Chart Rewind: Brandy’s ‘Have You Ever’ Became Her First Solo Hot 100 #1 This Week in 1999

This week, we have to give it up for ‘Have You Ever’ – the inaugural solo Hot 100 chart-topper of R&B veteran songstress Brandy.

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After watching her ‘Boy is Mine’ co-star Monica quickly follow the gargantuan success of their history-making duet with a solo Hot 100 #1 (‘The First Night’) in late 1998, the pressure was undoubtedly upped for Brandy to do the same.

Though she found critical and international success with the Mase-assisted ‘Top of the World,’ the second single from her sophomore album ‘Never Say Never,’ the tune failed to impact the Hot 100 due to chart rules around its release. Undeterred, Norwood lifted the soaring ballad ‘Have You Ever?’ as the official third single from ‘Never.’ Penned and produced by two of the most lauded music craftspeople in history – Academy Award-nominated & GRAMMY Award-winning songwriter Diane Warren and Academy Award-nominated & GRAMMY Award-winning producer David Foster – ‘Have’ was shipped to radio in October of that year.

Accompanying its release with a Kevin Bray-directed music video, the song was an out-of-the-box success – boasting a #15 premiere on the Hot 100 (and jumping into the top 10 just the next week).

By this week in 1999, ‘Have’ had hopped to #1 on the tally. Marking a career milestone for B-Rocka in the process (as her first solo chart-topper), the tune would go on to reign for two weeks before being dethroned by Britney Spears‘ inaugural hit, ‘Baby One More Time’ (which was eventually unseated by Monica’s ‘Angel of Mine’).

Hot 100 This Week in 1999

Hot 100 This Week

Click here to see this week’s full chart recap via TGJ Chart Check!