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Song Stories

“Fallin'”

Alicia Keys | 2001

This gospel-tinged piano ballad was Keys' debut single from her debut album, Songs In A Minor. She was just 20."I wanted to write a song for someone who was 10 or 12 years old--like a young Michael Jackson," Keys said. "[The song] is about the ins and outs of a relationship. Sometimes, you’re completely head-over-heels in love with someone, and sometimes you can’t stand that person. You fall in and out…" She performed "Fallin'" on the Oprah show before the album was even released: it hit Number One, and Keys hasn’t let the spotlight since.

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“School's Out”
Alice Cooper | 1972
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“Dougou Badia”
Amadou and Mariam | 2011

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Song Stories

“Too Close”

Next | 1998

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'" 

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