Songoftheday 4/27/19 - It's Friday and I'm ready to swing, pick up my girls and hit the party scene...
from the album Age Ain't Nothing But A Number (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 21
Today's song of the day comes from the gone-too-soon R&B legend Aaliyah, who was born in New York City and raised in Detroit, where she started her music career early, appearing on Star Search talent show when she was ten. Her uncle, Barry Hankerson (Gladys Knight's one-time husband), got her signed to his Blackground record label, and was paired up with the man who would become indelibly connected to her, R. Kelly. As the producer and songwriter for her debut album, Age Ain't Nothin' But A Number, the record had his sonic stamp on it. The first single from the set, "Back & Forth", was a street-smart yet smooth bit of post-new jack swing that sported a hook that you usually hear on rap records, spelling her name before she sang. It became her first big hit off the block. But while the record was climbing the charts, Kelly was allegedly having a romantic affair with the then-15-year-old, with a marriage in August supposedly annulled, though Kelly denied it at the time...
"Back & Forth" became Aaliyah's first top ten pop hit in July of 1994. The single was a much bigger success on urban radio and stores, spending three weeks at #1 on the R&B chart in Billboard magazine. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in the UK (#16) and the Netherlands (#38).
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And here's Aaliyah performing the song live in 1997...
Up tomorrow: a game-playing rapper (?) has some dessert.
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