Readers of That Grape Juice know what avid music lovers we are – especially of hits past.
So, as our retrospective features ‘From the Vault’ and ‘TGJ Replay’ allow us the chance to re-spin the gems and jams of yesterday of one artist, our newest feature Chart Rewind – a variation of our current Retro Rewind assay – accedes salutes to an entire era of music history.
This week we’ll fast backward to Maxwell’s (born Gerald Rivera) 1999 hit ‘Fortunate.’ Found aboard the soundtrack to the Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence-led film ‘Life,’ the neo-soul jam – penned and produced by R. Kelly – was initially rejected by Rivera before Kelly convinced him to record it instead of the title track to the film’s soundtrack (a tune later made a hit by K-Ci & Jojo).
Released in March of that year, the tune eventually peaked at #4 on the Hot 100 (where it was found this week that year). Unknown to the crooner at the time, ‘Fortunate’ not only went on to be the Hot 100 peak of his career but also the biggest hit of his career with sales that currently hover slightly under the Platinum mark. Going on to become a fan favorite amongst his many unforgettable R&B gems, look inside to relieve the magic of ‘Fortunate’ and see who joined him in the Hot 100 this week 19 years ago:
