Songoftheday 4/30/21 - Two years ago promises is all I heard wait a minute let me finish, two years ago promises is all I heard out of your mouth...

 

 

"Be Careful" - Sparkle featuring R. Kelly

from the album Sparkle (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart

Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #32 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Airplay Top-40:7

 

Today's song of the day comes from R&B singer Sparkle, who grew up Stephanie Edwards in Chicago, where she was discovered by singer/songwriter/producer R. Kelly. Kelly signed her to his own short-lived boutique label Rockland Records, and released her self-titled debut album in 1998. Kelly also wrote, produced, and sang on Sparkle's first radio single "Be Careful". On the track Sparkle confronts a neglectful and probably unfaithful lover, warning that karma will come back around unless they act better, only to have Kelly retort in his verse that she's doing the same thing. Nobody's innocent in this game, and the music video featuring the pair illustrates that...

Since "Be Careful" wasn't released commerically as a "single", it wasn't able to place on Billboard magazine's official pop and R&B charts. However, the song got enough mainstream radio love to make the top-40 of the airplay component of that tally in June of 1998. It was even more massive on urban radio, spending six weeks at #1 on their R&B Airplay list. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in the Netherlands (#4) and the UK (#7). The Sparkle album, released that May, came in at #3 on the Billboard 200 sales list, and #2 on the R&B Albums chart, going on to move over a million copies. A second song from the album promoted to radio, "Time To Move On", just missed the R&B Airplay top-40 at #41. 

Despite the success of the album and debut hit, Sparkle and Kelly fell out with each other, and the singer moved to Motown Records, where she put out her second, and so far last, album, Told You So, which came in at #31 on the R&B Albums chart, and #121 on the Billboard 200 in 2000. Lead single "It's A Fact" stalled down at #62 on Billboard's R&B list. Her most recent single, "Easy", was released in 2020. Her influence can be heard in up and coming neo-soul singer Jhene Aiko and SZA.

(5/10)

Up tomorrow: R&B singer has a method.