Songoftheday 11/15/24 - I've been waiting all day here for ya bae so won't you come sit and talk to me, you tell me how we're gonna be together always...

 

 

"Leave (Get Out)" - JoJo

from the album JoJo (2004)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 19

 

Today's song comes from pop singer/songwriter Joanna Levesque, who records under the nickname JoJo. JoJo grew up in New England, and at a very young age sang in various television children's singing competitions. One of those, America's Most Talented Kid, had her lose to future American Idol runner-up Diana DeGarmo, but got her discovered and signed to R. Kelly-affiliated Blackground Records under the Da Family label.  She released her self-titled debut album in the summer of 2004, preceeded by the lead single "Leave (Get Out)". Written by producers Carsten "Soulshock" Schack and Kenneth Karlin along the Alex Cantrell and Phillip White, the lyrics have her sit her boyfriend down and lay it straight that she knows about his cheating. As much as she believed they would last, she isn't giving one iota of forgiveness, dismissing him outright with no chance of redemption. JoJo's vocals are fit for the Disney Radio Channel crowd, apt for someone who was still 13 years old, and the production from Soulshock and Karlin is smooth enough for the olds to not be embarassed to listen in. The music video, set in a high school, is relatable for her audience without going into the unnecessary pedo-baiting many in her genre were forced into...

"Leave" became JoJo's first hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100, coming a couple notches away from the top ten in July of 2004. On the radio, the song topped the Mainstream Top-40 chart for five weeks (at the time the youngest female solo artist to do this), peaked at #33 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 list, rose to #14 on the Dance Airplay chart, and made it to #23 at the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single topped the Canadian Airplay chart, and reached the top ten in the United Kingdom (#2), Australia (#2), New Zealand (#2), Ireland (#3), the Netherlands (#4), Belgium (#4 Flanders/#18 Wallonia), Switzerland (#5), Germany (#9), Italy (#9), and Poland (#10 Airplay). The JoJo album, released in June of that year, came in at #4 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #10 on the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over a million copies. 

Both JoJo and the debut album will be back to the series.

(7/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's JoJo on a televised concert appearance...

Next up at the Teen Choice Awards in 2004...

Like every pop star of the time, she did an AOL Sessions gig...

and lastly, a nice acoustic version from 2016...

Tomorrow I'll run down my top 100 "hit tunes" from the week, then on Monday SOTD will be back with a Texican Trio whose star was ascending.