Picking a favorite Alicia Keys song is a near-impossible feat. Her catalog stretches vast and wide, full of timeless ballads ripe for perusing and recalling how well they’ve aged. Her songs can be powerful and uplifting (Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart, Girl On Fire), gorgeous and transportive (If I Ain’t Got You, Un-thinkable), or warm and profound (Fallin’, Diary). But my particular favorite of this perfect, multifaceted woman—because I am a sucker for '70s samples and spontaneous mid-song telephone calls (more on this later)—is You Don’t Know My Name. Let's break it down.
The Grammy Award-winning banger from Keys’ second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was produced by Keys and Kanye West, and became her third top-ten hit after reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100. (The music video also stars a hairnet-clad Alicia and Mos Def, which is beside the main objective here, but outstanding nonetheless.) The production, helmed by West’s signature sound, is minimal compared to other chart-topping efforts of her career. Aside from a handful of guitar tracks, some layered percussion and lush backing vocals from a then-unknown John Legend (!), you’re really only hearing one sample track: The Main Ingredient’s Let Me Prove My Love To You.
The sample kicks in at the 1:45 mark, but I implore you to listen to the song as a whole. Take some time to let the hook naturally seep into your soul like a hot bath on a cold winter morning; or a warm hand towel from your favorite sushi restaurant; or a hot jar of molasses just spilling down your back. (I don't know if this is a thing folks do, but the song at least makes it sound like a fine idea.) The point is: it’s a nice, warm, cozy bite. And one of what seems like infinite testaments to Kanye’s ear for renewed goodness. He listens to music differently—hearing songs within other songs and instinctively piecing them together to form a larger, grander concept.
Which leads us to the phone call. You know, the one where Alicia just has to go ahead and call that boy—on a cell phone with shoddy reception no less—and let him know that she uses milk and cream for his hot chocolate (an elite-level courtship, really). The adorably trite bit was also West's idea; an unscripted freestyle brought to life by Keys. And because the internet can at times be perfect, here is a clip of Keys explaining how the breakdown came to fruition in a pair of large sunglasses:
It deserves to be noted that, in the music video, the infamous call occurs in a giant handsome warehouse of grand pianos. Which seems like the kind of heaven Alicia Keys might end up in should that day ever even come.
Good Lord, if it does, count me in for that heaven.
