Readers of That Grape Juice know what avid music lovers we are – especially of hits past.
So, as our retrospective segments, ‘From the Vault’ and ‘TGJ Replay,’ allow us the chance to re-spin the gems and jams of yesterday of one artist, our latest feature – Chart Rewind – serves as a variation of our Retro Rewind assay to salute an entire era of music history.
This week, we think it’s best to take it back to ‘At Your Best’ – the second top 10 hit of late R&B superstar Aaliyah‘s career.
This week 26-years-ago, a rising R&B songstress named Aaliyah learned her second single, ‘At Your Best (You Are Love),’ had reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. The feat was impressive but not unfamiliar to the then-15-year-old who was coming off the high of watching her debut single, ‘Back & Forth,’ soar to #5 on the same tally.
Like ‘Back,’ ‘Best’ had the signature stamp of serial hitmaker R. Kelly all over it – a detail shared by many of the songs aboard her debut album, ‘Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number,’ as he wrote and produced the majority of it.
**Related: Click here to read our ode to ‘Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number’ (the album)**
In fact, the only of the 14 songs that line the LP’s tracklist that didn’t feature Kelly’s penmanship was ‘At Your Best’ – a tune originally made famous by The Isley Brothers in 1976. For the ‘Age’ album, Aaliyah’s version of ‘Best’ tonally and structurally mirrors that of the Isleys’ classic and (on this side of history) stands as the fan-preferred edition of her remake. Upon its early 90’s release as a single, however, Kelly flipped the cut into a Chicago-inspired ‘stepper’s song’ – remixing the slow jam with a synth style that better reflected the overall sway of the era at large.
The move worked as it not only hoisted the young R&B princess to her second consecutive top 10 hit but also her second Gold certified single from the Recording Industry Association of America (denoting sales of over 500,000 copies in the United States).
Its enduring popularity, alongside ‘Back’ and other tunes listed aboard ‘Age,’ boosted the album’s sales to over 3 million in the U.S. alone.
As we salute one of the late singer’s most popular ballads, look below to see who joined her in the top 25 this week in 1994:
Hot 100 This Week in 1994
Hot 100 This Week
Click here to see this week’s full ‘TGJ Chart Check: Hot 100.’
Her mother is disgusting for not protecting her from the likes of Robert Kelly
Age ain’t nun but a #… hunny she told u already since day 1. Love is love ✔️✔️✔️
Oh you have a new name??!! Gimme a day or two and imma be right there with you! 💋💁🏼♀️💁🏼♀️🖕🏻
He was trusted to be the professional person he presented himself to be. Who do you think was the driving force behind Aaliyah’s separation from the man once it became clear that he was manipulating and abusing everyone’s trust? Back off.
Monica is a disgusting mother and an even worse artist with her 9000000000 flops
🥱🥱 Why are you back? Time to put my dragging hat back on 🧢 😂😂💁🏼♀️🖕🏻🖕🏻
The whole family is trash as they all profited from an underage girl sleeping with an older man for money, Aaliyah slept her way into the music industry.
Your whole family is trash Clarkson, the dumpster fire version 🔥 🤣 Stay real obsessed tho!
Stay OBSESSED and DEPRESSED 🤣 I’m straight FINESSING at this point 🤳🏽 This ONE song has more flavor than Camry’s whole album 🚗 😂 I will NEVER say her name again! Clarkson is mad mad y’all 🤣 Baby, you’re jealous lmaooooo
Monica was underaged when she was f****** C Murder and she’s still chasing his prison d*** at 40 sooooooo where were her parents?