Songoftheday 3/10/18 - The love I have right next to me is here and always will be, I'm caressing your body emotionally as you can feel and will see...
from the album Cooleyhighharmony (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #16 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14
Today's song of the day comes from the Philly-soul vocal group Boyz II Men, who made their grand entrance with their debut album Cooleyhighharmony already scoring two top-5 pop hits with "Motownphilly" and "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday". The third single released from the record brought the boyz to the bedroom in "Uhh Ahh". Written by the group's Nathan and Wanya Morris along with their mentor Michael Bivins (from New Edition/Bell Biv Devoe), the song was mostly acappella, using the strength of their harmonies with a little background music to convey the rhythm of a couple in the heat of passion. The music video amplified that mood, with the guys in just as sexy an outfit as the ladies (solidifying my Wanya crush), and when Michael McCary comes in with his spoken interlude (perhaps his finest moment on a B2M single), Barry White-style chills set in...
"Uhh Ahh" became the group's third top-40 pop hit in March of 1992 - a pretty respectable showing considering the brazen sexiness of a single offered by a mainstream-aiming act. On urban radio, it even did much better, landing the quartet their second #1 R&B single after "It's So Hard...". Internationally, the song only made a brief three-week appearance on the Canadian chart, peaking at #92. A fourth single from the record, the lush ballad "Please Don't Go", rose to #8 on Billboard's R&B chart, but only got to #49 on the pop Hot 100. Lastly, the funky track "Sympin'", remixed from the album version for the movie White Men Can't Jump, shuffled on to the R&B list at #72, not reaching the pop chart.
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As with their previous single "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday", there was a separate "sequel mix" for urban radio that pumped up the instrumentation and changed around the lyrics a little. Still, the original reigns in my mind...
And here's the boyz with a bit of "Uhh Ahh" as well as "Please Don't Go" on Arsenio...
Finally, the Morrises and Stockman (without McClary) live in 2011..
Up tomorrow: For this blues rocker, romance can't be forced.
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