3rd Avenue, composed of Maurice "Moe-P" Pearl, Eric Jason Robinson, and Brad Nelson, were an American trio of R&B vocalists signed to

SOLAR Records SOLAR (acronym for Sound of Los Angeles Records) was an American record label founded in 1978 by Dick Griffey, reconstituted out of Soul Train Records only three years after it was founded with ''Soul Train'' television show host and creator Do ...

(Sound of Los Angeles Records), a

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

-based label built from the existing roster of the former Soul Train Records founded by Don Cornelius.

History

Beginnings and initial group success

3rd Avenue, originally from

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

, gained recognition when

Pabst Brewing Company The Pabst Brewing Company () is an American company that dates its origins to a brewing company founded in 1844 by Jacob Best and was, by 1889, named after Frederick Pabst. It outsources the brewing of over two dozen brands of beer and ma ...

contracted the group to perform commercial

jingles A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meanings that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually ...

for

Olde English 800 Olde English 800 is a brand of American malt liquor brewed by the Miller Brewing Company. It was introduced in 1964, and has been produced by the company since 1999. It is available in a variety of serving sizes including, since the late 1980s, ...

, a brand of malted liquor marketed towards the "urban contemporary market". The resulting exposure from the commercials led to the group signing a recording contract with SOLAR, who had recently signed a distribution agreement with

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

as their previous distribution deal lapsed in 1989. "The Minute You Fall In Love", a record from their upcoming debut album, was placed onto the ''Billboard'' R&B Albums Chart Top 10-peaking '' Deep Cover Soundtrack'', distributed by SOLAR/Epic and released in early 1992. The group's label debut was deemed a "priority project" by SOLAR executives in a June 1992 ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' article alongside the launch of Times 3, a female R&B trio, and 3rd Avenue members Pearl and Robinson co-wrote portions of the project alongside producer Dennis "Den Den" Nelson. Their debut album ''

Let's Talk About Love ''Let's Talk About Love'' is the fifteenth studio album and fifth English-language album by Canadian singer Celine Dion, released on 14 November 1997 by Sony Music. The follow-up to the commercially successful '' Falling into You'' (1996), ''Le ...

'' was released in June 1992. The parent album underperformed as it did not chart at a time in which the new jack swing genre was at its creative peak, but the singles fared better and received national R&B airplay without the aid of music videos, peaking at #66 and #58 respectively. Lead single "I’ve Gotta Have It" remained on the ''Billboard'' Hot R&B Songs chart for 7 weeks, and the second single, a remixed version of the title track, lasted 6 weeks.

SOLAR decline and group dissolution

In 1993, the members of 3rd Avenue co-wrote and/or produced "Baby, I'm Hooked on You", "My Love for You Will Last Forever", and "Are You Ready To Be Loved?" for SOLAR labelmate and Cincinnati-based R&B Group

The Deele The Deele (pronounced like "deal") is an American band from Cincinnati, Ohio who achieved success in the 1980s with such hit singles as "Body Talk (The Deele song), Body Talk" and "Two Occasions". When the group began recording in the early 1980 ...

's final 1993 album ''An Invitation To Love''. Robinson also co-wrote album track "Feel It" alongside Vincent Herbert and SOLAR writer Tania Carmenatti. ''An Invitation To Love'', a foray into a more hip-hop-influenced, new jack swing style without original members Kevin Roberson, Kenneth Edmonds and Antonio Reid, was a commercial disappointment. As a result, Epic did not renew their SOLAR distribution deal, causing the label to cease operations in early 1994. 3rd Avenue disbanded soon after. Over the next two decades, the SOLAR catalog was purchased and sold by various companies (including label The Right Stuff Records in 1996), with Canadian independent record label Unidisc gaining control in 2009. Fragments of "Freak Me" and "Wiggle It", the two tracks that did not make 3rd Avenue's debut album, were leaked onto YouTube in 2018. 3rd Avenue's debut album, along with the catalogs of many of their SOLAR labelmates, was re-released to various music streaming channels in January 2019 as a condition of a new shared global ownership agreement with

BMG Rights Management BMG Rights Management GmbH (also known simply as BMG) is an international music company based in Berlin, Germany. It combines the activities of a music publisher and a record label. BMG was formed in October 2008 after Bertelsmann sold its st ...

. This resulted in the issuance of a deluxe version of ''Let's Talk About Love'', attaching all of the various mixes from both singles to the parent project for the first time.

Solo Careers

Pearl continued writing and producing for other artists, including "Don't Let It Slip Away" for R&B group Groove U's 1994 album ''Tender Love'', "Sweat" for Hi-Five member Tony Thompson's 1995 solo album '' Sexsational'', lead single "I Do!" for Dean Phil's shelved 1997 album ''Personal'', and "What's Really Going On (Strange Fruit)" for

Tony! Toni! Toné! Tony! Toni! Toné! is an American R&B/Soul band from Oakland, California, popular during the late 1980s to mid-1990s. During the band's heyday, it was composed of D'Wayne Wiggins on lead vocals and guitar, his brother Raphael Saadiq (born Char ...

member D'wayne Wiggins' 2000 solo album ''Eyes Never Lie''. He has also written or produced for

Johnny Gill Johnny Gill Jr. (born May 22, 1966) is an American singer and songwriter. He is the sixth and final member of the R&B/ pop group New Edition and was also a member of the supergroup called LSG, with Gerald Levert and Keith Sweat. Gill has rel ...

, Harold Travis, Big Cee, and Smoothe Sylk. In 2002, Pearl released ''Lost Inside'', a solo R&B/Hip-Hop album under the name Moe-P on MoSound Records, and more recently co-wrote "Only You!" and produced "Lady in My Life" from Al B. Sure!'s 2009 album '' Honey I'm Home''.

Discography

Albums

'' (1992)

Singles

Guest appearances

References

{{authority control American contemporary R&B musical groups American boy bands SOLAR Records artists New jack swing musicians New jack swing music groups Epic Records artists