P.M. Dawn

P.M. Dawn is a hip hop/R&B musical group, formed by brothers Attrell Cordes (a.k.a. Prince Be, sometimes credited as Prince Be the Nocturnal) and Jarrett Cordes (a.k.a. DJ Minute Mix), in 1988 in Jersey City, New Jersey.

The Cordes brothers' father died of pneumonia when they were children. Further family tragedy saw their baby brother Duncan drown at the age of two. The two elder brothers were raised by their mother and their stepfather George Brown, a founding member of Kool & the Gang.

Group history

P.M. Dawn's 1991 début album Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross: The Utopian Experience featured the international hit "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss", which sampled the Spandau Ballet song "True" (and the music video of the song features a cameo by Spandau Ballet singer Tony Hadley singing the refrain) and Eric B. and Rakim's "Paid in Full" (which was, itself, made from a sample of "Ashley's Roach Clip" from the 70s, the original recording of that drum sample that has been used in dozens of songs since), and reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for one week on the week of November 30, 1991; and also reached #3 in the United Kingdom. The follow-up single "Paper Doll" peaked at #28 in early 1992. With the success of their début album, the band embarked on a world tour.

P.M. Dawn's 1993 follow-up album The Bliss Album...? (Vibrations of Love and the Anger and the Ponderance of Life and Existence) contained the Billboard Top 10 single "Looking Through Patient Eyes", in the spring of 1993 (featuring backing vocals by Cathy Dennis and sampling George Michael's hit "Father Figure"), and their other hit single (Top 5) "I'd Die Without You" was also featured in the 1992 comedy film, Boomerang soundtrack. They also recorded "More Than Likely" with Boy George. Their 1995 album Jesus Wept was less successful: the album's highest charting single was "Downtown Venus", which reached #48 on the Billboard charts.

P.M. Dawn contributed a cover of "You Got Me Floatin'" to the 1993 tribute record Stone Free, a compilation album of 14 Jimi Hendrix songs by musicians ranging from Pat Metheny to Eric Clapton to Living Colour. Mixing the swishing, flanged surreal sounds of the original, from the album "Axis: Bold As Love", P.M. Dawn added a layered hip-hop sound and a strong backbeat.

In 1998, their fourth album, Dearest Christian, I'm So Very Sorry For Bringing You Here, Love Dad was less successful again, with the album's single, "Being So Not For You (I Had No Right)" being only a minor chart hit.

In 2000, they released a greatest hits album, The Best of P.M. Dawn, a release of previous tracks plus new singles.

In June 2005, P.M. Dawn won the fifth round of NBC's hit TV show Hit Me Baby One More Time, performing "Set Adrift On Memory Bliss", and covered Puddle of Mudd's "Blurry", designating their $20,000 charitable prize to go to Child Diabetes research.

2005 also marked the year of some major changes within P.M. Dawn. Member (and brother) J.C. decided to leave P.M. Dawn to pursue an interest in a solo career. This led to the introduction of Doc.G, who is also family (paternal first cousin).

In June 2006, P.M. Dawn commenced a summer tour called "Summer of Bliss, 2006.", playing venues across the United States in an effort to promote a new album, P.M. Dawn Loves You which was to be released in 2007 with a live album also expected to be recorded that year. As of February 2008 neither album has been released.

Sampling lawsuit

In 1999, in the lawsuit Batiste v. Island Records, Inc., P.M. Dawn was sued for sampling David Batiste and The Gladiators. Batiste claimed that P.M. Dawn's song "So On and So On" used unauthorized samples from his song, "Funky Soul." The 5th Circuit Federal Appellate Court found that the Batistes point to no evidence in the record demonstrating that consumers were confused or deceived by either the use of a digital sample of "Funky Soul" in "So On" or the attribution to "David Batiste & The Gladiators" as a co-author of "So On." The Batistes' claim that Paul and Michael Batiste were improperly excluded from the liner notes accompanying the album also fails to suggest that consumers were confused, especially because the liner notes do credit the name of the band in which both Paul and Michael Batiste performed.

Discography

Albums

Compilations

Year	Title	Label
2000	The Best of P.M. Dawn	V2 Records

Singles (commercial and promotional)

"Ode to a Forgetful Mind" (1989)
"A Watcher's Point of View" (1991) #36 UK
"Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" (1991) #1 U.S., #3 UK, #7 Australia
"Comatose" (1991)
"Paper Doll" (1991) #28 U.S., #49 UK
"Reality Used to Be a Friend of Mine" (1991/1992) #29 UK
"I'd Die Without You" (1992) #3 U.S., #30 UK, #42 Australia - also played in the movie "Boomerang"
"Looking Through Patient Eyes" (1993) #6 U.S., #11 UK, #1 Canada, #20 Australia
"Plastic" (1993)
"The Ways of the Wind" (1993) #54 U.S.
"When Midnight Sighs" (1993)
"More Than Likely" (1993) #40 UK
"Norwegian Wood" (1993)
"The Nocturnal Is in the House" (1993) - also played in the movie "CB-4"
"You Got Me Floating" (1993) #43 Australia
"Downtown Venus" (1995) #48 U.S., #58 UK
"Sometimes I Miss You So Much" (1995) #95 U.S., #58 UK
"Gotta Be...Movin' on Up" (1998) #68 UK, #13 Australia
"I Had No Right" (1998) #44 U.S.
"Faith in You" (1998)
"Art Deco Halos" (1998)
"Night in the City" (2000)
"Amnesia" (2002)