Songoftheday 12/4/24 - Lay your head on my pillow here you can be yourself, no one has to know what you are feeling no one but me and you...

 

 

"Diary" - Alicia Keys featuring Tony! Toni! Tone'!

from the album The Diary Of Alicia Keys (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 25

 

Today's song comes from singer/songwriter/producer Alicia Keys, whose sophomore album Diary Of Alicia Keys had already spun off a pair of quality top ten hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with "You Don't Know My Name" and "If I Ain't Got You".  The third single from the record was the de facto title track "Diary". Produced by Alicia, who wrote the song with her then-partner Kerry "Krucial" Brothers Jr., the lyrics have Keys comparing herself to the titular journal, where her partner can confide in his deepest secrets. Backing her up on the choruses was the "reunion" of R&B group Tony! Toni! Tone'!, who were last seen in the series on their double-sided top-40 hit "Let's Get Down" and "Thinking Of You" in the summer of 1997, though leader Raphael Saadiq had exited the group shortly after so it was just D'Wayne Wiggins and Timothy Riley playing piano and guitar (along with her background singer Jermaine Paul, who would go on to win the second season of the TV singing competition The Voice). It's a sly nod to the group that Keys starts out with "Lay your head on my pillow" (one of the groups hits). Her production clearly takes inspiration from the neo-soul that TTT was famous for, and her sultry delivery matches the backdrop nicely. The official music video was taken from her concert run in 2004...

"Diary" became the third top ten hit on Billboard's Hot 100 from The Diary of Alicia Keys in October of 2004, while spending three weeks at #2 on their R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart (lasting on the latter for 50 weeks). On the radio, the song didn't make the pop radio format charts, but did place at #5 on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, #19 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format, and topped the older-skewing Adult R&B list for twelve weeks. The track was remixed for the clubs by DJ Hani, and the result took a week at #1 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart and climbed to #4 on the Dance Airplay list. At the Grammy Awards in 2005, "Diary" was nominated for Best R&B Duo/Group Performance, which she actually lost to herself in her duet with Usher, "My Boo" (fun fact: Tony Toni Tone ex-member Raphael Saadiq was also nominated as a featured guest on Earth Wind & Fire's "Show Me The Way"). 

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

(7/10)

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Here's the original album version of the song...

 

 

Next up, the remix from Hani that topped the dance chart...

Here's Keys on her AOL Sessions stint in 2004...

and finally in concert with Jermaine Paul in 2023...

Up tomorrow: This new R&B singer goes downtown.