Songoftheday 1/19/22 - You set my soul at ease chased darkness out of view, left your desperate spell on me say you feel it too...
"I Wanna Love You Forever" - Jessica Simpson
from the album Sweet Kisses (1999)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (five weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 17
Today's song comes from pop singer Jessica Simpson, who grew up in Texas, where she started out in religious music. Famously auditioning for the New Mickey Mouse Club the same year as Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, and Britney Spears, but not getting in, Simpson initially signed with a Christian label that went bust after she recorded an entire album. Discovered by Columbia Records exec Tommy Mottola, who was looking for a replacement for his former label star/now ex-wife Mariah Carey. He signed her to his label, where she recorded her debut album Sweet Kisses. The lead single from the set was "I Wanna Love You Forever", a big power-ballad written and produced by Louie Biancaniello and Sam Watters, the latter a member of the hit-making group Color Me Badd. It starts out like something as if Mariah was doing a James Bond theme, then goes into breathy verses about her love, closing with the possibly tongue-in-cheek "Pour yourself all over me and I'll cherish every drop here on my knees" before exploding into the chorus, where she's running on all cylinders. I guess the message was to out-Mariah Mariah, and the result is quite a bit shouty, even for Jessica's impressive voice (I blame the producer/writers on this). Simpson is giving her all though, and the bombast worked, giving Jessica her biggest hit on her first try out...
"I Wanna Love You Forever" became Jessica's first top-40 pop hit, and sole one to reach the top ten on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart in America, in December of 1999. The song also climbed to #25 on Billboard's Adult Contempoary (or "easy listening") radio chart, while getting to #34 on the Rhythmic format list. Internationally, the single made the top ten in Norway (#3), Sweden (#5), the UK (#7), Switzerland (#7). Belgium (#8F/#11W), Australia (#9), and Portugal (#9). It also got into the top 40 in Canada (#12), Finland (#12), Ireland (#13), Denmark (#13), Spain (#14), the Netherlands (#14), New Zealand (#16), Italy (#17), Austria (#25), Iceland (#26), and Germany (#27). The Sweet Kisses album, released in November of that year, peaked at #25 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, spending over a year on the chart and going on to sell over two million copies. Both Jessica and the album will return to the series.
(5/10)
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Up tomorrow: Nawlins rapper flashes some jewelry for his big moment.
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