Songoftheday 8/5/19 - Lately I've been thinking something's going wrong, 'cause you got an attitude and you're not in the mood like you used to...
from the album Blackstreet (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (four weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 21
Today's song of the day comes from the R&B vocal group Blackstreet, the act started by producer and the "king" of the new jack swing genre, Teddy Riley. Along with Chauncey Hannibal, Levi Little, and Dave Hollister, the latter replacing Joseph Stonestreet after their first single "Baby Be Mine", Riley's production "Booti Call" scored the group their first top-40 pop hit in the summer of 1994. Blackstreet's next single would feature Hollister singing lead, this time on the break-up ballad "Before I Let You Go". Written by Riley, Hollister, and Hannibal along with Leon Sylvers (song doctor who was originally a child star in the Jackson-esque group the Sylvers), the plea to stay together clicked with fans, especially the female type that loves a good cry-song...
"Before I Let You Go" became Blackstreet's first top ten pop hit in January of 1995. The song spent a month (four weeks) at #2 on the R&B chart in Billboard magazine. Surprisingly, despite the success of the single, "Before I Let You Go" failed to chart anywhere else besides the U.S. (I'm not sure it was released as a single anywhere else). Instead, the album track "U Blow My Mind" (which sampled the Gap Band's "Outstanding") was released in the UK, and became their second top-40 hit there at #39. That was followed by "Joy", which climbed to #12 on the R&B chart but just missed the pop top-40 at #43 in America (it was a minor hit in England and New Zealand). Lastly, the sixth single from the set, "Tonight's The Night", which featured female vocal group SWV and rapper Craig Mack on the single version, claimed their fifth R&B top-40 hit at #27, peaking on the pop Hot 100 at #80.
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Here's the group performing the song live at the Apollo theater in 1994...
and on Conan O'Brien...
Up tomorrow: Post-grunge kings sing of a female.
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