hello hello and welcome or welcome back to my channel so last week it came out from a producer
who worked on yours truly with Ariana Grande that several of the songs that ended up being on the
album were initially intended for Jordan Sparks on her third album and I don't know the context
of how this news came out you know whether it was in an interview or a podcast or what have you but
it's been all over Twitter for the last couple days so I did think that it'll be interesting
to look into more so because you know we know yours truly as an album that sort of jump started
Ariana Grande's career as a solo artist outside of Victorious so let's go ahead and get into it
so I'm not sure if we're at the point yet where some younger people might be familiar
with Jordan Sparks but I myself was even kind of young when she won American Idol she won the
sixth season back in 2007 at age 17 becoming the youngest American Idol winner in history
and fourth time after her win Jordan did see a lot of commercial success with her music months
after winning Idol Jordan released herself titled debut album it contained several hits
including tattoo one step at a time and no air a collaboration with Chris Brown No Air peaked at
number three on the Hot 100 and was nominated for a Grammy for Best pop collaboration with vocals
and currently is the third best-selling single from an American Idol contestant Jordan's album
itself peaked at number 10 on the billboard 200. Jordan's sophomore album Battlefield debuted at
number seven with the title track peeking at number 10. this made Jordan Sparks the first
American Idol contestant to have their first five singles chart in the top 20 of the hot 100.
Jordan also did some work for Disney recording a cover of Beauty and the Beast for the DVD
re-release and appearing in an episode of The Suite Life on Deck she also worked with
Big Time Rush featuring on one of their songs and appearing in an episode of their Nickelodeon show
Jordan played herself in her appearance on both shows around this time Jordan made her
Broadway debut playing Nina in the Heights in 2012 Jordan made her film acting debut in the
remake of Sparkle a film about a fictional Motown girl group's rise to fame the film was Loosely
based on Diana Ross and The Supremes around this time Jordan announced she was working on
her third album she stated it would have a more r b feel and less of a pomp sound she also said
seven of the songs were already completed however Jordan's album wouldn't be released for years and
she blamed her label for the delay at this time she was no longer with Jive and was now signed
with RCA records Jordan said that RCA was using her role in Sparkle as an excuse to continuously
delay her album and claim there was no room in the schedule to properly promote it she also
stated she was looking for other avenues to get her music out so obviously around this time and
a little bit before Ariana was working on and then promoting her debut album Yours Truly which came
out in August of 2013. we now know that according to Harmony Samuels who code executive produce
Yours Truly that Jordan Sparks was the so-called originator of the album he and Jordan co-wrote
the way along with Sevyn Streeter and two other writers the way was originally written about Jason
Derulo who Jordan was dating at the time and meant to be on the delayed third album I was at a party
I was actually like Puffs point and they were playing a bunch of hip-hop records and I think
mint Mill had a record called amen at the time and it was bumping so hard and it was just like
it had everybody up on their feet and I was like I wonder what a girl would sound like on something
like this yeah I mean and basically it taught me like you can make records and not everybody you
make it for means it's going to be your number one hit on them but it might be someone else and
the funny thing is Ariana Grande wasn't even in my sights when I made the record I didn't even
know who she was it was for Jordan Sparks and then all of a sudden two years later as Ariana Grande's
and it's like a huge hit and I'm like okay cool okay like I literally have a Judas box version
right that's how you know because she co-wrotein it I don't know how I knew Sevyn Streeter worked
on the way but didn't know about Jordan because there are interviews of her from the time period
talking about it Samuels does give Ariana the credit of coming up with the idea of putting
Mac Miller on the record the way it ended up being a hit for Ariana this song has gone three
times Platinum since its release and peaked at number nine on the hot 100. Snippets of Jordan's
demo are in line and she's posted some of the Snippets herself and though it is disappointing
if the label didn't let her put the record on her own she does now have another platinum record to
her name because of her writing credit on the song according to Samuel Jordan's third album
was supposed to take a similar direction to Yours Truly he claimed while I was doing that album for
Fantasia I was working on those records for Ariana Grande but they weren't Ariana Grande
records they were Jordin Sparks records Jordyn Sparks is the originator of those records and
the blueprint behind who Ari is now my vision was for Jordan to be that person
and I've never really thought about the fact that if a label won't put an artist's music
out the producer suffers too it's obviously a given but I feel like we usually Center the
recording artists in these conversations because they're the face of the issue
Samuels also stated the reason RCA delayed Jordan's album is because they didn't see the
value of the music he was producing for her and so they wanted Jordan to go in a different direction
which of course if he's telling the truth this does mean that it wasn't necessarily budget or
scheduling issue as RCA had allegedly told Jordan Samuels did give Ariana credit for what she added
to the songs that he produced for yours truly he stated kudos to Ari she did a lot of work on that
album she didn't just cut those records she put Mac Miller on those records she called Big Sean
she had those relationships we worked extremely hard together she deserves all the success
while they would have been similar to an extent I do wonder how different Jordan Ariana's albums
would have been though because Jordan stated she wanted her album to be more r b pop influenced and
yours truly does of course have that vibe but I do wonder if Jordan would have gone for the more
retro doo-wop influence for this era the same way that Ariana did because I do feel like that was a
little bit influenced by her personal tastes I could see Jordan taking a more modern 2000s r
b Direction with the album essentially more r b version of her previous music like she said she
wanted I also wonder what the album would have been called had Jordan released it or if there
was ever a working title for it because Ariana herself named the album Yours Truly stating the
record sounded like a love letter Ariana's debut album went through a lot of changes
before she arrived at what became Yours Truly she didn't like Put Your Hearts Up which was
initially intended to be the album's lead single Ariana wasn't fond of the bubblegum pop sound of
it and didn't want her whole album to sound that way so the single wouldn't have fit on the album
for the album she wanted to take a more urban pop 90s Direction inspired by a lot of the music she
grew up and listening to and also said she took inspiration from artists including Mariah Carey
Whitney Houston Amy Winehouse and Alicia Keys and then by the summer of 2012 Ariana also sent the
album would have that more 50s 60s Dumont feel that we obviously came to see realized on yours
truly she said in an interview my album is going to be pomp but it's also old school inspired and
has a little bit of a 1950s feel to it she also claimed my album is Throwback Motown it's like
modern Motown inspired pop and soul in the 90s doo-wop and Motown influences are all present
on yours truly in regards to Jordan I wonder if the initial Motown inspiration came from
her own Sparkle or if she just personally loved Motown not to say that yours truly or harmony
songs were inspired directly by Sparkle but I think it's interesting that Jordan was linked
to two Motown inspired projects around the same time and all that's to say that's even if it was
the case that her version of yours truly even did have a Motown inspiration to it only five of the
12 songs on yours truly were produced by Harmony Samuels those songs are right there piano better
left unsaid Almost Is Never Enough and of course the way piano to me is the song that sounds the
most like what we knew of Jordan sparks's music at the time to me it sounds slightly like a more
upbeat version of one step at a time so I can get exactly why Harmony created the song for Jordan
it does seem like the lyrics are probably reworked to some extent though because Ariana has a writing
credit on piano the only Harmony Samuels produced song Ariana doesn't have a credit on is the way so
it seems like she at least had some input on the songs once they were given to her then of course
the other songs on yours truly were created mostly by Ariana's team of writers and producers as well
as herself her longtime friends and collaborators Tommy Brown and Victoria Monet helped write and
produce for the album as well songs like popular song were personal editions of Ariana's that fit
very well with the sound of the album though it is technically Mika's song and she's the featured
artist Ariana still decided to include the song on yours truly the song of course is inspired by
Wicked which Ariana has always loved so it's cool to see things come full circle for her
on that front fun fact but Priscilla Renee now known as money long helped write popular song
Yours Truly debuted at number one on the billboard 200. critics praised Ariana for the 90s r b sound
of the album which of course earned her their comparisons to Mariah Carey that were common
at the beginning of her career the album was critically acclaimed and the overall consensus
was that it was a strong effort and a modern pop in r b infusion with some retro Editions
by the summer of 2013 Jordan announced she'd finished her third album and that it would be
released in the fall previously she said the album would come in August around the same
time that yours truly dropped to create Buzz for the album Jordan put out the single skipping and
beat it has a cute r b pump sound and you can hear a late 90s early 2000s influence and then
aside from that the electric sound and it was very characteristic of the early 2010s era of pop music
like aside from Ariana it also kind of reminds me of Fifth Harmony a lot of the pop and pop
adjacent girls are making music that sounded like this at the time but it was very fun
by 2014 Jordan had left RCA and signed with Louder Than Life a subsidiary label owned by Sony music
because she was no longer with RCA Jordan had to scrap the third album she'd already completed and
record new material she put out the mixtape by Felicia and announced her album was now planned
for release in 2015. the album called right here right now came out in the summer of 2015. at this
time it had been six years since her last album and Jordan said she wanted to show how she'd grown
over the years within her music several of the songs Do deviate from the earliest iteration of
her third album which is when the songs that ended up on yours truly were made however some of them
like boys in the hood do seem like they would have fit among the songs that Harmony produced for her
Jordan said the album was inspired by 90s r b and cited Mariah and Whitney's influences
in addition the album was her first for Rey into urban rhythmic contemporary music at the time this
would have been mostly characterized by that sort of hip-hop-infused r b sound that was so popular a
perfect example of this is her song double tap it kind of sounds like if 2015 wore a song with the
Instagram references the anti-drop minimalistic course and of course the two chains feature
critics gave right here right now favorable reviews mostly on the opinion that the album
did represent musical growth for Jordan in their review the New York daily news stated at 25 Sparks
finally sounds like a woman one in control of both her voice and her character the most direct role
model for the project seems to be Mariah Carey's better Urban records of the 90s and early 2000s
Carrie fans may consider the best of right here the stuff they wish for years that Mariah would
cut that hybrid and sparks's new maturity allows her to find her voice as well as a potential new
role while many fans have called Ariana Grande the new Mariah right now makes Sparks sound like the
true heir despite the favorable reviews right here right now peaked at number 161 on the billboard
200. the album was considered a commercial failure for Jordan especially compared to the performance
of her first two albums however right here right now did Peak at number 11 on the r b and Hip-Hop
albums chart on the channel I've covered several cases of one or even multiple songs being intended
for one artist but another artist releases it and like I've said in those videos just because songs
were his for one person it doesn't mean we can automatically assume they would have been hits
for the other person people put their own spin on things so it's nothing new and I'm not sure
if this has ever been a case with the majority of an album though but I wouldn't be surprised
to find out that this has happened before it still is disappointing that Jordan Sparks didn't
get to release her album because it seemed like it was just RCA that didn't want it out
I just feel like this is another case where I do sympathize with the artist because
they got cheated out of what could have been a successful album for them because of their label
but like I said we can't predict the future but regardless someone's artistic Freedom was stifled
and so while I do think that I might be fair in some regards to say that Jordan Sparks was
the blueprint for yours truly or whatever you know Jordan would have called the album had she
released it I don't know if it's entirely fair to say that Jordan Sparks was the blueprint for
who Ariana Grande is now 10 years after that album came out because while two people and
two artists can you know sort of start in a very similar space or area they can diverge and end
up in completely separate points you know years after the fact and again less than half of yours
truly was produced by Harmony Samuels so it's entirely possible to think that if Jordan was
able to release the album on her own it would have been you know seven other different songs
on the album along with the five songs that Harmony made and I'm assuming that that might
be true considering Jordan had said a couple times that she'd already completed the album
but just had not been able to release it and then it also could be entirely possible that
once it was you know made clear that Jordan wasn't going to be releasing this third album
then Harmony intended to give all of the songs he made for Jordan's Ariana Grande and then she
only selected five of them so I'm not sure what's true and what's not but I did just want to raise
the fact that both of those or either of those things could be the case you know I'd always sort
of wondered what happened with Jordan Sparks in your career and I just assumed that when I made
the American Idol or psycho label video which I didn't forget about by the way that I would
find out what happened to her then because I just assumed it was a case of you know American Idol
contestant wins they don't get the best record deal and then you know they're trapped in limbo
for years and it stifles their career but it seems like this time around again it was RCA allegedly
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