Songoftheday 11/25/19 - See, we be making love constantly, that's why my eyes are a shade blood burgundy...

"Brown Sugar" - D'Angelo
from the album Brown Sugar (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #27 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11

Today's song of the day comes from neo-soul artist D'Angelo, who grew up as Michael Archer in Richmond, Virginia. Signed to EMI Records in 1991, his first success was behind the scenes, with writing and producing the song "U Will Know" by the multi-artist Black Men United from the movie Jason's Lyric, which reached the pop top-20 in the fall of 1994. D'Angelo released his first solo album Brown Sugar in the July of 1995, with the single release of the title track. Written by the singer with Ali Shaheed Muhammed of the rap group A Tribe Called Quest, the song had strong jazz-funk elements in its easy-going appreciation of the "devil's cabbage"...

"Brown Sugar" became D'Angelo's first top-40 pop hit in August of 1995. The song climbed up to #5 on Billboard's R&B chart as well. Internationally, the single got to #24 in the UK, and #31 in the Netherlands. At the Grammy Awards in 1996, the song was nominated for two Grammys - Best R&B Song and Best R&B Male Vocal Performance (both of which went to Stevie Wonder's "For Your Love"). The Brown Sugar album was also nominated for Best R&B Album, which TLC won for CrazySexyCool.

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Here's D'Angelo performing "Brown Sugar" on British TV in 1995...

And live in concert a year later...

and lastly, on stage in 2015 at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam...

Up tomorrow: A drummer leaves his own Nirvana for a new path forward.