Together Again (Janet Jackson song)

Together Again was dedicated to friend Jackson, who died of AIDS, as well as to all victims of the disease and their relatives around the world. According to reports, Jackson decided to write this song, both because of her own life experience, and because she once received an email from a fan who turned out to be a little boy from England who recently lost his father ^[2] .

As Jimmy Jem said, “For her it was of great importance, because the song was about her friend, whom she lost due to AIDS, but as with her other songs, she tried to make it understandable for every person. The idea was to convey joyful feelings through the music of the song ” ^[4] . The arrangement of the song was written in 30 minutes by Jem, Lewis and Jackson in a recording studio ^[4] . When the singer came up with a melody, she wrote the lyrics for the song ^[4] . Jam and Lewis produced three versions of the song: the original dance version, “Deep Remix” in the R&B and hip-hop genres, and “Deeper Remix” in the R&B and soul genres. The original version was created under the inspiration of the composition “Last Dance” Donna Summer ^[4] .

Together Again combines the influences of pop, disco and house . Powerful bass parts were recorded in the song, and its arrangement created the atmosphere of the works of girl soul groups of the 1960s ^[5] . Larry Flick from Billboard called the song one of the best dance records of the year and considered that the singer took a risky step with her, introducing the audience to an atypical track that had a serious house influence ^[6] . He described the composition as “an intense and emotional journey connecting a tearful text with a muscular but completely justified bit here” ^[6] .

“Together Again” became one of Janet Jackson's most successful hits. The song topped the American Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks and reached number 8 on Hot R & B / Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks ^{[7] [2]} . Together Again also spent a record 46 weeks in the top 100 singles of Hot 100 ^[2] . In January 1998, the single received gold certification in the United States ^[8] . The song received similar success around the world. In Australia, the song became the singer's most successful single, reaching 4 positions on the national chart and was certified as double-platinum for 140 thousand copies sold ^{[9] [10]} . In Canada, the single reached 2 positions and hit the top 5 charts of most European countries ^{[11] [12]} . He received a platinum certificate in the UK, France and Germany, double-platinum in New Zealand and gold in Switzerland ^{[13] [14] [15] [16]} .

According to the results of 1998, the single hit the many annual charts of Billboard magazine: on the 6th place in the main chart of Hot 100, on the 16th in the chart of sales of singles Hot 100 Singles Sales, on the 14th in the chart of radio circulation Hot 100 Singles Airplay, on the 50th on the Hot 50 Dance Club-play Singles club music chart and on the 26th on the dance maxi singles sales chart ^[17] . “Together Again” was sold in more than 6 million copies worldwide, became the most commercially successful for Jackson and entered the list of the best-selling singles in the world ^[18] .