Vanessa Williams, Save The Best For Last | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 134^th edition of Throwback Vibez (2023), we recollect and reflect on “Save The Best For Last” by Vanessa Williams.   

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 134^th edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2023), we recollect and reflect on 🎵 “Save The Best For Last”, performed by 🎙 Vanessa Williams.

“Sometimes the snow comes down in June / Sometimes the sun goes ‘round the moon,” 🎙 Vanessa Williams sings in the first verse of the ballad, 🎵 “Save The Best For Last”.  She continues, “I see the passion in your eyes / Sometimes it’s all a big surprise.” For Williams, “Save The Best For Last” would become the song that defined her music career – by far her biggest hit.  The sixth track from her 1991 album, 💿 The Comfort Zone, “Save The Best For Last” spent five weeks at no. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.   Furthermore, it would become one of two gold singles by Williams, with the second one being her rendition of 🎵 “Colors Of The Wind” – Disney’s 🎦 Pocahontas, baby!

The impact of “Save the Best For Last,” a song not originally written or intended for Vanessa Williams, can’t be understated.  The parent album, The Comfort Zone debuted tepidly at no. 105 the Billboard 200 in September 1991.  Eventually certified triple platinum by the RIAA,  It reached its peak, no. 17, in April 1992.  That, of course, coincides with the peak of “Save The Best for Last,” a record exemplifying the adult contemporary R&B sound of the 1990s.  The production is incredibly smooth.  Vocally, 11-time 🏆 Grammy nominee Williams serves up sweet, chill, easy-going vocals. She sounds incredibly sophisticated handling the lead vocals.  Did she ever break a sweat while singing it? Doesn’t seem like it.  Even so, Williams does a masterful job making the songwriting sound authentic and passionate – you buy what she’s selling.  Fueling the fire is love – unrequited, unfortunately! “Cause how could you give your love to someone else / And share your dreams with me?” Legit question. The crème de la crème – the crowning achievement – is none other than the chorus:

“But now we’re standing face to face

Isn’t this world a crazy place?

Just when I thought our chance had passed

You go and save the best for last.”

Years and years later, 🎵 “Save The Best For Last” remains one of the best songs of the 1990s.  One has to wonder, why in the world were artists passing on this surefire classic? It landed in the right hands at the right time.

🎙 Vanessa Williams • 💿 The Comfort Zone • 🏷 The Island Def Jam Music Group • 🗓 1991

Vanessa Williams, Save The Best For Last: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 133 (2023) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; The Island Def Jam Music Group; John Alan Sperry, PIRO via  Pixabay]