Songoftheday 3/27/24 - Got on my ride seen you from afar, and I couldn't stop myself from looking hard...

 

 

"In Those Jeans" - Ginuwine

from the album The Senior (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 14

 

Today's song comes from R&B singer Ginuwine, whose fourth studio album The Senior had already spun off two hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with "Stingy" and "Hell Yeah". The third single from the project was "In Those Jeans". The song was written by the singer (under his given name Elgin Lumpkin) and Harvey Hester, with the pair co-producing the track with Jerry Vines. The lyrics have Ginuwine coming on to a woman, leading off about her choice of apparel, and course going on how he wants to get "in them". The production is light and sparse, empathizing the weird cadence of the melody taken straight out of the R. Kelly playbook. Ginuwine's voices are adequate if not matching the power of some of his earlier work. Nevertheless, the booty-call track proved to be the biggest success from the album, and the singer's so-far last big hit...

"In Those Jeans" became Ginuwine's fourth single to reach the top ten on Billboard's Hot 100 in August of 2002, while spending three weeks on their R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song didn't make the Mainstream Top-40 chart, but went to #2 on Billboard's Mainstream R&B list, #39 on the older-skewing Adult R&B chart, and #5 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. 

A fourth single from the album, "Love You More", was another slow jam that peaked at #28 on the R&B Singles chart and #78 on the Hot 100. On the radio, it rose to #23 on the Mainstream R&B chart as well. 

Ginuwine returned in 2005 with his fifth release on Epic Records, Back II Da Basics, which came in at #12 on the Billboard 200 sales tally and #3 on the R&B Albums list. However its two singles were only minor hits on the R&B Singles chart, which "When We Make Love" peaking at #51 there, and both missing the Hot 100 completely. At that point Epic released a Greatest Hits album and parted ways with the singer.

In 2007, Ginuwine joined up with fellow R&B romeos Tank and Tyrese under the supergroup moniker TGT, and released a remix of Tank's single "Please Don't Go". The revamp topped the R&B Singles chart and came a couple notches away from reaching the top-40 on the Hot 100. Years later, the trio finally released an album, Three Kings, which went to #3 on the Billboard 200, topped the R&B Albums chart, and was nominated for a Grammy award for Best R&B Album, losing to Alicia Keys for her Girl On Fire set. 

 

His next solo album, A Man's Thought's, arrived in 2009 on the imprint Notifi on Asylum/Warner Brothers Records, which spent a week at #1 on the R&B Albums chart and cresting at #9 on the Billboard 200. The lead single from the set, "Last Chance" made it all the way to #3 on the R&B Singles chart, but stalled down at #63 on the Hot 100. Meanwhile, another track from the record, "Get Involved" with Missy Elliott and Timbaland, became a top-40 hit in Germany at #35, but due to troubles between the singer and Timbaland was left unpromoted in the States. In 2011, Ginuwine put out Elgin, which still at least reached #30 on the Billboard 200, while peaking at #7 on the R&B Albums list. The big single from the album, "What Could Have Been", is his most recent to make the R&B Singles chart at #61, while getting to #15 on the Adult R&B airplay list. Later that year, Ginuwine's most recent studio album A Ginuwine Christmas, was released.

Since then he's been quiet on the music front but appeared on a series of "C-list celebrity" type shows like Celebrity Big Brother UK and The Masked Singer. In 2022, a mashup of his breakthrough single "Pony" with Britney Spears' "Toxic" dubbed "Toxic Pony" by Altégo nicked Billboard's Mainstream Top-40 radio chart at #40. 

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Here's Ginuwine performing on BET promoting the single...

and lastly, in concert...

Up tomorrow: An up and coming group ask for affection.