Songoftheday 10/3/23 - He was always such a nice boy, the quiet one with good intentions...
"Stole" - Kelly Rowland
from the album Simply Deep (2002)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #27 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 8
Today's song comes from Kelly Rowland, who with Beyonce Knowles was one of the two remaining original members of the R&B vocal group Destiny's Child. During the four years of their first run, which saw two different lineup changes booting three women from the act and adding Michelle Williams, the group scored eight top ten hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100, including four that went to #1 (including the Stevie Nicks-sampling "Bootylicious", which Kelly sang most of the lead vocals on). Rowland and Knowles had been together since they were kids, with Rowland actually living in the Knowles' house in Houston growing up, so it was natural their bond wouldn't be broken.
By 2002, Destiny's Child agreed to take a break to focus on solo material, with Michelle Williams releasing a gospel album in the spring of that year. Beyonce's was supposed to follow that fall then Rowland's in 2003, but after the huge success of her collaboration with rapper Nelly, "Dilemma", which spent ten weeks at #1 on the Hot 100 in the summer, Columbia records made Kelly rush to complete hers before schedule ("Dilemma" would appear on the record as the second track). Quickly assembling already pitched demos to make Simply Deep, Rowland would put out a "message song" as the next single from the record.
"Stole", written and produced by Steven Kipner (a long-time veteran who's hits go back as far as Olivia Newton-John's smash "Physical" from 1981) along with Dane DeViller and Sean Hosein, is a pretty dark song lyrically for a "pop" track. The verses start with a kid being bullied for being "smart" (it doesn't elaborate beyond that) who brings a gun into school and starts shooting. After Kelly assumes the role of a classmate who survived but feels guilt on not befriending the boy, the next two verses spell out the lives of two kids whose lives were snuffed out. The bridge reveals the the bullied boy, who despite the victims doesn't get named, lived to be put in (I assume juvenile) prison. The production emphasizes the guitars over the keyboards, and the chord changes keep your mind focused on the poignant lyrics. It's like a TLC-style parable song made more louder, but the thing was is that Destiny's Child never went deep like this, and their fanbase and mostly radio didn't know how to process this. The music video changed the script of the lyrics by having the loner kid unalive himself, with an assumption that the baby Mary is carrying was possibly his., and the basketball ace got shot by a rival group of kids. Nevertheless, it still made for a powerful message (albeit with some shots cribbed from Pearl Jam's "Jeremy"), and the song definitely deserved better, though it did make it to the top-40, because Columbia CANNOT be stopped...
"Stole" became Kelly's second top-40 pop hit as a solo artist in November of 2002, while stalling down at #54 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart (it was a bit too guitar-heavy for urban stations). On the radio, the song made it to #9 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, and #21 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the song got a much better reception, reaching the top ten in the United Kingdom (#2), Australia (#2), Ireland (#3), New Zealand (#3), Norway (#6), Denmark (#7), Switzerland (#9), the Netherlands (#10), and Croatia (#10). It also made the top-40 in Finland (#11), Italy (#12), Sweden (#14), Germany (#15), Belgium (#17 Flanders), and Austria (#24). The Simply Deep album, released in October of that year, came in at #12 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #3 on the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over a half-million copies.
The next single from Simply Deep was "Can't Nobody", which returned Kelly to the lite funk her fans and radio were used to. While the song popped on to Billboard's Mainstream Top-40 radio chart for a week at #40, it lingered for a month in the bottom rungs of the Hot 100 with a high of #97, while stopping at #72 on the R&B list. But again, overseas it did much better, scoring another top ten hit in the UK at #5, while reaching the top-40 in Australia (#13), Ireland (#15), Denmark (#18), the Netherlands (#24), Switzerland (#37), New Zealand (#38), and Belgium (#40 Wallonia). A final single from the set, "Train On A Track", wasn't even promoted in the States, even though it was placed in the movie Maid In Manhattan was then highest-profile Jennifer Lopez. Even so, she got more British love, peaking at #20 in the UK.
Kelly would reunite with Destiny's Child in 2004, but she'll be back to the series as a solo artist a few more times as well.
(8/10)
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next up, for an Dutch awards show in 2003...
and lastly, for a dedication in concert in 2023...
Up tomorrow: This country traditionalist isn't finished yet.
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