We’re back this week with yet another underrated gem. Today’s From The Vault pick is Ciara’s ‘Can’t Leave ‘Em Alone’ featuring former flame 50 Cent.
An ode to the “dope boys,” ‘Alone’ is an 80’s flavored R&B-Pop track which was released as the third single from CiCi’s sophomore set, ‘The Evolution.’
It was helmed by producer-extraordinaire Darkchild and boasted a guest verse from a still scorching Fiddy.
Sadly, the song didn’t perform as well as the album’s first two singles ‘Promise’ and ‘Like A Boy.’ Instead, it barely reached the US Top 40 – though it still went Gold. An international push did not take place.
Released just in time for Summer 2007, the colorful and sun-soaked video saw Ciara strut the streets of ATL in hyper hot pants before joining bae for a romantic dinner on a rooftop.
Of course the video also featured “those” shots of Miss Harris and 50 cuddled up and topless – which did nothing to dispel the rumors (at the time) about the pair dating.
The Fat Cats-directed vid went to #1 on BET’s 106 & Park.
**********
We’re sure we’re not the only ones who deemed the song a winner on first listen. It’s still puzzling how it wasn’t received with open arms by critics and the record buying public, as we feel it a solid example of what a Pop/Urban Ciara sounds like at her best.
In any case, ahead of the arrival of Ci’s new material, let us know…
Still mad she never released hotline on goodies as the final single.
I’m still mad at that after 10 + years “and I” was not single material at all. So hard or my love should’ve been singles over this song.
The single was never sent to mainstream radio formats and failed to chart on the Pop 100 because of that. Despite its lackluster performance at radio, the single sold well digitally and was eventually certified Gold.
Only focusing on promoting her to us urban audiences her management failed her. It’s crazy that goodies never got a full tour or that she never got big promo overseas.
Agreed. Goodies went 3x platnuim and no tour. Sad, smh.
It is good there was no tour for Ciara though. Back then she had a 360 deal. What artists wants to tour with a lot of the tour money going to a record label.
@Jasmine
The answer to that is easy, an artist that wants longevity. Riri had a 360 deal too and worked that s*** until it was done, Ciara should’ve been touring world wide.
@Bam If you are going to compare Rihanna with Ciara then at least be fair. Both of them did not tour for their debut albums and that is a FACT! Rihanna’s first tour was in 2006 and that was after her second album came out. It was called ” Rihanna: Live in Concert Tour” and it only toured the US. Ciara’s first tour was in 2006 after her second album too and was called “Ciara: Live in Concert” and she only toured the US. The “world wide” tours you are talking about usually come later in an artist’s career (unless they are selling millions of albums). The promotion, touring, and marketing for both Ciara and Rihanna was pretty similar in 2006 and neither had a “world wide” tour. They did not have the financial backing to pull that off at that particular time.
Beyoncé sold four million in the states and had a European tour followed by a joint tour with AKeys and Missy E. Rihanna’s first cd only went gold so I can see why she didn’t tour. Ciara’s first cd sold 3 million copies in the states that plus the fact that everyone was hyped about her being the next Janet made it worth a tour.
For her second album they did a club tour, and she opened for RiRis world wide tour for GGGB…Ciara shouldn’t have been opening for no one at that point.
Point is Ciara’s team have been mismanaging her from day 1 and if she had a more aggressive team she prolly would still be musically relevant or at least able to still fill an arena.
This song was a solid album cut at BEST lol
The beginning of the flopping. This was one of the biggest filler on the amazing album and should have never been a single. They tried the Crazy In Love gimmicks, are the dating/are they not dating that was played out by this point and SO many singers were going that decade. I think My Love or So Hard should have been the single at this time. This also killed that era because at this time in music, an era would last at least a year this dripped just six months after the album release. The Evolution dropped in December 2006, by summer of 2007 no one was playing anything from that album. Same with Bday, but that’s another story.
The truth is that they were actually in a relationship at the time and they were together for 4 years.
This is a nice song, though I’d rather have “My Love”, “Make It Last Forever”, or “So Hard” as a single.
Great song ..still loving it