Tevin Campbell

There's some dispute over who actually discovered Texas child sensation Tevin Campbell. Some accounts credit flutist Bobbi Humphrey, while much of the publicity material credits Quincy Jones. It's assured that Campbell first came to the notice of music fans just after his 11th birthday in late 1989 when he appeared on Jones' LP Back on the Block and was featured on "Tomorrow (A Better You, Better Me)," which hit number one on the R&B charts in June 1990. With his high, flexible tenor, Campbell recalled an earlier Jones protégé, Michael Jackson. Later that year, he appeared in Prince's Graffiti Bridge film singing "Round and Round," which Prince wrote for him and which became a gold single. Next, in the summer of 1991, he appeared on the soundtrack to Boyz in the Hood singing "Just Ask Me To," a Top Ten R&B hit. All of this set the stage for his debut album, 1991's T.E.V.I.N., which went platinum and spawned two R&B chart-toppers, "Tell Me What You Want Me to Do" and "Alone with You," as well as the R&B Top Five hit "Goodbye." I'm Ready, released two years later, did even better, going double platinum and featuring three R&B chart hits -- the number one "Can We Talk," "I'm Ready," which went Top Five, and "Always in My Heart," which reached the Top Ten. But 1996's Back to the World was a sales disappointment, and 1999's Tevin Campbell did even worse. A compilation package was issued in early 2001. ~ Ron Wynn & William Ruhlmann