Inner City is an American electronic dance music band formed in 1987 in Detroit, Michigan. The group originally consisted of record producer and composer Kevin Saunderson (born September 5, 1964 in New York), and vocalist Paris Grey (born November 5, 1965 in Glencoe, near Chicago, Illinois). Saunderson, along with Juan Atkins and Derrick May, is one of the Belleville Three, high school friends who later pioneered the Detroit techno, the first techno musical scene. In February 2018, Billboard magazine ranked them as the 69th most successful dance music artists of all-time.
Musical career Inner City topped the US Billboard dance chart five times, and had nine top 40 hits on the UK Singles Chart. The group's early dancefloor-pop music crossover tracks were "Big Fun" (UK No. 8, US Dance No. 1) and "Good Life" (UK No. 4, US Dance No. 1). Other hits include "Do You Love What You Feel" (UK No. 16, US Dance No. 1) and "Whatcha Gonna Do with My Lovin'" (UK No. 12, US Dance No. 8). The group recorded three albums for Virgin/EMI Records and two singles for Columbia/SME Records.
In the early 1990s, Tommy Onyx was brought on to be the band leader for Inner City live shows. Onyx co wrote the hits “Hallelujah”, “Fire” & “Bad Girl” and produced the Spanish language version of Good Life, “Buena Vida”.
In 2017, a new incarnation of the group was formed with Kevin Saunderson's youngest son Dantiez joining as a permanent fixture. Dantiez and Kevin’s first single as Inner City, “Good Luck”, was released April 14, 2017 on KMS. “Good Luck” features vocals from LaRae Starr and includes remixes from DEAS, Sure Is Pure and Chuck Daniels. In 2018, Steffanie Christi’an was added as vocalist.
In 2020, the Saundersons (Kevin and his son Dantiez) released a new Inner City album with Christi'an as the main vocalist. Called We All Move Together, the title track which featured a spoken word performance from actor Idris Elba. Elba also featured on the single "No More Looking Back", which was the first Inner City project to be released by Defected Records, a British independent record label specialising in house music.
Discography Albums Year Album Peak chart positions Certifications(sales thresholds) UK US AUSAustralian (ARIA) peaks: Top 50 peaks: "Big Fun", "Good Life", "Ain't Nobody Better" and "Do You Love What You Feel": Top 100 peaks from January 1990 to December 2010: "That Man (He's All Mine)" and "Pennies From Heaven": Fire and Praise: All ARIA chart peaks to 18 July 2018: N.B. The High Point number in the NAT column represents the release's peak position on the national chart. GER N.B. Select the Album tab to display albums chart peaks. NED NZ SUI CAD1989Paradise / Big Fun 3162382174291855BPI: Platinum1990Paradise Remixed17—119—————1990Fire——166—————1992Praise52—135—————1993Testament ’9333—166—————2003Good Life—the Best of Inner City————————2020We All Move Together———————— "—" denotes releases that were not released in that country or did not chart.
Album was released as Big Fun in North America.
Singles Year Single Peak chart positions Certifications(sales thresholds) Album UK US USDance AUS AUT GER IRE NED NZ SUI1988"Big Fun"8—15715553—4 BPI: Silver Paradise"Good Life"4731521226685 BPI: Platinum1989"Ain't Nobody Better"10—167—212426409"Do You Love What You Feel"16—176——22———"Whatcha Gonna Do with My Lovin'"1276886——2412—— Big Fun1990"That Man (He's All Mine)"42—15143—————— Fire1991"Till We Meet Again"47—————————"Let It Reign"51——————40—— Praise1992"Hallelujah '92"22—————————"Pennies from Heaven"24—1122———51——"Praise"59—————————"Follow Your Heart"——2———————1993"Till We Meet Again" (remix)55————————— rowspan="15" style="text-align:left;" "Back Together Again"49—————————1994"Do Ya"44—5———————"Share My Life"62—24———————1995"Ahnonghay"97—————————1996"Your Love"28—————————"Do Me Right"47—————————1999"Good Life (Buena Vida)" (PIAS re-recording)10——————7348—2001"Good Love"81—————————"Pump It Up Dub" (with E-Dancer)——————————2003"Big Fun" (remix)86—————————2004"Say Something"——————————2011"Future" (as Kevin Saunderson featuring Inner City)——————————2014"Bad Girl" (as Kevin Saunderson featuring Inner City)——————————2017"Good Luck" ——————————2019"It Could Be" (with Armin van Buuren)—————————— Balance "—" denotes releases that were not released in that country or did not chart.
Articles, interviews and reviews "Kevin Saunderson: “Black people don’t even know that techno came from Black artists”Jaguar talks to Kevin Saunderson and Idris Elba about their Inner City collaboration, the roots of techno and the future of dance music" jaguea, Mix, 22 October 2020 "How we made Good Life: Paris Grey and Kevin Saunderson on Inner City's house classic" interview by Interviews by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, Tue 6 Aug 2019
See also List of number-one dance hits (United States) List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
References
External links [ AllMusic guide about Inner City] Inner City's MySpace Fan Page Inner City Discogs Inner City on AllMusic (Inner City's top tracks, abums & reviews) Kevin Saunderson on AllMusic (member of Inner City, Reese & Santonio)