"Together Again" is a song by American singer Janet Jackson
from her sixth studio album,
The Velvet Rope(1997). Produced by Jackson and Jimmy Jam
and Terry Lewis, it was released as the album's second single,
and achieved commercial success worldwide by selling over 6
million copies, and to date, the song is Jackson's best selling
single.
The song was a tribute from Jackson to friends who had
recently passed from AIDS, as stated on album booklet of
The Velvet Rope. Originally written as a ballad, the
track was re-arranged as a dance song. The song became
Jackson's eighth number one on the Hot 100—the only U.S.
chart-topper from
The Velvet Rope—and peaked at number eight on the Hot
R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The single sold nearly six million
copies worldwide, and became one of the biggest-selling singles
from a female artist in the history of the UK Singles Chart,
where it peaked at number four. The song is Jackson's biggest
international single, reaching the top five and the top ten in
many countries.
Jackson has performed the song on all of her tours since its
release, as the closing number, The Velvet Rope Tour and All
for You Tour while the Rock Witchu Tour saw it moved to the
middle of the setlist. Also, this song was in the ending of
"Janet Megamix 04".
"Together Again" is set in common time with a key of C
major. Jackson's vocal chords ranges between the tonal nodes of
high-tone A
3to low-tone D
5. The song is in a moderate tempo of 120 beats per
minute with the chord progression being set like
C–Gm6–Bm–A–Dm–Gm–Dm.
As the first official single from her album
The Velvet Rope(after the radio-only U.S. single "Got
'til It's Gone"), the single was highly anticipated. Before its
official release it was enjoying heavy airplay in North
America. Some weeks after its release it debuted at number nine
on the
BillboardHot 100 chart dated December 20, 1997, before
becoming her eighth number-one single on January 31, 1998,
spending two weeks at number one, fourteen weeks inside the top
ten, and a total of forty-six weeks on the chart. In Canada it
peaked at number two and stayed in the top ten for many weeks,
becoming one of her biggest hits there, even surpassing the
success of some of her six Canadian number-one singles, due to
its staying power on the chart.
In the United Kingdom the song entered the UK Singles Chart
in December 1997 at number four and spent ten weeks inside the
top ten; it is Jackson's biggest hit to date in the UK, with
sales of over three quarters of a million. It achieved massive
success in the rest of Europe as well, topping the Dutch Top 40
and the European Hot 100 Singles and charting inside the top
five and the top ten of most of the European countries. The
single's massive commercial and radio success helped
The Velvet Ropeto top the charts of several countries
throughout Europe and worldwide. It is her best-selling single
to date.
Two videos were produced for the song. The one for the album
version was directed by Seb Janiak and is a dance video that
shows Jackson and her dancers performing in a futuristic
African paradise where people are seen living side by side with
wild animals such as elephants, giraffes, and wildcats. In the
scene where Jackson appears to be hugging herself, dancer Nikki
Pantenburg served as Jackson's body double. This version
received a nomination for Best Dance Video at the 1998 MTV
Video Music Awards. The one for the Deeper Remix was directed
by René Elizondo, Jr. and depicts Jackson in an apartment
remembering a friend in the video. Both videos are featured on
the DVD edition of 2001's
All for Youand the 2004 video compilation
From janet. to Damita Jo: The Videos.