Songoftheday 1/12/19 - Mercy mercy mercy me my life is a cage but on stage I'm free...
from the album Code Red (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #13 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13
Today's song of the day comes from DJ Jazzy Jeff and actor/rapper Will Smith, aka the Fresh Prince, who had came out of being cast as a novelty act in the 80s and started the 90s pretty respectably with the top ten pop hit "Summertime" along with the Anita Ward-sampling top-20 follow-up "Ring My Bell". However by the time it came for the duo's next record in 1993, Code Red, it seems something had changed. Instead of portraying the suave, laid-back grooves of Homebase, they attempted to fit in with the harder approach of the current rap scene dominated by the western gangsta rap and eastern edgy acts. With all of that yet still craving mainstream success, what resulted is the lead single "Boom! Shake The Room", a disjointed try at Smith yelling and boasting his way through a record, which is a 180 from his self-deprecating humor of all of his past hits. With a mundane Ohio Players sample and impersonations of Kris Kross in the record, even then to me this was quite embarrassing. Nevertheless, Smith's star power guaranteed at least a moderate amount of success, which he did get, though the album relatively tanked at #64 on the albums sales chart in Billboard magazine...
"Boom! Shake The Room" became Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince's fifth and final top-40 pop hit together in September of 1993. The song actually did worse on urban stations, only making it to #21 on Billboard's R&B chart, while the remixes of the song helped it go to #36 on their Dance Club Play list. But strikingly, overseas this record did much, much better. It ended up spending two weeks at #1 on the British singles chart (their biggest hit there), as well as a week on top in Ireland, seven weeks at #1 in Spain, and a week on top in Australia. The single also reached the top-40 in New Zealand (#2), Denmark (#6), Switzerland (#8), Sweden (#12), Austria (#17), the Netherlands (#18), and France (#24).
The follow-up single "I'm Looking For The One (To Be With Me)" was a little less boastful, but still felt like a Kris Kross remake and radio didn't catch on in America, as it stalled on the Hot 100 down at #79. However, internationally, it clicked, reaching the top-40 in New Zealand (#18), Ireland (#21), and the UK (#24), where they also scored a third top-40 hit from the album with "Can't Wait To Be With You", which didn't even dent the American charts, though it was probably the best cut from the album. Lastly "Twinkle Twinkle (I'm Not A Star)" was a minor British hit at #60, while in America "I Wanna Rock" was a minor dance hit at #41.
After this record, Jeff and Will split professionally as Smith concentrated on his acting career, and eventually a solo rap/pop career under his given name. A greatest hits set in 1998 gave the pair a final British top-40 hit with "Lovely Daze" (#37).
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
And here's the duo on their one-off reunion in England in 2017...
Up tomorrow: Another rapper is just getting started, but he's popular, per him.
Comments