Songoftheday 6/7/22 -It's after midnight and she's on your phone, saying come over 'cause she's all alone...
from the album Fear Of Flying (2000)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 25
Today's song comes from R&B singer Mya, whose debut album in 1998 had spun off three top-40 pop crossover hits with "My First Night With You", "Movin' On", and the top ten "It's All About Me" with Sisqo. In 2000, Mya returned with the first single from her sophomore effort, Fear Of Flying, and like her debut they brought in a "ringer", this time rapper Jadakiss from the Bad Boy Records group The Lox. Despite that, "The Best Of Me" stalled at the halfway mark on Billboard magazine's pop Hot 100 chart in the spring of 2000, though it made it to #14 on the R&B chart. The second release from the record would reverse the downward momentum and become her highest-charting solo hit. "Case Of The Ex", written by producer Christopher "Tricky" Stewart with Traci Hale and Tab Nkhereanyne, Mya confronts a boyfriend (or husband) whose ex is texting him for a hookup. She says how can she trust that he won't get weak and how he's going to handle the situation. It's a real-life plotline that carries through in the grooves, and at the end the song leaves things open to how it's gonna go. In the music video, this drama is played out in the desert with interpretive dance...
"Case Of The Ex" went all the way to the runner-up spot on Billboard's Hot 100 in December of 2000. The song stopped down at #10 on the R&B Singles chart, while spending four weeks at #1 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic radio format list. Internationally, the single took two weeks at #1 in Australia, made the top ten in the UK (#3) and the Netherlands (#8), and reached the top-40 in Ireland (#12), Canada (#14), Belgium (#16F/#26W), New Zealand (#17), France (#29), and Germany (#39). The Fear Of Flying album, released in April of that year, peaked at #15 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #7 on the R&B Albums list, and stayed on the former chart for a full year, going on to sell over a million copies.
A third single from the record, "Free" was a funky jam she co-wrote with Janet Jackson's go-to production team of Jimmy "Jam" Harris and Terry Lewis. Continuing the man-dissing theme with an even better song, "Free" criminally stopped just short of the pop Top-40 at #42, and down at #52 on the R&B chart, even though it was featured in Jamie Foxx's film Bait. Overseas the single got a better result, making the top ten in Belgium (#2F/#8W) and Australia (#4), and just missing the mark in the UK at #11. But don't worry, Mya will return to the series, in a BIG way.
(7/10)
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Next up, last month in concert in Vegas along with "The Best Of Me"...
And lastly, an acoustic version for an Australian gig, after starting with earlier hit "Movin' On"...
Up tomorrow: Louisiana R&B group is calling out untruths.
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