With Usher’s Vancouver concert coming up so soon (May 25 at Rogers Arena), now’s the time to relive some of Usher Raymond IV’s (neither Usher Raymond I, II, III, or V has a singing career… yet!) greatest hits.
“Nice and Slow”
Usher’s first Billboard #1, “Nice and Slow” is a fantastic example of late-90s pop. Usher’s nonchalant delivery, combined with a minimalist R&B instrumental and a video featuring Kimora Lee Simmons, got his career started with a bang.
“The Many Ways”
Okay, so the song is really, REALLY cheesy. As is the video, where black-and-white shots of Usher handing an anonymous woman a flower are intercut with shots of him lip-syncing with his shirt open on a beach in front of the crashing surf. It looks like a parody of an R&B video released by the Lonely Island guys. Despite how dated the video is (it’s off his 1994 self-titled debut), Usher’s talent still shines through and makes “The Many Ways” totally listenable.
“Love in this Club”
While Usher’s fifth album, Here I Stand, didn’t do anywhere near as well as Confessionsi, largely because of its deeply personal content and the fact that it consisted almost entirely of ballads, on the album’s biggest single “Love In This Club” Usher managed to sing about “making love in the club” and make it seem tender. In this live performance of the song at iheartradio, Usher expresses these contradictory themes perfectly in the introduction: “Yo, this is Usher. I heart strip clubs. I heart my children.” Bizarre, but somehow it works perfectly.
“Yeah”
This 2004 monster hit, off Usher’s Confessions album, was impossible not to dance to at the time. You couldn’t spend fifteen minutes at a party, whether at a Vegas nightclub or a 12-year-old’s birthday, without hearing this track’s massive synth line and infectiously simple hook.
“DJ Got Us Falling In Love”
Usher is a great singer, but it’s the production on this track that got it so much club play (even more than Usher’s higher-charting single “OMG,” released around the same time). Written and produced in part by Swedish genius Max Martin (also responsible for Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” and “I Kissed a Girl,” Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite,” Britney’s “…Baby One More Time,” “If U Seek Amy,” and “Hold It Against Me,” as well as pretty much every Top 40 pop song you’ve ever thought of as a guilty pleasure), “DJ Got Us Falling In Love” is built around Martin’s trademark massive chorus, which Usher delivers perfectly.
What are your top Usher songs? Or is he not your cup of tea? Let us know in the comments section!
If you feel like seeing him live (it’s well worth it–he’s a fantastic dancer), Usher tickets are still available for his 2011 tour.