Songoftheday 12/12/20 - I long for, the warmth of days gone by when you were mine, but now those days are memories in time...

 

 

"4 Seasons Of Loneliness" - Boyz II Men

from the album Evolution (1997)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 19

 

Today's song of the day comes from Boyz II Men, whose sophomore album II had scored a pair of #1 pop hits with "I'll Make Love To You" and "On Bended Knee", as well as two respectable follow-ups in "Thank You" and "Water Runs Dry", the latter reaching #2 in the summer of 1995. The group also had two huge collaborations, the first a top ten hit with rapper LL Cool J in "Hey Lover" also in '95, and at the end of the year with their record-breaking 16-week stint at #1 with Mariah Carey on "One Sweet Day". However at the same time their label Motown released a stop-gap "remix album" (more common in the late 1980s) which the Boyz were not happy about, which probably burdened their promotion for their next album Evolution in 1997. The lead single, "4 Seasons Of Loneliness", was written by the Flyte Tyme duo of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The song puts them again in a down mood, with a skittling beat under mournful lyrics of a lost love. With their name still A-list in the public eye, this rocketed on to the chart at #2...

"4 Seasons Of Loneliness" became Boyz II Men's fifth (and most recent) #1 pop hit in October of 1997. The song spent a month (four weeks) on Billboard magazine's R&B chart, and a solitary week at #30 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio list. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in New Zealand (#2), Canada (#8), and the UK (#10). It also made the top-40 in the Netherlands (#11), Australia (#13), Belgium (#13F/#38W), Ireland (#26), and Switzerland (#32). The Evolution album became the group's second and last #1 album (after II), going on to sell over two million copies. At the 1998 Grammy Awards, Evolution was nominated for Best R&B Album, which went to Erykah Badu for her debut set Baduizm. 

 

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Here's Boyz II Men performing the song on Letterman to promote the single...

 

 and again on Keenan Ivory Wayans' show...

and lastly, Wanya Morris with Sevyn Streeter remaking his hit just this last week...

R&B singer wants it all...