Songoftheday 4/4/22 - It was love at first sight, I know from the way she looked at me her eyes said it all...

 

 

"I Wish" - Carl Thomas

from the album Emotional (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 13

 

Today's song comes from R&B singer Carl Thomas, who grew up in the Chicago suburbs before being discovered by Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, who signed him to his Bad Boy label in the late 1990's. Thomas' debut album Emotional was released in the spring of 2000. After the lead single "Summer Rain" stiffed (probably from the choice of releasing it in the month of January), Carl returned with the song "I Wish". Written by Thomas with producer Mike "Mike City" Flowers, the song puts Carl as the "other guy" in a love triangle with a married woman. But instead of posturing, the lyrics are pretty nuanced, with the admission that she doesn't want to break up her family with kids, and his resignation that what they had is the most it'll ever going to be. Along with some tasty jazz-style chord changes unusual for a "Bad Boy" production, this was a real gem of a song that got its just desserts on urban radio...

 

 "I Wish" became Thomas' first and only top-40 pop hit in May of 2000. The song spent six weeks at #1 on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart, while topping their older-skewing Adult R&B radio list for ten weeks and popping on to their Rhythmic format chart at #36. The Emotional album, released in April of that year, went to #9 on the Billboard 200 sales tally and #2 on the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over a million copies. 

Carl's follow-up to this success was the album title track "Emotional", which was produced by future SOTD artist Mario Winans and samples Sting's song "Shape Of My Heart". It was a decent urban radio hit, reaching #8 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart, and #3 on the Adult R&B list, but stopped just above the halfway mark on the pop Hot 100 at #47. Then they finally re-released "Summer Rain" in its appropriate season. It went to #18 on the R&B chart, #9 at Adult R&B, and was a minor Hot 100 hit at #80. 

 

In 2001, Thomas returned as a featured artist on labelmate Faith Evans' single "Can't Believe". The song was the first single from her album Faithfully after appearing on a Bad Boy compilation album The Saga Continues..., credited to "P. Diddy & The Bad Boy Family", which went to #2 on the Billboard 200. "Can't Believe" rose to #14 on the R&B singles chart and #54 on the Hot 100, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Duo/Group performance, losing out to Destiny's Child for their "Survivor". 

It was a full four years, a lifetime in the R&B world, for Thomas to come back with his sophomore effort Let's Talk About It. Despite having a featured rap from LL Cool J, lead single "She Is" stalled down at #56 on the R&B singles chart in 2004. The follow up did a little better, with "Make It Alright" at least reaching the R&B top 40 at #33 and #17 on the Adult R&B list, but only "bubbled under" the pop Hot 100 at #108. At this point Thomas and Bad Boy parted ways.

Thomas collaborated with Chaka Khan, Yolanda Adams, and (the late) Gerald Levert for the song "Everyday (Family Reunion)", which was on the soundtrack to the Tyler Perry film Madea's Family Reunion. The song earned him a second Grammy nomination for Best R&B Duo/Group Performance in 2006, which went to John Legend, Joss Stone, and Van Hunt for their remake of "Family Affair" from a Sly Stone tribute album.

The following year, Carl released his third album So Much Better independently on the Universal-distributed Bungalo label. The album initially sold decently, reaching #25 on the Billboard 200 and #4 on the R&B Albums list, but radio wasn't really biting, with the sole single "2 Pieces" only making it to #63 on the R&B singles chart, though on the Adult R&B format it did a bit better at #18. His most recent album, Conquer, came out in 2011 on the Verve label, and spent a single week at #165 on the Billboard 200 and #21 on the R&B Albums list. From it the song "Don't Kiss Me" with rapper Snoop Dogg went to #54 on the R&B singles chart and #12 on the Adult R&B radio tally. In 2021, Thomas was featured on the remix to Donell Jones' single "Karma (Payback)", which rose to #14 on the Adult R&B chart. 

(8/10)

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Here's Carl performing "I Wish" at Showtime At the Apollo in 2000...

and lastly, on a radio appearance in 2021...

Up tomorrow: The boys are back in town for one last go.