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The Lost Hits of Christina Aguilera and Whitney Houston

[caption id="attachment_96426" align="aligncenter" width="601"]Christina doesn't want to be lonely Christina doesn't want to be lonely[/caption]

In the early 2000s, American music fans made some terrible mistakes. And no, I'm not just talking about Creed's number one single. I'm talking about our collective disinterest in two spectacular duets: "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" by Christina Aguilera & Ricky Martin and "Could I Have This Kiss Forever" by Whitney Houston & Enrique Iglesias.

On the surface, these both seem like surefire smashes. For one thing, they exploit the Latin pop explosion of the time, not only featuring Aguilera, Iglesias, and Martin, but also rocking some sweet tropical beats underneath their tales of romantic yearning. For another thing, they're written by some of pop music's poet laureates. Diane Warren ("Un-Break My Heart," "How Do I Live") wrote "Could I Have This Kiss Forever," and Desmond Child ("Livin' La Vida Loca," "Livin' on a Prayer") delivered "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely."

Because Europeans often have more sense about these things, both songs were smashes overseas. In the U.K., for instance, Ricktina reached #4 and Whitrique (which I will name all of my future pets) hit #7. Yet in America? Ricktina petered out at #13, and Whitrique only peaked at #52. 52!!! It's disgraceful.

But I don't want to dwell on the horror of my nation's history. Let's draw both songs out of the mothballs and rediscover their (startlingly similar) genius:

(1) "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely"

Earlier this week, I had a long Twitter conversation about these songs with two film-critic friends of mine, Guy Lodge and Joe Reid. Guy is the one who coined "Ricktina" and "Whitrique," and Joe noted the hilarity of Ricky and Xtina pretending to be lovers. Which is true. But that doesn't stop Christina from belting her face right off.

And no, Ricky Martin doesn't have the chops to keep up with her, but who cares? This duet was recorded to prop up sales of Martin's flop album Sound Loaded, which shockingly enough didn't light the world on fire with singles like "She Bangs." The original version of "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" was a solo for Martin, and Christina didn't record her part until months after his album release. Which means she should dominate the song. Ricky had already had his chance to ride a sweet pop beat, and Christina was needed to show him how it was done.

Oh, and also? You couldn't buy this song as a single, and since it was released several years before iTunes existed, you couldn't download it either. To get your hands on this duet, you had to buy a special version of Sound Loaded. That's how the music industry used to work, my young ones. You had to spend, like, $15.99 to get the one damn song you actually wanted.

Unless, like me, you had a friend who worked in a trendy record store in Atlanta. When they got a promotional copy of "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" to play in their store, the entire staff apparently started laughing and puking, but my friend knew that I was dying to get my hands on this song. When he brought it to me, I pretty much freaked out, and even though that meant acknowledging he thought I had bad taste, I didn't care. I couldn't hear his disdain over the "time is precious and it's ticking away" key change.

For what it's worth, I think this song would have made the top ten if it had been available as a single. After all, it did reach #13 based solely on airplay. But that's cold comfort when you remember that at around the same time, Crazy Town topped the chart with "Butterfly."

(2) "Could I Have This Kiss Forever"

Is this song exactly the same as the Ricktina duet? Yes. But here's the thing about cookie cutters: They make cookies, and cookies taste good. And whether it's Christina or Whitney in the kitchen, I am always hungry for the sweet, sweet sound of a diva hollering a big note during the bridge.

Though I've been aware of this song since it arrived in 2000, I had never listened to it until a few days ago. That was my loss. It's cheesily wonderful, and I don't understand why it didn't succeed here. After all, it was released immediately after Iglesias hit #1 with "Be With You," and it was ALSO one of the new songs on Houston's greatest hits album. But whatever the reason, we have the song now, y'all. We have it now. We can have this kiss... forever.

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Mark Blankenship has listened to the Ricktina song a LOT this week. He tweets as @IAmBlankenship.

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