Songoftheday 8/23/21 - I don't know what he does to make you cry but I'll be there to make you smile, I don't have a fancy car to get to you I'd walk a thousand miles...

 

 

"All I Have To Give" - Backstreet Boys

from the albums Backstreet Boys (US) and Backstreet's Back (International) (both 1997) 

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 19

 

Today's song of the day comes from the Backstreet Boys, who had already scored four big pop radio hits from their American debut album with "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)", "As Long As You Love Me", "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)", and "I'll Never Break Your Heart", with the first and third reaching the top ten on Billboard magazine's official pop Hot 100, while the other two (not released as singles and therefore not eligible at the time for that chart) reaching the top ten on the airplay component of the list.  By the time for the fifth song sent to radio from the album, that wasn't an issue anymore, as the music industry trade bible changed the rules to allow all songs to qualify for the Hot 100 (albeit those with sales from singles would still have the edge). Riding on that momentum, the boy-band released the midtempo love ballad "All I Have To Give". Written and produced by the R&B group Full Force (the masterminds behind Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam's big albums), the song is a simple but well executed slice of pop sugar as they serenade their lover with the promise of giving their everything for their relationship (a tried and true boy-band trope). Four of the five members trade turns on lead vocals, making Kevin Richardson as usual the Victoria Beckham of the group...

"All I Have To Give" became the Boys' fifth top ten radio hit, and third on the Hot 100, in February of 1999. The song climbed to #8 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart, while making it to #30 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format list. Internationally, where the song was the third release from their sophomore set Backstreet's Back, it topped the singles chart in Spain and Hungary, and made the top ten in the UK (#2), New Zealand (#3), Australia (#4), Austria (#4), Sweden (#6), Ireland (#6), the Netherlands (#7), Germany (#8), Switzerland (#8), and Finland (#10). The Boys will return to the series. 

(6/10)

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Here's the Boys performing live on MTV to promote the single (be prepared for screaming girls)...

next up, on Shania Twain's TV special that same year...

Move to 2000 for their Millenium tour...

and lastly, upping the beats for their show at London's O2 Arena...

Up tomorrow: A pair of neo-soul singers find old photographs.