Songoftheday 7/7/22 - Silhouette of a perfect frame, shadows of your smile will always remain...

 

 

"My First Love" - Avant featuring Keke Wyatt

from the album My Thoughts (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #26 (three weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 10

 

Today's song comes from singer Avant, whose debut single "Separated" had topped Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart and crossed over to make the top-40 on the pop Hot 100 list. The second single from his first album My Thoughts was a cover of a ballad from 1983 recorded and released by its writers Rene (Moore) and Angela (Winbush). The second single from their album Rise, their original went to #12 on the R&B Chart. The lush string section and anchoring bassline along with their vocals to bring out the best of early-80s soul...

 

 When producer Steve Huff had Avant record his version, he paired the singer up with a then-teen female counterpart in Keke Wyatt. The production stay almost identical to the original, with the same strings, synths, and bass. As for Avant and Keke's vocals, they do a credible job with the acrobatics in the song, though it seems a tad more technical and less raw emotion than Rene & Angela's original. For introducing a 17-year-old song to a new generation, they do "First Love" justice, and didn't fall into updating it with the current sound of the moment, and in return their remake did better than the original did...

"My First Love" became the second top-40 pop hit for Avant, and the first for Wyatt, in December of 2000. The song climbed to #4 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart, while on the radio, it spent eleven weeks at #1 on the older-skewing Adult R&B format airplay list. Both Avant and Keke will be back to the series.

(7/10)

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Here's Avant singing it solo for Live At The Apollo in 2001...

And lastly, a clip of Avant and Keke live in concert...

Up tomorrow: Irish rockers greet the good morning.