R&B 1995 Top 40 part 1

1995 was another strong year in R&B, albeit perhaps not as strong as the one before it. The year was dominated by several teenage R&B stars such as Brandy, Aaliyah, Monica and Usher, all of which managed to sustain long careers as they grew up mainly because, unlike their counterparts in pop, they were actually talented and their fame was not based on looks alone. Another trend of the year was the emergence of East Coast rap, challenging the dominance of West Coast derived G-Funk. So this is R&B's best of 1995... according to me... You can view the videos by clicking on the sleeves. Enjoy...
40.
Think Of You-USHER

Of course today Usher is one of the biggest R&B stars around with a career counting 31 Hot 100 Top 40 hit singles (including nine #1 hits) and 25 UK Top 40 singles (including four #1s) but back in 1995 the singer was just 17 years old and part of a group of teenage R&B stars who emerged at the time (others included Brandy and Aaliyah). This was his third single release ever and although it failed to become a hit, it did chart better than the two which preceded it and became his first ever R&B Top 10 hit. To date Usher has achieved a total of 25 R&B Top 10 hits, twelve of which went all the way to the top.
39.
New York, New York-THA DOGG POUND

Tha Dogg Pound was a rap act whose career lasted just one album but that album was quite big. Released by Death Row Records and produced by Dr. Dre, their album "Dogg Food" went double platinum becoming the fourth major release by the label after "The Chronic", "Doggystyle" and the "Murder Was The Case" soundtrack. Unlike those three albums though, "Dogg Food" failed to launch any hit singles, thus retaining an underground quality to its success. "New York, New York" is a diss song against East Coast rappers (the infamous West Coast-East Coast rivalry culminated in the next few years with the murders of two of the biggest rappers around) and was the second single to be taken from that album.
38.
Sentimental-DEBORAH COX

Deborah Cox was one of the very few major R&B stars to emerge from Canada. Although her crossover to the pop charts was rather limited, the lady has a career which has provided her with no less than five R&B Top 40 albums in a span of 13 years. This was her first ever single and managed to become a rather sizable hit peaking at #27 on the BB Hot 100 and #34 on the UK Singles chart. The video is not available on youtube.
37.
You Bring Me Joy-MARY J. BLIGE

Mary was riding an all-time career high during 1995 thanks to the success of her sophomore album "My Life". That album basically uses samples of pretty well-known R&B standards as the basis for creating brand new hard-edged R&B songs, in other words transferring what is pretty standard in the hip-hop world over to the R&B world. The sample used in this song is Barry White's 1977 R&B #1 hit "It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me" and became the fourth single taken out of the "My Life" album. Meanwhile around the same time "My Life" was released, Barry White was going through a revival of his own as he scored his sixth (and final) R&B #1 hit as the main artist (his first in more than 17 years) with "Practice What You Preach".
36.
Baby-BRANDY

Brandy was the biggest teenage R&B star to emerge around 1994 and 1995 with a debut album which sold enough to be certified double platinum. That album became much more of a success inside the USA rather than internationally and found its biggest American success with its second single, "Baby". The song became the second straight R&B #1 hit for Brandy but it peaked two positions higher than "I Wanna Be Down" on the BB Hot 100, becoming Brandy's first-ever Top 5 hit by making it to #4.
35.
Brown Sugar-D'ANGELO

One artist who chose not to follow modern trends in R&B but to take a more classic approach to songwriting was D'Angelo. The singer achieved a cult following and also an overnight legendary status with his debut album which carried many references to classic R&B artists such as Stevie Wonder, Prince and Sly & The Family Stone. "Brown Sugar" was the title track and first single taken from that album and managed to become D'Angelo's first ever international hit single peaking at #27 on the BB Hot 100 and at #24 on the UK Singles chart.
34.
Diggin' On You-T.L.C.

TLC's "CrazySexyCool" album was so good that the girls could get away with releasing one of the least interesting songs on the album as a single because even the worst of "CrazySexyCool" was far better than most stuff on R&B radio at the time. So, "Diggin' On You" became the fourth (and final) single taken from that album in a slightly remixed version with added horns and a video promoting the girls' world tour of the time. The song became another international hit for TLC peaking at #5 on the BB Hot 100 and #18 on the UK Singles chart.
33.
I'm Goin' Down-MARY J. BLIGE

Although Mary's "My Life" album was largely built around samples of old songs, there was actually only one straight cover included. That was a cover of the Rose Royce's "Car Wash" song of the same name. Mary didn't change much compared to the original song (it was a perfect R&B ballad as it was anyway) but still managed to have the biggest hit from her album with this song when she released it as the third single off "My Life". It peaked at #22 on the BB Hot 100 and #12 on the UK Singles chart (her biggest UK hit up to that time)
32.
Scream-MICHAEL JACKSON & JANET JACKSON

Ever since Janet Jackson shot to fame back in 1986, the whole world was waiting for the mega-duet between her and the biggest pop star on the planet who also happened to be her brother, Michael Jackson. Janet kept answering that she didn't feel she was quite ready for it for the next decade but, in 1995, the siblings finally made it releasing "Scream" as the first single off Michael Jackson's "History" album. Well, with a 10 years' waiting period preceding it, some disappointment was perhaps to be expected as people were probably anticipating a "Billie Jean" meets "Rhythm Nation" type of song. One can't deny though that the single, although working pretty well as a club record, was a sort of a letdown as most Michael's "Dangerous" singles and most Janet's "Janet" singles were actually far better than this. The disappointment was to be seen on the way this single charted as well. For the first time a Michael Jackson comeback single failed to reach #1 on any side of the Atlantic, instead peaking at #5 on the BB Hot 100 and #3 on the UK Singles chart .
31.
Let's Play House-THA DOGG POUND feat. MICHEL'LE

This sexually-charged rap single was the biggest hit off Dogg Pounds "Dogg Food" album and the only Rap Top 5 hit for the group. Dr. Dre provides production as well as a few verses right in the beginning of the song whereas Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg can be heard rapping and singing respectively as well. All those guest stars were pretty unnecessary though as Tha Dogg Pound was an act made by two rappers who enjoyed long careers after the band called it a day. Those were Daz Dillinger who has released 14 solo studio albums to date and Kurupt who has released 11 studio albums of his own to date.

1995 was another strong year in R&B, albeit perhaps not as strong as the one before it. The year was dominated by several teenage R&B stars such as Brandy, Aaliyah, Monica and Usher, all of which managed to sustain long careers as they grew up mainly because, unlike their counterparts in pop, they were actually talented and their fame was not based on looks alone. Another trend of the year was the emergence of East Coast rap, challenging the dominance of West Coast derived G-Funk. So this is R&B's best of 1995... according to me... You can view the videos by clicking on the sleeves. Enjoy...
40.
Think Of You-USHER
Of course today Usher is one of the biggest R&B stars around with a career counting 31 Hot 100 Top 40 hit singles (including nine #1 hits) and 25 UK Top 40 singles (including four #1s) but back in 1995 the singer was just 17 years old and part of a group of teenage R&B stars who emerged at the time (others included Brandy and Aaliyah). This was his third single release ever and although it failed to become a hit, it did chart better than the two which preceded it and became his first ever R&B Top 10 hit. To date Usher has achieved a total of 25 R&B Top 10 hits, twelve of which went all the way to the top.
39.
New York, New York-THA DOGG POUND

Tha Dogg Pound was a rap act whose career lasted just one album but that album was quite big. Released by Death Row Records and produced by Dr. Dre, their album "Dogg Food" went double platinum becoming the fourth major release by the label after "The Chronic", "Doggystyle" and the "Murder Was The Case" soundtrack. Unlike those three albums though, "Dogg Food" failed to launch any hit singles, thus retaining an underground quality to its success. "New York, New York" is a diss song against East Coast rappers (the infamous West Coast-East Coast rivalry culminated in the next few years with the murders of two of the biggest rappers around) and was the second single to be taken from that album.
38.
Sentimental-DEBORAH COX

Deborah Cox was one of the very few major R&B stars to emerge from Canada. Although her crossover to the pop charts was rather limited, the lady has a career which has provided her with no less than five R&B Top 40 albums in a span of 13 years. This was her first ever single and managed to become a rather sizable hit peaking at #27 on the BB Hot 100 and #34 on the UK Singles chart. The video is not available on youtube.
37.
You Bring Me Joy-MARY J. BLIGE

Mary was riding an all-time career high during 1995 thanks to the success of her sophomore album "My Life". That album basically uses samples of pretty well-known R&B standards as the basis for creating brand new hard-edged R&B songs, in other words transferring what is pretty standard in the hip-hop world over to the R&B world. The sample used in this song is Barry White's 1977 R&B #1 hit "It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me" and became the fourth single taken out of the "My Life" album. Meanwhile around the same time "My Life" was released, Barry White was going through a revival of his own as he scored his sixth (and final) R&B #1 hit as the main artist (his first in more than 17 years) with "Practice What You Preach".
36.
Baby-BRANDY

Brandy was the biggest teenage R&B star to emerge around 1994 and 1995 with a debut album which sold enough to be certified double platinum. That album became much more of a success inside the USA rather than internationally and found its biggest American success with its second single, "Baby". The song became the second straight R&B #1 hit for Brandy but it peaked two positions higher than "I Wanna Be Down" on the BB Hot 100, becoming Brandy's first-ever Top 5 hit by making it to #4.
35.
Brown Sugar-D'ANGELO

One artist who chose not to follow modern trends in R&B but to take a more classic approach to songwriting was D'Angelo. The singer achieved a cult following and also an overnight legendary status with his debut album which carried many references to classic R&B artists such as Stevie Wonder, Prince and Sly & The Family Stone. "Brown Sugar" was the title track and first single taken from that album and managed to become D'Angelo's first ever international hit single peaking at #27 on the BB Hot 100 and at #24 on the UK Singles chart.
34.
Diggin' On You-T.L.C.

TLC's "CrazySexyCool" album was so good that the girls could get away with releasing one of the least interesting songs on the album as a single because even the worst of "CrazySexyCool" was far better than most stuff on R&B radio at the time. So, "Diggin' On You" became the fourth (and final) single taken from that album in a slightly remixed version with added horns and a video promoting the girls' world tour of the time. The song became another international hit for TLC peaking at #5 on the BB Hot 100 and #18 on the UK Singles chart.
33.
I'm Goin' Down-MARY J. BLIGE

Although Mary's "My Life" album was largely built around samples of old songs, there was actually only one straight cover included. That was a cover of the Rose Royce's "Car Wash" song of the same name. Mary didn't change much compared to the original song (it was a perfect R&B ballad as it was anyway) but still managed to have the biggest hit from her album with this song when she released it as the third single off "My Life". It peaked at #22 on the BB Hot 100 and #12 on the UK Singles chart (her biggest UK hit up to that time)
32.
Scream-MICHAEL JACKSON & JANET JACKSON

Ever since Janet Jackson shot to fame back in 1986, the whole world was waiting for the mega-duet between her and the biggest pop star on the planet who also happened to be her brother, Michael Jackson. Janet kept answering that she didn't feel she was quite ready for it for the next decade but, in 1995, the siblings finally made it releasing "Scream" as the first single off Michael Jackson's "History" album. Well, with a 10 years' waiting period preceding it, some disappointment was perhaps to be expected as people were probably anticipating a "Billie Jean" meets "Rhythm Nation" type of song. One can't deny though that the single, although working pretty well as a club record, was a sort of a letdown as most Michael's "Dangerous" singles and most Janet's "Janet" singles were actually far better than this. The disappointment was to be seen on the way this single charted as well. For the first time a Michael Jackson comeback single failed to reach #1 on any side of the Atlantic, instead peaking at #5 on the BB Hot 100 and #3 on the UK Singles chart .
31.
Let's Play House-THA DOGG POUND feat. MICHEL'LE

This sexually-charged rap single was the biggest hit off Dogg Pounds "Dogg Food" album and the only Rap Top 5 hit for the group. Dr. Dre provides production as well as a few verses right in the beginning of the song whereas Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg can be heard rapping and singing respectively as well. All those guest stars were pretty unnecessary though as Tha Dogg Pound was an act made by two rappers who enjoyed long careers after the band called it a day. Those were Daz Dillinger who has released 14 solo studio albums to date and Kurupt who has released 11 studio albums of his own to date.
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