Evolution is the fourth studio album by American R&B quartet Boyz II Men, released in September 1997. It is their final album released on Motown Records. A Spanish language version, Evolución, was also issued. The Spanish edition won the Billboard Latin Music Award for Pop Album of the Year by a New Artist.[5]
The album was released on September 23, and that night, Boyz II Men signed copies of the album at the Virgin Megastore in New York City. Evolution debuted at #1 in the Billboard 200 with 215,000 copies sold in its first week of release. The album also debuted at #1 on the R&B Album Charts. However, the album spent only one week at the #1 spot and quickly fell down the charts. Evolution sold two million copies in the United States and over four million copies worldwide, a disappointment compared with the successes of Cooleyhighharmony and II. Evolution was not received well by critics. In October 1998, Boyz II Men went to Japan and Europe to promote the album, and during that year they embarked on the Evolution Tour.
Singles[]
The first single released from the album, "4 Seasons of Loneliness", was released in August 1997. The song was Boyz II Men's highest debut on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles. It debuted at #2, behind Mariah Carey's "Honey". The following week, the single went to #1, became their fourth (and fifth overall) and last chart-topper to date. 4 Seasons of Loneliness became Boyz II Men's sixth platinum single. Later that year, the second single, "A Song for Mama", was released, a track which already appeared on the Soul Foodsoundtrack The single reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the R&B Singles Chart, making Boyz II Men the only group in history to have seven platinum singles in the United States.