Songoftheday 9/7/18 - Here have a dollar in fact no brotherman here have two, two dollars means a snack for me but it means a big deal to you...
from the album 3 Years, 5 Months, & 2 Days In The Life of...(1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #6 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 20
Today's song of the day comes from the alternative hip-hop group Arrested Development, whose debut album 3 Years, 5 Months, & 2 Days in the Life of had already spun off two top ten pop hits with "Tennessee" and "People Everyday". In the fall of 1992, they contributed a song to the Spike Lee movie Malcolm X; the result, "Revolution", was released as a single, reaching #49 on the R&B chart and #90 on the pop Hot 100, and was nominated for a Grammy for Duo/Group Rap Performance. The third release from their proper album would be an uptempo picture of a homeless man, "Mr. Wendal". Written by the act's leader, rapper Speech, and with a sample of the end of Sly & The Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song", it would be their most upbeat message single despite the depressing subject...
"Mr. Wendal" became Arrested Development's third and final top ten pop hit in February of 1993. The song climbed to #6 on Billboard's R&B chart, while the dance remix of the track got it all the way to #1 for a week on their Dance Club Play list. Internationally, the single reached #2 in New Zealand, #4 in the UK, #7 in Australia, and #9 in Ireland, and reached the top-40 in France (#30), Germany (#31), and Canada (#34).
The fourth single from 3 Years, the groovy hipster jam "Natural", got to #90 on the R&B chart, and reached the top-40 in New Zealand at #34. Another track from the record, "Mama's Always On Stage", got to #22 on the singles chart in the Netherlands as well. The group also released a live album, Unplugged, with did respectable business, going "gold" and reaching the top-40 on the albums chart in the UK and Australia, and #60 in the States.
The following year, Arrested Development put out their sophomore studio album Zingalamaduni, which was well reviewed but unable to build on the momentum of those three massive hit singles by that time (alt-hip-hop had been pushed aside by pop radio by them in favor of catch gangsta-lite acts). Lead single "Ease My Mind", which again nabbed a Grammy nomination for Duo/Group Rap Performance, climbed to #14 on the R&B chart, but stalled right under the pop top-40 at #45 (It did get to #11 in New Zealand and #33 in the UK). That was followed by "United Front", which peaked at #66 on the R&B list, and so far has been their final charting single. The Development split after that, with Speech going solo for a while, with single "Like Marvin Gaye Said (What's Going On)" making it to #59 on the R&B chart. Also, backup singer Dionne Farris went on to have a huge pop hit with "I Know" in 1994, charting higher (#4) than anything Arrested Development released. Speech would reconvene Arrested Development in 2000, but without longtime partner DJ Headliner. They've released material independently consistently since; they're most recent record, This Was Never Home, was put out in 2016.
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Here's the group appearing live on In Living Color promoting the single...
The "Perfecto" remix of "Mr. Wendal", done by Paul Oakenfold, completely transformed the life lesson into a club anthem, topping Billboard's dance chart...
They showed up on the Soul Train Music Awards to perform the song (I love Natalie Cole, Patti Labelle, and Luther Vandross stalling for time beforehand)...
Arrested Development's MTV Unplugged album included an acoustic version of the song, which takes it in a whole new direction...
Back to the group in the studio of Paste magazine in 2008...
And finally, live in concert at the Kennedy Center in 2013...
Up tomorrow: Soul singer is sitting there waiting up.
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