Songoftheday 1/29/24 - Last night I cried tossed and turned, woke up with dry eyes...

 

 

"Emotional Rollercoaster" - Vivian Green

from the album A Love Story (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #39 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 1

 

Today's song comes from R&B singer Vivian Green, who grew up in north Philadelphia (in the same neighborhood Broadway star Leslie Odom Jr. hails from). After being in a vocal group, a songwriter, and a backup singer for Jill Scott, Green was signed by label powerhouse Columbia Records, where she released her debut album A Love Story in the late autumn of 2002. The lead single from the record was "Emotional Rollercoaster". Written by Green with Ade Osuni (under the moniker Osunlade) and Eric Roberson, the lyrics have Green lamenting in the toxic relationship she's in, where the other person leaves her high and dry after "the act" and her heart is riding those highs and lows. It's a very Toni Braxton-ish kind of song, and producer Junius Bervine is nicely loose, framing the track like it would be Alicia Keys'. The backup singers pull a lot of weight as well, but it's Vivian's voice that sends the building desperation of the song's words home. The song was a decent urban radio hit, but it was the club remixes by Junior Vasquez and others that threw the song into the mainstream, with sales of the CD single boosting the track into the Hot 100 top-40...

"Emotional Rollercoaster" became Vivian's first and only hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100, reaching the top-40 in March of 2003, while spending 36 weeks on their R&B Singles chart with a high of #13. On the radio, the song hit #1 on the older-skewing Adult R&B airplay chart. Thanks to the club remixes, the song spent a week at #1 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart. The A Love Story album, released in November of 2002, peaked at #51 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #8 on the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over a half million copies. 

The second single from the record, the nicely smooth "Fanatic" which she also co-produced, stopped down at #52 on the R&B Singles chart and missed the Hot 100, but it made it to #15 on the Adult R&B list and was another top ten club hit at #7. That was followed by the ballad "What Is Love?", which got to #19 on the Adult R&B chart. 

It would be a long three years before Green returned with her sophomore effort Vivian, which came in at #18 on the Billboard 200 and #5 on the R&B Albums list, but sold half of its predecessor. The album's first single, "Gotta Go Gotta Leave (Tired)", only "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #102, while it spent a hefty 42 weeks on the R&B Singles chart peaking at #24 and topping the Adult R&B radio list. But again, she was promoted well in the club with another Junior Vasquez remix, and she scored a second #1 dance hit. Vivian followed with a second #1 club hit "I Like It (But I Don't Need It)". 

After another long break of five years that also saw her leave Columbia and sign up with the indie E1 Records, Vivian released her third album Beautiful in 2010, popping on to the Billboard 200 at #101. The title track "Beautiful" made the Adult R&B top ten at #10, but stalled under the main R&B chart at #43. And without the big-label budget, her club remix days were pretty much done. A second set on E1, The Green Room, arrived in 2012, and was her most recent Billboard 200 appearance at #169.

In 2015, Green moved over to another indie label, Make Noise, where she put out Vivid, which got to #32 on Billboard's R&B Albums chart. Since then she's released two more studio albums on the imprint, most recently Love Absolute in 2020. In 2022, Vivian put out a five song "extended play" single for the holiday called Spread The Love. 

(8/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's the extended "Junior's Earth Mix" version of the song that helped Vivian top the dance club chart...

Next up, Vivian performing live on TV on the Carson Daly show....

and lastly, at an outdoor gig...

Up tomorrow: This country star has a precipitation preference.