Recorded December 1998 Length 4:16 | Genre R&B, pop | |
B-side "Bills, Bills, Bills (I Can't Go for That)"
"Bug-a-Boo"
"So Good"
"Now That She's Gone"
"No, No, No" (Part I)
"No, No, No" (Part II)
"With Me" (Part II) Released June 14, 1999 (1999-06-14) Format CD maxi single
12" maxi single | ||
"Bills, Bills, Bills" is a song by American girl group Destiny's Child. It was written by band members Beyoncé Knowles, LeToya Luckett, LaTavia Roberson, and Kelly Rowland along with Kandi Burruss of Xscape and Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs for their second album The Writing's on the Wall (1999), featuring production by the latter.
Contents
Released as the album's lead single in June 1999, the song provided the quartet with their first chart-topper on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Canadian RPM singles chart. A worldwide success, the track reached the top ten in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom and entered the top forty on the majority of the charts in appeared on. Critically acclaimed, the song was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best R&B Song at the 42nd awards ceremony. The accompanying music video for "Bills, Bills, Bills", directed by Darren Grant, was shot in a beauty salon as a tribute to Knowles' mother Tina.
Responses
Sporty Thievz, the same group that wrote "No Pigeons" as response to TLC's "No Scrubs", wrote a response to "Bills, Bills, Bills" entitled "No Billz (Why, Why, Why)." Sporty Thievz were also featured on "I Can't Go For That", a re-recorded remix of Bills, Bills, Bills with new lyrics, produced by the Trackmasters, along with a female rapper called Jazz. In 2015, New York-based rock band They Might Be Giants recorded a cover version.
The song was also performed a cappella by the fictional Dalton Academy Warblers group on the American musical television series Glee in the eleventh episode of the second season, entitled The Sue Sylvester Shuffle.
Chart performance
In the United States, "Bills, Bills, Bills" debuted at number 84 on the Billboard Hot 100 and climbed to number 1 five weeks later, dethroning Jennifer Lopez's debut single "If You Had My Love" from the top spot where it had remained for a month. It was Destiny's Child's first song that peaked at number one on the Hot 100 chart. "Bills, Bills, Bills" also reached number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks for nine consecutive weeks, making it one of the longest running number one singles ever on the chart and the most weeks at the summit in 1999. It was also the ninth best-selling single of the year in the US. In the United Kingdom, "Bills, Bills, Bills" peaked at number six and went on to sell over 165,000 copies.