Songoftheday 5/2/22 - Okay so it's 5 am and I still can't sleep, took some medicine but it's not working...

 

 

"Crybaby" - Mariah Carey featuring Snoop Dogg

from the album Rainbow (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #28 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 2

 

Today's song is from Mariah Carey, whose seventh studio album Rainbow had spun off a pair of #1 pop hits with "Heartbreaker" with rapper Jay-Z and "Thank God I Found You" with boyband 98 Degrees and R&B singer Joe. For the third release from the record, coming at a times with tensions were white hot between Mariah and her record company Columbia, headed by now ex-husband Tommy Mottola, Carey wanted the self-empowerment song "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)", but the powers that be at Columbia wanted to follow "Thank God.."'s ballad with an uptempo song. This feud went quite public as Carey complained openly to her fans and the press about this, and as a compromise, Columbia issued a "double-A" sided single with that song and "Crybaby", featuring rapper Snoop Dogg. However, the rule change Billboard magazine implemented at the close of 1998 that allowed tracks to chart whether or not they were released as a commercial single proved to be a double-edge sword for her. You see, the practice of two songs listed together on the Hot 100 was gone, and all sales points for the single would go to the track with more airplay (the other could still chart, but on airplay alone). In this case it was "Crybaby", which at least got a moderate amount of urban radio airplay, since Columbia (guided by Mottola I'm sure) self-stiffed the promotion of both songs. As for "Crybaby", was written by Carey and Snoop over a sample of new jack swing group Guy's 1988 R&B hit "Piece Of My Love", which gave the group and producer Gene Griffin writing credit. the song has Mariah having an internal conversation over her insomnia over a recent breakup, which by the way wasn't Mottola but rather pro baseball player Derek Jeter. She seems to be giving herself a pep talk even as she's at her new man's house (so damn confusing), to the point of I'm not sure at any moment whether she's addressing herself, the ex, or someone else. Snoop plays hype man before he comes in with his verses, which are delivered in a grating sing-song voice. Producer Damion "Damizza" Young tries to cast Carey in the G-funk groove, but the result, was not tragic, isn't really memorable either...

 

Thanks to her rabid fanbase than will scarf up any single release Mariah releases, "Crybaby" became the third top-40 pop hit from Rainbow in June of 2000. However, the track only spent two weeks in the top-40, and seven in the whole Hot 100, as the single was even given a limited release. The song did make it to #23 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart, while the dance remixes of "Can't Take That Away" helped that song go to #6 on the Dance Club Play list. 

 

Another cut from the album, a cover of Phil Collins' #1 heartbreak ballad from 1984, "Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)", was released as a single internationally, and made the top-40 in Norway (#2), Poland (#2), Portugal (#9), Belgium (#15W/#26F), Italy (#17), France (#18), the Netherlands (#20), Switzerland (#20), and Germany (#29). Later in 2000, another version with added vocals from Irish boyband Westlife was released, and did even better, topping the singles charts in the UK and Ireland, and reaching the top-40 in Denmark (#2), Sweden (#3), Portugal again (#4), Poland again (#16), the Netherlands again (#29), and Belgium again (#31W/#50F). Mariah left Mottola and Columbia behind, but she will return to the series...

(4/10)

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Now here's "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)", which she wrote with song doctor supreme Diane Warren and produced with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. It is the song Mariah really wanted as her third single, but got relegated to "b-side" status. I'd give it a 5/10...

That song was given the remix treatment by David Morales, which got "Can't Take That Away" into the dance top ten. (I'd give this version a 6/10...)

and lastly, a grainy video of Mariah performing "Crybaby" live in concert...

Up tomorrow: This revamped R&B group are bouncing around.