Songoftheday 3/16/23 - Broken heart again another lesson learned, better know your friends or else you will get burnt...

 

 

"No More Drama" - Mary J. Blige

from the album No More Drama (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #15 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 9

 

Today's song comes from Mary J. Blige, who had a triumphant comeback in the late autumn of 2001 with her #1 pop and R&B hit "Family Affair".  The second single in the U.S. from the album was the epic power-ballad "No More Drama". Based on the melody from Barry Vorzon and Perry Botkin's "Cotton's Theme", which was used first in the movie Bless The Beast And Children in 1971, then two years later as the opening theme to the long-running television "soap opera" The Young And The Restless. The song got renamed "Nadia's Theme" after Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci during the 1976 Olympics. Odd thing though, Nadia never performed to this song at the Games, it was the overlay music on the American broadcast. Nevertheless, between the soap and Comaneci the instrumental became a huge hit, reaching the top ten on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in 1976...

Writers and producers Jimmy "Jam" Harris and Terry Lewis interpolated "Nadia's Theme" as the foundation of "No More Drama". The lyrics have Mary tossing off the people in her life who are bringing her pain and strife. She even admits that she was part of the blame (Harris and Lewis shrewdly add the line "or maybe I like the stress 'cause I was young and restless"), and is optimistic about her future. Blige has had a rough go of it at the time, so the words hit home so well in this song, and by the end the cathartic release is like opening the floodgates of the soul. It was a perfect counterpoint to the party vibe of "Family Affair", and my only surprise is that it didn't do even better than it did. The music video, directed by Sanji, tells three gripping and emotionally powerful stories of people overcoming big troubles in their lives, and ends with Mary belting her heart out in front of an array of TV screens with Mariah Carey and Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs making cameos. "No More Drama" may not have been her highest-charting hit, but for me it's her most important song....

"No More Drama" reached the top-20 on Billboard's Hot 100 in February of 2002, while peaking at #16 on their R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song went to #18 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, #16 on the R&B Airplay list, #29 on the older-skewing Adult R&B format, and #23 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic radio panel. The house music transformation of the song done by the Thunderpuss team (Barry Harris and Chris Cox) helped "No More Drama" become her fourth #1 hit on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart. Internationally, the single rise to #9 in the United Kingdom, and made the top-40 in the Netherlands (#15), Switzerland (#17), Ireland (#24), Sweden (#29), Australia (#30), Belgium (#34 Flanders), and New Zealand (#38). It just missed that level in France (#42) and Germany (#47). 

Mary and the album will be back to the series

(10/10)

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Mary did a stunning live performance of the song on the British TV programme Later With Jool Holland to promote the album in 2002...

Next up is the house music epic transformation of the song (with added ad-libs from Blige) from Thunderpuss that helped it top the dance chart for a week..

Here's Mary at the Yahoo Pepsi Smash festival in 2005...

Mary sang "No More Drama" at the Super Bowl last year, and here at the Grammy Awards in 2002...

and finally (because I can't get enough) in concert in 2015...

Up tomorrow: This TV and singing star asks a pertinent question.