98 Degrees' 'Revelation' Debuts At Number Two

10/05/2000 12:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(10/5/00, 12 p.m. ET) - 98 Degrees' new album, Revelation, debuts at Number Two on this week's album chart, selling more than 276,000 units in its first week of release, according to industry sources (LAUNCH, 10/4).

Part of the album's appeal could be attributed to the fact that the album contains only two songs that were not co-written by group members. Singer Nick Lachey told LAUNCH that 98 Degrees had more creative control this time around. "We wanted to be more involved in the creative process of putting it all together, so we really made a conscious effort to do a lot more writing this time around,"he said.The first single from Revelation, "Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche)," was co-written by Anders Bagge and Arnthor Birgisson, who penned the group's hit single "Because Of You." Lachey told LAUNCH that their latest hit was initially written with another singer in mind. "They actually had written it for Ricky Martin," he said, "but they played it for us and we said, 'Why the heck not?' We've always been into Latin music, but it wasn't that we said we wanted a Latin-sounding first single. I think we were attracted to the energy and the passion of the song."

Kicking off the album with an up-tempo track was an idea all four members of 98 Degrees agreed upon, according to Lachey. "I think because we had so many ballads out, people started to feel like 98 Degrees were just balladeers and they don't do up-tempos and they don't like up-tempos, but that's really not true. We really wanted to show that up-tempos are something that we really do enjoy," he said. "We just hadn't found the right song in the past, and we didn't feel comfortable bringing on something we didn't truly believe in."

According to Lachey, having Universal Records offer 98 Degrees the responsibility of putting together the new album made it that much more special. "This type of freedom comes over time,&Quot; he said. "You have to kind of earn it, in a sense. And I think when you're successful and you've sold some albums and you've done some good things, the label kind of feels, like, 'Well, these guys have some talent, so let's give them a little leeway.'"

98 Degrees will perform "Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche)" on NBC's The Tonight Show With Jay Leno tomorrow evening (October 6).

-- Jason Gelman, New York

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