Songoftheday 3/5/22 - Girl it's only you have it your way, and if you want you can decide...
"Untitled (How Does It Feel?)" - D'Angelo
from the album Voodoo (2000)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #25 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 9
Today's song comes from "neo-soul" singer D'Angelo, whose critically heralded debut album Brown Sugar had spun off two crossover hits with "Brown Sugar" and "Lady", with the latter reaching the top ten on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart in the spring of 1996. However despite the success, D'Angelo found himself with writer's block, and except for one original song for the soundtrack to the movie Belly, "Devil's Pie" in 1998, which got to #69 on the R&B Airplay chart, his only musical output were scattershot covers and collaborations. He finally returned at the close of the old millennium with the lead single from his upcoming sophomore effort Voodoo, "Left & Right". The record featured rappers Method Man and Redman, and was a looser funk affair that tried to fit with the times, but while the record went to #18 on the R&B chart, the single stalled down at #70 on the "pop" Hot 100.
His fortunes turned around again with the second release, though. "Untitled (How Does It Feel?)", a sparse carnal love poem written and produced by D'Angelo and Raphael Saadiq (of Tony! Toni! Tone'! fame), has a jazz-funk feel, with layers of D'Angelo's voice serenading his woman into a sensual frenzy. The circular lyrical set-up only heightens the culmination of the song designed to be playing, during, you know. But what most people remember of "Untitled" was the music video, where the newly buff D'Angelo sings naked in a seamless take of just him doing an erotic "Nothing Compares 2 U" homage, which is appropriate since he wears his Prince inspiration on his proverbial sleeve...
"Untitled" became D'Angelo's third, and so far last, top-40 crossover hit on Billboard's Hot 100 in February of 2000. The song spent a week at #2 on the R&B Singles chart, as well as on the older-skewing Adult R&B radio list. Internationally, the single was a minor hit in the Netherlands at #78. The Voodoo album, released in January of that year, took two weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and four weeks on top of the R&B Albums list. At the Grammy Awards in 2001, "Untitled" won the award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best R&B Song, losing out to "Say My Name" by Destiny's Child. The Voodoo album also won the Best R&B Album category.
The third release from Voodoo was "Send It On", which we wrote with singer/girlfriend Angie Stone and his own brother Luther. The retro groove, kind of what Silk Sonic is putting out now, climbed to #33 on the R&B Singles chart, but missed the Hot 100, "bubbling under" the list at #120. A remake of the soul classic "Feel Like Makin' Love", made popular by Roberta Flack, also got some radio love, though missing the charts.
In 2003, D'Angelo returned the favor to Saadiq, appearing on his Instant Vintage album, with the song "Be Here" nabbing two Grammy nominations, Best R&B Song (losing to Erykah Badu's "Love Of My Life") and Best Urban Alternative Performance (which went to India.Arie's "Little Things"). The single went to #99 on the Hot 100 and #61 on the R&B chart. A year later, a collaboration with jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove, "I'll Stay", got nominated for the Best Duo/Group R&B Vocal Performance Grammy, which went to Beyonce & Luther Vandross for their take on Roberta Flack's "The Closer I Get To You".
Despite this big success, the toll of it along with the mental repercussions of the soul and body-exposing music video caused D'Angelo to fall deeper in trouble, where writer's block again and a fanatical desire to do it all himself, along with his troubles with alcohol and drugs, caused delays that led to him and Virgin Records parting ways, and even new label J Records shuttering before he could release anything. Absorbed into RCA, it took fifteen years for the singer to return with his third disc Black Messiah, credited to D'Angelo and the Vanguard. The album was a big hit, coming in at #5 on the Billboard 200, and spending four weeks at #1 on the R&B Albums list. However, radio stunningly gave it a pass, with lead single "Really Love" only spending a single week on the R&B Singles chart at #43, though it did make it to #4 on Billboard's Adult R&B format list. But at the Grammys in 2016, he was redeemed, with two wins for Really Love in the R&B Song category and Black Messiah for Best R&B Album. "Really Love" was even up for Record Of The Year, which Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars took home for their "Uptown Funk" juggernaut. He's been promising a follow-up record, but as of now nothing has come as yet except a one-off single "Unshaken" in 2019 from the Red Dead Redemption II soundtrack, which is very promising.
(8/10)
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Here's D'Angelo touring behind the Voodoo album...
Up tomorrow: This band is self-destructing.
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