Songoftheday 3/25/18 - Sippin on a cold bottle of brewsky, gave O a swig he passed it back to me...

"On A Sunday Afternoon" - A Lighter Shade Of Brown
from the album Brown & Proud (1990)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #39 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 1

Today's song of the day comes from the Latin hip-hop duo A Lighter Shade Of Brown, who came together in the late 1980s with Robert Gutierrez and Bobby Ramirez releasing their debut album Brown & Proud in 1990. The second single released from the record, the freestyle music jam "Latin Active", became their first minor hit, reaching #59 on the pop chart in the summer of 1991. But the third release from the record turned things retro, with the easy breezy "On A Sunday Afternoon". Sampling the Young Rascals' "Groovin'" (where the title came from) as well as "Crystal Blue Persuasion" from Tommy James and the Shondells on a chorus sung by Shiro Stokes, the record had lyrics young kids in the city could relate to, and yet older listeners could recognize, and the single became their biggest hit...

"On A Sunday Afternoon" became A Lighter Shade Of Brown's sole top-40 pop hit in February of 1992. Internationally, the record spent two weeks at #1 in New Zealand, and was a minor hit in the Netherlands at #49. Due to its massive success Down Under, their debut release "T.J. Nights" (which interpolated the Eagles' "One Of These Nights") was re-released in New Zealand, and climbed to #36.

In 1992, the duo put out their sophomore effort, Hip Hop Locos, and from it the single "Homies" (which samples the Miracles' "Tracks Of My Tears") became a minor pop (#57) and R&B (#54) hit.  Two years later, a third album Layin' In The Cut arrived. The lead single from the set, "Hey DJ", a remake of an underground rap cut from the World's Famous Supreme Team, nearly got them back into the top-40 in America at #43, while going to #67 R&B. That track was their biggest international hit, reaching the top-40 in Australia (#12), New Zealand (#33), and the UK (#33). That was followed by "If You Wanna Groove", which was a minor rap singles hit at #45. After a pair of indie albums on Thump Records, the pair went their separate ways, with Guterriez becoming a radio DJ, and Ramirez continuing the LSOB name for a while, before passing away in 2016.

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Here's a mini-doc about the pair reuniting for a show in 2014 ("On a Sunday Afternoon" arrives at 12:20)...

Up tomorrow: "Pristine" R&B group are sad about those ocher peepers.