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Take That

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Take That is an English pop group from Manchester, put together in 1990 by the manager Nigel Martin-Smith. He wanted a British counterpart to the American boy band New Kids on the Block and built the group around the young songwriter and singer Gary Barlow. Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and the sixteen-year-old Robbie Williams joined through auditions. Barlow sang lead and wrote the songs, Owen and Williams sang along, and Donald and Orange were mainly dancers. In the beginning they performed in clubs, at schools and in gay bars.

Music and breakthrough

The breakthrough came in 1992 with covers of It Only Takes a Minute by Tavares and Could It Be Magic by Barry Manilow, and the debut album Take That & Party. Everything Changes (1993) revolved around Barlow's own songs, with the hits Pray, Relight My Fire and Babe. The high point was Back for Good (1995), from the album Nobody Else, which reached number 1 in many countries and was also a hit in America. Williams left in 1995, and in 1996 the group broke up. In 2006 came a comeback as a foursome with Beautiful World, and in 2010 Williams returned for Progress.

Influence

Take That combined the tight dancing and teenage audience of a boy band with songs that one of the group members wrote himself. That was unusual: Elton John pointed out that Barlow set the group apart from other boy bands. Above all Barlow's ballads, carried by strings and harmony vocals, also made the group popular with adult listeners.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Back for Good and notice how the song builds slowly: it begins subdued, and gradually the strings and the harmonies come in. Hear how the chorus sounds fuller with every repetition.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

See also

Categories: ArtistsBoy bands and girl groups