Songoftheday 7/18/17 - Our friends think we're opposites falling in and out of love, they all said we'd never last still we manage to stay together...
from the album Rhythm Nation: 1814 (1989)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 15
Today's song of the day is by Janet Jackson, whose epic Rhythm Nation:1814 opus had already generated six huge hits with "Alright", "Come Back To Me", "Rhythm Nation", and three #1 pop singles in "Miss You Much", "Escapade", and "Black Cat". The seventh (and final physical) single released from the album was the ebullient dance-pop stomp of "Love Will Never Do (Without You)". Written and produced by the Flyte Tyme team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the song sported a music video directed by photographer Herb Ritts, who did for Janet what he did for Madonna on her "Cherish" clip, using black-and-white footage among handsome men on the beach, including the most useful thing Antonio Sabato Jr. has ever done. Her label head Herb Alpert's trumpet also makes a cameo in the outro of the song...
"Love Will Never Do (Without You)" became the fourth #1 and overall seventh top-5 pop hit from Rhythm Nation, then a record topping even her brother Michael. The song also peaked at #3 on Billboard's R&B chart, while crossing over to the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio list at #33. The 12"/CD single remixes helped the track climb to #4 on their Dance Club Play chart as well. Internationally, the single topped the chart in Canada, and reached the top-40 in Australia (#14), Ireland (#22), New Zealand (#27), the Netherlands (#32), and the UK (#34).
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Here's Janet performing the song live on tour in 2002...
and the 12" "Work It Out" remix from Shep Pettibone that got the song to the top-5 on the dance chart...
Up tomorrow: Skies are blue now for this brotherly duo.
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