31 Years Ago, John Michael Montgomery Was at No. 1 With a Sweet Country Ballad That Became an R&B Hit Later That Year

On this day (April 22) in 1995, John Michael Montgomery was at No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart with “I Can Love You Like That.” Later that year, the track would become a top 5 hit on the Hot 100 for the R&B group All-4-One. “I Can Love You Like That” was not the first song to become a hit for the group after Montgomery took it to the top of the country chart.

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Montgomery was one of the hottest country artists in the early 1990s. He started his career with the No. 4 hit “Life’s a Dance” in 1992. Then, he dominated the chart with classics like “I Love the Way You Love Me,” “I Swear,” “Rope the Moon,” and “Be My Baby Tonight.”

[RELATED: 4 John Michael Montgomery Songs That Will Always Be Classics (and Country Fans Remember Each One)]

By the end of 1994, he was preparing to launch his third studio album. Like his last two releases, his 1995 self-titled outing was packed with hit singles. “I Can Love You Like That” was the lead single, released in late February. It reached the top of the country chart less than two months later.

At the time, he didn’t know that All-4-One had already recorded their version of the song. They were planning to launch their sophomore album, And the Music Speaks, with the track. They were also unaware of Montgomery’s recording.

John Michael Montgomery and All-4-1 Had History

John Michael Montgomery had a major hit with “I Swear” in 1994. It topped the country chart for the entire month of February. Montgomery’s version also did well on the Hot 100, peaking at No. 42. Then, in April 1994, All-4-One released their David Foster-produced version of the song. It spent 11 weeks atop the Hot 100 and became an international hit.

That time, they knew Montgomery had released the song already. Doug Morris, the head of Atlantic Records, to which both were signed, talked the group into recording a cover of the country hit. They were hesitant, but when Morris promised to have Foster, who had produced Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You,” they agreed.

How They Learned About Montgomery’s “I Can Love You Like That”

This time was different, though. “We were in the airport in Malaysia, and we got a demo tape of ‘I Can Love You Like That,’ and it had an R&B vocal on it,” All-4-1’s Delious Kennedy recalled. “I remember the manager passing us some headphones, and we all listened to it. We just all smiled like, ‘This has got to be a hit,’” he added.

Jamie Jones recalled how they found out “I Can Love You Like That” was also a country song during a 2020 interview with Hype Magazine. “While at the Grammy Awards we were rehearsing with John Michael Montgomery–who recorded the country version of ‘I Swear’–and he told us he was gonna record his new song called ‘I Can Love You Like That’ when he got home,” he recalled. “We were like ‘WHAT?!’ Turns out, we had both picked the song for our next project,” Jones added. “We had already recorded it first,” he clarified.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t replicate the success of “I Swear.” Their rendition of “I Can Love You Like That” Peaked at No. 5 on the Hot 100 and No. 2 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

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