Songoftheday 4/10/23 -Situations will arise In our lives but you gotta to be smart about it...

 

 

"U Don't Have To Call" - Usher

from the album 8701 (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 22

 

Today's song comes from R&B singer Usher, whose album 8701 had already spun off a pair of #1 pop hits in America with "U Remind Me" and "U Got It Bad".  The third single from the record in the U.S. continued the "U" streak with "U Don't Have To Call", Written by Pharrell Williams, who produced the track along with Chad Hugo as The Neptunes, the song summarily dismisses a girlfriend who questions his faithfulness, with not as much as giving proof of fears as he's ready to go clubbing already, and is already over her. It's pretty damn misogynistic at its core, but no matter since the throngs of his female fanbase were too busy salivating over his body to mind. Especially when he shoves his hand down his boxers at the start of the video...

"U Don't Have To Call" claimed the third top-3 hit from the album on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in May of 2002, while spending eight weeks at #2 on their R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song went to #14 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, #2 on the R&B Airplay list, #17 on the older-skewing Adult R&B radio panel, and #4 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single peaked at #4 in the United Kingdom (on a "double-A-Sided" single with P. Diddy's "I Need A Girl" that featured Usher), and made the top-40 in New Zealand at #27. At the Grammy Awards in 2003, "U Don't Have To Call" won Usher his second consecutive trophy for Best R&B Male Vocal Performance. 

The fourth American single from the 8701 set was "Can U Help Me" (again trying to keep that "U" thing alive), but that song, despite co-written with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, stalled down at #57 on Billboard's R&B chart. Meanwhile, before "U Don't Have To Call" was released overseas, the Jermaine Dupri-assisted song "U-Turn" was put out as the third international single. It climbed to #7 in Australia, and reached the top-40 in the UK (#16), Switzerland (#22), and the Netherlands (#27). 

Usher will return to the series soon.

(5/10)

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Here's Usher performing live on Top Of The Pops....

Next up in concert...

...and lastly, at the "Tiny Desk Concert" webseries at NPR...

Up tomorrow: Soul singer doesn't want memory loss.