Songoftheday 2/26/24 - Silly of me devoted so much time, to find you unfaithful boy...

 

 

"So Gone" - Monica

from the album After The Storm (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 17

 

Today's song comes from R&B singer Monica, whose second album The Boy Is Mine in 1998 had spun off three #1 hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with "Angel Of Mine", "The First Night", and the title track with Brandy that spent thirteen weeks at the top of that chart. She laid low for a couple of years, where she contributed a couple of songs to soundtracks and acted. During that time Monica moved to Clive Davis' new label J Records, where she recorded her third album All Eyez On Me. However when the lead single "All Eyez On Me" stalled down at #69 on the pop Hot 100 and #32 on the R&B Songs chart, the set was initially released just in Japan. And in the age of Napster and the like, the record was shared through the interwebs all over (kind of like Usher's from a little bit before), causing the whole thing to be scuttled (a second attempted single, "Too Hood" with Jermaine Dupri, failed to even make the chart). The former was actually a shock, since with Clive's promo chops, production from Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins at his prime moment, and an interpolation of Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T.", it seems like a sure bet.

 

Not giving up on Monica since she's had a history of success, Davis had her assemble a new album under the auspice of Missy Elliott. The result, After The Storm, came out in the summer of 2003. The lead single from the record was "So Gone", written and produced by Elliott. Using a sample of the Whispers' 1977 album cut "You Are Number One", giving writer Zyah Ahmonuei credit on this, the song finds Monica confronting a cheating lover. She declares she's not above stalking the house of the side chick, and letting it known she's quite ready to fight. Which is quite the juxtaposition from the sappy love song sampled in this. The production leans heavily on that Whispers track, with Monica cooing between the horn breaks. It's well done, but not as memorable as her older tracks, per se. The music video was interesting, however, with a weird twist on the cheating theme...

 

 "So Gone" returned Monica to the top ten on Billboard's Hot 100 in July of 2003, while spending five weeks at #1 on their R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song didn't even make the pop lists (something even "All Eyez On Me" did), but again took five weeks on top of the Mainstream R&B chart, peaked at #19 on the older-skewing Adult R&B station panel, and went to #15 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. The track was remixed into a club banger by Scumfrog, and topped Billboard's Dance Club Play chart for a week. Internationally, the single reached #17 on the Canadian singles sales chart, and was a minor hit in the United Kingdom at #82. The After The Storm album, released as the single was peaking in July, became her first (and so far only) #1 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, while reaching #2 on the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over a half million copies. 

Both Monica and the After The Storm album will return to the series.

(6/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's the remix from Scumfrog, dubbed "So Gone Part II", which spent a week at #1 on the dance chart...

Next up, Monica performing live on TV promoting the single...

and lastly, for her AOL Sessions webisode...

Up tomorrow: Mexican-American singer has no motivation.