
Peak
16
Weeks
20
Score
2,560
Chart Year
1999
A music video for "Almost Doesn't Count" was directed by Kevin Bray in April 1999.[16] It marked his second collaboration with Norwood following their work on the video for "Have You Ever?" (1998). Filmed in Lancaster, California and the surrounding Mojave Desert,[17] it depicts Norwood as a wedding guest and singer whose oldtimer suffers from a breakdown prior to the wedding ceremony in the evening.[16] After a walk of several miles, a pick up drives by and she climbs inside the back where a fellow passenger gives her his cowboy hat. At night, they drop her off at a gas station which Norwood finds closed, prompting her to check into a nearby hotel off the expressway. In the hotel room, she unpacks and changes her outfit when she, out from the window, watches a couple getting married in the courtyard across the street.[16] The video ends with Norwood crashing the celebration, unnoticed, before joining the band who play to an empty courtyard.
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
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apr 24, 1999 | 90 | 36 |
| 2 | May 1, 1999 | 54 | 72 |
| 3 | May 8, 1999 | 36 | 90 |
| 4 | May 15, 1999 | 31 | 95 |
| 5 | May 22, 1999 | 25 | 101 |
| 6 | May 29, 1999 | 25 | 101 |
| 7 | Jun 5, 1999 | 22 | 104 |
| 8 | Jun 12, 1999 | 20 | 106 |
| 9 | Jun 19, 1999 | 16 | 110 |
| 10 | Jun 26, 1999 | 17 | 109 |
| 11 | Jul 3, 1999 | 17 | 109 |
| 12 | Jul 10, 1999 | 20 | 106 |
| 13 | Jul 17, 1999 | 24 | 102 |
| 14 | Jul 24, 1999 | 27 | 99 |
| 15 | Jul 31, 1999 | 43 | 83 |
| 16 | Aug 7, 1999 | 51 | 75 |
| 17 | Aug 14, 1999 | 52 | 74 |
| 18 | Aug 21, 1999 | 50 | 76 |
| 19 | Aug 28, 1999 | 61 | 65 |
| 20 | Sep 4, 1999 | 84 | 42 |