Songoftheday 09/23/24 - Somebody said they saw you, the person you were kissing wasn't me...

 

 

"I Don't Wanna Know" - Mario Winans featuring Enya and P. Diddy

from the album Hurt No More (2004)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (eight weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 25

 

 (Ed. note - What luck that my pre-scheduled song of the day includes someone in the news for all the wrong reasons.)

 

Today's song comes from R&B singer/songwriter/producer Mario Winans, who is the stepson of Marvin Winans of the hugely important gospel dynasty the Winans Family (his mother was Vickie Winans, who was for a time married to Marvin). Immersed in music from childhood, Mario first got recognition as a producer and musician, helping with the music on two of R. Kelly's hits from his self-titled 1995 album,  "I Can't Sleep Baby" and "You Remind Me Of Something". With that experience and resume, Mario was signed as an artist in his own right to Motown Records, releasing his debut album Story Of My Heart in 1997. However, the lead single from the record, "Don't Know", stalled down at #48 on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart, while "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #108. That would be his only tie with the classic label under he came under the wing (which is such a loaded statement right now) of Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, who brought Mario under the Bad Boy fold. Winans produced and wrote for various acts on the label, and appeared as a featured singer on two of Combs' own singles, co-writing and produced both parts of Diddy's "I Need A Girl" song, with his singing part on Part 2 giving him song and chart credit on the Hot 100, where it peaked at #4. 

At the start of 2004, Mario released his first single of his own on the Bad Boy label, "I Don't Wanna Know" (which has nothing to do with the Motown single). Written by Winans with rapper Chauncey "Loon" Hawkins (who was on part one of "I Need A Girl" and will be in the series eventually) and songwriter Michael "Lo Down" Jones, the track generously sampled the songs "You're A Customer" by the rap duo EPMD (giving Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith credit) and the Fugees' "Ready Or Not". However the latter's sample was itself a sample or Irish new age queen Enya's "Boadicea" from her 1987 album Enya (reissued in 1992 as The Celts), which (depending who you ask, involved litigation) gave Enya, Nicky Ryan, and Roma Ryan writing credit as well as putting Enya herself as a featured artist, which was still relevant since she had just reached the top ten on the Hot 100 post 9/11 with "Only Time".  Combs (as "P. Diddy"), who contibuted the intro and a verse (which Loon and Lo Down probably wrote) and got on the listing as well. The lyrics have Mario confronting his romantic partner who he suspects of cheating, but despondently crooning he's rather not know (rather than, well, casting her off or making her stop). Diddy's rap is a little more forceful, but still beyond the expression of betrayal (because he bought her so much) he still gives her the option to leave. The production from Mario himself is nothing much more than the EPMD beat over the Enya sample, which does allow him to emote through the track, albeit with a more limited range than the usual R&B singers of the time. With a moody music video with the photogenic Winans as well as Combs moping at the camera, Mario found himself with a huge hit...

"I Don't Wanna Know" spent two months at #2 on Billboard's Hot 100 starting in April of 2004, while taking a week in the runner-up position on their R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song peaked at #4 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, and topped the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic list for a week. Internationally, the single went to #1 in the United Kingdom and Germany, reached the top ten in Canada (#2 Airplay), the Netherlands (#2), Australia (#2), Ireland (#2), Belgium (#2 Flanders/#6 Wallonia), Switzerland (#2), Norway (#2), Denmark (#3), New Zealand (#3), France (#4), Italy (#5), Romania (#5), Poland (#5 Airplay), Austria (#6), Hungary (#6), Croatia (#9), and Greece (#10), and almost made it in Sweden at #11. Mario's second (and so far last), Hurt No More, which came out in April as the song was cresting, topped Billboard's R&B Albums chart, and hit #2 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over a half-million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2005, Hurt No More was nominated for Best Contemporary R&B Album, which went to Usher for his Confessions (oh boy, how prescient). 

Despite the huge success of the single, the next release from Hurt No More, "Never Really Was" (which sampled the string riff from Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach"), stiffed, only spending a pair of weeks on Billboard's R&B Singles chart with a high of #90. Although he wouldn't record as a lead artist for Bad Boy, Mario continued to produce and write, doing both for Source magazine head and wannabe rap star Benzino on "Rock The Party", which hit #28 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart and #82 on the Hot 100. He also was a featured artist on minor hits from Mr. Cheeks, Ashanti, and Guerilla Black. 

Diddy will be back to the series. 

(6/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's Winans (and I believe co-writer Loon) appearing on The Tonight Show...

 Next up, Mario on a televised show in 2004...

Lastly, in 2023 producer Metro Boomin' reprised the song with the Weeknd and rapper 21 Savage, retitled "Creepin'". It hit #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, of course a SOTD way in the future...

Up tomorrow: Country vocal powerhouse sees her spawn.