Songoftheday 3/26/22 -I just wanted you to comfort me, when I called you late last night you see...

 

 

"You Sang To Me" - Marc Anthony

from the album Marc Anthony (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 27

 

Today's song comes from Marc Anthony, who after years of going from a Latin freestyle dance artist to a steady career in the Spanish-language music world, crossed over to the mainstream in the "Latin Explosion" of 1999 that also brought us Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, and future wife Jennifer Lopez with his top ten pop hit "I Need To Know".  Marc's follow-up would be the mid-tempo adult pop of "You Sang To Me". Like his breakthrough single this song was written and produced by Anthony with Cory Rooney, and was supposedly was going to be recorded by Lopez, who at the time was not his wife (that was former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres), so that's kind of awkward to start with. The lyrics are the sappy lyrics like...

 

Girl, I live for how you make me feel
So I question all this being real
'Cause I'm not afraid to love

 

...which are pretty intense for the light production in the back that's more Continental than Latin in nature. His delivery is passionate, and the music reminds me of something Jon Secada was doing years before. The music video pairs him up with yet another beautiful woman, who he really gets down with alongside a puzzling subplot involving a homeless guy...

"You Sang To Me" became Marc's second top-40 pop hit, reaching the runner up spot behind fellow Latin artist Carlos Santana in June of 2000. The song spent seven weeks at #1 on Billboard magazine's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart, lingering on there for over a year, while getting to #18 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in the Netherlands (#2), Austria (#3), Norway (#3), Belgium (#6F), and New Zealand (#10), and made the top-40 in Canada (#11), Sweden (#11), Finland (#15), Germany (#21), and Switzerland (#21). At the Grammy Awards in 2001, "You Sang To Me" earned Marc his second consecutive Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, again losing to Sting for his obscure album cut "She Walks This Earth". 

The third English language single from his self-titled album was "My Baby You", which he wrote with producer Walter Afanasieff (then Mariah Carey's go-to guy). It sounds like a Mariah song, and while it did decently on Adult Contemporary radio, reaching #7, the song stalled down at #70 on the pop Hot 100. Another cut from the album, the opener "When I Dream At Night", co-written by a fledgling writer named Robin Thicke (who will eventually make it to this series), was a minor hit in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Germany. Meanwhile, the closing track on the set, the Spanish-language "Da La Vuelta" ("Turn Around"), written by Emilio Estefan and Kike Santander, made the Latin Songs top-40 at #22. 

In 2001, Marc returned not for the big pop world, but back to his salsa roots for the album Libre, which topped both Billboard's Latin and Tropical Albums chart, and got to #57 on the main Billboard 200 sales tally, selling over a half million copies. The lead single "Celos" ("Jealousy") reached #6 on the Latin Songs chart. The record was nominated for a Best Salsa Album Grammy, which went to genre icon Celia Cruz for her La Negra Tiene Tumbao set.

Anthony came back to pop music the following year for his next release, Mended. Despite it being his highest-charting album, spending a week at #3 on the Billboard 200, it sold a fraction of his eponymous record. The first single "I Need You", written by Rooney, landed Marc his biggest Adult Contemporary radio hit at #4, but stopped down at #81 on the pop Hot 100 in Billboard. It did do better overseas, making the top-40 in Canada (#22) and Sweden (#22). Also from Mended the breezy cut "I've Got You" (kind of confusing, no?) got to #23 at Adult Contempoary, while remixes of the track put Marc back on the Dance Club Play list at #22. 

A newly-divorced Anthony married Lopez in 2004, and he also put out two Spanish-language albums, one of Latin Pop (Amar Sin Mentiras) and one of salsa (Valio La Pena). The former reached the Billboard 200 top-40 at #26, and won the Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album, while the second was nominated for Best Salsa/Merengue Album, which went home with Ruben Blades and the Spanish Harlem Orchestra for Across 110th Street. Both records shared seven songs done in the different styles, and one of them, "Ahora Quién" ("Now Who"), topped Billboard's Latin Song chart for two weeks. 

Lopez and Anthony starred together in the movie El Cantante, a biography of salsa artist Hector Lavoe, in 2007. The soundtrack from the film reached the top-40 on the Billboard 200 at #31. After a three year break Marc returned with Iconos, which was mostly covers of older Latin Pop standards, which just missed the Billboard 200 top ten at #11 in 2010. "¿Y Cómo Es Él?"  ("And What Is He Like?"), originally from Jose Luis Perales, got Marc back into the Latin Songs top ten at #7. 

 

Cuban rapper turned pop star Pitbull recruited Anthony to sing on his single "Rain Over Me", which gave Marc his most recent top-40 Hot 100 appearance at #30 in 2011 (so he'll be back as a featured artist).  Two years later, Marc released another salsa set, 3.0, which was a big comeback, going to #5 on the Billboard 200 and scoring a hit on the Hot 100 at #92 with "Vivir Mi Vida", a translated cover of Algerian rai singer Khaled's "C'est La Vie". That song also spent 17 weeks at #1 on Billboard's Latin Songs chart. The album was nominated for Best Tropical Latin Album at the Grammys, losing out to the Pacific Mambo Orchestra for their eponymous release.

As most of the world knew at the time, Anthony and Lopez's marriage didn't last, with the divorce going final ten years from the start (he would be married and divorced one more time after that). In 2018, Marc collaborated with rapper/actor Will Smith and "Latin Trap" star Bad Bunny for the one-off single "Esta Rico" ("It's Good"), which was his most recent top ten on the Latin Songs chart at #5, while "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #104. 

Marc's most recent studio album, Opus, was released in 2019, and went to #90 on the Billboard 200. At the 2021 Grammy Awards, it tied for Best Tropical Latin Album. 

(6/10)

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The Spanish language version of the song, "Muy Dentro de Mí", topped Billboard's Latin Songs chart for three weeks...

 

And lastly, here's Marc performing "You Sang To Me" 

Up tomorrow: Country veteran is reaching an apex.