Songoftheday 08/16/24 - The real me is a southern girl with her Levi's on and an open heart...
"With You" - Jessica Simpson
from the album In This Skin (2003)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #14 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 18
Today's song comes from singer/former reality-show fodder Jessica Simpson, whose sophomore album Irresistible sent its title track into the top 40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in the summer of 2001. The following year, Simpson married Nick Lachey, a member of the boy-band 98 Degrees, cementing them for a moment as the "it" couple of pop music.
In July of 2003, a month before her reality show with Lachey, Newlyweds, premiered on MTV, Simpson returned with the lead single of her third album on Columbia Records, In This Skin. "Sweetest Sin" carried the promise of a major-label rollout, written by song doctor supreme Diane Warren and produced by Ric Wake (Celine Dion, Taylor Dayne). Perhaps the title turned off radio programmers, and it only managed to pop on to the Mainstream Top-40 radio chart for three weeks with a high of #37.
For the second try, Simpson co-wrote the song "With You" with producers Billy Mann and Andy Marvel. The lyrics have her leaning in to the "dumb blonde with no care in the world" angle, with any inconvenience assuaged with the though of being with, well Nick. Which I guess would be kinda sweet. It's all Hallmark Channel romanticism, and for her, it's on brand so it's comfortable. The production is pure boy-band/pop-tart slickness, but attempting for a recreation of Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn" vibe. The music video, which got MTV naturally overplaying it, featured most of the "memes-before-there-was-a-meme" moments like her eating both Chicken Of The Sea Tuna and Buffalo Wings amongst other things....
"With You" regained Jessica's momentum, putting her back into the top 20 on Billboard's Hot 100 in March of 2004. On the radio, the song was her first and only #1 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart where it stayed for two weeks; it also peaked at #23 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in Australia (#4) and the United Kingdom (#7), and made the top-40 in Ireland (#11), Norway (#11), Canada (#29 Radio) and New Zealand (#39). The In This Skin album, released in August of 2003, eventually spent a week at #2 as this single was cresting, becoming her highest-charting album and going on to sell over three million copies. As of this date, "With You" is her most-streamed single on Spotify.
Jessica and the album (in its revamped form) will be back to the series.
(5/10)
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And lastly, at the American Music Awards...
Tomorrow I'll roll out my top hits of this week, then I'll be on vacation for a week until the following Saturday, where I'll do the same hits countdown. Then on the 26th, Song of the day will be back with a Philly rapper checking in for the night.
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