Songoftheday 3/23/23 - I am a mountain I am a tall tree, oh I am a swift wind sweepin' the country...
"The World's Greatest" - R. Kelly
from the album Ali (Original Soundtrack) (2001)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #34 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 2
Today's song comes from R&B superstar turned incarcerated sex felon R. Kelly, who was still riding high in the music business, scoring his second #1 album in the Billboard 200 sales tally in November of 2000 with TP-2.com, which also spun off three crossover hit singles with "I Wish", "Feelin' On Yo Booty", and the top ten collab with rapper Jay-Z, "Fiesta". At the close of 2001, Kelly contributed two songs to the soundtrack of the boxing champ Muhammad Ali's biopic Ali starring Will Smith. One of them, technically the "theme" song for the film, was released to radio as a single. "The World's Greatest", written and produced by Kelly, is all superlatives, much like the banter Ali used in his press meetings. These boasting lyrics are over a grandiose orchestrated production with a march-like beat underneath. The music video casts Kelly as a boxer, with throngs of fans swarming him.
The thing is, Kelly's stature was gonna start to change. There had been accusations of sexual acts with minors for a little while, including a settled lawsuit and the rumored marraige (and divorce) to R&B star Aaliyah when she was an early teen. And just as the single was rising on the charts, a video was making the rounds, the infamous "pee tape" (no, not Cheeto Benito's one). Kelly denied that it was him vehemently, and it eventually blew over for a while, but I can't say that it didn't have an effect on this single, which leaped into the top 40 then left....
"The World's Greatest" returned Kelly to the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in February of 2002, while making it to #31 on their R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song went to #24 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, #29 on the R&B Airplay list, #25 on the older-skewing Adult R&B station roundup, and #20 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single did even better, reaching the top ten in the Netherlands (#2), the United Kingdom (#4), Germany (#5), Ireland (#6), Sweden (#7), Belgium (#9 Flanders/#16 Wallonia), and made the top-40 in Switzerland (#11), Denmark (#12), France (#13), Norway (#13). The Ali soundtrack, released in November of 2001, went to #61 on the Billboard 200 sales tally. At the Grammy Awards in 2003, "The World's Greatest" was nominated for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, losing out to Usher for his hit "U Don't Have To Call".
Despite the start of his troubles Kelly will be back to the series.
(4/10)
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Up tomorrow: This country singer is quite entwined.
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