POP MUSIC : WHO’S HOT : Boyz II Men: Their Classically Trained Hearts Belong to R

“Just plain old lying and scamming--the all-American way of doing things.� That’s how Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman laughingly describes what the red-hot Motown vocal group did to jump-start its career one crucial night.

Now the group is reveling in the success triggered by its trickery, with a debut album, “Cooleyhighharmony,� that’s nearing the 3 million mark in sales, bolstered by two Top 10 singles, “Motownphilly� and “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.� The latest addition to its list of laurels: Grammy nominations for best new artist and R&B; group vocal.

But in 1989, they were five unknown Philadelphia teen-agers whose experience was largely limited to street-corner harmonizing. Their heroes, the superstar pop-soul trio Bell Biv DeVoe were in town for a show, and the youngsters were determined to get backstage to meet them.

They concocted a story to finagle a pass. Then they boldly started a conversation with BBD’s Michael Bivins, which turned into an impromptu audition in front of a star-studded backstage crowd, including rapper the Fresh Prince, singer Keith Sweat and rap group Kid ‘N Play.

“We just sang a little something a cappella,� recalled Stockman, a tall, slender 19-year-old, sitting by the rooftop pool of a West Hollywood hotel. “We weren’t looking for a record deal or anything. We had just been singing together six months and weren’t really an official group. It was just an honor to sing for Michael. We got an ovation from the people there. Michael was impressed and he said he’d call. But most of us thought, ‘Naw, he’d never call us.’ �

But Bivins did call. When he’s not singing with Bell Biv DeVoe, he’s an artist manager and record mogul, and he eventually signed Boyz II Men. The group also includes Nathan Morris, 20; Michael McCary, 19, and Wayna Morris, 18. (Marc Nelson, now a solo artist on Capitol Records, dropped out before the album was recorded.)

The key to Boyz II Men’s success is Bivins’ unerring eye for raw talent. As head of Biv Entertainment, he also discovered the kiddie soul group Another Bad Creation, another Motown act that had a million-selling album. In fact, Boyz II Men sang background vocals on some of its cuts.

Before their break, the members of Boyz II Men attended Philadelphia’s High School of Creative and Performing Arts and were classically trained vocalists who sang R&B; wherever they could find an audience.

“We were doing a lot of experimenting and trying new harmonies and fitting in the classical stuff we learned into R&B--like; seeing the relationship between James Brown and Beethoven,� Stockman said. “We sang for the sheer joy of it. When you’re young and learning something you love for the first time, there’s a thrill you never really experience again.�

In some ways, Boyz II Men is a throwback to those old Philly doo-wop groups like Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. Though they do sing new-jacked-up material, sounding like a junior Bell Biv DeVoe, the real gems on their album are the ballads, with their inventive vocal arrangements that spotlight intricate harmonies.

With its yuppie GQ magazine image, Boyz II Men is different from other young black groups, which usually play up hip, street-wise qualities. “At first I thought our management people were wrong to put this image on us, because the black kids might not relate to it� Stockman said. “But now I like it. I like being different.�

The next album, he suggested, might separate Boyz II Men even more from the pack. “Forget about this danceable, new-jack stuff,� he said. “We’re really ballad singers. We’d love to do an all-ballads album. What other young R&B; group would do that? That kind of album would set us apart and above the rest of the groups. That’s where we’ve been striving to be since we sang backstage that time for Michael Bivins.�