Songoftheday 10/5/23 - You see I had this brother who was mad at me, cuz I told my home girl that he wasn't packin'...

 

 

"Girl Talk" - TLC

from the album 3D (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #28 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 5

 

Today's song comes from the R&B trio TLC, whose third album Fanmail in 1999 had scored a pair of #1 hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with "No Scrubs" and "Unpretty". However a toll of fame had taken hold of the group, with Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes vocally upset over her role in the trio being sidelined to whatever rap interludes a song may require if any.  Things got so heated that a year later instead of coming together for a follow-up, Lopes openly suggested that all three should be allowed to record solo albums with the same producer (Dallas Austin) and see who sells the most. That never happened, but Lisa released a solo disc anyway, Supernova, which was never released in America after the lead-in single "The Block Party" stiffed here (though it did make it to #16 in the United Kingdom). Meanwhile, Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Rozanda "Chilli" Thomas appeared on the multi-artist charity single "What's Going On" which did crack the top-40. 

The women managed to settle their differences and come together to record a new album, which would become 3D. However, during that recording time, Lopes was tragically killed in a motor vehicle accident in Central America as she was putting together a documentary. By then Lisa had recorded her parts for a few tracks, one of them being what would be released as the lead single, "Girl Talk". Written by Lopes and Watkins along with producer Eddie "Hustle" Clemens and hired hands Kandi Burruss (of Xscape) and Anita McLoud, the lyrics had the trio advising their man of the moment that their "reputation" carries through the female friend groups just like it does for the men talking about their conquests. The production eschewed their mainstream pop straying from the past for a distinct guttural groove, and they try to carry the man-warning streak of singles from "Creep" to "No Scrubs" to this, but somehow it's not as well-formed, but that's not totally fair since Left-Eye passed only days after recording this. The music video mostly tries to bring the party, but when Lopes' part comes up it goes to shots of people with her distinctive undereye makeup and snippets of animation that seem out of place. It was a valiant effort to carry on, but there always was a touch of something missing there...

"Girl Talk" became TLC's eleventh and final top-40 hit as a lead artist on Billboard's Hot 100 in November of 2002, while peaking at #23 on their R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song went to #23 on the Mainstream Top-40 Airplay chart and #21 on the R&B/dance-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in Denmark (#13), New Zealand (#18), and the UK (#30). The 3D album, released in October of that year, came in at #6 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #4 on the R&B Albums list, selling platinum (over a million shipped). At the Grammy Awards in 2003, "Girl Talk" was nominated for Best R&B Duo/Group Vocal Performance, losing to a "ringer" nominee with Stevie Wonder and the group Take 6 with a live remake of Wonder's "Love's In Need Of Love Today" from the 9/11 benefit concert/album. 

The second single pulled from 3D would be "Hands Up", a Babyface/Daryl Simmons production that didn't have Lopes on it at all. The caught out there track set to a strip club rhythm was even more out of place considering the circumstances, and failed to make either the pop or R&B chart. Nevertheless, it was nominated the year after for the same category that "Girl Talk", this time losing to Beyonce and Luther Vandross' cover of "The Closer I Get To You". A third release, "Damaged". tried to bring back the "R&B with a message" vibe like "Waterfalls" and "Unpretty". Produced by Dallas Austin (who wrote it with T-Boz) to sound like a Pink outtake, it did a little better, making it to #19 on Billboard's Mainstream Top-40 radio chart, and #34 on the Rhythmic format, but it stalled down at #53 on the Hot 100 (lack of a physical single definitely hurt). By the end of 2003, Chilli and T-Boz decided to put TLC on ice (at least for a while), with Arista releasing the Now And Forever collection, with one of the two "new" tracks, "Come Get Some" featuring crunk king Lil' Jon and Sean Paul (rapper from the duo Youngbloodz not the reggaeton hitmaker), went to #81 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart. 

During the next decade, Chilli and T-Boz reunited from time to time for appearances and guest spots, and in 2013 would return to the top-40 (and this series) as a featured artist on J. Cole's single "Crooked Smile". They quickly signed with Epic Records, but that only produced one new song on yet another compilation album 20, which peaked at #12 on the Billboard 200 on heels of a highly-rated documentary of the group. 

In 2015, Chilli and T-Boz came back together for another studio album, TLC, which came out in 2017 on their own indie label 852 Records. One song from the set, "Way Back" featured rap veteran Snoop Dogg, and climbed to #8 on Billboard's older-skewing Adult R&B radio chart. They've been touring as a duo on the "oldies" circuit since. 

(4/10)

Up tomorrow: This Canadian country crossover cueen has it out for you.