Throwback Thursday: Jamie Foxx – “Heaven” (Live)
Between his first public statement since his headline-making health scare and rumors about him being cloned, Jamie Foxx is being talked about a lot these days. Not to mention, his Netflix movie They Cloned Tyrone has been unanimously lauded as a masterpiece.
Seeing the multi-hyphenate in the news had me thinking about all the music he’s given us — and how he continues the R&B tradition of keeping his best work as album cuts, never to be heard by the casual fan. That’s right, “Blame It” (featuring T-Pain) is not nearly his best.
His breakthrough album, Unpredictable, is probably mostly remembered for its biggest single, the title track. However, real R&B fans know that album’s brightest moments were all on album cuts.
“Heaven,” the album’s 14th track, is a beautiful piano-driven ballad about Jamie Foxx’s daughter, Corinne. In a 2005 interview with NPR, he said:
Well, I’ll tell you, the “Heaven Will Never Be The Same” was because I didn’t know if my daughter was going to be, you know, born with complications or things like that. And the way it came to me was that there was a angel in heaven watching the plight of this couple try to have a kid, and it was God’s favorite little angel, and one day, God calls a roll call, and she doesn’t answer. And what she had done was she snuck down to Earth to bless this couple with a child, and that child is, in a sense, my daughter. And so that’s why I wrote the tune from–I wrote it from that spirit.
The song was co-written by the singer and Durrell Babbs, and produced by Tim Pierce and (you wouldn’t believe it) Babyface. Yes, that’s three straight weeks where Mr. Edmonds had a part in creating the TBT selection. Truly the GOAT.
If you’re not familiar with this gem, you’re welcome. Below is a live rendition performed on AOL Music Sessions.
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