Jon B. (born Jonathan David Buck November 11, 1974 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, USA) is a Grammy nominated American R&B singer and songwriter.Brought up in Rhode Island, Buck was born to a musical family, with his father David a professor of music, his mother Linda, a concert pianist and his siblings Deborah, a violinist and his brother Kevin, a cellist. He first started singing at the age of four, and learned piano and keyboard by nine. By 16, he played bass and drums as well.
Because his grandparents also owned a record store, Buck was raised on a varied musical diet that included many African-American influences like Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder.
In 1988, at the age of 15, his group Def IV released the Nice and Hard album on Rap-A-Lot Records.
In 1992, Jon B. was shopping demos around when he caught the attention of Tracey Edmonds, then President and CEO of Yab-Yum Records. He was contracted as a songwriter for Edmonds and her husband, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, and wrote songs for After 7, Toni Braxton, Michael Jackson, Color Me Badd and others. In 1995, his debut album, Bonafide, was released by Yab Yum/Sony 550/Epic Records. The album contained the top ten hit "Someone To Love," a duet with Babyface that gained wide exposure on the Bad Boys soundtrack, peaking at #10 on the U.S. charts. The Grammy-nominated track highlighted his dulcet tenor voice and garnered Jon comparisons to Babyface himself. Later in the year, his second single "Pretty Girl" became a top forty hit, peaking at #25.
In 1997, Jon's second album, Cool Relax, was released. The album contained three of Jon's biggest hits; "They Don't Know," "Are U Still Down" (which featured Tupac Shakur), and "I Do (Whatcha Say Boo)." Cool Relax was hailed as one of the best R&B albums released that year, and was certified platinum. While on tour promoting Cool Relax, he formed a group with two of his back-up singers, Dominiquinn and Silky Deluxe, named Jack Herrera collectively. A full album, titled Retro Futuristo, was put together, but never officially released. However, two tracks from the project did see release. "Free To Believe" appeared on the soundtrack to the film Light It Up and "High Off You" appeared on Red Star Sounds, Vol. 1: Soul Searching. In 1999, Jon married his high school sweetheart, Music.
His third album, Pleasures U Like was released in 2001, with the sole single being "Don't Talk". The song rose as high as #3 on the US R&B charts. The album was well received critically and publicly, going gold, but poor promotion spurred Jon to leave Epic after its release.
Jon said of the situation: "Basically what happened was, the Sony situation wasn’t working for me. It just got to be too old of a relationship and not enough support emotional-wise, so it was time for new energy. My last album [for Sony] kinda fizzled out, We did a gold [selling] album, which is really cool, off of one single, but I just felt like [Sony] should’ve released more than one single. I worked really hard on that album. I had Nas on there, Faith on there, AZ, Cuban Link - it was a full album, as far as having a shot on the market. But I think that it was just a matter of [lack of] promotion."
A fire in his home caused the destruction of his recording studio. In 2002, his marriage ended. These events caused Jon to take time off to regroup, later signing with Sanctuary Urban Records.
In 2004, his fourth album, Stronger Everyday, was released. Like Pleasures U Like, it was well-received critically, but received sub-par promotion. He then left Sanctuary Urban in late 2005.
In 2006, Jon signed with Arsenal Records, part of the Universal Music Group. In November 2006, Jon released Holiday Wishes: From Me To You, a collection of original compositions and his covers of Christmas classics. He is currently working on a new album, which was originally titled Back to Love. The title was later changed to Hopeless Romantic. A "Greatest Hits Live" album is also in the works.
Throughout his career, Jon has written, produced and arranged music for numerous artists, in addition to doing the majority of production work on his own albums. In 2006, Mexican pop band RBD released a cover of Jon B's "Tu amor" as the first single of their English album "Rebels."
