Happy Valentine’s Day
Every day the 14th!
I don’t think y’all heard me!
I just wanna say Happy Valentine’s Day!
Every day the 14th!
Can y’all dig that?

Until last year, Valentine’s Day was a big deal for me. In high school, I remember watching the popular girls walking around with their huge balloons, flowers and teddy bears. In college and beyond, the timing was always off. Either I hadn’t been dating anyone for a while, was only involved with a FEPO (for entertainment purposes only), or I had just broken up with the person I was seeing just before that day.

Last year, up to about a month before, it looked like it would be more of the same. That is until one of the exes popped up wanting to get back. While we were getting reacquainted, I casually mentioned that I had never had a nice Valentine’s Day [read: you need to make it happen]. He promised to make the day special for me. It had only taken 29 years. I was too hype.

He went all out with the planning and it was all very creatively done. As he started to reveal parts of the agenda for the evening, I was thrilled with the effort. I took care of everything on my end as far as my girly maintenance and outfits for the show and the “afterparty.” Other than that, I was instructed to just show up and be my “vivrant” self. I can’t lie. I was enjoying a man working to earn my affection. And it was going to be on Valentine’s Day – finally!

The evening didn’t quite go off without a hitch. I won’t tell the entire story but let’s just say it all came thisclose to being ruined. I had to let Jesus take the wheel and we got through it and went on to have a nice time.

In hindsight, while I greatly appreciated someone making the extra effort to ensure that I finally had a nice Valentine’s Day , it’s really just another day. What’s really important is how we spend the other 364 days of the year. For all he did on that day to get back in, less than two months later, it was quite apparent that nothing had really changed between us the second time around.

I will never become anti-Valentine’s Day, but in a future relationship, I don’t want that to ever be the only day that Mr. Vivrant Thang feels he has to put a little extra effort into us. I believe in regular date nights. Weekend getaways just for a change of scenery. Sweet “just thinking about you” notes left in random places. Naughty calls or texts in the middle of the day. It’s up to both of us to keep the fires going year round.

Now on to the music.

As you can tell by my Top 50 list, I am a fan of the slow and sexy jams. Over the years I’ve mixed up my share of slow and sexy CDs. Now, I like to leave it to the professionals.

The HNIC of my favorite music site, Soul Bounce, shares a couple of mixes he cooked up. Head on over there and grab them. Warning, one of them is called “The Babymaker.” Don’t say I didn’t tell you.

I was excited to see that fellow Jersey native T Grundy of Rhythms in Black Satin had issued a call a call for a carnival of Valentine’s Day mixes. Make sure you stop by Cupid’s Hunt: Searching for Love Music in All The Right Places and set your evening off right…better yet, your entire year off right.

For now, we do things a little more low-tech over here. If I had the time and the know-how, I would have turned my list into a podcast and participated. In any event, I thought I would share some of the songs that were a part of last year’s Valentine’s Day celebration. I decided to break them down into “The Show, The Afterparty, The Hotel.”

Enjoy, but make every day the 14th!

The Show

Fortunate – Maxwell
Say Yes – Floetry
Pretty Brown Eyes – Mint Condition
I Care 4 U – Aaliyah
He Loves Me – Jill Scott
Soul Sista – Bilal
Voyage to Atlantis – Isley Brothers
Damn U – Prince
I Need Love – Robin Thicke
Imagination – Floetry
Adore – Prince
Queen of Sanity – Bilal
Let’s Chill – Guy
A Love of My Own – Average White Band
You – Raheem Devaughn
Promise – Ciara

The Afterparty

I Love You – Keith Washington
You Don’t Have to Go Home – Boney James
Softest Lips –Eric Roberson
Ask Yourself– Raheem Devaughn
Do You Mind – Janet Jackson
Anytime, Anyplace – Janet Jackson
Can We Make Love – Silk
Feenin – Jodeci
If Only For One Night – Luther
Yearning for Your Love– Gap Band
Insatiable – Prince
International Lover – Prince
When We Make Love – Ginuwine
Three Letter Word – Jamie Foxx
Softest Place on Earth – Xscape
Hurry, Hurry – Pete Belasco
Can’t Get Enough – Tamia
Come Inside -Intro
Reasons– Earth, Wind and Fire
All This Love – Debarge
Love Won’t Let Me Wait – Luther
Once, Twice, Three Times – Howard Hewitt
The Beautiful Ones – Prince

The Hotel

Lay Down – Floetry
Turn Off the Lights – Teddy Pendergrass
Sex Me (Parts 1 & 2) – R Kelly
Til The Cops Come Knockin – Maxwell
Scandalous – Prince
Slowly – Tank
Slow Love – Prince
White Turns To Grey – Bilal
Between the Sheets – Isley Brothers
The Greatest Sex – R Kelly
Do Me Baby – Prince
Seconds of Pleasure – Van Hunt
Untitled (How Does It Feel) – D’Angelo
The Art of Love – Toni Braxton
Uhh Ahh – Boyz to Men
Sweet Sour U – Bilal
Sumthin Sumthin (Mellosmoothe) – Maxwell
You Got The Bomb – Brian McKnight
Your Love Is King – Sade