Songoftheday 6/26/21 - Boy, I've been watching you like the hawk in the sky that fly but you were my prey...

 

 

"Are You That Somebody" - Aaliyah

from the album Dr. Doolittle (Original Soundtrack) (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #21 (after chart rule change)

Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #4 (four weeks)

Weeks in the Airplay Top-40: 27

 

Today's song of the day comes from the late R&B singer Aaliyah, whose second album, and first apart from Jive and R. Kelly, One In A Million, had really solidified her status in the music world, spinning off three big hits with "If Your Girl Only Knew", "One In A Million", and "The One I Gave My Heart To", the latter returning her to the pop top ten in the fall of 1997. The following year, the singer returned with a contribution to the Eddie Murphy revamp of the Dr. Doolittle film. "Are You That Somebody?" was produced by Tim "Timbaland" Mosley, who wrote it with Stephen Garrett, aka "Static Major" from the R&B group Playa. Aaliyah straddles the line between pristine soulful cooing to harder hip-hop attitude, as she assesses a potential lover for his faithfulness and most importantly, his "responsibility", which could mean the whole safe sex situation without saying the whole safe sex situation. But like most of Timbaland's productions, the groove dominates, this time a downtempo but still danceable skittish beat with those baby-laugh samples that simply make this record. There's no doubting what this is if you were around in 1998 and heard that sample. It doesn't "fit" the theme of the record, but damn it works like a charm. And in the music video, Aaliyah carries herself like a star, dancing and having that A-list prescence. The song would be the third to reach the American Top-40 from the album after Montell Jordan's "Let's Ride" and the 69 Boyz "Woof Woof"....

Since "Are You That Somebody?" wasn't released as a retail single in the States, it initially wasn't eligible to place on Billboard magazine's official Hot 100 pop chart. However, the track got so much radio spins that it reached the top five of the airplay component of that tally in October of 1998. When the trade bible finally changed the chart rules to allow album cuts to chart on airplay alone in December of that year, it still was doing well enough to come in at #21 on the first Hot 100 after that. The song also topped Billboard's R&B Airplay chart for a full two months (eight weeks). Internationally, the single went all the way to the top of the chart in New Zealand, hit #3 in the Netherlands, and reached the top-40 in Canada (#11), the UK (#11), Germany (#31), and Belgium (#40W/#42F). At the Grammy Awards in 1999, "Are You That Somebody" earned Aaliyah her first Grammy nomination, losing out Best R&B Female vocal to Lauryn Hill's unstoppable "Doo Wop (That Thing)".

Another track from the Dr. Doolittle album, "Same Ol' G" from "Pony" rider Ginuwine, just missed the R&B Airplay top ten at #11, while peaking on the Hot 100 Airplay list at #67. Also, "In Your World" by Master P protege Twista with the Speed Knot Mobstaz, was released as a single, going to #63 on Billboard's R&B chart and "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #101. 

(9/10)

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Here's Aaliyah performing "Are You That Somebody?" live at an NBA tie-in concert in 1998, doing her best even with microphone issues...

 Up tomorrow: Coordinated boy-band undergoes organ trauma.