Songoftheday 10/10/20 - I had enough of running wild, I'm switching out my whole lifestyle...

 

 

"Don't Wanna Be A Player" - Joe

from the albums Booty Call (Original Soundtrack) and All That I Am (both 1997)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #21 (three weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 11

 

Today's song of the day comes from neo-soul singer/songwriter/producer Joe (Thomas), who scored his first top-40 pop hit in the spring of 1996 with "All The Things (Your Man Won't Do)". A year later, he returned with another contribution to a soundtrack with "Don't Wanna Be A Player", which was first featured in the movie Booty Call starring Jamie Foxx. Produced by Rodney Jerkins, who wrote the track with Thomas, Jolyon Skinner, Japhe Tejeda, and Marlon Williams, has the singer proclaiming that he's ready to settle down...

 

"Don't Wanna Be A Player" became Joe's second top-40 pop hit in May of 1997. The single climbed to #5 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart as well. Internationally, the single was a top-40 hit in the UK (#16) and New Zealand (#21). The Booty Call soundtrack, released in February of that year, rose to #24 on the Billboard 200 sales chart, going on to sell over a million copies.

 

That summer, a third single and what would immediately precede Joe's second album All That I Am, "The Love Scene", was promoted to radio, but not released as a commercial single (most likely to goose album sales). However without that base, while the song made it to #7 on the R&B Airplay chart, it stalled down at #64 on the airplay portion of the pop Hot 100, unlike its release in Britain, where it got to #22 on their singles chart. That was followed by "Good Girls", which stopped at #27 on the R&B Airplay list, while scoring a fourth top-40 hit in the UK from the album at #29. The song "No One Comes Close" came one notch away from making the British top-40 at #41. Lastly, the title track "All That I Am" got to #37 on Billboard's R&B Airplay chart, and #52 on the British singles list. The All That I Am album, which arrived in the fall of 1997, was his first top ten R&B Album at #4, while topping out at #13 on the main Billboard 200 sales list, and #26 in the UK. 

Meanwhile, the Booty Call soundtrack spun off two other R&B hits. "Call Me" from rappers Too $hort and Lil Kim landed at #30 (and #90 on the pop Hot 100), while "Can We" from female vocal group SWV and rapper Missy Elliott rose to #31 at R&B and #75 on the pop chart. 

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Here's Joe performing the track on BET...

and lastly, live in concert in 2013...

Up tomorrow: Singer/songwriter scores with a slur.