Songoftheday 5/26/19 - Where do they get off telling you that I am not the least bit into, just tell me how the hell they can tell you they know what's in my heart...
from the album I'm Ready (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10
Today's song of the day comes from R&B singer Tevin Campbell, whose sophomore album I'm Ready had already spun off a pair of top ten pop hits with "Can We Talk" and "I'm Ready" (a third track from the album, a remake of the Prince song "Shhh...", made the R&B airplay top ten at #8 and nearly made the pop airplay top-40 at #45). The third physical single released from the record would be the love ballad "Always In My Heart". Produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who wrote the song with Daryl Simmons, the smooth soul excursion would climb the charts to become his last big pop success in America...
"Always In My Heart" became Tevin's fifth and final top-40 pop hit in August of 1994. The song also climbed to #6 on the R&B chart in Billboard magazine. Internationally, the song reached the top-40 in New Zealand at #13, and was a minor hit in Australia at #60. The fourth single from the record, "Don't Say Goodbye Girl", which was co-written by Burt Bacharach, went to #28 on the R&B chart, but stalled down at #71 on the pop Hot 100 in America.
Tevin returned in 1996 with his third album Back To The World, but instead of having the compatable Babyface produce the record, Qwest Records hired on Sean "Puffy" Combs to helm the project, which ended up in a more disjointed album. The title track and lead single "Back To The World" did grant Tevin his first hit on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart at #33, but the single stopped short of the pop top-40 at #47 while peaking down at #16 on the R&B list. The song did a bit better Down Under, reaching the top ten in New Zealand at #8 and making the Aussie Top-40 at #31.
In 1999, Campbell released his self-titled fourth disc, with original mentor Quincy Jones taking charge as executive producer but scattered with an array of producers. The first single, "Another Way", slipped on to the American pop chart at #100, and went to #25 on the R&B tally. The song did bring Tevin back to the top-40 in New Zealand at #28, while it curiously was only his second charting single in the UK at #93. Two other minor R&B hits came from the set, including his most recent charting single, "Losing All Control", but that title came at the worst of times. He was arrested in the summer of that year for soliciting sex from an undercover cop, which made the news and subsequently "outed" him in the media, and from there he slipped from the music scene for a while. He's appeared on Broadway and toured the world, and supposedly will appear on the upcoming season of Queen Sugar.
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Here's Tevin promoting the single in a live appearance on BET in 1994...
And lastly, live in concert in 2014...
Up tomorrow: Alternative soul artist is on his mournful knees.
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