Groove Theory (album)
# Groove Theory (album)

Groove Theory is the only studio album by the American R&B duo Groove Theory, released on October 24, 1995 by Epic Records. The album peaked at number sixty-nine on the US Billboard 200 chart. In October 1996, it was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for surpassing 500,000 copies in the United States.

## Background

   "Well, I mean, inspiration was being young and green and having years and years of songs written before then, and never being in the studio before. It's a live combination of inexperience, excitement, innocence, and a lot to say, you know being years and years of writing stuff, and watching things, and I grew up at the time that the Native Tongues was really popular, that really influenced me. I think I grew up in the hey day of hip hop, the best hip hop, the late 1980s, early 1990s, so I had a lot of stuff to inspire musically that was going on. And it was inspirational for me as a songwriter to be able to have all my own material that I was writing, as opposed to being in a group where some things are written for you."

## Reception

Professional ratings :

| Review scores ||
| - | - |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Pitchfork | 7.7/10 |

Stanton Swihart of AllMusic considered the effort "an exquisite, even innovative album. Not only did it (in retrospect) help to herald the progressive neo-soul movement, but its melding of decidedly hip-hop production techniques... with the emotional impulses and themes of soul was still a novel approach to making R&B at the time."

The album was certified gold by October 1996.

## Track listing

All music by B. Wilson, A. Larrieux, and D. Brown except where noted.

## Personnel

Information taken from AllMusic.

* Art direction – Carol Chen
* Bass – Darryl Brown, Eric "Ibo" Butler, Kirk Lyons
* Design – Sean Evans
* Drums – Ralph Rolle
* Engineering – Russell Elevado, Joe Hornof
* Executive production – Jimmy Henchman, Amel Larrieux
* Guitar – Darryl Brown, Mike "Dino" Campbell
* Keyboard arrangements – Bryce Wilson
* Keyboards – Darryl Brown, Kevin Deane, Gary Montoute, Bryce Wilson
* Mastering – Chris Gehringer
* Mixing – Ron Banks, Russell Elevado, Dave Kennedy, Angela Piva
* Percussion – Jeff Haynes
* Production – Lamont Boles, Amel Larrieux, Bryce Wilson
* Production coordination – Donald Wood, Kim Lumpkin
* Programming – Isiah Lee
* Saxophone – Mike Phillips
* Stylist – Jamie Kimmelman
* Vocal arrangement – Amel Larrieux, Laru Larrieux, Trey Lorenz
* Vocals – Amel Larrieux, Laru Larrieux
* Vocals (background) – Sean Jasper, Jean, Amel Larrieux, Laru Larrieux, Trey Lorenz, Troy Montgomery

## Charts

### Album

Chart performance for Groove Theory :

| Chart (1995) | Peak position |
| - | - |
| Australian Albums (ARIA) | 29 |
| US Billboard 200 | 69 |
| US R&B Albums | 14 |

### Singles

| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Title | Year | US Billboard Hot 100 | US Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales | US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks | US Rhythmic Top 40 | US Top 40 Mainstream |
| "Tell Me" | 1995 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 21 |
| "Keep Tryin'" | 1996 | 64 | 36 | 24 | 29 | — |
| "Baby Luv" | 1996 | 65 | 18 | 23 | 14 | — |

"—" denotes releases that did not chart.

