Songoftheday 7/31/19 - I wouldn't change a single thing about you baby, you shower my world with your love...
from the album Toni Braxton (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: "How Many Ways": #35 (one week) / "I Belong To You": #28 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: "How Many Ways": 13 / "I Belong To You": 11
Today's song(s) of the day comes from soul singer Toni Braxton, whose Grammy-winning self-titled debut album had already spun off five hit singles with "Give U My Heart", "Love Shoulda Brought You Home", and three top ten successes with "Another Sad Love Song", "Breathe Again", and "You Mean The World To Me", as well as the #1 R&B hit "Seven Whole Days". The fifth physical single released from Toni Braxton would offer two songs equally to radio. The first to hit the chart was the silky soul of "How Many Ways", written by Braxton with producer Vincent Herbert, along with Keith Miller, Philip Field, and Noelle Groin. Helped by a remix done by then-hot R. Kelly, urban station grabbed on to this fast and strong...
"How Many Ways" made it into the pop Top-40 in November of 1994. On Billboard's R&B chart, the song rose to #11.
Meanwhile, the bouncy pop of "I Belong To You" was written by producer Vassal Benford with Ronald Spearman. That track, reminiscent of Benford's songs with Jade and Aaron Hall, soon found mainstream radio preferring it, and in the beginning of 1995 found it listed first...
"I Belong To You" peaked in the top-40 in January of 1995. The song also rose to #6 on the R&B chart as well. In Canada, the song was a minor hit at #80. And at the 1996 Grammy Awards, the song won the award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
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Here's the R. Kelly mix of "How Many Ways" that got urban radio going...
On the other hand, here's the "Roller Skate Mix" of "I Belong To You", which sought the younger audiences...
Up tomorrow: A Japanese song originally titled "I Look Up As I Walk" gets a third run in the top ten in the U.S.
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