Whenever I Say Your Name
| "Whenever I Say Your Name" | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Single by Sting & Mary J. Blige | ||||||||||||||||||||
| from the album Sacred Love (Sting) Love & Life (Mary J. Blige) |
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| Released | 2003 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Format | CD single | |||||||||||||||||||
| Recorded | 2003 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | R&B, Pop | |||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 5:25 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Label | A&M Geffen |
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| Writer(s) | Sting, Mary J. Blige | |||||||||||||||||||
| Producer | Sting | |||||||||||||||||||
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"Whenever I Say Your Name" is a 2003 duet between British singer-songwriter Sting and American R&B singer Mary J. Blige. The song is the second single from Sting's studio album Sacred Love. It was not originally included on Mary J. Blige's sixth studio album Love & Life but was later added to the album's international re-release.
The single was the third and final non-US single from Love & Life. The track was released in late 2003, only peaking at #60 in the UK, meaning that the song became Sting's lowest charting single since "They Dance Alone" reached #94 in 1988. It also became Mary J. Blige's smallest hit there since the first release of "Real Love" in 1992. [1] Despite the song's lack of commercial success, it did win the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for music released in 2003.
The song is arguably one of the most complex works Sting has authored. It is composed in F-sharp minor, using half diminished chords right from the first verse. The Chorus section quotes exactly the harmonic progression in the first five measures of J. S. Bach's Little Prelude in C major, BWV 924, beginning with the marked ascending circle of fifths sequence. The quotation is likely on purpose, since the change to a descending third sequence in bars 4-5 of the Bach prelude is also quoted in the Sting version. In terms of chord structure, no Sting song comes closer to Classical Music than "Whenever I say your name".
[edit] Track listings
- "Whenever I Say Your Name" (Album Version)
- "Whenever I Say Your Name" (will.i.am Remix featuring The Black Eyed Peas)
- "Whenever I Say Your Name" (Salaam Remi Groove Mix)
[edit] Charts
| Chart (2001) | Peak position |
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| U.S. Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Songs | 77 |
| U.K. Singles Chart | 60 |
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