Usher Looks Back Five Years After "Confessions"

It's hard to believe that it's already been five years since the siren sounds of Usher's "Yeah!" was serenading every dance floor in America, but the calendar doesn't lie. March 23rd officially marked the fifth anniversary of Usher's Confessions, and the R&B singer wrote into MTV News to reminisce about his landmark LP with five confessions about Confessions.

The biggest revelation in Usher's e-mail is the postscript: "Not many people know that Stevie Wonder played keys on Confessions." After some digging, and a little help from the All Music Guide, Rock Daily figured out that while Wonder isn't listed among the personnel on the original Confessions album, he is named on the version that contains four extra bonus tracks including the "My Boo" duet with Alicia Keys. However, Wonder is credited with contributing harmonica and not "keys," so color us confused. Maybe Usher's memory has dulled a bit five years later.

Usher also tells MTV that "Yeah!," arguably the album's biggest hit, nearly didn't even make the final track list. "Lil Jon produced 'Yeah!' and once we finished the record we did a little research on the record only to find out that 'Freek-A-Leek' by Petey Pablo had the same beat," Usher writes. "At times I wonder if it would have made a difference if the beat was never changed. Nobody knew it was going to be that huge of a record." Confessions itself was a huge hit, selling 10 million copies in the States and spending nine weeks atop the U.S. charts, a feat unsurpassed this millennium until Taylor Swift's Fearless reigned for 11 weeks.

Usher wraps up his letter by hinting that another album is on the way: "The anniversary comes just in time for the new album. I got a new story to tell. A new dawn, a new day, and I'm feeling good. Be ready!"

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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