Crooner Anthony Hamilton is currently entertaining audiences on The Night Tour with fellow soul-crooners Maxwell and Joe. It was a long road for Anthony Hamilton to break through to mainstream audiences. His 1996 XTC didn’t chart was quickly out of print. However, GOD had bigger plans for the singer. Seven years later Hamilton Would experience a platinum-selling album and two signature singles from his sophomore album, Comin’ from Where I’m From.
Shortly before releasing his third solo album Ain’t Nobody Worrying, Hamilton made an appearance on the film soundtrack for In The Mix. Collaborating with producers Dre and Vidal, Hamilton constructs a mid-tempo ballad that allows anyone whoever couldn’t find the words to express how they feel about a crush. What I’ve always loved about the song is the simplicity in the lyrics :
“Girl, it [?] impossible
For me to come and talk to you
Can we exchange and meet again?
Something kinda magical
For me, it’s more than physical
It’s spiritual, and I respect your wait
Can we just talk for a minute?
Can we just walk and hold hands?
Girl, I do dig you
And everything that comes with you, yeah!
Some kind of wonderful
Some kind of beautiful.”
The song does appear to have been specially created for the soundtrack given the film’s plot, as I don’t see where the song would have first on his second or third album. Seventeen years later, “Some Kind Of Wonderful” is still in rotation and easily one of my favorite Anthony Hamilton tracks.
Final Grade : A
“Some Kind Of Wonderful” from the In The Mix soundtrack is available on YouTube and iHeart radio.
There are some albums you revisit because of nostalgia, and then there are albums you return to because they remind you just how high the standard used to be. Anita Baker’s Rapture falls into that second category. Released in 1986, the album did more than make Baker a star. It helped define what sophisticated, grown R&B could sound like without losing any soul, sensuality, or personality.
Gwen Stefani had already established herself as a significant force with No Doubt when she released her debut solo album, *Love. Angel. Music. Baby* in 2004. This week, while my iPod was on shuffle, one of my favorite songs from that project, “The Real Thing,” came on. Although the original version has an upbeat new-wave feel, the Slow Jam Mix takes it to another level and is the perfect choice for this week’s Slow Jam Saturday.
Unless you’re a music purist, mentioning Randy Jackson from the famous family is likely to elicit a joke. However, any serious Jackson fan knows that Randy had musical achievements long before the punchlines. Before he was old enough to buy a drink, he had already co-written “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)” and “Lovely One” with Michael Jackson.