Usher — "You Make Me Wanna..."
The love-triangle confession that made 18-year-old Usher a star: seven straight weeks at #2 on the Hot 100, held off the top the whole time by Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997." The video — five Ushers dancing in perfect sync inside a white-and-purple circular room — became his visual signature.
Released August 5, 1997, as the lead single from My Way, "You Make Me Wanna..." caught Usher Raymond at the moment he became a star at 18. Written by Usher, Jermaine Dupri, and Manuel Seal and produced by Dupri at Krosswire Studio in Atlanta, it paired a skeletal, minimal groove with a premise as direct as its beat: a guy confesses that the friend he's been confiding in about his girlfriend is who he really wants.
The numbers were enormous. The single climbed to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and sat there for seven consecutive weeks (October 25 through December 6, 1997), held off the top by Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997," then mid-way through its fourteen-week run at #1. It logged 46 weeks on the Hot 100 in all, spent 11 weeks at #1 on the Hot R&B Singles chart, went to #1 in the UK, and was certified 3× platinum in the US, earning Usher a Grammy nomination for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance along the way. My Way itself — released September 16, 1997 on LaFace/Arista — peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200 and was eventually certified 7× platinum.
The Bille Woodruff-directed video did the rest: five clones of Usher in a white-and-purple circular room, synchronized down to the last gesture. It became the image of Usher for a generation of TRL viewers — the sleek, dance-first template he would carry all the way through the Confessions era.
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