That she would go on to have some incredible successes with her ballads - “Take a Bow” and “Stay,” for example - only demonstrates that people are here for vulnerable, heartfelt Rih.
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“Cry” builds on the best parts of “Unfaithful,” the first ballad Rih ever put out as a single. But, hey, we live in the age of YouTube and one-click downloads, so these kinds of things are easy to find should you choose to look.
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Considering it is one of Rihanna’s best ballads, it’s a shame that it never saw a proper release (even just as an album track) in the U.S. “Cry” was a bonus track featured on several international editions of Good Girl, continuing the deplorable trend of artists tossing off great material for the sake of label games, making it harder for fans to find and hear. “Sell Me Candy” is proof that it just comes naturally to some. Look at Demi Lovato in 2015 trying so hard to get on this tip. “Breakin’ Dishes”? “Push Up on Me”? “Lemme Get That”? All good songs! My first vote for Shoulda-Been a Single, though, goes to “Sell Me Candy.” It is one of the greatest Song of the Summer contenders that was never even a contender.
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It remains her strongest era, chart performance-wise. And guess what? Even though seven total singles (not counting “If I Never See Your Face Again,” which belongs to Maroon 5) were released, there are still several above-average songs for which to stan. 1, and every other single peaked within the Top 20 (two of them reached the Top 10). It contains several of her biggest hits, including the eternal “Umbrella.” Then the re-release brought us “Take a Bow” and “Disturbia.” All three of those singles hit No. Good Girl Gone Bad is the first Rihanna album that deserves to be called an album and not just a collection of crumpled garbage propping up one or two great singles. The fact that Good Girl remains Rihanna’s biggest selling album is testament to that fact. Shoulda-Been Singles From Good Girl Gone Bad (2007) Now, you’ve waited your turn, so shall we begin? And in the end, this exercise gave me a greater appreciation of her work overall. Despite these hardships, I was successful in finding at least one song per album that Rih and her team passed over. Given her exhaustive release schedule, it was occasionally difficult to find hidden gems from some eras. 1 album until 2012’s Unapologetic.) There were other good songs on her albums, sure, but for the most part, the good songs were released and the rest were forgotten. Historically, Rihanna has been more of a “singles artist” than an “album artist,” meaning that her strength has been in putting out incredible (and incredibly popular, record-breaking) singles and mediocre-to-good albums with too much obvious padding. (And the public noticed: she didn’t score her first No. (That doesn’t even take into account her numerous massive guest features on songs like Eminem‘s “The Monster” or T.I.‘s “Live Your Life.” She also released three singles in 2015 already, and there’s no album in sight.) In short: Rihanna loves releasing singles even more than she loves clapping back on Twitter. She only released two from Music of the Sun, but she soon ratcheted things up and released four from A Girl Like Me, eight(including a feature on a Maroon 5 track) from Good Girl Gone Bad/ GGGB: Reloaded, six from Rated R, seven from Loud, six from Talk That Talk, and another seven from Unapologetic. And releasing one album per year didn’t slow an epic barrage of singles. In eight years, she released seven albums (plus one major re-release, which essentially brings the total to eight albums in eight years).
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Here’s the thing: Bad Gal’s album and single release schedule is nothing short of prolific no other modern pop musician’s output can compare. Gaga left a lot of great potential smashes to rot, Britney’s catalog is large and divisive, and Beyoncé, despite releasing a ton of singles per album, has made the idea of singles somewhat irrelevant with surprise releases and videos-for-every-song tactics. Turns out, doing this for Rihanna presented my biggest challenge yet. In writing similar features about the discographies of Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, and Beyoncé, I found that each artist’s body of work presented a unique set of issues. H-eh-eh-eh-y, it’s that time again! Today, lets take a tour - you and I together - back through Rihanna‘s many, many, many albums and singles and discuss the forgotten tunes that never got their time to shine (bright like a diamond).