Songoftheday 8/28/21 - Now any other day I would play it cool, but I can't now cause I want you...
"Sweet Lady" - Tyrese
from the album Tyrese (1998)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 19
Today's song comes from singer/songwriter/model Tyrese Gibson, whose debut single "Nobody Else" reached the pop top-40 in the fall of 1998. His follow-up, though, would soon eclipse that success. "Sweet Lady", written by Johnta Austin, Charles Farrar, and Troy Taylor, is nothing beyond a booty jam designed to lure the ladies into the bedroom. With a swaying tempo at just the right speed for, well, you know, Tyrese does his runs (though not nearly as impressively as Jesse Powell on yesterday's SOTD), and with is doesn't really elevate it beyond a so-so song marketed precisely. And so it was especially with the music video, which is a male stripper's backdrop, capitalizing on Gibson's looks as he somehow seduces someone off the bus. I know I'm not the intended audience for this by far, but it kind of straddled the line to being uncomfortable...
Nevertheless, "Sweet Lady" climbed up the pop chart, narrowly missing the top ten by a couple notches in May of 1999. The song also rose to #9 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart. Internationally, the single was a minor hit in the UK at #55, and in New Zealand at #47. At the Grammy Awards in 2000, "Sweet Lady" was nominated for Best R&B Male Vocal Performance, losing out to veteran crooner Barry White for his "Staying Power".
A third single from the Tyrese debut album, "Lately", was co-written by Gibson with producer Derek Allen. While it rose to #12 on the R&B chart, the song stalled down at #56 on the pop Hot 100. To my ears, it was a better song than "Sweet Lady" though. Tyrese will be back to the series eventually.
(4/10)
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Next up, live in concert in 1998...
And lastly, for the AOL Sessions online show in 2012...
Up tomorrow: Country singer needs tenacity.
Comments