Songoftheday 3/29/22 -What would you do to get to me? What would you say to have your way?

 

 

"Try Again" - Aaliyah

from the album Romeo Must Die (Original Soundtrack) (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 29

 

Today's song comes from the late R&B singer Aaliyah, who was just on this series not too long ago with her top-40 pop hit "I Don't Wanna" which was from the soundtrack to the movie Next Friday.  That song also appeared a year later in her own movie Romeo Must Die, where she plays the daughter of a gang boss that falls for a Chinese gang member played by Jet Li. Four of the eighteen tracks were from Aaliyah, including the next single "Try Again". Written by producer Tim "Timbaland" Mosley and Stephan "Static Major" Garrett, the song picks up where her last big hit, "Are You That Somebody", left off, with Timbaland's skittish beats providing a foundation for her vocals to ride on, flirting with a prospective love as she tries to keep it casual yet scoping the future. The "Try Again" part comes into play as she croons that she'll give him multiple attempts until he gets it right. The music video featured Li as well, who I must say is significantly older than Aaliyah (shades of her past), as well as Timbaland. The result was the biggest hit of her too-short career...

"Try Again" topped the Billboard magazine Hot 100 pop list in June of 2000. The song surprisingly didn't go to #1 on the R&B Singles chart, stopping at #4, but did top their Rhythmic radio format list for three weeks. Internationally, the single was just as big, reaching the top ten in the Netherlands (#3), the UK (#5), Canada (#5), Germany (#5), Belgium (#5W/#6F), Norway (#5), Denmark (#5), Portugal (#5), Iceland (#5), Australia (#8), and Switzerland (#8). The Romeo Must Die soundtrack, released in March of 2000, spent a week at #3 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over a million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2001, "Try Again" was nominated for Best Female R&B Performance, losing out to Toni Braxton's "He Wasn't Man Enough". 

 

A third track from Aaliyah from the film, "Come Back In One Piece" featuring rapper DMX who also acted in the movie, rose to #36 on Billboard's R&B chart, while "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #117. Another cut from the soundtrack, "We At It Again" by Timbaland & Magoo,made it to #79 on the R&B chart as well. Aaliyah will be back to the series, but sadly just as tragedy struck. 

(9/10)

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Here's Aaliyah appearing live on The Tonight Show to promote the movie and the song...

...and again on MTV's TRL Live at the beach...

Lastly from a televised concert on MTV where Timbaland shows up as well for both "Try Again" and "Come Back In One Piece"..

Up tomorrow: The most infamous pseudo-Christian rock band makes their big splash vertically.