Don't Forget About Us

"Don't Forget About Us"
Song

"Don't Forget About Us" is a song written and produced by American singer Mariah Carey for the re-release of her fourteenth album, The Emancipation of Mimi. It was co-written by Jermaine Dupri, Johnta Austin and Bryan Michael Cox and co-produced by Cox. Released as the album's fifth single (fourth in North America) in 2005 (see 2005 in music), it became Carey's seventeenth number one single on the United States Billboard Hot 100 and was a hit in several other countries.

About the record

The song is a midtempo jam that harkens back to 1990s styled R&B, and its protagonist regrets a failed relationship that never had a proper conclusion. Unlike "We Belong Together", another song from The Emancipation of Mimi, she is not very despondent, and has accepted that her ex-lover is now seeing someone else. However, she does not want him to forget what they had when they were together: "Nothing can compare to your first true love, so I hope this will remind you, when it's for real it's forever, so don't forget about us". She also reminds her ex that no matter who his new girl is, "she'll never be MC".

Carey has been known to repeat formulas for her singles if they are successful. For instance, in the past, she was called out for making songs such as "Heartbreaker" (1999) and "Loverboy" (2001) too similar to other lead up-tempos like "Dreamlover" (1993) and "Fantasy" (1995). Several music critics have drawn parallels between "Don't Forget About Us" and "We Belong Together", the second and most successful single from The Emancipation of Mimi. Chuck Taylor of Billboard called the song "little more than a continuation of the previous hit...On its own, "Forget" is a soulful, satisfying track, but it suggests that Carey has hit a creative wall".^[1] Bill Lamb of About.com, in a more positive summary of the song, wrote "It doesn't mess with the brilliant formula of "We Belong Together"... [but] those wanting variety from Mariah Carey need to look elsewhere".^[2]

Chart performance

"Don't Forget About Us" officially impacted radio on October 11 2005, but had already been added to many radio station playlists before that. It premiered on the radio and the internet in late September.

The single ascended to number one in its eleventh week on the Hot 100. It held the number-one position for two weeks, from December 25 to January 8. It replaced "Run It!" by Chris Brown, and was itself replaced by D4L's "Laffy Taffy". With "Don't Forget About Us", Carey is now tied with Elvis Presley for the most number one singles in the U.S. by a solo artist (seventeen). She is now behind only The Beatles, who hold the record with twenty. On this point, there has been some controversy: Billboard magazine statistician Joel Whitburn credits Presley with eighteen number-one hits and not seventeen, because he counts one of Presley's double-sided hits as two separate number one singles. However, the magazine officially credits Presley with seventeen as its current methodology treats the double-sided "Don't Be Cruel" and "Hound Dog" as a single unit. "Don't Forget About Us" also reached number one on several other Billboard charts, including the Hot 100 Airplay and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles and Tracks.

The song's successful start to its U.S. chart performance was due to its strong radio airplay, but it advanced more slowly on the Hot 100 than Carey's previous two singles due to the lack of digital downloads. The track became available for digital download on iTunes briefly in mid-November, but was pulled by Island/Def Jam to boost sales of the re-release of The Emancipation of Mimi during the holiday season. The album cut and several remixes were released to digital retailers on December 13 2005, and the song replaced Carey's perenially popular holiday single "All I Want for Christmas Is You" (1994) at number one on the iTunes Music Store, giving Carey the distinction of being the first recording artist to replace themselves at number one. It has also been certified 2N for over 200,000 detections on monitored Billboard/BDS stations

"Don't Forget About Us" was also a hit outside the U.S. It reached number one in Japan and Finland, and was a Top 20 hit in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. It debuted on the Australian ARIA chart at number twelve (the week's highest debut), and it returned to that position in its fifth week. It debuted at number eleven on the UK charts, and on the Canadian BDS Airplay Chart it peaked at number seventeen in its ninth week.

Video and remixes

File:DFAU2.jpg

Marilyn Monroe's unfinished film Something's Got to Give (1962).

File:DFAB1.jpg

Carey pays homage to Monroe in her video

The single's video was officially released promotionally on November 1 2005, but was premiered by surprise on October 29 on MTV's Spanking New series. It reunited Carey with Paul Hunter, director of the "Honey" (1997) video, and it jumps between two different time frames. The first of these involves a despondent Carey in the present, while the second invokes memories of a relationship with a former lover (played by Dolce & Gabbana model Christian Monzon). The video pays homage to actress Marilyn Monroe, whom Carey dressed up as in the music video for "I Still Believe" (1998): the shot in which Carey is in the pool with her leg protruding out of the water emulates an identical shot from Monroe's unfinished film Something's Got to Give (1962) in which she struck a similar pose. The video reached number one on Total Request Live, number one on BET's 106 & Park countdown (for twenty-one non-consecutive countdowns), and number one on VH1's Top 20 Music Countdown.

The main remix for "Don't Forget About Us" was produced by Jermaine Dupri, and is known as the "Mr. Dupri Mix". It features guest appearances from rappers Juelz Santana, and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and Carey's parts are greatly reduced. It premiered on Chicago's B-96 FM on November 29 2005. The "Mr. Dupri Mix" later was added to iTunes Music Store for download while several dance remixes were produced and made available for sale at other download retailers. The Mr. Dupri Mix sold well enough to help "Don't Forget About Us" top the Billboard Hot Digital Songs tally whereas the album cut reached only number two on the Billboard Hot Digital Tracks list. In January of 2006, a new remix called the "Desert Storm Remix" produced by DJ Clue featuring Fabolous and Styles P. became available to radio. Many fans remarked that it was significantly better than the main remix and were disappointed that it premiered after the song had already peaked on the Hot 100. It was originally supposed to be recorded with Cam'Ron and Da Brat, however the original recording session for this remix was cancelled when Cam'Ron was injured during a shooting. The "Desert Storm Remix" will appear on DJ Clue's upcoming album, The Professional, Pt. 3.

Charts

Chart (2005)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1 (2 weeks)
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay	1 (5 weeks)
U.S. Billboard Pop 100	2
U.S. Billboard Pop 100 Airplay	4
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks	1 (2 weeks)
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay	1 (2 weeks)
U.S. Billboard Adult R&B	18
U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream	3
U.S. Billboard Rhythmic Top 40	2
U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Songs	1 (1 week)
U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Tracks	2
U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Tracks 1	22
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Airplay	1 (4 weeks)
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play	1 (1 week)
U.S. Billboard Hot Video Clip	1 (7 weeks)
UK Singles Chart	11
Australian ARIA Singles Chart	12
Australian Urban Chart	3
Canadian BDS Airplay Chart	17
Hot 100 Brazil	42
Finnish Singles Chart	1
Tokyo Hot 100 (Japan)	1

¹ (Remix.)

Notes and references

1. ^ Taylor Chuck. Billboard Single Reviews. Billboard. Retrieved Oct. 30, 2005.
2. ^ Lamb, Bill. Don't Forget About Us - Mariah Carey. About.com. Retrieved Oct. 30, 2005.