Songoftheday 2/14/22 - So I'm schemin' I can't go on like this, believin' that her love is true...

 

 

"Get It On...Tonite" - Montell Jordan

from the album Get It On...Tonite (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 23

 

Today's song comes from R&B singer Montell Jordan, whose third album Let's Ride scored a pair of hits with "Let's Ride", which hit #2 in the spring of 1998, and "I Can Do That". A year later, Jordan returned with his fourth effort Get It On...Tonite. The title track, written by Jordan with Darren Benbow, LeVar Wilson, and producers Brian Palmer and Sergio Moore, used the disco nugget "Love For The Sake Of Love" by Claudja Barry as its foundation, giving credit to writers Jorg Evans and Jorgen Korduletsch. A smooth neo-disco track, "Get It On" has Montell propositioning relations with nothing but a short fling in mind, since he already has a girlfriend. The music video makes it even more sus, with Montell openly cheating and not looking at all like he's having a good time with it even. The song does use the sample to best effect, riding the down-key groove to make it a nice nighttime jam...

"Get It On...Tonite" became Montell's eight, and so far last, top-40 crossover pop hit, reaching the top ten in February of 2000. The song was his third to top Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart, where it stayed for three weeks, while it rose to #4 on their Rhythmic radio list and #20 on the older-skewing Adult R&B format. Internationally, the single went to #8 in the Netherlands, and made the top-40 in Belgium (#11W/#18F), Switzerland (#14),the UK (#15), Canada (#15), Germany (#21), and France (#28). The Get It On...Tonite album, released in November of 1999, climbed to #32 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #3 on the R&B Albums list (his highest rank). 

Despite the great reception for the lead single, Montell's follow-up, the Latin guitar-tinged "Once Upon A Time", missed the Hot 100 altogether, "bubbling under" the list at #114, while getting to #35 on Billboard's R&B chart. It did have moderate success in the Netherlands (where "Get It On" was big), reaching #15.

Montell came back in 2002 with a self-titled album, which would end up being his last on longtime label Def Jam, after the lead single "You Must Have Been" stalled down at #44 on the R&B Singles chart, while again "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #124. Signing on with the Koch distribution label, he put out Life After Def in 2003, then over to the Fontana imprint, where his Let It Rain set went to #67 on the R&B Albums chart. From the latter set "Me and U" was a minor hit on the R&B chart at #71 while going to #37 on the Adult R&B format. 

In 2010, Jordan became a devout born-again Christian, disavowing his previous secular work. Joining the Victory World Church, he released a gospel album, Shake Heaven, which went to #3 on Billboard's Top Gospel Albums chart, with the title track "Shake Heaven" going to #32 on the Christian Airplay list. Montell eventually returned to R&B music in 2019 with his most recent album, The Masterpiece, in 2019. In 2021, he revisited his debut #1 with "This Is How You Do It". 

(6/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

 

Part of the big success of the single was a special remix featuring rapper LL Cool J...

 

 and lastly, live in 2008...

 Up tomorrow: new jack swing pioneers finally shuffle their way into the top-40.