Robbed hit of the week 11/29/21 - Mary J. Blige's "All That I Can Say"...
"All That I Can Say" - Mary J. Blige
from the album Mary (1999)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #44
This week's "robbed hit' comes from Mary J. Blige, whose third studio album Share My World became her first to reach #1 on the Billboard 200 sales tally in 1997, spinning off two top-40 pop hits with "I Can Love You" and "Everything". In the spring of 1999, Mary paired up with George Michael to remake the Stevie Wonder classic "As". Their stellar version ended up going top ten in the UK, but as George just got arrested for soliticing in a public bathroom, the release was cut short in the States.
Blige's fourth studio effort Mary was released in the summer of that year. The lead single from the set was a composition from former Fugee and Grammy darling at the time, Lauryn Hill. "All That I Can Say", also produced by Hill, is a dreamy slice of adult neo-soul heavily influenced by jazz, with Mary's vocals running riffs like a saxophone through a bevy of chord changes, as she professes her love with lyrics that are more poetic than expository. The music video takes Blige through a dream tour of New York City, though the "We Love You Mary" sign in a little weird...
While "All That I Can Say" rose to #6 on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart, the song stalled right under the pop top-40 in September of 1999. Perhaps the jazz stylings were a little too obtuse for the dumbed down mainstream radio landscape of the end of the millennium. Internationally, the single was a top-40 hit in the UK at #29. The Mary album, released in August of that year, did much better, reaching #2 on the Billboard 200, going on to sell over two million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2000, "All That I Can Say" was nominated for Best R&B Female Vocal Performance, losing to Whitney Houston for her "It's Not Right, But It's Okay", as well as Best R&B Song, which went to Kandi Burriss, Tiny Cottle, and Kevin Briggs for TLC's "No Scrubs". The Mary album was also up for Best R&B Album, which TLC took home for their FanMail. Also from Mary the album cut "Don't Waste Your Time" with Aretha Franklin was nominated for Best R&B Duo/Group Vocal Performance, which again went to TLC for "No Scrubs".
The second single from Mary was "Deep Inside", which also made the R&B top ten at #9, but again stalled down at #63 on the Hot 100, despite featuring an interpolation of Elton John's "Bennie & The Jets" with Elton actually playing on the record. It also surprisingly missed the top-40 in the UK at #42. That was followed by the Diane Warren-written "Give Me You", which climbed to #21 on the R&B Singles chart and #68 on the pop Hot 100, and getting to #19 in the UK. The fourth and last single, "Your Child", spent almost a year (49 weeks) on the R&B chart, peaking at #23, while "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #106. It was transformed into a big club anthem, and became Mary's third song to go to #1 on Billboard's Dance Club Play list. Also from the special expanded edition of the album, the track "Sincerity" featuring rappers Nas and DMX, went to #72 on the R&B Singles chart. The regular version album closer, a remake of the disco classic "Let No Man Put Asunder", was able to climb to #20 on the Dance Club Play chart.
(8/10)
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Hill joined Blige to perform the single on the Queen Latifah Show...
Next up, on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno....
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