Songoftheday 11/10/22 -And when my sugar daddy takes me for a ride, whatever way we go it's delirium time...

 

 

"Loverboy" - Mariah Carey featuring Cameo

from the album Glitter (Original Soundtrack) (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 4

 

Today's song is from Mariah Carey, who had finished her tenure with Columbia Records (along with ex-husband/CEO Tommy Mottola) with the album Rainbow, which spun off a pair of #1 pop hits with "Heartbreaker" and "Thank God I Found You" as well as another top-40 placing with "Crybaby" in the summer of 2000. Mariah signed a much-publicized 100 million dollar deal with Virgin Records, which included a music tie-in to her upcoming movie Glitter as the first of five albums. Glitter was supposed to be a gritty look at the music business set in the 1980s, with love and murder in the mix. Before the release of the album, however, music business shenanigans derailed it from the get-go. The lead single from the project, "Loverboy", was cleared to use a sample of a 1979 cut from jazz-funk band the Yellow Magic Orchestra, "Firecracker". However, Mottola, who knew about the sample as she started working on the music before she left Columbia, commissioned the producers of his label's new star Jennifer Lopez to co-opt the song for a track on her sophomore album, "I'm Real". Even though Columbia got the rights after Mariah, their version was released first, causing Mariah and producer Rodolfo "Clark Kent" Franklin Sr. to have to go back to the drawing board and recreate the song. I'm sure this was a huge reason for Mariah's subsequent mental breakdown as she was attempting to promote the album and movie, most explicitly in her "surprise" appearance on MTV's Total Request Live. The pair changed the record to be anchored by the funk hit "Candy" by Cameo, which made the pop Hot 100 top-40 in the spring of 1987, giving members Larry Blackmon and Thomas Jenkins writing credit, as well as a feature on the charts. The song had Mariah cooing about a her new "sugar daddy" who gives her what she wants, with a heaping amount of sexual innuendo seemingly meant as an attack on her ex (who would blame her?). Considering her body of work, the result was quite "tart-ish" and vapidly sensual, as Blackmon and Jenkins yelp the background vocals behind her. Unfortunately, Mariah's public appearance troubles ended up overshadowing the single itself, which was rush-released months before the movie already because of leaks. Because of name recognition and her loyal and still substantial fanbase, the release of the commercial single made it race to the top tier of the pop chart, but radio turning sour on her kept Mariah from going all the way to the winner's circle...

"Loverboy" spent a pair of weeks in the runner--up position on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart in August of 2001, but only spent four weeks in the top-40 (a paltry amount for a top-10 hit). However, thanks to the Cameo sample, it did better with Urban stations, and spent two weeks at #1 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song stalled at #37 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, got to #31 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay list (thanks to a remix with rappers Ludacris and Da Brat), and #21 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic format. Speaking of dance, "Loverboy", which was remixed by David Morales and MJ Cole, was shunned by club DJ's (possibly at the behest of Mottola) stopping at #45 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart. Internationally, the single topped the chart in Croatia, and reached the top ten in Canada (#3) and Australia (#7), but the response was more muted elsewhere, placing in the top-40 in the United Kingdom (#12), Italy (#13), The Netherlands (#34), and Belgium (#34W/#49F). The Glitter soundtrack, released on September 11, 2001 (another huge setback for the record), came in at #7 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #6 on the R&B Albums list, going "platinum"  on shipments but never really selling over a million copies. The Glitter film, which came out a week and a half later, was a flop, making back less than a quarter of its 22 million dollar budget.

The second single, the film's centerpiece ballad "Never Too Far", was written and produced by Mariah with Jimmy "Jam" Harris and Terry Lewis, but by then the interest in the project had tanked, and without a single release the radio tepidness caused it to not even make the Hot 100, "bubbling under" at #104. It did get some airplay at the older-skewing radio formats, reaching #17 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "Easy listening") chart and #14 on the Adult R&B list. Internationally, the song was paired on a commercial single with "Don't Stop (Funkin' For Jamaica)", and hit #1 in Belgium (Wallonia), while making the top-40 in the Flanders part of Belgium (#4), Spain (#16), Italy (#22), the United Kingdom (#32), and Australia (#36). That latter song, which interpolates and old club hit for Tom Browne from 1980, also "bubbled under" the American Hot 100 at #123, while peaking at #42 on the R&B Singles and R&B Airplay lists. At the close of 2001, Virgin and Carey re-vamped "Never Too Far", remaking it as a medley with her older hit single "Hero". The release of a special commercial single caused the new version of "Never Too Far/Hero Medley" to pop onto to Hot 100 at #81, and the R&B Singles chart at #66, while getting some airplay at the Adult R&B format climbing to #18. 

Because of the poor performance of the film and album, and with Mariah having trouble at the time keeping up with promotional duties, Virgin agreed to stop and let her out of the contract. But no worries, Mariah will be back to the series. 

(4/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's the original version that featured the "Firecracker" sample that Tommy Mottola did her dirty on. I mean, they even scrapped that sample to rerelease Lopez's song with Ja Rule. It resurfaced on her Rarities collection in 2020...

A remix of "Loverboy" that kept the "Candy" sample but added rap verses from Da Brat and Ludacris, as well as the uncredited Shawnna and Twenty II, who all appear in the recut version of the music video...

and lastly, Mariah had shunned the song from her concerts, but did have a change of heart, including it in a medley in 2016, and here in 2019...

Up tomorrow: Soul veterans are sorta sickly.