Songfacts®:

• "I'll Make Love To You" was written and produced by Babyface (real name: Kenneth Edmonds), who could do love ballads as well as anyone this side of Smokey Robinson. In the '80s, he wrote and produced for Pebbles, Klymaxx, and the Whispers, and also had hits as a solo artist with "Whip Appeal" and "It's No Crime." He quickly became a very popular producer and songwriter, working on hits for Madonna, Whitney Houston, Johnny Gill, Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige and many others. He formed LaFace Records with Antonio "L.A." Reid.
• After their first album was released in 1991, Boyz II Men recorded "End Of The Road," which Babyface wrote with his songwriting partners L.A. Reid and Daryl Simmons. That song appeared on the Boomerang soundtrack in 1992 and was a mega-hit, spending 13 weeks at #1 in America. It became clear that their sweet spot was emotional ballads with little instrumentation - no more new jack swing like their debut hit "Motownphilly," and they didn't need to dance.
  
  The group members, though, weren't feeling the song, thinking it sounded too much like "End Of The Road." Motown Records' president Jheryl Busby overruled their objections and made sure the song was released.
• In the US, this was the biggest hit of 1994. With 14 weeks at #1, it equaled what was the record for most weeks at #1 in the US, a record that was broken by "One Sweet Day," the 1995 Boyz II Men collaboration with Mariah Carey, which remained at #1 for 16 weeks.
• Babyface recalled the writing of this song in a May 2010 interview with Singersroom.com: "'I'll Make Love To You' was kind of the follow up to 'End Of The Road.' I think I wrote it in an apartment here in LA. Once I finished it, the hard part is like when you do one big song like 'End Of The Road,' it's tough to try to out do it but it was something that was in that line. When I first submitted it, I think the guys liked it but then at one point the record was voted off their album. At the last minute they voted it back in again."
• Along with "On Bended Knee," this set a record for most consecutive weeks in the US Top 2. The week of August 20, 1994, Boyz II Men moved 31-2 with "I'll Make Love to You." The next week, the single moved to #1 and remained there for 14 consecutive weeks. It was succeeded by the follow-up, "On Bended Knee." That song dipped to #2, returned to #1, and fell to #2 again, remaining there until the week of February 11, 1995, for a total of 26 record-setting weeks.
• This won the 1994 Grammy for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal.
• Some of the lyrics of this baby-making number were deemed innocent enough to be used for a "heartsong" by the penguins in the 2006 animated film Happy Feet. Other movies to use the song include:
  
  The Wedding Ringer (2015)
  Blended (2014)
  Can't Hardly Wait (1998)
• The music video was directed by Lionel C. Martin, who also did "End Of The Road" and several other videos for Boyz II Men. It stars Duane Martin as a guy who installs a security system in the home of a beautiful woman. He writes her a love letter, cribbing lyrics from his Boyz II Men CD.
• According to Babyface, Boyz II Men were able to take this song to a higher level. "I had the basic harmonies, but then they came in and added on top of it, and you'd watch it become Boyz II Men in real time," he told People.