Songoftheday 8/18/21 - Never thought you bring me so much pain, Lord knows I tried to keep you happy girl in every way...

 

 

"Taking Everything" - Gerald Levert

from the album Love & Consequences (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #11 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 8

 

Today's song comes from R&B singer Gerald Levert, whose third solo album Love & Consequences had already scored a top-20 pop/top ten R&B hit in the autumn of 1998 with "Thinkin' Bout It". His follow-up single flips the script on that last hit with "Taking Everything". Written by Levert with producer Darrell Allamby, Antoinette Roberson, and Lincoln "Link" Browder (who recently had a top-40 hit with "Whatcha Gonna Do?"), the song has Gerald being dropped by his wife, who then takes his house, his money, and his kids despite him being loving and committed. It would seem bitter and spiteful but damn does Levert sell this record, wringing out every last drop of emotion like a sponge, as he confronts her with these questions...

"Taking Everything" came one notch from making the pop top ten, landing his fourth and final solo-billed top-40 pop hit in February of 1999. The song spent two weeks at #3 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart. 

Later that year, Gerald returned with his G album, which was his first to reach the top ten on the Billboard 200 sales tally at #8, going on to sell over a half million copies. Three songs from the set made the R&B chart, but the biggest, "Mr. Too Damn Good" at #20, stalled out at #76 on the Billboard pop Hot 100, although the song gave his sole hit on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart at #25. Moving from EastWest Records to Elektra, Levert scored three more top ten albums, including 2003's Stroke Of Genius, which topped Billboard's R&B Albums list, but even his success on urban radio was waning, with his biggest hit in that period, "U Got That Love (Call It A Night)" from that album, peaking at #30 at R&B, while only "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #103. 

Tragically, as Levert finished his ninth solo set In My Songs for Atlantic Records at the close of 2006, he passed away from a heart attack brought on by a combination of prescribed medications. The following year, his collaboration with Chaka Khan, Carl Thomas,  and Yolanda Adams, "Everyday (Family Reunion)" from the movie Madea's Family Reunion, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Duo/Group Vocal performance, which went to John Legend, Joss Stone, and Van Hunt for their cover of Sly Stone's "Family Affair". At the same time, In My Songs was released, and spent a week at #2 on the Billboard 200 chart, and #1 on the R&B Albums list. The title track, which went to #21 on Billboard's R&B chart, and "bubbled under" the pop Hot 100 at #113, won him posthumously his sole Grammy Award, in the Traditional R&B category. A second collaborative album with father Eddie Levert (of the O'Jays), Something To Talk About, rose to #19 on the Billboard 200, and #5 on the R&B albums list. In 2010, a Best Of Gerald Levert album was released, and from it the unreleased song "Can It Stay" got to #25 on the R&B chart. 

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A second version of "Taking Everything" had co-writer Antoinette Roberson providing the woman's side of the story in this "Soap Opera Mix"...

Up tomorrow: A "Fly" band wakes up early consistently.