Songoftheday 4/12/21 - I am thinking of you in my sleepless solitude tonight, if it's wrong to love you then my heart just won't let me be right...
from the album Butterfly (1997)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 18
Today's song(s) of the day come from Mariah Carey, who had returned to #1 in the fall of 1997 with "Honey", then had a radio hit with the title track from her album "Butterfly" later that year. The second and final commercial single from the record featured the ballad "My All". Written by Carey with producer Walter Afanasieff, the Latin-tinged song has Mariah pining for an ex, losing herself into the desire that she would do anything to get them back. With her marriage to record head Tommy Mottola dissolving, it touched a personal nerve with her fans...
"My All" became the second #1 hit from Butterfly in May of 1998. The song also climbed to #4 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart, and got to #18 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio list. The dance remixes of the song helped it rise to #5 on the Dance Club Play chart as well. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in the UK (#4), France (#6), Switzerland (#7), Spain (#9), and Belgium (#9W/#38F). It also made the top-40 in Sweden (#14), Norway (#15), Ireland (#21), New Zealand (#21), Canada (#28), Germany (#30), Austria (#31), the Netherlands (#32), and Australia (#39).
Meanwhile, the "B-side" on the American single, "Breakdown", started to gain airplay, enough to reach #13 on Billboard's R&B Airplay chart and #53 on the pop Hot 100 Airplay component of the list, allowing it to be listed with "My All" on the chart. The track was a smooth hip-hop song that was a compliment to "My All", as Carey gets her response from the ex and tries to brush the rejection off but has to admit it's getting to her inside. Krayzie Bone and Wish Bone of the Ohio rap group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony provide backup to Mariah, and sound ten times better than their schmaltzy turn on "If I Could Teach The World" from late in 1997. Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and Steven Jordan produced the track, with Jordan co-writing it with Mariah, Anthony Henderson ("Krayzie Bone"), and Charles Scruggs ("Wish Bone")...
Besides it's success in America the song went to #4 in New Zealand and #38 in Australia.
Another hip-hop flavored cut from Butterly, "The Roof (Back In Time)", was a minor hit in the UK (#87) and the Netherlands (#63).
My All: (8/10) Breakdown: (6/10)
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The dance remix of "My All", done by David Morales with re-recorded vocals from Carey, went to #5 on the dance chart...
There was another complete revamp for the R&B market done by Jermaine Dupri featuring rappers Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz, titled "My All/Stay Awhile", that interpolated the adult soul hit "Stay A Little While, Child" from British group Loose Ends. They even filmed its own music video for it..
Here's Mariah performing "My All" at the Pavorotti and Friends concert...
At the Soul Train Awards, Carey sung the "My All/Stay Awhile" version...
Up tomorrow: Another Knight Rider sampling hit.
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