In 2004, Harrison told MTV that he figured all he’d have to do was play Beyoncé that beat. In fact, Rich Harrison was probably too confident in the power of that Chi-Lites sample. (Harrison later produced Amerie’s highest-charting single, 2005’s “ 1 Thing,” which peaked at #8. That year, Amerie’s swirling debut single “Why Don’t We Fall In Love” reached #23. Blige deep cut “ Beautiful Ones.” Harrison also discovered Amerie Nicholson, a singer who was studying English at Georgetown, and he produced Amerie’s entire 2002 debut album All I Have. Harrison broke into the business in 1999, when he co-wrote and co-produced the stunning Mary J. One of the producers that Beyoncé picked out for Dangerously In Love was Rich Harrison, a Washington, DC native who’d grown up with go-go and studied at Howard University. Beyoncé had some more time to work on her LP, and she recorded some more tracks. Nelly and Kelly Rowland’s “ Dilemma” dominated the Hot 100 for months, so Kelly’s solo debut Simply Deep took precedence. But the rollout hit a speed bump when “Work It Out” fizzled while Beyoncé’s Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland scored the summer’s biggest hit. Beyoncé picked out a whole roster of producers, and she produced and co-wrote virtually every song. Beyoncé had been working on the album for a while. Initially, the plan was for Beyoncé to release her solo debut Dangerously In Love in October 2002. If anything, when he made all those grand pronouncements on the intro, Jay was underselling it. But “Crazy In Love” is the kind of dizzy alchemy that can only happen when everyone involved in that process is operating at peak capacity, when they work together to make something that positively levitates.

“Crazy In Love” didn’t suddenly surge into existence it came out of the same pop-industry process that’s produced virtually every other song that’s appeared in this column. It was one of those rare and beautiful instances where you hear a song for the first time and instantly know that it’s about to be the biggest thing in the world. It’s a modern standard, an instant game-changer. And then something amazing does happen: Beyoncé shows up, and she delivers.īeyoncé and Jay-Z had recorded together before “Crazy In Love” that’s the “part two” part.

Jay is not an easy man to impress, but when he hears the sheer adrenaline-burst of those sampled horns, Jay sounds almost cowed. Even before Beyoncé starts singing, “Crazy In Love” sounds like suns exploding. Everything else that Jay-Z ad-libs on the “Crazy In Love” intro is both accurate and perfect. “Yesssss! So crazy right now! Most incredibly! It’s your girl! B! It’s your boy! Young! Cheah! History in the making, part two!” In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.

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