Songoftheday 5/2/24 -So tell me what the deal you're not that far, I just got my bags and I'm headed to the car...

 

 

"Come Over" - Aaliyah

from the album I Care 4 U (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #32 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 7

 

Today's song comes from the late R&B artist Aaliyah, whose posthumous album I Care 4 U had already spun off a pair of top-40 hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with "I Care 4 U" and "Miss You", with the latter reaching #3 in the spring of 2003. Another track from the album, "Don't Know What To Tell Ya", was an international hit, making the top-40 in the United Kingdom (#22) and Switzerland (#30). 

The final single in America from the collection was "Come Over", another cut track from her self-titled third album from 2001. Written by Johnta Austin along with producers Phalon "Jazze Pha" Alexander, Bryan-Michael Cox, and Kevin Hicks, the song's lyrics read like a booty call to a lover. However it's eerie that it begins with her coming in from a flight (she died from a plane crash later that year). The production, which includes backing vocals from R&B singer Tank (who had his own breakthrough in 2001 with "Maybe I Deserve"), is spacious and allows her voice to shine here. I can see why it was cut from the more substantial Aaliyah set, but it's not an embarrassment by any means...

"Come Over" made the top-40 on Billboard's Hot 100 in September of 2003, while peaking at #9 on their R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song went to #13 on the Mainstream R&B Chart. 

Since then, there's been much drama behind the scenes between Aaliyah's estate and her former label Blackground Records, keeping her music out of print and off digital formats until 2021. A proposed second posthumous album never came to pass, but a "new" track, "Enough Said", which had fragments filled in by rapper Drake, was released in 2012 and got to #55 on the R&B Singles chart against fan backlash of "robbing the grave" for material. The following year, another "dead duet", this time pairing Aaliyah with Chris Brown on "Don't Think They Know" from his X album, brought her back to the Hot 100 one final time at #81, while making the R&B Top-40 at #29. Most recently, another proposed but still unreleased album, Unstoppable, was teased with a record with added vocals from the Weeknd, "Poison", which rose to #21 on Billboard's Adult R&B chart in 2022. 

(5/10)

Up tomorrow: Classic guitarist questions a coupling.