Almost Doesn't Count

Album

Sugar Lips

Label

Atlantic Records

Genre

Rhythm & Blues

Composer(s)

Shelly Peiken;Guy Roche

Entered Chart

Apr 24, 1999

Peak Date

Jun 19, 1999

Released

March 23, 1999

Recorded

Studio Banana Boat (Burbank, California) Pacifique (North Hollywood, California)[1]

Catalog #

Atlantic Album Cut

In this song, Brandy finds what is almost the perfect guy, but unfortunately, almost doesn't count. This guy has the goods, but he won't commit, so she needs to fight through the pain and move forward. This was written by the pop songwriters Guy Roche and Shelly Peiken, the team that delivered Christina Aguilera's #1 hit "What a Girl Wants" a year later. In a Songfacts interview with Peiken, she told the story behind the song. "That was 100 percent my life," she said. "There was a relationship I had - or didn't have - in college. It was a relationship that was more in my head than in his, and I always felt like we almost got there, he almost said I love you, he almost broke up with the girlfriend he had the whole time. He almost faced his feelings but he never quite got there - maybe that was all in my head too. Maybe he never had any of those feelings, maybe it was all my imagination. That relationship was so powerful, and I feel that when you have one of those kinds of relationships, there's no end to the amount of songs you can write about it. You just look at it from a certain perspective and it can last you a lifetime. So, this was 20-25 years after that relationship when I got together with a go-to collaborator, Guy Roche, who I wrote with often, and I dug up that laundry list of all the 'almosts' I felt we had, and we put it into the song called 'Almost Doesn't Count.' We put that song on the back burner for a long time because it was in an A-A-B-A structure, which is very sort of country, so we weren't sure if it was country or if it felt kind of urban... we weren't sure what to do with it. Then a few months later we came back to it and it was a lot clearer - not so much the genre, but that it was good enough that we couldn't leave it on the back burner - it was really good and we had to finish it. So we did." This became a country hit when Mark Wills released it in 2000, taking it to #19 on the Country chart. There are a handful of songs that started as country hits and became R&B hits for other artists - "I Will Always Love You" and "I Swear" come to mind - but it rarely works the other way around. "Almost Doesn't Count" is one of the few songs to start off R&B and move to country. Brandy has named this as one of her favorite songs in her catalog. She performs it at just about every concert. A hit in the summer of 1999, "Almost Doesn't Count" was the follow-up single to Brandy's US #1 hit "Have You Ever?"

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah

Almost made you love me
Almost made you cry
Almost made you happy, babe
Didn't I? Didn't I?
You almost had me thinking
You were turned around
But everybody knows
Almost doesn't count

Almost heard you saying
You were finally free
What was always missing for you, babe
You found it in me
But you can't get to Heaven
Half off the ground
Everybody knows
Almost doesn't count

I can't keep on loving you
One foot outside the door
I hear a funny hesitation

Of a heart that's never really sure
Can't keep on trying
If you're looking for more
Than all that I could give you
Than what you came here for

Gonna find me somebody
Not afraid to let go
Want a no-doubt-be-there kind of man
You came real close
But every time you built me up
You only let me down
But everybody knows (everybody knows)
Almost doesn't count (almost doesn't count)

(Hey) ohh
(Hey) ooh, everybody knows
(Hey) yeah, yeah, yeah
(Hey-yeah)
(Hey) can't keep on, baby
(Hey) can't keep on trying
Everybody knows (everybody knows)
Almost doesn't count


(I can't keep on)
I can't keep on loving (woo-woo) you
One foot outside the door
(I) I hear a funny hesitation (ooh)
Of a heart that's never (never) really sure
Can't keep on trying (no no)
If you're looking for more
Than all that I could give you
Than what you came here for

Maybe you'll be sorry
Maybe you'll be cold
Maybe you'll come running back, babe
From the cruel, cruel world
Almost convinced me
You're gonna stick around
But everybody knows (everybody knows)
Almost doesn't count

So maybe I'll be here
Maybe I'll see you around
That's the way it goes

Almost doesn't count