Songoftheday 5/19/22 - Bright lights fancy restaurants everything in this world that a man could want, I got a bank account bigger than the law should allow still I'm lonely now...

 

 

"Incomplete" - Sisqo

from the album Unleash The Dragon (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 19

 

Today's song comes from Sisqo, who had taken a break from the R&B vocal group Dru Hill in the opening of the new millennium. His first solo album Unleash The Dragon had spun off a top-40 hit with "Got To Get It", followed by the hugely successful "Thong Song" which made the pop top ten in the spring of 2000. The third American single from the record was the heartbreak ballad "Incomplete". Written by Montell Jordan (the singer of the #1 hit "This Is How We Do It") and producer Shep Crawford, the song was one much like those he did with his group. That familiarity, coupled with an available commercial single that had "Thong Song" as the "B-side" for sales points, made this song become his highest-charting success. The verses have the melodic cadence of an R. Kelly track, while the chorus is straight on vocal gymnastics as Sisqo howls about how he's nothing without the woman he loves. It's nothing new, but it's professionally and emotionally carried through. At least the music video give the rote happy ending...

"Incomplete" became Sisqo's first and only #1 hit as a lead artist (and second overall after Dru Hill's featured stint on Will Smith's "Wild Wild West") in August of 2000. The song spent five weeks atop Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart, while getting to #12 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic radio list (helped by an uptempo remix from Stargate) and #3 on the older-skewing Adult R&B format. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in the UK (#13), Australia (#28 as a two-fer with "Got To Get It"), and Switzerland (#31). 

A fourth single from the album, title track "Unleash The Dragon" featuring rapper Beanie Sigel, didn't do anything in the States, but was a decent international hit, making the British top ten at #6, while hitting the top-40 in Australia (#18) and the Netherlands (#31). 

Sisqo returned the following year with his second album Return Of Dragon, which made the top ten on the Billboard 200 sales tally at #7, and sold over a million copies. However somehow radio went cold, with lead single "Can I Live" (with backup vocals from "The Dragon Family") stalling all the way down at #72 on the R&B Singles chart, not even touching the pop Hot 100. A second release, "Dance For Me", didn't even reach the R&B chart, only placing at #39 on the Rhythmic Airplay list, but was a bigger hit overseas, probably from its similarity to "Thong Song". It made the top ten in Belgium (#2F/#9W), the UK (#6), the Netherlands (#10) and Switzerland (#10). With fading returns, Sisqo and Dru Hill reunited in 2002. 

In 2014, Sisqo self-released a third solo album, Last Dragon. Besides a minor hit on the Adult R&B radio chart with "Lips" (#39), is went mostly unnoticed. Most recently, he was one of the featured singers on a remake of Quincy Jones' "The Secret Garden" with Omar Wilson, Raheem Devaughn, and Shawn Stockman (of Boyz II Men) in 2020, which went to #18 on the Adult R&B chart. Sisqo won't be back as a solo artist to the series, but he will return with Dru Hill.

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Here's the uptempo remix from the Stargate team that got it played on dance-oriented stations...

 Next up is Sisqo performing "Incomplete" live on The Tonight Show...

and finally, in concert...

Up tomorrow: This country singer has some requirements.