#1 [url]

Sep 2 13 3:14 PM

robjv1 wrote:
mcfan wrote:
robjv1 wrote:
What's the story on the (relatively) low chart position of AYNAF anyways? Did people just not connect with it as much or did Sony pull the single or something?
At the time it was her lowest peaking single at Pop radio (#5) following 10 consecutive #1s and a #2 single ('Without You') so I guess it was a matter of burn-out. Plus the album had already sold a lot, so single sales were obviously going to be lower. 

I imagine that's why AYNAF was also her first release to have both a R&B and Dance mix, as an incentive for people to buy the CD single.
Yeah makes sense to me.  She had kind of been ruling the world at that point and people were bound to get sick of it. 

I still remember buying that AYNAF single (with my lawn mowing money lol) and having my mind completely blown the first time I heard it.  Listening to that, the Fantasy single, and Slipping Away from the ABMB single for the first time were all landmark moments for me that I still remember vividly.
In general it's very rare for an artist to keep up momentum; I mean, even with as many hits as Rihannas has had, she's had breaks in momentum and needed re-releases and the like to keep up her popularity.

Mariah had 5 #1s out of the gate, and she's still the only one to do that. It was inevitable that some singles after that wouldn't do as well. Look at acts like Alanis, Jewel, Hootie & The Blowfish, Sheryl Crow, etc. who had huge "debut" albums and then barely had hits with their next releases. Mariah saved herself in a way with "I'll Be There," which is crazy because it was sort of a happy accident in that she almost didn't even perform it. But she had lost a lot of momentum by the time "Make It Happen" was out. I do think its run was partly affected by the sudden success of "IBT," but still; "IBT" was huge. 8 weeks at #1 in airplay?!?! And with the live EP selling nearly 3 million copies off that one song?!?! It would have been #1 on the Hot 100 for more than 2 weeks if it wasn't a limited single.

So anyway, Music Box under-performed a bit at first considering how big "Dreamlover" was when released. That single broke airplay records at the time and sold 1 million copies here. It was definitely "Hero" and the NBC special that propelled that album to incredible heights; it didn't even reach #1 for the first time until the holidays. I think people had to sort of discover her again, in a sense.