Songoftheday 1/19/23 - When you feel it in your body you found somebody who makes you change your ways like hanging with your crew...

"U Got It Bad" - Usher

from the album 8701 (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (six weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 29

Today's song comes from R&B singer Usher, who had scored his second #1 pop crossover hit with the lead single from his third album 8701 "U Remind Me" in the summer of 2001. At the time, the follow-up was supposed to be "I Don't Know", a track produced by the Neptunes and co-written by Pharrell Williams that featured rapper/mogul Sean "P Diddy" Combs. But after reception at radio was tepid, with the song only making it to #68 on the R&B Singles chart from airplay, the promotion was scrapped, even though a music video was filmed. The Neptunes groove didn't really sync with Usher's smooth delivery, and it was too front-loaded with Diddy.

Instead, the second single from 8701 was "U Got It Bad", produced by Jermaine Dupri and Bryan-Michael Cox, who both co-wrote the song with Usher. In the lyrics Usher sings about being so involved in a romance to the point of obsession, where one puts away friendships and partying and gets laser focused on the other person. His delivery on the mid-tempo production is more talk-singing like R. Kelly was doing at the time, which further heightened the desperation of the feelings he's singing about. Healthy? Of course not, but that kind of devotion gets the ladies pumped, and Usher found himself back at the top again. The music video featured his real-life girlfriend, Chilli from the R&B trio TLC,a relationship that supposedly who inspired the song....

"U Got It Bad" became Usher's third #1 pop hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in December of 2001, while topping their R&B Singles chart for seven weeks. On the radio, the song went to #3 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, spent eight weeks at #1 on the R&B Airplay list, got to #4 on the older-skewing Adult R&B radio panel, and topped the dance-oriented Rhythmic format for nine weeks. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in Australia (#3), Belgium (#3 Flanders/#36 Wallonia), New Zealand (#3), and the United Kingdom (#5), while making the top-40 in Switzerland (#13), Canada (#17), France (#18), the Netherlands (#20), Germany (#26), and Ireland (#36). Both Usher and the 8701 album will return to the series.

(5/10)

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Usher performed "U Got It Bad" at the British Soul MOBO Awards in 2001...