Songoftheday 6/13/20 - Who would've known that you had to go, but so suddenly so fast...
from the album Set It Off (Original Soundtrack) (1996)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #25 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10
Today's song of the day comes from a quartet of solo soul singers put together by producer/writer Barry Eastmond for the soundtrack to the movie Set It Off. Directed by music video king F. Gary Gray, the film stars Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett, Vivica Fox, and newcomer Kimberly Elise as a group of friends who come together to plan a bank robbery. For the main song in the movie, "Missing You", four different artists were brought to match the idea of the four women in the flick. Brandy Norwood was just coming off her top ten hit from another film, Waiting To Exhale, "Sittin' Up In My Room", while funk veteran Chaka Khan was last seen in the pop top-40 as one of the singers on Quincy Jones' redo of "I'll Be Good To You" in 1990. Gladys Knight's career goes all the way back to the 1950s, but her last top-40 pop hit was in 1988 with "Love Overboard". Lastly, like Elise, Canadian singer Tamia was the newcomer of the group, also previously slipping on to the pop chart with Quincy Jones on "You Put A Move On My Heart" (#98 Pop/#16 R&B). Eastmond co-wrote the track with Gordon Chambers, who wrote Anita Baker's Grammy-winning single "I Apologize". The single was a big hit on urban radio, and from the quartet's star power and performance crossed over to the pop and easy listening airplay lists as well...
"Missing You" scored the first of four top-40 hits (radio and physical) from Set It Off in September of 1996. The song went all the way to #10 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart, while slipping on to their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio format list for a week at #30. Internationally, the single peaked at #2 in New Zealand. At the 1997 Grammy Awards, "Missing You" was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Collaboration, losing to the gravedigging of Natalie Cole with her dad Nat King on "When I Fall In Love".
Brandy and Tamia would go on to have more singles hit the pop top-40 in America, but this song would be so far the most recent appearances of Chaka Khan and Gladys Knight. Chaka released a compilation album Epiphany, Vol. 1 later that year, with the stellar single "Never Miss The Water" topping the dance chart and reaching the R&B top-40 at #36, but only "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #102. In 2007, she returned to the R&B top-40 with "Angel", spending over half a year on the chart and peaking at #26, and again "bubbling under" the pop list at #119. Another single from that record, "One For All Time", is her most recent R&B hit at #35 in 2008, while "Disrespectful" featuring Mary J. Blige, also from the Funk This set, topped Billboard's Dance Club Play chart. In 2013, the one-off single "It's Not Over" hit that dance chart at #7. Her most recent album, Hello Happiness, was a critical favorite. Meanwhile, "Missing You" would be Knight's final appearance on the pop and soul charts so far. Both Khan and Knight have appeared on the Masked Singer guessing game variety show.
Up tomorrow: An alternative rock act may have been trying to call the Cable Guy?
Comments