Songoftheday 12/1/18 - I saw you holding hands standing close to someone else, now I sit all alone wishing all my feeling was gone...

"One Last Cry" - Brian McKnight
from the album Brian McKnight (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #13 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 18

Today's song of the day comes from soul singer Brian McKnight, who hails from the northwestern New York city of Buffalo, where he grew up in the religious musical background. His brother Claude is a member of the a cappella group Take 6, and with that spark Brian set off on his on solo career. He released this self-titled debut album in 1992, with his lead single, "The Way Love Goes", just missing the top ten on Billboard magazine's R&B chart by one notch (#11 R&B). But it was a track not even on the album that provided Brian's breakthrough. "Love Is", a duet he recorded with Wing labelmate Vanessa Williams for the soundtrack to the TV soap Beverly Hills, 90210, was a huge success, reaching #3 on the American pop chart in the spring of 1993, while topping their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio list for three weeks. With that momentum, Brian and his record company went back to his album and pulled the best ballad of the bunch for his next release. "One Last Cry", written by McKnight with Brandon (his co-producer) and Melanie Barnes, the simple sad keyboard track about breaking up was like the conclusion of his "Love Is" storyline...

"One Last Cry" became Brian's first solo single to reach the American pop chart, getting in the top 20 in September of 1993. The song also climbed to #16 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary format chart, and scaled to #8 on their R&B genre list. Internationally, the record was a minor hit in Canada at #53. One final release from Brian McKnight, "After The Love", missed the pop chart but did reach #39 on the R&B tally.

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Here's Brian playing live (I believe at Showtime At the Apollo)...

and an intimate one-man performance in 2007...

And lastly, in concert in Korea...

Up tomorrow: A two-fer from a smooth but freaky soul group.