Songoftheday 10/13/14 - My love tell me what it's all about, you've got something that I can't live without...

Nu Shooz - "I Can't Wait"
from the album Poolside (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 15

Today's Song of the Day is by the dance-pop act Nu Shooz, who came together under married couple Valerie Day and John Smith in Portland in the late 70s. After a couple of indie-released albums, the band didn't get their big shot until 1986, when newly signed to Atlantic Records, they put out the single "I Can't Wait". A revamp of one of their earlier album tracks, the Smith-penned song was first a hit in the dance clubs, before getting noticed by pop radio for its sunny and infectious beat, which made it the perfect summer record for the year. Drawing from Madonna-like girl-pop and lite funk like the Atlantic/Midnight Stars, it was a record that stood out from the rest of the bootyshakers...

"I Can't Wait" went all the way to the top-3 on the American pop chart in June of 1986, becoming their first and so-far last top-10 hit. Besides topping the Dance Club Play chart in Billboard, the groovy record placed up at #2 on the R&B chart there (then called the "Black Singles" chart). Internationally, the record went to #1 in Canada, hit the runner-up spot in England and Germany, and reached the top-10 in Italy, Holland, and Switzerland.

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Here's the 12" version of the single that topped the dance charts for two weeks at the beginning of 1986...

At the same time this record was on pop radio, rapper Spyder-D interpolated the record on his own single "I Can't Wait (To Rock The Mike)", which peaked at #65 on the R&B chart...

Ten years later, Vanessa Williams sampled the track for her song "Happiness" from the Next album in 1997. It was a minor hit in New Zealand...

British vocal group Ladies First had a top-20 single with a cover of the song in drum and bass style in 2002...

The single "Buzzin'" from rappers Mann with 50 Cent took this song as a backdrop and went to #6 on the British chart and #61 on the American Hot 100...

Finally, here's Nu Shooz on Solid Gold...

Up tomorrow: An ingenue mines some Benson for a #1 hit.