Robbed hit of the week 4/9/18 - Salt-N-Pepa's "You Showed Me"...
from the album Black's Magic (1990)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #47
This week's "robbed hit" comes from the rap group Salt-N-Pepa, whose third album Black's Magic had already landed them three top-40 pop hits with "Expression", "Do You Want Me", and the classic AIDS-PSA "Let's Talk About Sex". (Also, another track, "Independent", was a minor R&B hit as well). The fifth and final single released from the record would be the bouncy "You Showed Me". Interpolating the 60s hit of the same name by the Turtles, "You Showed Me" was originally written by Jim McGuinn and Gene Clark for their band that would eventually become the Byrds, and was eventually released on their rarities set Preflyte...
The Turtles, using a slower tempo more attune to the baroque-pop times, landed the song at #6 on Billboard's pop Hot 100 in 1968...
In 1989, rap group De La Soul already had sampled "You Showed Me" for an album cut on their seminal 3 Feet High and Rising album, and had been the first to be sued for copyright infringement; so it was sort of a shock for something using the song so shortly after, but getting full writing credit helped things along, even with different verses from Salt, Pepa, and Spinderella...
Although Salt N Pepa's take on "You Showed Me" was a worldwide success, the single stopped right above the halfway mark on the pop chart in April of 1992. The song also went to #68 on Billboard's R&B chart. Internationally, the record reached the top ten in the Netherlands (#5), Ireland (#7), Belgium (#7), and Finland (#8), and made the top-40 in New Zealand (#12), Norway (#12), Germany (#13), Austria (#13), the UK (#15), Switzerland (#15), France (#17), Sweden (#18), and Australia (#24).
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
The album version of "You Showed Me" didn't have the house-like flow the single remix did...
And the girls performing live on TV in 1992..
Comments