Songoftheday 10/12/22 - I know when he's been on your mind, that distant look is in your eyes...

 

 

"All Or Nothing" - O-Town

from the album O-Town (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 16

 

Today's song comes from the Florida-grown boy-band O-Town, who followed the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC from the music factory of (now-dead) felon Lou Pearlman to score a top ten pop hit in the beginning of 2001 with "Liquid Dreams", one of the worst songs ever to be a big hit on the charts.  They followed that up with a more "trad boy-band" love ballad, "All Or Nothing". Written by producer Steve Mac with Wayne Hector, the song benefits from Mac's better grasp of production, but again fails in the originality of the lyrics, which has the boys signing to a girl who clearly isn't over her previous relationship, and are asking for her complete attention, but with lines like "Is it all or are we just friends? Is this how it ends?", it seems like she's already friendzoned them after the obligatory rebound bang. Nevertheless, that's what the 12-24 year old female crowd wants to hear, and they delivered with a record that sounds good, even if it was kind of bland-ish. In return, the quintet landed their biggest hit...

"All Or Nothing" became O-Town's second top ten pop hit in America in July of 2001. On the radio, the song topped Billboard magazine's Mainstream top-40 chart for a full month (four weeks), hit #40 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format, peaked at #29 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic station tally, and made it to #4 on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") list, spending a hefty 40 weeks on the latter chart. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in the United Kingdom (#4), Ireland (#4), Canada (#5), Austria (#5), Switzerland (#9), and Germany (#10).

A third single from the record, "We Fit Together", was offered as a special "B-side" on the American single of "All Or Nothing". However on its own while it made it to #25 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart in America, it only "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #104. The single was a bigger international hit, making the top-40 in the UK (#20), Ireland (#27), and Germany (#39). Of course with the breezy Cutfather & Joe production its the most enjoyable of the trio.

The group returned the following year with their sophomore effort, O2. Just on their remaining fanbase, the album made the top-40 on the Billboard 200 sales tally at #28, but the lead single, "These Are The Days", stalled at #64 on the Hot 100, even though on Mainstream Top-40 stations it climbed to #16. At that point their label J Records (the Clive Davis company) dropped them, and they split up.

Member Ashley Parker Angel released his debut solo album in 2006, and will be back to this series. He also has been on some Broadway shows, touring as Fiyero in Wicked. 

In 2013, Erik Michael Estrada, Dan Miller, Trevor Penick, and Jacob Underwood reunited without Angel, and released Lines And Circles independently a year later. Their most recent album, The O.T.W.N. Album, came out in 2019, along with its single "Hello World". 

(5/10)

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O-Town performed the song on the Maury Povich show, before he descended into the paternity test/lie detector factory...

Next up, in concert at their peak in 2001...

and lastly, the four of them without Angel reuniting in 2019...

Up tomorrow: This R&B singer is into comparisons.