Songoftheday 10/13/20 - You've got your problems baby and I've got mine, let's just spend it all by putting it together...

 

 

"Don't Leave Me" - Blackstreet

from the album Another Level (1996)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart

Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #12 (one week)

Weeks in the Airplay Top-40: 23

 

Today's song of the day comes from the R&B new jack swing group Blackstreet, who went all the way to #1 in the fall of 1996 with "No Diggity". A second track from the album, the slow jam "Never Gonna Let You Go", rose to #15 on Billboard magazine's R&B Airplay chart, but failed to catch on with the mainstream stations that played "No Diggity". So a month after that, they switched to promote another album cut, "Don't Leave Me". Written by group leader/producer Teddy Riley, bandmate Chauncey Hannibal, and Etterlene Jones, and riding on a prominent sample of DeBarge's quiet storm classic "A Dream", the record switched between Hannibal, Eric Williams, and Mark Middleton to provide a vocal contest to win their girl back...

Since "Don't Leave Me" wasn't released as a physical single, it wasn't able to place on Billboard's official pop Hot 100 and R&B charts. However the track got enough radio love to make the airplay portion of the pop list in May of 1997, while spending three weeks at #1 on the R&B airplay list. Internationally, the single topped the New Zealand chart for two weeks, and reached the top-40 in the UK (#6 - their biggest British hit), France (#19), the Netherlands (#20), Iceland (#21), Germany (#23), Belgium (#23W), Ireland (#25), Switzerland (#27), and Sweden (#33). 

The next song promoted to radio also cribbed a DeBarge song, with the album closer "The Lord Is Real (Time Will Reveal)", which slipped on to the R&B Airplay chart at #64. That was followed by "Fix", featuring Guns N' Roses guitar man Slash, Wu-Tang rapper Ol Dirty Bastard, and alternative rock band Fishbone. The eclectic experiment, released as a physical single, got a lot of attention, and rose to #17 on the R&B chart, but stalled down at #58 on the pop Hot 100. However the song did much better overseas, where ears were more ready for something different, and the song reached the top ten in Canada (#3), the UK (#7), Belgium (#9), and New Zealand (#9). Another selection from the record, "(Money Can't) Buy Me Love", which reinterpreted the Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love", wasn't even promoted in the States, while in the UK the single went to #18, while hitting #20 in New Zealand. Finally, album cut "I Can't Get You (Out Of My Mind)" stopped at #54 on the R&B Airplay tally. 

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Here's the group appearing live on TV in 1997...

Next up, on MTV Unplugged...

and finally, live in concert in 2006...

Up tomorrow: Married country superstars proclaim their bond.