Songoftheday 1/10/22 - How did i ever let you slip away, never knowing i'd be singing this song some day...

 

 

"If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time" - R. Kelly

from the album R. (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 7

 

Today's song is from R&B singer/songwriter/producer/convict R. Kelly, whose double-disc album R. had already spun off three top-40 pop crossover hits with the #1 duet with Celine Dion "I'm Your Angel", "When A Woman's Fed Up", and "Did You Ever Think" with rapper Nas, the latter song hitting that level in the summer of 1999. Another cut from the album, "Spendin' Money", got enough urban radio airplay to pop on to Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart at #84 that summer as well. The fourth song from the album promoted to pop radio was the ballad "If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time". Written and produced by Kelly, the track has Kelly wanting to get back with his ex, but given his current legal situation could apply just as well to that. The radio version was cut to a still-hefty five minutes from the original which was almost seven. It sounded (probably intentionally) like a 60's throwback, as if Ben E King was redoing "Unchained Melody", with an affected but rather subdued (for him) vocal...

"If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time" became the fourth top-40 pop hit from R., nearly making the top ten in October of 1999. The song rose to #5 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart, #3 on the older-skewing Adult R&B format tally, and was his third and so far final placing on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio list at #24. Internationally, the single was an even bigger success, topping the single's charts in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland, and reaching the top ten in the UK (#2), France (#2), Germany (#2), Ireland (#2), Austria (#2), Sweden (#3), Canada (#7), and Norway (#9). 

Another song from R., "Only The Loot Can Make Me Happy", sampled the lite soul hit "Happy" by Surface. It was released as a single internationally but not in the U.S., and became a top 40 hit in New Zealand (#14), the UK (#24), and Germany (#25).  Kelly will return to the series.

(6/10)

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Here's Kelly performing the song live on Top of the Pops...

Up tomorrow: This boyband goes big.