Songoftheday 11/30/22 -My whole life has changed since you came in, I knew back then you were that special one...

 

 

"Differences" - Ginuwine

from the album The Life (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 26

 

Today's song comes from R&B singer Ginuwine (aka Elgin Lumpkin), whose sophomore effort on 550 Records 100% Ginuwine had scored a top-20 crossover pop hit in the summer of 1999 with "So Anxious".  At the close of that year, Ginuwine was part of a collab single "The Best Man That I Could Be" with Tyrese, Case, and R.L. from the group Next for the movie The Best Man. That song went to #20 on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart, as well as #77 on the pop crossover Hot 100. He also guested on rapper Nas' 2000 album Nastradamus, with their "You Owe Me" going to #59 on the Hot 100 and #13 on the R&B Singles list.

After a small break, where he lost both his parents, Ginuwine returned with his third album (and first on Epic Records proper) The Life in the spring of 2001. The lead single from the record, "There It Is" was co-written by the singer with producers Cliff Jones and Jerry Vines. Although it attempt to replicate the groove on his breakthrough single "Pony", albeit with the opposite plot in the lyrics, it suffered the same fate as the first release from his previous album, the stellar "What's So Different?", missing the pop top-40 at #66 while stopping at #18 on the R&B Singles chart. 

But like the last set, Ginuwine was given a second chance, this time for the love ballad "Differences". Written with producer Troy Oliver, who had helmed Jennifer Lopez's last two big hits, has Lumpkin singing to his wife about how glad he is to have her in his life and how she made him follow the straight and narrow path. Like "So Anxious", though, it was a little bit of a comedown, with the sing-song melody grating on me, though I was in the minority, as the fans flocked to this, and the single returned Ginuwine to the top of the chart for the biggest pop hit of his career. The music video was full of fancy (for the time) special effects from director Hype Williams...

"Differences" became Ginuwine's second top ten hit on the Hot 100 in October of 2001, while spending four weeks at #1 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song topped the R&B Airplay chart for seven weeks, went to #14 on the Mainstream Top-40 Airplay list, landed at #3 on the older-skewing Adult R&B format, and topped out at #2 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic station tally. Internationally, the single made the top-40 in New Zealand at #20 (on a double-A sided single with "Just Because") while just missing it in the Netherlands at #43. The Life album, released in April of that year, became his highest-charting album, spending a week at #3 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #2 on the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over a million copies.

In most of the rest of the world, the song "Just Because" was put out as the second single instead of "Differences", and was a minor hit in Germany (#74) and France (#78). (Of course it's my fave of the record.) The third American single from the set, "Tribute To A Woman", only was a minor hit on Billboard's R&B Singles chart at #61. But don't fret, Ginuwine will be back to the series.

(5/10)

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In 2020, the late rapper Pop Smoke recorded the single "What You Know About Love", which interpolates "Differences", and peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on the R&B Singles chart...

Lastly, back to Ginuwine in concert, bringing his daughters on stage...

Up tomorrow: Aussie country singer takes the long way around.