Gerald Levert, Thinkin’ Bout It | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 131^st edition of Throwback Vibez (2023), we recollect and reflect on “Thinkin’ Bout It” by Gerald Levert.   

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 131^st edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2023), we recollect and reflect on 🎵 “Thinkin’ Bout It”, performed by 🎙 Gerald Levert.

“All this time I’ve been sleeping with you / You been sleeping with me / You been stroking him and loving him / And kissing him and hugging him.” The late, great 🏆 Grammy-winning R&B singer/songwriter 🎙 Gerald Levert didn’t feel his significant other’s unfaithfulness on one of the biggest hits of his career, 🎵 “Thinkin’ Bout It”. The 1998 single, which peaked at no. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, appears on one of his best solo albums, 💿 Love & Consequences. Love & Consequences debuted at no. 17 on the Billboard 200, ultimately earning platinum certification from the RIAA. Notably, “Thinkin’ Bout It” is one of just two singles by the late musician certified gold, both of which hail from Love & Consequences (the other being the slightly higher charting, 🎵 “Taking Everything”).

It’s rare that a six-and-a-half-minute song ends up being a pop hit, but that’s exactly what happened with “Thinkin’ Bout It.” Honestly, it’s just that ‘damn good,’ partially quoting another fantastic Gerald Levert hit. In addition to colorfully depicting his significant other’s unfaithfulness and threatening to leave her (narrative-driven songwriting by 🎼 ✍ Antoinette Roberson, Darrell “Delite” Allamby, and Lincoln Browder), “Thinkin’ Bout It” shines thanks to soulful vocals and idiomatic, adult contemporary R&B production (Allamby).  I mean, that incredible, lazy bass line sells itself – WOO! The groove is none too shabby either, giving that 90s hip-hop/R&B aesthetic.  Gerald drops plenty of memorable one-liners, including when he confronts her in the second verse: “If you keep givin’ it up and cuttin’ up / And act too fast and givin’ up the ass / I love you, but I had enough / Do it again, it’s gonna be your last.” WOO! The bridge is a highlight too, with its contrast in harmonic progression, clearly separating itself from the verses and chorus.  Still, it is the chorus that reigns supreme as the crowning achievement of 🎵 “Thinkin’ Bout It”:

All this time, All this time (I’ve been sleepin’ with you,)
I’ve been sleepin’ with you
(You’ve been sleepin’ with me) You’ve been sleepin’ with me, baby
(And you’ve been strokin’ him and lovin’ him)
You’ve been strokin’ him. (And kissin’ him and huggin’ him.)
(Oh wow.)
You’ve been creepin’ with him
He’s been sexin’ your friend
And I got you thinkin’ ’bout it, thinkin’ ’bout it.”

R.I.P. Gerald Levert (1966 – 2006)!

Appears in 🔻:

• 15 Songs U Shouldn’t Think Twice ‘Bout Spinnin’ (2020)

🎙 Gerald Levert • 💿 Love & Consequences  • 🏷 Elektra • 🗓 1998

Gerald Levert, Thinkin’ Bout It: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 131 (2023) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Elektra; John Alan Sperry, PIRO via  Pixabay]