Songoftheday 9/23/22 - Don't he know it's one o'clock in the morning, you say it's cool baby it's cool...

 

 

"Maybe I Deserve" - Tank

from the album Force Of Nature (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #38 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 1

 

Today's song comes from Tank, the stage name of  R&B singer/songwriter Durrell Babbs. Tank grew up in Wisconsin, before starting a music career for big names like Aaliyah. The label she recorded for at the time, Blackground, signed him on as a solo artist, and Tank released his debut album Force Of Nature in the early spring of 2001. The lead single from the record was the slow jam "Maybe I Deserve". Written and produced by Tank, the song starts out with him singing about his woman reuniting with a old "friend", oddly going into the "maybe I deserve" chorus that seems to predict that he's cheating as well. summed up at the end with "we all do the same shit". His production sells it at the end as he's running after her when she leaves and the beat picks up like a pounding heartbeat. The music video is simple and effective, illustrating the love triangle...

"Maybe I Deserve" became Tank's first, and so far only, top-40 crossover pop hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in May of 2001. The song made it to #7 on their R&B Singles chart as well. On the radio, the track peaked at #4 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart and #5 on the older-skewing Adult R&B format list. The Force Of Nature album, released in March of that year, got to #7 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, while spending a week at #1 on the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over a half million copies.

A second single from Force Of Nature, "Slowly", missed the top-40 on the R&B Singles chart at #43, while getting to #24 on the Adult R&B radio list and #39 on the R&B/HipHop Airplay tally.

Tank returned the following year with his sophomore effort, One Man, which got to #20 on the Billboard 200 and #4 on the R&B Albums list. The title track and lead single "One Man" stalled down at #25 on the R&B Singles chart, not even coming close to the Hot 100. 

The singer rebounded with his third release, Sex Love and Pain in 2007, his third and final disc with Blackground, which became Tank's highest-charting album spending a week at #2 on the Billboard 200 and a week atop the R&B Albums list. The big single from the set, "Please Don't Go", spent over a year on the R&B Singles chart (55 weeks), with a month at #2, and topping the Adult R&B list for ten weeks, while almost making the Hot 100 top-40 at #42. In 2008, the song was nominated for a Grammy for Best Male R&B Performance, losing to John Legend for his "Heaven". Sex Love and Pain was also up for an award in the Best R&B Album category, which Chaka Khan took home for her Funk This set.

Leaving Blackground for parent company Atlantic Records, Tank put out Now Or Never (on his MoGame vanity imprint) in 2011. Four songs from the set reached the R&B Singles chart, with "Emergency" doing the best, hitting #23 on the R&B chart and #4 on the Adult R&B radio list. It even "bubbled under" the "pop" Hot 100 at #121. That same year, he was nominated for a Grammy as a featured artist on Chris Brown's Graffiti album track "Take My Time" for Best Duo/Group R&B Performance, losing to Sade for their "Soldier Of Love". His second disc for the label, This Is How I Feel, returned Tank to the Billboard 200 top ten at #9, while scoring a third #1 on the R&B Albums list. From the record the song "Next Breath" spent a week at #1 on the Adult R&B radio chart, and getting to #27 on the main R&B Singles list. 

The next project for the singer/songwriter was a "supergroup" album in 2013 with fellow R&B singers Tyrese and Ginuwine as TGT, called Three Kings. The set spent a week at #3 on the Billboard 200, and topped the R&B Albums list. The biggest single from the record, "I Need", went to #29 on the R&B Singles chart and #5 on the Adult R&B radio tally. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, which Alicia Keys won for Girl On Fire. Also in 2013 Tank was featured on rapper Joe Budden's single "She Don't Put It Down" along with Lil Wayne, which hit #32 on the R&B Singles chart, #96 on the Hot 100, and was Tank's first single to make the dance-oriented Rhythmic radio chart at #35.

Tank returned to his solo career the year after with Stronger, which claimed his fifth #1 R&B Album, while getting to #13 on the Billboard 200 in 2014. However the more "adult" sound of the set kept any songs from making the main R&B/HipHop Singles chart, though "You're My Star" hit #6 at the Adult R&B format. That was followed in 2016 by Sex Love & Pain II, which was his most recent #1 R&B Album, and reaching #15 on the Billboard 200. However, both mainstream and adult R&B stations gave it a pass.

In 2017 Tank released Savage, which is his latest top-40 album on the Billboard 200 at #24. The sole single from the record, "When We", did much better, spending eleven weeks at #1 on the Adult R&B chart and making the main R&B Singles list at #35, while returning the singer to the Hot 100 at #78. His next set, Elevation, spent a sole week at #160 on the Billboard 200 in 2019, his most recent appearance there. It's lead single "Dirty" topped the Adult R&B chart for three weeks.

His most recent album, R&B Money, came out in August of this year. It includes his hit "Can't Let It Show", which spent two weeks at #1 on the Adult R&B chart, as did Tank's reprise of his big hit, "I Deserve". His current single from the set, "Slow" featuring J. Valentine, sits at #5 on the Adult R&B radio chart, and #28 on the main R&B/HipHop airplay list. 

(6/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

In 2021, Tank's reprise of the song, "I Deserve", topped the Adult R&B chart, and sported a music video that hilariously spoofs the original...

And lastly, here's Tank dedicating the song to his ex-wife in 2014...

Up tomorrow: This superstar describes femininity.