Robbed hit of the week 9/17/18 - Chaka Demus and Pliers' "Murder She Wrote"...
from the album All She Wrote (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #57
This week's "robbed hit" comes from a pair of Jamaican reggae artists who had previously been working solo, Chaka Demus and Pliers. Respectively born John Taylor and Everton Bonner from the capital of Kingston, they were locally successful, but when touring in the U.S., decided to collaborate, where they recorded their first set Gal Wine Wine Wine. Two more independent records followed until they released a collection of songs named for their breakthrough single "Tease Me". In 1993, that song went to #3 in the UK, and #5 in both Australia and the Netherlands, and was an international success. That was followed by "She Don't Let Nobody", which peaked at #4 in the UK and #9 in Ireland. Then a cover of the Isley Brothers/Beatles' "Twist and Shout" featuring the Taxi Gang ended up spending two weeks at #1 on the British chart.
But before their British success, the pair released an original in the States, "Murder She Wrote". Written by the duo with producer Sly Dunbar and Lloyd Willis, it would bring them a lot of airplay on urban stations that were reggae-friendly, despite the subtle reference to abortion in the lyrics...
While "Murder She Wrote" rose to #39 on Billboard's R&B chart, the single stopped at #57 on the American Hot 100 pop chart in February of 1993. When released as the fourth single from the album Tease Me (renamed All She Wrote for America), it climbed to #27 in the UK. In the U.S., the track "I Wanna Be Your Man" which smartly sampled the R&B classic "Show and Tell" followed, and went to #87 on the R&B chart while "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #112, though in the UK it did a bit better, peaking at #19. Lastly, the song "Gal Wine" from their start charted at #20 in Britain.
In 1996 Chaka and Pliers returned with their For Every Kinda People album, named for their cover of Robert Palmer's "Every Kinda People". That track went to #15 in New Zealand, and #47 in the UK. A year later, an interpolation of the Police's "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" hit #19 in New Zealand and #51 in the UK, their most recent chart hit. However, they continued to still record together for awhile; their most recent collab album So Proud came in 2008. Chaka has also been recording solo - his Second Coming was released in 2013.
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Here's Chaka and Pliers performing live at the Tuff Gong Studios in Jamaica...
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