Pitbull’s “Give Me Everything” hit #1

Give Me Everything Pitbull with Ne-Yo, Afrojack, & Nayer

Writer(s): Armando Pérez, Nick van de Wall, Shaffer Smith (see lyrics here) Released: March 18, 2011 First Charted: April 10, 2011 Peak: 11 US, 13 RR, 19 A40, 79 RB, 13 UK, 15 CN, 2 AU (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 6.0 US, 1.2 UK, 11.2 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 701.0 video, 821.16 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “Give Me Everything” was the second single from Pitbull’s fifth album Planet Pit. For the song, the Cuban-American rapper tapped dance music producer DJ Afrojack and R&B singer Ne-Yo. He also wanted Shakira, but she wasn’t available so he turned to model/actress Nayer, with whom he’d worked before. It was the first trip to the top of the U.S. pop charts for Pitbull, Afrojack, and Nayer, but Ne-Yo had been there before with “So Sick” in 2006. SF The song also peaked at #1 in more than a dozen other countries. WK Afrojack came up with the song while in the shower and headed straight to the studio without even getting dressed. SF He told Billboard, “I think I was in the studio for like fie hours with the towel around me, and I made like the whole instrument on the track.” SF One line in the song says, “I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan.” The actress wasn’t happy about the song, even though Pitbull tried to claim the line wasn’t about her stint in jail, but that “if you got it locked up, it means you run the show.” SF Lohan wasn’t buying it and slapped a lawsuit on Pitbull. The lawsuit was dismissed on the basis that it didn’t violate Lohan’s right to privacy or exploit her name to sell records. SF Rolling Stone referred to the song as a “club-pop cut” WK and Yahoo! Music’s Paul Grein said it combines hip hop, pop, and “Broadway-style theatricality.” WK NME magazine criticized the song for too many random components, saying, “So, how many types of wrong is this? Well, you’ve got your earnest vocal gibbering about living in the moment. You’ve got the cheap rave wibble, a high frequency irritation that buzzes through like a fly trapped in jism.” WK Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Pitbull DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Ne-Yo NME NME.com (11/11/09). 100 Tracks of the Decade SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia First posted 11/30/2018; last updated 4/20/2023.

Mario “Let Me Love You” hit #1

Let Me Love You Mario

Writer(s): Scott Storch, Kameron Houff, Shaffer Smith (see lyrics here) Released: October 4, 2004 First Charted: October 9, 2004 Peak: 19 BB, 111 BA, 14 RR, 111 RB, 2 UK, 1 CN, 3 AU (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.50 US, 2.40 UK, 4.95 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.50 radio, 709.0 video, 1362.77 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: R&B singer/songwriter Mario Dewar Barrett was born in 1986 in Baltimore. He was raised primarily by his grandmother because his single mom struggle with heroin addiction. However, Mom did buy him a karaoke machine when he said he wanted to be a singer. He got his shot at 11 years old when he sang Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love to You” at a talent show at Coppin State College. Troy Paterson, a music manager, signed him as a client, adopted him, and moved him to New Jersey. At 14 years old, Clive Davis signed him to J Records. SG He released his debut album, Mario, in 2002. It featured a remake of Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend” which hit #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. He found even bigger success with “Let Me Love You,” “a softly aching unrequited-love ballad” SG from his 2004 sophomore album Turning Point. “Let Me Love You” is a classic song in which the narrator pines for a woman who’s with someone else. The song features “a mechanized melodic backbeat with sturdy, clap-heavy drum track and some lost, wandering '80s-style synth-pillows. The arrangement isn’t dramatic, but it gets the job done. Over that beat, Mario sounds crushed, like he knows that he’s already lost. Mario doesn’t sound like Michael Jackson or anything, but he does sound like a kid who’s listened to a lot of Michael Jackson. There’s at least a bit of that fluidity in his delivery.” SG The chorus is”a sneaky little earworm that’ll rattle around in your mind for a while if you let it in there…The song is clearly the work of professionals. It’s not adventurous. It's not evocative. It’s definitely not exciting. But it’s got an easy warmth that's hard to dislike.” SG The song was co-written by Scott Storch and Kameron Houff, who were members of an R&B group called Madd Crop in the early ‘90s. The song’s third writer was Shaffer Smith, who later had his own successful career under the name Ne-Yo, landing twelve top-10 hits, including the #1 songs “So Sick” and “Give Me Eveything.” Resources: SG Stereogum (12/19/2022). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 1/26/2026.