Songoftheday 4/21/18 - When I saw her walking down the street, she looks so fine I just have to speak...
from the album Harmony (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #26 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12
Today's song of the day comes from house music singer/producer Lidell Townsell, who comes from that genre's homebase of Chicago. Originally signed to seminal label TRAX, his first single "Party People Jack Your Body" was released in 1987. Although he was a fixture in the clubs locally through the late 80s, he didn't hit the national club or radio charts until one of his indie releases was picked up by major label Mercury Records. "Nu Nu", written by Townsell with house music kings Hula (Lamar Mahone) and K. Fingers (Craig Simpkins), was credited to Lidell and M.T.F. (rapper Silk E and singer Martell). It was originally popular as a mostly acappella mix, that had a longer rap lyric at the end, explaining "Nu Nu" as slang for a new hottie you're macking on...
but once radio caught on, more production were added for the single mix, which sampled Crystal Waters' "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)"...
"Nu Nu" became Lidell's first and only top-40 pop hit in May of 1992. The single also climbed to #44 on Billboard's R&B chart as well. Surprisingly, the iconic house music anthem didn't top the Dance Club Play chart, but did spend a week at #2. Internationally, the single climbed all the way to #8 in New Zealand, and reached the top-40 in both the Netherlands (#16) and Belgium (#24). An album, Harmony was released in the spring of 1992, and a second single, "Get With You", rose to #4 on the Dance Club Play chart, but only managed to get to #78 on the pop Hot 100 in America. Townsell went back to TRAX and continued to release indie house music singles from there on.
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Here's the original independent release of "Nu Nu", which focused more on the beat and "MMM Hmm"s and "Nu Nu"s than the Mercury single, which added a chorus...
In 2014, Bieber-clone Austin Mahone and Pitbull released "MMM Yeah", which basically was a rewrite of "Nu Nu", and did rather respectably, hitting the top-40 around the world (#8 in Norway, #34 in the UK, #32 in Australia) and peaked at #49 in the U.S. They also cribbed from Jamiroquai for the video..
and finally, Townsell appearing live at the "History Of House" event in Chicago in 2015...
Up tomorrow: Swedish duo have some romantic religion.
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