Songoftheday 4/18/21 - Sittin' here with my tears all alone with my fears, I'm wonderin' if I have to do without you...
"I Get Lonely" - Janet Jackson featuring Blackstreet
from the album The Velvet Rope (1997)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12
Today's song of the day is from Janet Jackson, whose sixth album The Velvet Rope had scored her a #1 pop hit in the beginning of 1998 with "Together Again", along with a top-40 pop radio hit in "Got 'Til It's Gone". The second (and final) commercial retail single released in America from the set was the midtempo seductive slow jam "I Get Lonely". Written by Janet with her co-producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (along with writing credit for soon to be ex-husband Rene Elizondo), the song finds Janet in a down place, facing the end of a relationship (!), and pleading for the ex to come back. But such depressing and needy lyrics are completely hidden by the slinky groove that pervades the track as his crests and valleys almost like a booty call jam. There's no "glamming up" of the soul on this record to attempt for a mass appeal, but her fanbase was so large that that wasn't really necessary...
"I Get Lonely" became the second top ten pop hit from The Velvet Rope in May of 1998. With a tweaked remix featuring the group Blackstreet on backup, the song was even bigger on urban radio, topping Billboard magazine's R&B chart for two weeks. The dance remix transformation of the track, done mostly by Jason Nevins, helped it rise to #10 on the Dance Club Play tally as well. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in Belgium (#3F), the UK (#5), New Zealand (#6), and Hungary (#6). It also made the top-40 in Iceland (#13), Canada (#20), the Netherlands (#20), and Australia (#21). At the Grammy Awards in 1999, "I Get Lonely" was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, losing out to Lauryn Hill for "Doo Wop (That Thing)".
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The remix of "I Get Lonely", which was only available on the single and featured Blackstreet, was a big reason this song made the top ten (it only reached #29 on the pop radio list)...
And here's the club remix from Nevins that helped it make the Dance Top-10...
Janet stopped by the Rosie O'Donnell Show to perform "I Get Lonely"...
She sang the track on the Soul Train Music Awards in 1998...
and lastly, in concert on her Velvet Rope tour...
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