On June 24th, one of the defining albums of the noughties, Dangerously in Love by Beyoncé, will celebrate its 20th anniversary.
How time flies: it feels like just yesterday that the singer was sashaying her way to musical superstardom in the “Crazy in Love” video.
A lot of people know a lot of facts about Beyoncé’s debut album – it won multiple Grammys, spent many weeks atop global charts, and spawned karaoke classics that are still belted out to this day after all – but there remain some lesser-known tidbits about the record.
With just a month to go until its landmark anniversary, let’s take a look at five things people (probably) don’t know about Dangerously in Love.
For more on this topic, follow the Pop Observer.
Love Pop?
Get the latest Pop news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
“Crazy In Love” Almost Didn’t Make the Cut
It seems utterly unthinkable now, but Beyoncé’s zeitgeist-grabbing anthem almost didn’t feature on her debut collection.
When the release of Dangerously in Love was delayed in order to avoid a clash with Kelly Rowland’s hit “Dilemma”, Beyoncé was initially disappointed. However, she soon realised that “everything happens for a reason,” agreeing to head to the recording studio to work with other songwriters.
Now afforded extra time to record more songs, a gem emerged in “Crazy in Love”.
One Tour Just Ain’t Enough
If you’ve just released one of the best R&B and pop albums of the decade, and that decade is only three years in its infancy, you best believe that you’re going to promote the hell out of it.
Following the release of Dangerously in Love, Beyoncé embarked on a traditional album tour – her debut concert tour as a solo artist – but she also joined the Verizon Ladies First Tour.
Hailed as an urban version of Lilith Fair, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys and Missy Elliott toured over 20 cities across the US in early 2004. And yes, Queen B’s encore song was “Crazy in Love”.
Sampling Genius
That unmistakable opening sound on “Crazy in Love”? That came straight out of the ’70s. The horn sequence that begins the album’s standout song was actually from the The Chi-Lites’ “Are You My Woman (Tell Me So)”.
While The Chi-Lites’ version was relentlessly groovy, Beyoncé wasn’t initially convinced by the sample. After pressure from producer Rich Harrison, though, the blazing horns were included, and the rest is history.
Collaborators Everywhere
Everyone knows that Jay-Z, features on Dangerously in Love, acting as his future wife’s gleeful hype man on “Crazy in Love”, but Beyoncé recruited a slew of other stellar guests for her debut album.
Missy Elliott (“Signs”), Luther Vandross (“The Closer I Get to You”), and Sean Paul (“Baby Boy”) featured prominently on songs; the legendary Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder offered songwriting help elsewhere, as did Funkadelic’s George Clinton; Tony Maserati, a powerful producer in the rise of R&B and hip hop in the ’90s, lended his mixing expertise; and Cissy Houston, a gospel singer who had backed up icons like Dionne Warwick, Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin, provided backing vocals.
That’s almost too many impressive guests to have on one album.
Unreleased Album Goes Unreleased
The wealth of material recorded during the Dangerously in Love sessions prompted Beyoncé to consider releasing a quick follow-up album. She had the songs ready to go, and she was seriously considering an album pressing featuring the unreleased music.
In the end, the idea fell by the wayside, due to the singer’s supremely busy schedule (Pepsi endorsements and Super Bowl appearances will do that), and Beyoncé would instead follow Dangerously in Love with B’Day in 2006.
