Songoftheday 7/10/21 - Now that we have come to be a brand new light, I can see, never thought you'd be a special part of me...

 

 

"Love Like This" - Faith Evans

from the album Keep The Faith (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 15

 

Today's song of the day comes from R&B diva Faith Evans, whose 1995 debut album Faith had spun off a pair of top-40 pop/top-10 soul hits with "You Used To Love Me" and "Soon As I Get Home" At the close of the next year, Faith had a top-40 urban radio hit with "I Just Can't" from the movie High School High (#38 R&B Airplay). However, 1997 brought sadness as her (estranged) husband the Notorious B.I.G. was murdered in March. The tragedy ended up pairing her with Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and 112 for the Grammy-winning #1 smash eulogy "I'll Be Missing You" that summer. 

After having a child with record exec hubby Todd Russaw, Faith re-emerged a year later as a guest on rapper DMX's top-20 R&B hit "How's It Goin' Down". Later in 1998, Faith returned with her sophomore effort, Keep The Faith. The lead single from the set was the disco throwback "Love Like This". Written by Evans with Schon Crawford over a prominent sample of genre legends Chic's instrumental "Chic Cheer" from 1978, and produced by Evans with Combs and Amen-Ra Lawrence, the song glides on the groove as Faith describes a joy of a new love, assumed to be Russaw of course. She does throw some pessimistic lines in there like "Baby, try to understand I'll be crazy if you leave". The sample makes the record, as the harmonies float on by in the chorus, which makes it a choice cruising song. The music video takes advantage of that disco vibe and placing it in a roller skating rink...

"Love Like This" rose all the way to the pop top ten, becoming her biggest lead artist pop hit in December of 1998. The song spent three weeks at #2 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart as well. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in the UK (#24), France (#29), and New Zealand (#33). The Keep The Faith album, released in October of that year, climbed to #6 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #3 on the R&B Albums list, going on to move over a million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2000, "Love Like This" was nominated for Best R&B Female Vocal Performance, losing out to Whitney Houston's "It's Not Right But It's Okay". But it was okay, the pair would collaborate together for a future SOTD. Faith will be back soon.

 (7/10)

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Here's Faith appearing on the kids sketch show All That...

Next up at a Combs-emceed concert in 1998...

 and lastly at a show in 2018 in London...

Up tomorrow: New York City rapper is requesting things.