Songoftheday 5/27/16 - Workin' all week 9 to 5 for my money, so when the weekend comes I go get live with the honeys...

"Wild Thing" - Tone Lōc
from the album Lōc-ed After Dark (1989)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's song of the day comes from rapper Tone Lōc, aka Anthony Smith from Los Angeles, who released his debut album Lōc-ed After Dark in the beginning of 1989. A mostly comical record, the first single from the set was "Wild Thing", which wasn't a remake of the 60s grunge-rock classic by the Troggs, but rather a stand-up sketch done to a sample of Van Halen's "Jamie's Cryin'". Not only was the musical 'hook' of the song cribbed, but even the grainy low-rent video was a copy of Robert Palmer's "Addicted To Love"/"Simply Irresistible" videos, which I guess they explained away as parody. "Wild Thing" itself wasn't even written by the rapper, but rather by Delicious Vinyl go-to Marvin Young, who would introduce himself to the world as Young MC in short time with "Bust A Move"...

"Wild Thing" went all the way up to the runner-up spot on the American pop chart in February of 1989, selling over two million copies in the process. The track also climbed to #3 on Billboard's R&B chart, while the 12" remix topped their Dance Club Play chart for a week. Internationally, the song went to #1 in New Zealand, #4 in the Netherlands, and top-40 in the UK (#21), Australia (#15), Germany (#18), and Switzerland (#23). But for a novelty record, the single lives on, with just this past Mother's Day weekend with me at the beach hearing the song blare out from speakers of a boardwalk bar.

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Here's one of the remixes that helped the single top the dance chart from Ben Liebrand...

In 2007, alternative punk grrl Peaches remixes and reworked the song, and the resulting single reached the top-5 on the sales chart...

Lastly, here's Tone kickin' it at Daytona for MTV in 1989...

Up tomorrow: A Welshman gets a little Royal peck.