One person’s view: “Quite possibly the most boring number 1 to ever come out in the early 1990s. Everything about it is forgettable: the production, the lyrics, the singer, even the title isn’t all that interesting.” – cybershocker455 @ Reddit
The public’s view: 1.75 / 5.00, the second-worst #1 hit of 1990
These days, southern Florida is known mainly for Burmese pythons, $10,000 home insurance bills, and the electrifying stadium-filling charisma of U.S. Senator and future five-term President Marco Rubio. But in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Miami was getting America’s toes tapping and ears ringing with the sounds of Latin freestyle music. Exposé, Will to Power, and Company B were some of the best known freestyle acts to emerge from the region, and Stevie B (no relation to Company B) was one of the most prolific and enduring. Yet, as with many of the other freestylers of his time, Stevie B’s biggest hit was not very representative of the freestyle genre. It was also one of his dullest songs, and unfortunately it will make for a dull entry here.
Stevie’s collaborator Warren Allen Brooks wrote “Because I Love You” as a love message from God to a human. He did so by imagining how God would react if Brooks were to send Him a letter in a time of personal crisis. The Almighty’s response begins: “I got your letter from the postman just the other day.” This evokes a bizarre mental picture of a mail truck floating up to heaven to deliver the letter. Has Brooks ever heard of that postage-free alternative known as prayer? It’s a lot more efficient than sending God a letter or leaving Him a rambling voicemail. And nobody wants to be the one whose envelope gives God a paper cut.
Of course, most people don’t know that this hit was originally intended as a spiritual. They hear “Because I Love You” as a romantic ballad from one mortal to another. In this interpretation, the opening line about the postman is more plausible but it raises questions about the singer’s claim that he will always be by the lady’s side. If he’s always right next to her, why does she have to write a letter every time she wants to talk to him? And why does he wait a few days before responding? Unless he has a good excuse for the physical and emotional distance, like being in prison or on one of those Survivor-type reality shows, it’s hard to take Stevie B at his word. But he doubled down on his message anyway with his follow-up single: “I’ll Be By Your Side”.
This record continues the trend toward ultra-cheap do-it-yourself music production that we started to notice in the late 1980s. There are only two instruments on the track, both of which are synthesizers played by Brooks. The video was filmed in a large open room with big windows, bare floors, and a grand piano, which is the default setting that music video directors choose when working with a boring song and a low budget. (See “Separate Lives”.) But this room isn’t just a place for Stevie B to mope around and pretend to play the piano. His bed is here, too, and this makes me feel sorry for him having to live in a drafty, uncarpeted loft that was probably not intended for residential use. Not sorry enough to want to hear “Because I Love You” again, though.
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