Alicia Keys: Top 10 Tracks

Alicia Keys, one of the best vocalists I've heard live, has a long list of hits. After hosting the Grammys in 2019 and showcasing how talented she really is, I thought I'd give myself a challenge and attempt to rate her top ten tracks. No features. Just solo work.

 

10. Alicia Keys - Superwoman

Alicia Keys hit single from her album “As I Am” hit the 12th spot on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Superwoman is any woman who can provide for herself and the ones she loves. In an interview with New York Times Alicia Keys said:

"This song is a reminder to myself that even when I’m out, and I’m just a mess, and I’m not perfect, and everything’s not great, and I’m struggling to figure out what is what – I’m still a superwoman."

This song also won the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance in 2009.

9. Alicia Keys - Tears Always Win

"Tears Always Win" is from Alicia Keys fifth studio album, Girl on Fire. It was written by Keys, along with Bruno Mars, Jeff Bhasker and Phillip Lawrence.

Alicia said in an interview:

"So, ‘Tears Always Win’ is really about a relationship that’s over and you’re remembering all the times that it was there. You’re remembering all the ways they filled your space and now that it’s not there. You’re telling yourself you don’t need them, but you’re missing them and you’re crying about it."

8.  Alicia Keys - Like You'll Never See Me Again

The track is from her third studio album As I Am. Upon its release, the song peaked at number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Keys' second consecutive R&B chart-topper, remaining atop the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for seven weeks

Keys explained the meaning of the song to MTV News:

"The song is about living every moment as if it’s your last. Because if it’s our last time to say, ‘I love you,’ then let it be that we didn’t forget that."

7. Alicia Keys - Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart

“Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart” is a song by Alicia Keys, which was released as the second single from her fourth studio album, The Element of Freedom.

Alicia discussed the song in an interview with The Sun in 2008.

"I just love that song. I’m excited about that song as I just love the way it’s pushing things forward. It’s a great representation of where I am now. I can play it with tons of music behind me or I can play it with just the piano. Either way, it touches, you get it. I’m so very excited by that record."

6. Alicia Keys - How Come You Don't Call Me

“How Come You Don’t Call Me” is the 3rd track on Alicia Keys' debut album, Songs in A Minor. This is a cover of “How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore?” written, sung, and released by Prince in 1982.

Alicia’s cover was inspired by a previous long-term relationship, according to Vibe and she was quoted in Billboard as saying:

"I had never heard [the original] before. They gave me a copy of the song on tape. I played it every day for three weeks. It is so raw and so truthful – I was just feeling it. It really came out well."

5. Alicia Keys - Karma

 

Karma is taken from Alicia Keys second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys. The track samples  Stevie Wonder's 1972 hit "Superstition"

4. Alicia Keys - You Don't Know My Name

 

“You Don’t Know My Name” is the lead single from Alicia’s second studio album The Diary Of Alicia Keys; the song won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song in 2005.

The track is built around a sample from the 1970s New York group The Main Ingredient’s “Let Me Prove My Love to You”.

Alicia Keys explained the background behind this song in a Rap Radar Podcast:

“You Don’t Know My Name” is crazy. That was a really special, that was a really special moment. Like, like in my career, and, and um, you know when we were in the studio creating it because Kanye and I had done a few different vibes when we started “You Don’t Know My Name.” And then, at the time, like, John Legend wasn’t even really established as an artist yet, and he did backgrounds on that song along with Harold Lilly, who I talked about earlier, cause we wrote a lot of those earlier songs, and um, and it was so fresh to kind of combine this whole ‘Kanye when he first started,’ and like, the sampling of the old, you know, vintage classics, and that’s my style, and then putting it all together."

3. Alicia Keys - Fallin

“Fallin” is the successful lead single from Alicia Key’s debut studio album Songs in A Minor. The single gained worldwide success, earning Key’s three Grammy Awards out of 4 nominated, number 1 record on the US Billboard Hot 100 and being praised as the 29th most successful song of the early 2000s.

When asked about the background behind the song, Keys told Billboard,

“I wanted to write a song for someone who was 10 or 12 years old – like a young Michael Jackson. Even though he was young, he was singing some deep stuff back then. [The song] is about the ins and outs of a relationship. Sometimes, you’re completely head-over-heels in love with someone, and sometimes you can’t stand that person. You fall in and out, sometimes it goes back and forth, and that’s just what relationships are about.”

The song samples the early James Brown hit, “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.”

2. Alicia Keys - If I Ain't Got You

“If I Ain’t Got You” is the 6th track on Keys' second studio album The Diary of Alicia Keys.

It was inspired by the death of R&B singer, Aaliyah in 2001, the September 11 attacks, other world events, and things going on in Keys' life.

"The song idea came together right after Aaliyah passed away. It was such a sad time and no one wanted to believe it. It just made everything crystal clear to me—what matters, and what doesn’t."

1. Alicia Keys - No One

“No One” details the idea that no matter what happens in life, the person you love will always be there for you.

In an interview with Billboard, Keys said:

"This is one song that just wrote itself. A lot of the songs didn’t happen like that. It was one of the last songs I wrote. I needed to say this. It’s full force, classical yet vintage, desperate yet triumphant. I want people to feel my soul."

Keys performed “No One” with John Mayer at the 2008 Grammy Awards, where it was awarded Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.