Songoftheday 12/29/15 - I've got sunshine on a cloudy day, when it's cold outside I've got the month of May...

"My Girl" - Suave'
from the album I'm Your Playmate (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 7

Today's song of the day comes from R&B singer Waymond Anderson Jr, who recorded under the moniker Suave'. He released his debut album I'm Your Playmate in 1988, and the first single from the set was a cover of one of the most loved Motown singles of the 60s, the Temptations' "My Girl". Originally released in December of 1964 and written by Smokey Robinson and Ronald White of the Miracles, the single marked the debut as a lead vocalist for David Ruffin, who would go on to be their greatest asset, landing the group their first #1 pop and R&B hit. (They also returned to the adult contemporary chart at #27 in 1992 due to its inclusion in the same-titled Macauley Culkin movie...)

It took a lot of confidence to take on such a revered song, producer Dwayne Omarr drowned out his voice with a ton of new jack swing sound effects and background voices...

"My Girl" landed Suave' a top-20 pop hit in May of 1988, while climbing all the way to #3 for two weeks on Billboard's R&B chart. He would release one more single from the album, "Shake Your Body", which peaked at #22 on the R&B list. However, his second record bombed, and by 1994, he found himself turned into a drug dealer who was sent to prison for arson and murder, where he stands today.

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Here's the actual video for the song, which has got really bad audio...

Other acts have also hit the charts with the song. A year after the Motown hit, Otis Redding released a cover of "My Girl" that went to #11 on the chart in the UK (where the Temptations only made it to #43)...

The Mamas and The Papas included a take on the song on their 1967 album Deliver...

In 1968, former teen idol Bobby Vee did a proto "Mashup" of the song with "Hey Girl" and took the result to #35 on the pop chart..

Eddie Floyd went to #43 on the R&B chart and "bubbled under" the Hot 100 with his bluesy version of the song that's probably the best after the Tempts...

Disco singers Amii Stewart and Johnny Bristol paired up for another medley in 1980, combining "My Girl" with Mary Wells' "My Guy", which went to #76 on the R&B chart in 1980...

That same year, the Whispers also released "My Girl", which peaked at #26 in the UK...

Lastly, in 1985, Hall and Oates brought back Ruffin for a live version of the song, which made it to #20 on the American pop chart and #40 R&B (along with "The Way You Do The Things You Do")...

 Up tomorrow: A Philly duo switches labels, if that pleases you.