Songoftheday 4/24/22 - I said I left my baby girl a message, saying I won't be coming home I'd rather be alone...

 

 

"Where I Wanna Be" - Donell Jones

from the album Where I Wanna Be (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #29 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 9

 

Today's song comes from R&B singer Donell Jones, who scored a top ten crossover pop hit at the close of 1999 with his song "U Know What's Up".  The third release from the album ("Shorty (Got Her Eyes On Me)" was a minor R&B hit at #80) was the neo-soul of "Where I Wanna Be". Written by Jones with co-producer Kyle West, the song has Jones leaving his woman and trying to explain that he needs time and space to get himself in order. It's a mature and rare expression in pop music, and he captures the indecision and introspection pretty damn well. The chord changes in this are just delicious and harkens back to Stevie Wonder's 70's period...

"Where I Wanna Be" became Jones' second and so far last top-40 "pop" hit on the Hot 100 in July of 2000. The song spent three weeks at #2 on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart, and rose to #4 on their older-skewing Adult R&B radio list.

A fourth single from the record, "This Luv", written by Jones with co-producer Sheldon Goode, climbed to #48 on the R&B chart.

Jones returned in 2002 with his third release Life Goes On, which was his highest-charting album at #3 on the Billboard 200 sales tally and #2 on the R&B Albums list, although it sold half as much in the end as Where I Wanna Be. Lead single "You Know That I Love You" stopped at #16 on the R&B Singles chart, and #54 on the pop Hot 100. That was followed by "Put Me Down", featuring rappers Styles P. and Lady May, but the attempt at going for a hip-hop crowd had the song stall at #49 on the R&B chart while it popped in at #98 on the Hot 100, hit last appearance there so far.

Donell's next album, Journey Of A Gemini, got to a respectable #15 on the Billboard 200, while being his only #1 placing on the R&B Albums list, but the first single, "I'm Gonna Be" stopped just short of the R&B top-40 at #41, and after this set Jones and LaFace Records parted ways to go independent under his own Candyman label. His first release there, Lyrics, put him back into the R&B Singles top-40 in 2010 with "Love Like This" at #25, followed by his last R&B singles hit, the weirdly titled "All About The Sex (It's All About The Sex)" at #58. In 2013, Forever was released, which went to #20 on the Billboard 200 and #8 on the R&B Albums list.

His most recent album, 100% Free, arrived in 2021. A cut from the set, "Karma (Payback)", hit #14 on Billboard's Adult R&B radio chart on a remix featuring fellow big names of his time Carl Thomas, RL from Next, Dave Hollister, and Jacquees.

(9/10)

(CLick below to see the rest of the post)

Here's Donell performing the song live at the Apollo...

Up tomorrow: Midwester rapper gives an English lesson.