Monica’s “The First Night” Turns 28 Years
Zephyring 28 Years, Monica — a 17-year-old R&B Queen in the making — earned her first solo No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “The First Night.”
The Jermaine Dupri-produced single climbed to No. 1 on the chart dated October 3, 1998, eventually spending five nonconsecutive weeks at the top. It followed Monica’s monster Brandy duet “The Boy Is Mine,” but this time the No. 1 belonged to Monica on her own.
Built around a sample of Diana Ross’ “Love Hangover,” “The First Night” arrived as the second single from Monica’s 1998 album The Boy Is Mine. Sleek, flirty and unmistakably late-’90s R&B, it remains one of those records that can put us right back in the year within seconds.
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Monica’s “The First Night” Turns 28
Revisit Monica’s 1998 era and the records that made it unforgettable.
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We can still recall circa 1998: ripping our Velcro wallet from our trousers and slapping those dollar bills on the register counter at The Wherehouse, the once-massive regional music chain that was everywhere in California. Physical media, mall-era music runs, and a Monica single actually sitting in your hand — kids, it was a time.
And “The First Night” did not exactly disappear after its chart run. It finished 1998 among Billboard’s biggest songs of the year and became one of Monica’s defining solo hits, right there with the records that turned her from teenage prodigy into full-fledged R&B royalty.
Monica’s “The First Night” — 1998 Throwback
Revisit Monica’s breakthrough solo No. 1 from the The Boy Is Mine era.
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Monica — “The First Night”
Source: Billboard chart history and Arista Records.
