Songoftheday 1/19/21 - Nine one one zero zero twenty-four baby it's an emergency, I'm callin' 'cuz gotta have some more...
"My Body" - LSG (Levert/Sweat/Gill)
from the album LSG (1997)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (four weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 18
Today's song of the day comes from the "supergroup" LSG, which combined three of the hottest men in 90's R&B. The "L" was for Gerald Levert, who had previously been in the group Levert before striking out on his own solo career, scoring a top-40 pop hit in the fall of 1997 with his cover of the country hit "I'd Give Anything". The "S" stood for Keith Sweat, who was running the "hottest" of the trio, landing a pair of top 5 pop hits in 1996 with "Twisted" and "Nobody". And lastly the "G" was Johnny Gill, who had a pair of his own top ten pop hits in the early 1990s as well as reuniting with his group New Edition for a couple more in "Hit Me Off" and "I'm Still In Love With You". The act's first single together was "My Body", a slinky and seductive number written by Lincoln "Link" Browder (who will be appearing in this blog eventually) and producer Darrell Allamby. It didn't break any ground Silk didn't already do years before, with "body" showing in the lyrics more than forty five times. Sure the three can definitely sang, but it's hard for me to get into this as anything more than a track to get down with. Nevertheless that market was apparently ripe, as it quickly raced up the chart to land all three what would be their final top ten hit so far individually...
"My Body" became LSG's first (and only) charting pop hit, reaching the top ten in December of 1997. The single was a huge success on urban radio, topping Billboard magazine's R&B chart for seven weeks. Internationally, the single made the top-40 in New Zealand (#18), the UK (#21), and the Netherlands (#32). The LSG album came in at #4 on the Billboard 200 sales chart, going on to move over two million copies.
Despite that huge mainstream success, none of the other singles from the albums made any mark on the pop chart. It didn't help that none were released as physical commercial singles (most likely to goose sales of the album), but even at urban radio the response was muted compared to the massive success of "My Body". Follow-up "Curious", which was more uptempo and featured rap heavyweights LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes, and MC Lyte, only managed to make it to #28 at R&B Airplay in the U.S., though it did land them another top-40 hit in the UK at #23. That was followed by "Door #1", which did slightly better on the R&B Airplay list at #24 (it just missed the British Top-40 at #45). And lastly, "All The Times", which sported cameos from Faith Evans, Missy Elliott, and Coko from SWV, slipped on to the R&B Airplay tally at #58.
Levert, Sweat, and Gill reunited in 2003 for a second album, LSG2. However by then their star power had faded to the oldies circuit, and lead single "Just Friends", featuring rapper Loon, only managed to get to #74 on Billboard's R&B chart, though the album reached enough of their faithful fans to enter at #6 on the Billboard 200 sales chart. Sadly, although he would go on to have two top-20 pop hits after this, Gerald Levert died in 2006, preventing any other collaborative set as LSG, and Sweat and Gill haven't released any albums together since. However, they brought on Gerald's father Eddie Levert, formerly of the O'Jays, to perform live with.
(3/10)
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the trio appearing live on a TV appearance...
and lastly, in concert...
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