"My Prerogative" by Bobby Brown

#1 Alert!

Gold Record Alert!

Song#:  3690

Date:  10/22/1988

Debut:  78

Peak:  1 (1 week)

Weeks:  24

Genre:  R&B, New Jack Swing

Pop Bits:  Brown's lead single and title track to his second album Don't Be Cruel made it to #8 Pop and #6 R&B. It was the song that broke the singer into the mainstream as a solo artist. This next single would then make him a major star. "My Prerogative," written by Terry Riley and Aaron Hall along with Brown, would take off at R&B and reach #1. The week after the song hit the top spot at R&B, it debuted on the Pop chart. It would steadily climb until finally peaking at #1. The tune would also reach #7 at Dance. The single would sell well enough to go gold. It would end up as the #2 single for the 1989 charting year. The hit would then send the album to #1 on the Pop chart in January of '89. It would spend six non-consecutive weeks at the top.

ReduxReview:  Defiant and full of attitude, this grinding new jack classic became Brown's signature song and rightly so. The tune's beat was fierce and there were hooks a-plenty. I wasn't really into Brown at the time, but I did recognize that this was a terrific song and I bought the single. It really should have spent more time at #1, but it got blocked from the top spot by Poison's "Every Rose Has Its Thorn." It was easily Brown's best moment and was his biggest hit on the Pop chart.

ReduxRating:  9/10

Trivia:  This was one of the last songs recorded for the LP. After initial sessions with L.A. Reid and Babyface were finished, Brown felt that he needed a tougher song to help set the tone of the album. At the time he was still trying to distance himself from the teen idol/bubblegum R&B of New Edition and he was looking for something that would move him in a more hip and mature direction. He met up with Teddy Riley in New York who had already been working on this track with Aaron Hall. It was what Brown was looking for and he came on board to finish the song. In addition to the tune's aggressive new jack sound, the lyrics were a statement of independence. It addressed Brown's detractors who thought he was crazy to leave New Edition and others who dumped on him for his personal choices. It was sort of a companion piece to Janet Jackson's "Control." The song did its job certifying Brown as a solo star and as a leader in the new jack swing sound.

_________________________________________________________________________________