Step By Step

“Step By Step (Gonna Make You Mine)” was Wendy Moten’s actual debut single - released ahead of the better-known “Come In Out Of The Rain” - and it caught producers Charles Farrar and Troy Taylor early in what would become one of 90s R&B’s most decorated partnerships. Taylor had just come off co-writing two tracks for Boyz II Men’s Cooleyhighharmony; a few years later, working together as The Characters, he and Farrar would win a Grammy for Boyz II Men’s II and go on to produce Destiny’s Child, Brownstone and SWV. Here they wrote, arranged, and produced the track together - years before formally branding themselves The Characters - with Taylor also playing drums and percussion.

Ben Grosse handled additional production, recording, and the mix, with Luis Resto on keyboards, Curtis Mathewson on guitar, and vocal groups Couture and The Flow filling out the backing vocals alongside Taylor himself. Dick Williams executive produced the album. It’s a glimpse of two future hitmakers still building their reputation, a couple of years before the Grammy wins and platinum plaques that would define their career.