This cover of Frankie Valli's 1967 hit—which subs in harder-hitting percussion and acoustic guitar for the original's delicate trumpet melody—served as a promo single for the Mel Gibson/Julia Roberts film Conspiracy Theory. It received a decent amount of rhythmic airplay and earned Lauryn a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (though it lost to "My Heart Will Go On"). Its early scores were weak, but a series of nine 9's and 10's pushed "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" into the top ten at the last minute.
The final single from Annie's debut solo album is a thumping and defiant bit of self-empowerment, in which she resolves to "put these wings to test" and then lets lose with some heavenly ooh oohs. The song kicked off her performance at the closing ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics, as she entered the stadium on the bow of a ship. Receiving ten scores of 9 or above, "Little Bird" just squeezed into the top ten by two hundredths of a point.
Gwen's first collaboration with Eve is a modern hip-hop classic. Produced by Dr. Dre and Scott Storch, this twinkling brag-rap reached #2 on the Hot 100 (where it was blocked by Alicia Key's "Fallin'"), earned a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, and was named the seventh-best song of the year by critics in the 2001 Pazz & Jop Poll. Though Gwen only shows up to provide backing vocals on the chorus, voters still responded enthusiastically. "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" opened with six straight 10's, challenging for the top spot until BnPac and EJQL8's scores of 4.5 and 5 pushed it down the list.
Oh, I suppose an extra congratulations is due to "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" for becoming the highest-ranking collaboration in a rate that was NOT kind to them.
