 on KMS.[5] “Good Luck” features vocals from LaRae Starr and includes remixes from DEAS, Sure Is Pure and Chuck Daniels. In 2018, Steffanie Christi’an was added as vocalist.
In 2020, the Saundersons (Kevin and his son Dantiez) released a new Inner City album with Christi'an as the main vocalist. Called We All Move Together, the title track which featured a spoken word performance from actor Idris Elba. Elba also featured on the single "No More Looking Back", which was the first Inner City project to be released by Defected Records, a British independent record label specialising in house music.[6]
Albums
| Year | Album | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [7] |
US [8] |
AUS [9] |
GER [10] |
NED [11] |
NZ [12] |
SUI [13] |
CAD [14] | |||
| 1989 | Paradise / Big Fun [A] | 3 | 162 | 38 | 21 | 74 | 29 | 18 | 55 | |
| 1990 | Paradise Remixed | 17 | — | 119 | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 1990 | Fire | — | — | 166 | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 1992 | Praise | 52 | — | 135 | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 1993 | Testament ’93 | 33 | — | 166 | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 2003 | Good Life—the Best of Inner City | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 2020 | We All Move Together | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| "—" denotes releases that were not released in that country or did not chart. | ||||||||||
- A Album was released as Big Fun in North America.
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) |
Album | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [7] |
US [16] |
US Dance [2] |
AUS [9] |
AUT [17] |
GER [10] |
IRE [18] |
NED [11] |
NZ [12] |
SUI [13] | ||||
| 1988 | "Big Fun" | 8 | — | 1 | 57 | 15 | 5 | 5 | 3 | — | 4 | Paradise | |
| "Good Life" | 4 | 73 | 1 | 52 | 12 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 5 | |||
| 1989 | "Ain't Nobody Better" | 10 | — | 1 | 67 | — | 21 | 24 | 26 | 40 | 9 | ||
| "Do You Love What You Feel" | 16 | — | 1 | 76 | — | — | 22 | — | — | — | |||
| "Whatcha Gonna Do with My Lovin'" | 12 | 76 | 8 | 86 | — | — | 24 | 12 | — | — | Big Fun | ||
| 1990 | "That Man (He's All Mine)" | 42 | — | 15 | 143 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Fire | |
| 1991 | "Till We Meet Again" | 47 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Let It Reign" | 51 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 40 | — | — | Praise | ||
| 1992 | "Hallelujah '92" | 22 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Pennies from Heaven" | 24 | — | 1 | 122 | — | — | — | 51 | — | — | |||
| "Praise" | 59 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Follow Your Heart" | — | — | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| 1993 | "Till We Meet Again" (remix) | 55 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album singles | |
| "Back Together Again" | 49 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| 1994 | "Do Ya" | 44 | — | 5 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Share My Life" | 62 | — | 24 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| 1995 | "Ahnonghay" | 97 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1996 | "Your Love" | 28 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Do Me Right" | 47 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| 1999 | "Good Life (Buena Vida)" (PIAS re-recording) | 10 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 73 | 48 | — | ||
| 2001 | "Good Love" | 81 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Pump It Up Dub" (with E-Dancer) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| 2003 | "Big Fun" (remix) | 86 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2004 | "Say Something" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2011 | "Future" (as Kevin Saunderson featuring Inner City) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2014 | "Bad Girl" (as Kevin Saunderson featuring Inner City) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2017 | "Good Luck" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2019 | "It Could Be" (with Armin van Buuren) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Balance | |
| "—" denotes releases that were not released in that country or did not chart. | |||||||||||||
- "Inner City — We All Move Together", Ben Cardew, Medium, Sep 9, 2020
- "Kevin Saunderson: “Black people don’t even know that techno came from Black artists”Jaguar talks to Kevin Saunderson and Idris Elba about their Inner City collaboration, the roots of techno and the future of dance music" jaguea, Mixmag, 22 October 2020
- "How we made Good Life: Paris Grey and Kevin Saunderson on Inner City's house classic" interview by Interviews by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, Tue 6 Aug 2019
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