Songoftheday 9/29/20 - I really don't feel like talking on the phone, and I really don't feel like company at home...

 

 

"I Don't Want To" / "I Love Me Some Him" - Toni Braxton

from the album Secrets (1996)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #19 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 15

 

Today's song of the day comes from soul/pop singer Toni Braxton, whose sophomore effort Secrets had already spun off a pair of massive #1 pop hit singles with "You're Making Me High" and "Un-Break My Heart", the latter at the turning of the year in 1997. The third and final commercial single released from the record copied the strategy of the lead, with two songs promoted to radio, one leaning more to pop stations and one more to urban radio (in that case, the Waiting To Exhale track "Let It Flow"). The first song, "I Don't Want To", was a breakup ballad written and produced by R. Kelly, though it sure sounded like a Babyface track to me. Describing her despair on losing her lover, the lyrics works as a slow jam as well as a frenetic club track...

 

Meanwhile, the other selection on the single, "I Love Me Some Him", was produced by the team of Soulshock and Karlin, who wrote the song with Andrea Martin and Gloria Stewart. This time Toni is still head over heels in the relationship, but pleading with her lover to stay on board...

 

With Billboard magazine's rules at the time counting airplay from both songs on the pop and R&B charts. the single easily became Toni's third big hit from the album, reaching the top-20 on the Hot 100 in America in May of 1997. The songs did even better on the R&B chart, with "I Love Me Some Him" listed as the key track, where it peaked at #9. On their Adult Contemporary radio chart, "I Don't Want To" got all the way to #4, while the remixes of that track helped it become her third consecutive #1 hit on Billboard's Dance Club Play list. Internationally, where "I Don't Want To" was released solo, the single reached the top ten in Iceland (#7), the UK (#9), and Ireland (#10). It also reached the top-40 in Austria (#11), Belgium (#13W/#16F), Sweden (#15), New Zealand (#21),  Germany (#37), and Canada (#38). 

Another track from the album, "How Could An Angel Break My Heart" with lite jazz sax titan Kenny G, was promoted to radio without being released as a single in the States. While mainstream pop stations passed it by, the song found favor on "easy listening" radio, climbing to #12 on the Adult Contemporary format list, while reaching the top-40 in Ireland (#16), the UK (#22), and the Netherlands (#34).

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Here's the remix transformation of "I Don't Want To" from the legendary Frankie Knuckles that helped the song top Billboard's Dance Club Play chart for a week...

Up tomorrow: "Pristine" R&B band pledges no romantic injuries.