1998 single by Tamia featuring Jermaine Dupri
"Imagination" is a song by Canadian recording artist Tamia, released as the first single from her self-titled debut album (1998). It was written and produced by Jermaine Dupri and his protégé Manuel Seal and features additional vocals by the former. "Imagination" is a mid-tempo R&B song that contains an interpolation from The Jackson 5's 1969 song "I Want You Back", written and produced by Motown's The Corporation team consisting of Berry Gordy, Alphonzo Mizell, Freddie Perren, and Deke Richards.
"Imagination" was released as Tamia's second overall solo single, after "Make Tonight Beautiful" the previous year from the Speed 2: Cruise Control soundtrack. Earlier appearances include featuring on mentor Quincy Jones's singles "You Put a Move on My Heart" and "Slow Jams", as well as "Missing You", a song she recorded with singers Brandy, Gladys Knight and Chaka Khan for the soundtrack of the 1996 motion picture Set It Off.[1] While not as commercially successful as the latter, "Imagination" peaked at number 12 on the Hot Canadian Digital Singles chart and entered the top forty in New Zealand and on the US Billboard Hot 100. An accompanying music video was directed by Paul Hunter and references French playwright Jean Cocteau's classic film version of Beauty and the Beast (1946).