Songfacts®:

• This is the first single from Anita Baker's seventh studio album, Only Forever, her first set for seven years. The Harvey Mason, Jr. produced song is a re-creation of American R&B singer Tyrese's 1999 hit of the same title and Baker lured the crooner to appear on one of two versions of the track. "He was like, 'I was 12 years old when I sang that, and I can't even get to that key anymore,'" Baker recalled to Billboard magazine. "And I'm like, 'We'll change the key!' This is something I did out of love and wanting Tyrese to sing because he's in the movies and he's just kind of abandoned his singing."
• Only Forever finds Baker merging classic sounds with technological advancements. "I just had this concept of walking into a digital universe with an analog heart, Baker told The Boombox. "So we're kind of marrying the two. I started cutting analog down in Nashville, and once I knew what we were gonna do, we bounced it over to the digital format so that the 21st century producers like Harvey Mason, Jr., could manipulate it.I was just very focused on getting some analog energy in there somewhere," she added. So it's a lovely bridge that I'm trying to build tech-wise as well as musically."
• This was one of the first songs Baker cut, analog, in Nashville. She told The Boombox: "I brought in a live rhythm section. I brought it to LA, and I called [Tyrese] into the studio and I played it for him; he had no idea. And he lost it, of course. He was like, 'I know who has got to produce this!' I'm like, 'I already know, I got Harvey Mason, Jr., on tap.'"
• Anita Baker made history on August 6, 2012 when she became the first recording artist ever to have a premiere on Urban Adult Contemporary Radio for all Clear Channel stations as they played "Lately" every hour on the hour.