Songoftheday 9/11/20 - Every now and then it invades my mind, some have missed a place through the hard times...

 

 

"Let It Go" - Ray J

from the albums Set It Off (Original Soundtrack) (1996) and Everything You Want (1997)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #25 (four weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 8

Today's song of the day comes from singer/rapper/tabloid-reality fodder Ray J, the younger brother of R&B singer Brandy Norwood. Like his more famous at the time sibling he started acting at a young age, appearing in the short-lived sitcom starring and named after the comedian Sinbad. A couple of years later, Ray landed a cut on the soundtrack to the movie Set It Off featuring Jada Pinkett, Vivica A Fox, and Queen Latifah as amateur bank robbers. Produced by Keith Crouch, who wrote the song with Glenn McKinney and Roy Pennon, the track was released as the third commercial single from the album, after Brandy/Chaka Khan/Gladys Knight/Tamia's "Missing You" collaboration and En Vogue's #2 pop hit "Don't Let Go (Love)". With another song from the movie, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's "Days Of Our Livez", which had already gone to the top-40 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart in the fall of 1996, the double-powered single scored with fans of both acts...

 

"Let It Go" became Ray J's first top-40 pop hit, and the fourth from Set It Off, in March of 1997. The single also climbed to #17 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart as well. Internationally, the single went to #10 in New Zealand. Later on, the song was included on Ray's debut album Everything You Want, which arrived as the song peaked in the U.S., and went to #56 on Billboard's R&B Albums chart. The second single from the set, title track "Everything You Want", reached the R&B top-40 at #29, popped on to the pop Hot 100 chart at #83, and scored a second top-40 hit in New Zealand at #33.

 

Meanwhile, from the Set It Off soundtrack, British blue-eyed soul band Simply Red's remake of Aretha Franklin's "Angel" featuring the Fugees climbed to #6 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart and #95 on the R&B list, while overseas it was a huge success, going to #4 in the UK and reaching the top-40 in New Zealand (#11), Belgium (#12F), Italy (#13), and Ireland (#23). Production team Organized Noize with the film's star Queen Latifah recorded the title track "Set It Off", which got to #51 on the R&B chart and "bubbled under" the pop Hot 100 at #105. Lastly, singer Billy Lawrence and rapper MC Lyte almost made the pop top-40 with "Come On", which topped at #44 on the Hot 100 and got as high as #19 on the R&B chart. 

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and here's Ray J performing "Let It Go" on a TV appearance in 1997...

Up tomorrow: Female R&B group are tumbling for you.