Album: Anytime (Mercury)
Songwriters: Brandon Barnes and Brian McKnight
Hit #1: February 14th, 1998 (4 Weeks-Airplay)
With his trained musical background and charming gentleman demeanor, Brian McKnight offered a sophisticated, piano-based pop-soul alternative to the more randy R&B men of the decade. Unfortunately, this also meant that, save for the occasional winning ballad (like the weepy "One Last Cry", poignant Vanessa Williams duet "Love Is" or his pleasant remake of Van Morrison's "Crazy Love"), a lot of his output fell on the blander end of the spectrum. McKnight is a talented musician but his affinity for the safe could make him a bore to listen to.
For 1998's Anytime, he took a step in an interesting direction, fielding the talents of Bad Boy for the Puff-produced/ Mase-featured lead single "You Should Be Mine". Audiences took an immediate liking to this sudden stylistic detour, making the trendy, James Brown-sampling number the biggest R&B hit of his career up to that point; but, it would be a song a bit closer to his signature sound that would truly make Anytime the bonafide smash it became.
The title track captures McKnight roaming back and forth down his lonely hallways in a post-break-up haze. A lightly, skittering drum track and somber piano riff (more on that later) aiding in the illustration of his self-imposed gloom, Brian struggles to move on, unable to completely erase his former lover from his heart. The relationship's dissolution causes his so much grief that he fears he might be losing it ("Hear your footsteps down the hall. I swear I hear your voice/ Driving me insane/ How I wish that you would call..."). Hoping for her to have change of heart, he wonders to himself, "Do I ever cross your mind, anytime?", praying that she's experiencing the same turmoil and yearning for a reconciliation as badly as he is.
Elevated by his tortured tenor, the wintry ballad's striking exploration of human darkness led to it becoming a sleeper hit, topping the R&B airplay charts for the first time on Valentine's Day (the loneliest day of the year for many). But the song wasn't as greatly embraced by some; Brian was accused of lifting heavy portions of "Anytime" from Me'Shell Nedegeocello's 1993 languid groover "Outside Your Door"
. Though Me'Shell, herself, was somewhat bitter over the two songs' similarities (at one point singing lines from the McKnight number when she performed "Outside Your Door"), the mini-controversy was never played out in court.
Best Moment: Of course, the source of all the commotion: those beautifully lingering piano notes.
DL: "Anytime" (YFH)
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