Songoftheday 7/1/24 - I stepped in the club in your hood, I slowly turned left and there you stood...

 

 

"Read Your Mind" - Avant

from the album Private Room (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #13 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 20

 

Today's song comes from R&B singer Avant, whose second album on MCA Records, Ecstasy, tried to go for the R. Kelly bedroom-calling market and scored a top-40 crossover hit in the spring of 2002 with "Makin' Good Love".  But by a year later, MCA would be a casualty of the huge merger spree at the start of the millennium, with most of its acts getting put over to Geffen. In the fall of that year, Avant returned with the lead single from his third disc Private Room, "Read Your Mind". Written by the singer with producer Steve Huff, the song find Avant macking on a girl he just met at the club and convincing her to leave with him in his truck for some shenanigans. He's still trying to put himself across as the R. Kelly alternative, but at least this time he forgoes aping the production for a more updated retro soul arrangement. But the phrasing is still there, though the groove, timed to "relations" to a tee, covers it better. In return, Avant found himself with his biggest hit....

"Read Your Mind" made the top-20 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in January of 2004, while peaking at #5 on their R&B Singles chart (staying 41 weeks on the latter). On the radio, the song went to #4 on the Mainstream R&B airplay chart, #3 on the older-skewing Adult R&B list, and #27 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. The Private Room album, released in December of 2003, came in at #18 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #4 on the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over a half million copies.

Both Avant and the album will be back to the series.

(6/10)

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The remix for the song, which also appeared on the album, did even better by using a Gamble & Huff interpolation...

In 2017 R&B singer Jacquees sampled "Read Your Mind" on his single "B.E.D.", which went to #30 on the R&B Singles chart and #69 on the Hot 100...

Lastly, here's Avant performing the song live on his AOL Sessions webisode...

Up tomorrow: This formerly angry singer brings the frozen dairy.