Billboard #1 R&B Songs Of 1996 Rankdown (COMPLETE)

[Soulsista]

3. Always Be My Baby - Mariah Carey

"Always Be My Baby" was the third single in the US from Daydream. Co-written and co-produced with Jermaine Dupri and Manuel Seal, it topped the R&B and Hot 100 charts, putting her in a three-way tie with Madonna and Whitney Houston for most #1s by a solo female on the latter chart. It also hit #1 in Canada.

The main remix, also known as the "Mr. Dupri Mix", features Da Brat and Xscape and samples "Tell Me If You Still Care" by The S.O.S. Band.



Apologies to #LisaRinna, Ivy Leegue™, newpower, mamooshka, .indulgecountry, samo🦕, and annoymous1...


Stats
Chart Entry: April 6, 1996
Peak Date: May 4, 1996
Weeks At #1: 1
Weeks In Top 10: 9
Weeks On Chart: 22
Hot 100 Peak: #1 (2 weeks)

Points: 499
Average: 5.88
Standard Deviation: 4.827 (7th highest)

#LisaRinna - 1
Ivy Leegue™ - 1
newpower - 1
mamooshka - 1
.indulgecountry - 1
samo🦕 - 1
annoymous1 - 1
Rose "Payola" Nylund - 2
emerald - 2
chanman - 2
jenglisbe - 3
alexcuse - 3
Troublemaker - 3
bat1990 - 4
Kelly's 10th Fan - 4
Soulsista - 5
B-Boy - 5
beyoncelover - 5

jtd Thee Stallion - 6
rowellfarm490 - 6
Private Dancer - 7
CF15 - 7
BB🌕 - 7
divasummer - 7
singingrulebritannia - 8
312999 - 8
SHOOTER - 8
gonecountry - 9
Ky - 10

They'll Never Be Your Baby:
ilikemilk - 16
🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲 - 16
aerodynamite - 16
wyckyd - 18

[Soulsista]

vs.




Both of these songs have over 500 points! Who will take home the crown, Toni or Blackstreet? The final 2 will be revealed shortly!

SPOILER: Click to show

{R&B Class Of '96}Private Dancer jenglisbe CF15 #LisaRinna singingrulebritannia wyckyd B-Boy 312999 beyoncelover Rose "Payola" Nylund ilikemilk jtd Thee Stallion Ivy Leegue™ bat1990 rowellfarm490 🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲 aerodynamite newpower Kelly's 10th Fan SHOOTER mamooshka emerald .indulgecountry chanman alexcuse gonecountry BB🌕 samo🦕 annoymous1 Ky divasummer Troublemaker

[Troublemaker]

Toni for the win!

[312999]

Please Toni win. No Diggity has always been overrated for me and I’ve always preferred Don’t Leave Me.

[bat1990]

WAIT WHAT?!?!?!?!?!? I stand corrected.

[.indulgecountry]

On the first day of Pride Month?!

Jun 1, 2023 11:34:02 GMT -5 bat1990 said:

It's either Toni or Blackstreet. There's no way Mariah misses top 2.

... WELP.

[Soulsista]

But first, an extra. Her follow-up to "You're Makin' Me High" topped the Hot 100 for 11 weeks and peaked at #2 for R&B. Written by Diane Warren and produced by David Foster, it also hit #1 in six other countries and reached the Top 10 in many more. It won a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and is considered her signature song.

Un-Break My Heart - Toni Braxton

[bat1990]

I had not realized "Un-Break My Heart" missed #1 on the R&B charts. It's 11 weeks atop the Hot 100 obscure that fact.

[beyoncelover]

Oooh it's my #1 vs my #7. :o

I'm really hoping that my #1 can win.... but I think it will be my #7, which I don't mind as I do still really love that song (and hated ranking it so low).

[beyoncelover]

It's a real shame that "Un-Break My Heart" missed the #1 spot on the R&B/Hip-Hop charts. Really LOVE that song and it's such an amazing song from Toni Braxton. I would have definitely ranked that high on my list, at least in the Top 5 here.

[jenglisbe]

My guess is several posters intentionally tanked "ABMB" to keep it from winning. No way that many people think so little of the song lol.

I certainly wouldn't mind a Toni win here!
bat1990 I'm actually surprised "U-BMH" did as well as it did at R&B since it's clearly AC/pop, but I am sure sales helped it chart that high. I assume it was competing against "I Believe I Can Fly" on the R&B chart, since they were competing on the Hot 100 as well. I think "One in a Million" was out at that time, too, but it wasn't charting because of the lack of a physical single.

[Troublemaker]

Back in the day when all charts did not exactly correspond with one another because they used different metrics.

[Soulsista]

Here we go, the final 2...



2. You're Makin' Me High - Toni Braxton

"You're Makin' Me High" was the lead single Toni's sophomore album Secrets. It topped the R&B and Hot 100 charts, and led the R&B airplay chart for 13 weeks, helping it become Billboard's top R&B single for 1996. It also won a Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. The song was written and produced by Babyface and Bryce Wilson of Groove Theory, who Toni was dating at the time.

Method Man and Redman sampled it in their 2001 song "Part II", which you can rank right now in 50 Years Of Hip Hop: The Rankdown Part 3.


Stats
Chart Entry: June 8, 1996
Peak Date: June 29, 1996
Weeks At #1: 2
Weeks In Top 10: 17
Weeks On Chart: 42
Hot 100 Peak: #1 (1 week)

Points: 505
Average: 5.70
Standard Deviation: 3.423 (3rd lowest)

Soulsista - 1
Private Dancer - 1
SHOOTER - 1
gonecountry - 1
bat1990 - 2
newpower - 2
.indulgecountry - 2
divasummer - 2
mamooshka - 3
#LisaRinna - 4
🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲 - 4
BB🌕 - 4
samo🦕 - 4
Ky - 4
jenglisbe - 5
312999 - 5
Rose "Payola" Nylund - 5

B-Boy - 6
aerodynamite - 6
Kelly's 10th Fan - 6
beyoncelover - 7
chanman - 7
rowellfarm490 - 8
emerald - 8
Troublemaker - 8
singingrulebritannia - 9
wyckyd - 9
jtd Thee Stallion - 9
alexcuse - 9
CF15 - 10
Ivy Leegue™ - 10

ilikemilk - 12
annoymous1 - 14

---

And now, the #1...



1. No Diggity - Blackstreet feat. Dr. Dre

The lead single from their sophomore album Another Level, "No Diggity" is Blackstreet's biggest hit, topping the R&B and Hot 100 charts and was the final #1 for Cash Box. It also hit #1 in Iceland, New Zealand, and Sweden. Samples "Grandma's Hands" by Bill Withers and won a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance By a Duo Or Group. Features Dr. Dre and Queen Pen.

Teddy Riley had intended this for Guy during their brief 1996 reunion, but they never recorded any material. He then offered it to Aaron Hall, who refused.

Tupac had recorded a diss track aimed at Dr. Dre which sampled "No Diggity", but was forced to change the production after Blackstreet sent a cease and desist order. An updated version titled "Toss It Up", under Tupac's alias Makaveli and featuring Aaron Hall Danny Boy, and K-Ci & JoJo, was released days after his death.



Congrats to bat1990 for a perfect Top 2!


Stats
Chart Entry: October 12, 1996
Peak Date: October 19, 1996
Weeks At #1: 4
Weeks In Top 10: 15
Weeks On Chart: 24
Hot 100 Peak: #1 (4 weeks)

Points: 520
Average: 5.24
Standard Deviation: 4.206 (8th lowest)

singingrulebritannia - 1
beyoncelover - 1
bat1990 - 1
🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲 - 1
aerodynamite - 1
emerald - 1
BB🌕 - 1
CF15 - 2
wyckyd - 2
rowellfarm490 - 2
Kelly's 10th Fan - 2
alexcuse - 2
gonecountry - 3
samo🦕 - 3
annoymous1 - 3
newpower - 4
SHOOTER - 4
chanman - 4
jtd Thee Stallion - 5
Ivy Leegue™ - 5
mamooshka - 5

divasummer - 6
ilikemilk - 7
Soulsista - 8
jenglisbe - 8
#LisaRinna - 8
312999 - 10
Rose "Payola" Nylund - 10

Troublemaker - 11
B-Boy - 11
.indulgecountry - 12
Ky - 12
Private Dancer - 17


And that concludes the Billboard #1 R&B Songs Of 1996 Rankdown! Thanks again to everyone who participated.

1997 is right around the corner!

[🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲]

Yaaaaaaassss at Blackstreet being at #1!!! 👏👏👏👏

[Troublemaker]

Thanks for hosting

[SHOOTER]

This was painfully thrilling to watch unfold. Thanks for hosting! Soulsista

[singingrulebritannia]

I genuinely did not think there was a chance I'd get a perfect ranking at #1 this year; I'm ecstatic that I did! "No Diggity" is a huge bop, everything about it just goes down so smooth

[#LisaRinna]

I am... flummoxed!

[#LisaRinna]

Jun 1, 2023 11:38:39 GMT -5 Soulsista said:

3. Always Be My Baby - Mariah Carey

jtd Thee Stallion - 6
rowellfarm490 - 6
Private Dancer - 7
chartfanatic - 7
BB🌕 - 7
divasummer - 7
singingrulebritannia - 8
312999 - 8
SHOOTER - 8
gonecountry - 9
Ky - 10

They'll Never Be Your Baby:
ilikemilk - 16
🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲 - 16
aerodynamite - 16
wyckyd - 18

[beyoncelover]

5. If Your Girl Only Knew - Aaliyah: Great and memorable song from Aaliyah. Though it's not one of my veryyy favorites of hers but I do really like it enough to rank it at #10. But this was also the song I was hoping to see up to show up first so I'm good with this reveal. Nice that there weren't any Bottom 5 rankings though.

4. California Love - 2Pac feat. Dr. Dre & Roger Troutman: Ahh yess this is such an iconic classic jam from 2Pac. One of his best... and probably my personal favorite song of his which I really loved enough to rank it at #2. Glad to see lots of Top 5 and lots of Top 3 rankings for this song!

3. Always Be My Baby - Mariah Carey: Really love this song from Mariah and this is another one of her many classics. I love this enough to rank this at #5, so I'm fine/good with where this ranked here. I'm a little surprised to see Mariah missing the Top 2 but she's been apart of so many Top 2s that missing one to come in 3rd is okay. It is impressive how this got 7 #1s though.

2. You're Makin' Me High - Toni Braxton: Oooh whoa, I'm so shocked. I surely thought Toni had the win based on all of the comments in here. Ugh I hated ranking this as low as #7 because I do truly love this song and think this is such a hot classic jam. But yeah this was such a stacked list and I'm good with it coming in 2nd. There's an impressive amount of #1, 2 and 4 rankings here.

1. No Diggity - Blackstreet feat. Dr. Dre: Wow I am truly stunned but oh so happpy this song won this rankdown. :o This was not an obvious winner, in fact I think of this as a shocker. It only beat Toni's song by 15 points so anything could happen. But this was my #1 song of this list and yayyy a perfect ranking here! This song is really such a classic and a song I truly and really love a ton. Yeah it was played a lot but I would always jam to it and never get tired of it. Truly iconic and a classic! Woww niceee at 7 #1 rankings here! And wow nearly all of its rankings were in the Top 12 (Except for that one #17). SO happy this pulled out the win!


This was yet another fun rankdown hosted by Soulsista. Wonderful job as always and can't wait for the next edition!

[bat1990]

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love "No Diggity" so much and thought there was no way it would actually win going up against Toni, Mariah, Monica, Mary, and Aaliyah.

[newpower]

No Giggity for the win. This was a very strong set of #1s.

Thanks for hosting Soulsista

[Soulsista]

Perfect Rankings:

bat1990 - 7
Ivy Leegue™ / newpower - 5
B-Boy / 312999 / emerald - 4
jenglisbe / 🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲 / .indulgecountry / Private Dancer / aerodynamite / singingrulebritannia / BB🌕 / divasummer / alexcuse / Troublemaker - 3
jtd Thee Stallion / annoymous1 / #LisaRinna / SHOOTER / mamooshka / beyoncelover - 1
Ky / Rose "Payola" Nylund / Soulsista / samo🦕 / chanman / gonecountry - 1
CF15 / wyckyd / ilikemilk / Kelly's 10th Fan / rowellfarm490 - 0


I'll leave you with one final extra by two R&B legends and two up-and-comers. From the soundtrack to the movie Set It Off, it peaked at #10 on the R&B chart and #25 on the Hot 100. It received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Collaboration.

Missing You - Brandy, Tamia, Gladys Knight & Chaka Khan

[#LisaRinna]

Thank you Soulsista

[Private Dancer]

I'm sorry but No Diggity is overrated! In no world is No Diggity better than You're Makin' Me High

Edit: Thank you Soulsista for hosting!

[Private Dancer]

And yes UMBH did miss the top spot of R&B, if I recall, it's airplay was falling, but sales kept it stable in the top ten.

IBICF was still gaining in sales, but decreasing at airplay. So by a huge margin, R. Kelly was #1 and it wasn't even close for Toni.

[Ivy Leegue™]

UNREAL. My best performance in a rankdown though, so there's that. Sorry, Mariah. You may be queen of life but you were clearly robbed here. Oh well! Soulsista continues to keep the rankdown hits coming. Thank you, Queen! Now playing: Always Be My Baby!

[CF15]

If Tupac wasn't gonna win it, I'm very happy with "No Diggity" taking it home. Shocked that something I ranked lower than "Always Be My Baby" was more of a threat to win than it, and I like both songs, but definitely much prefer this end result. "Un-break My Heart" would have contended for my #1, for sure. Still can't believe it never actually reached the top spot on the chart.

Thanks for yet another great one, Soulsista ! Looking forward to the next one. Looking at the list, I can see four contenders for my #1...

[gonecountry]

Thanks for hosting Soulsista !  Another great rankdown.  I was hoping for Toni to win it all, but Blackstreet was also quite deserving.  Had the Fugees and Killing Me Softly been competing against one another, I would have had a hard time choosing between that and Toni, for sure. 

Here's looking forward to the next one - when are we going back to the 70's and getting our funk on?!?

Thanks again!