Robbed hit of the week 11/16/20 - Babyface and Stevie Wonder's "How Come, How Long"...

 

 

"How Come, How Long" - Babyface featuring Stevie Wonder

from the album The Day (1996)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #47 (one week)

 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from singer/songwriter/producer Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, whose fourth studio album The Day have already spun off a pair of top ten pop hits with "This Is For The Lover In You" and "Every Time I Close My Eyes", the latter in the spring of 1997. The third song from the album promoted to radio was the topical "How Come, How Long". Produced by Babyface, who wrote the track with Stevie Wonder, who appears on the record, the song tells a story of an abusive relationship that ends in death, with the lyrics and the music video flipping the script from each other...

Since "How Come, How Long" wasn't released as a commercial physical "single", it was unable to place on Billboard magazine's official pop or R&B charts. However the song just barely missed the top-40 on the airplay component of both lists (#47 pop, #45 R&B) in July of 1997. I think if it was released as a single it would have made it, even though a lot of radio stations were scared away by the subject matter, no matter that it was probably the best song of his career. Internationally, the single was much more warmly-received, with it being the biggest hit from the album in the UK at #10, and reaching the top ten in the Netherlands (#2), Australia (#5), Norway (#5), Sweden (#9), Austria (#9), New Zealand (#9), Switzerland (#10), and Ireland (#10). The song had the distinction of being nominated for a Pop Vocal Collaboration Grammy twice in successive years, first in its album form (losing to John Lee Hooker and Van Morrison's "Don't Look Back"), then in a live version from Babyface's MTV Unplugged album a year later (which went to Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach for "I Still Have That Other Girl". The gripping music video was up for a Grammy as well, which went to the maudlin and self-serving "I'll Be Missing You" from Puff Daddy and Faith Evans. 

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Here's the MTV Unplugged version that was nominated for a Grammy a year later in 1998...

And lastly, with Wonder at the Grammy Awards...