Songoftheday 7/8/24 - baby from the day I saw you I really really wanted to catch your eye, there's something special 'bout you I must really like you...

 

 

"You Don't Know My Name" - Alicia Keys

from the album The Diary Of Alicia Keys (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 18

Today's song comes from singer/songwriter/pianist/producer Alicia Keys, whose debut album Songs In A Minor snatched a truckload of Grammy Awards and spun off two top ten hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with "Fallin'" and "A Woman's Worth". In the autumn of 2002, she returned to the runner-up spot as a featured singer on rapper Eve's single "Gangsta Lovin'". 

A year later, Alicia returned with the lead single from her sophomore effort on J Records, The Diary Of Alicia Keys. "You Don't Know My Name", written by the singer with producer Kanye West, using a sample of the 70s soul nugget "Let Me Prove My Love To You" by the Main Ingredient, giving J.R. Bailey, Mel Kent, and Ken Williams as well. The lyrics have Keys pining over a crush that she's trying to gather the courage to confess her feelings to, but he's only a stranger to her. The production is lush but does lean heavily on the sample, but Alicia's vocal vamps and piano flourishes bring something extra to the record. The music video, which features rapper Mos Def as the mysterious man in question, places the singer as a waitress in a city diner...

"You Don't Know My Name" brought Keys back to the top ten on Billboard's Hot 100 in January of 2004, while spending nine weeks at #1 on their R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song peaked at #31 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, topped the Mainstream R&B list for five weeks, and led the older-skewing Adult R&B format for ten weeks, and almost reached the top-ten on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic radio chart at #11. Internationally, the single hit #1 in Croatia, and made the top-40 in Italy (#17), the United Kingdom (#19), the Netherlands (#20), Canada (#22 Sales), Switzerland (#26), and Ireland (#33). The Diary Of Alicia Keys album, released in December of 2003, took two weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and six weeks on top of the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over five million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2005, "You Don't Know My Name" won for Best R&B Song, while the album took the prize for Best R&B Album and was also nominated for Album Of The Year, losing to Ray Charles' posthumous sympathy vote for Genius Loves Company. 

Both Alicia and the Diary album will be back to the series.

(8/10)

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Here's Alicia performing live on the British late night programme Later With Jools Holland...

Next up, an intimate concert for AOL in 2003, using another soul classic as a backdrop....

and lastly, in concert 2012...

Up tomorrow: This country trio may have spent some time outside this week, I'm guessing.