Songoftheday 1/16/19 - My, my, my, yes, I must admit, that I have never knew love like this before and I adore everything about you...
from the album Looks Like A Job For... (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #31 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 8
Today's song of the day comes from rapper Big Daddy Kane, who grew up as Antonio Hardy in New York City's Queens, where he grew a reputation in the hip-hop community through the 1980s until joining Cold Chillin' Records, where he released his first single "Raw" in the spring of 1988 - while that record missed the charts in America it did manage to pop on to the British singles chart peaking at #88. Kane's debut album, Long Like The Kane, arrived in June, and not long after that his second release, "Ain't No Half-Steppin'", became his first minor R&B hit, climbing to #53. The album also climbed to #5 on Billboard magazine's R&B albums chart, and spun off another minor hit in "I'll Take You There", an interpolation of the Staples Singers classic, which hit #73 on the R&B chart and was his first on the Rap Singles chart at #21. The following year, Kane contributed a song to the soundtrack to the film Lean On Me - the result, "Rap Summary (Lean On Me)", was his first Rap Singles top ten hit at #9. He closed out the decade with his sophomore effort It's A Big Daddy Thing, with lead single "Smooth Operator", nearly making the R&B top ten missing by a notch at #11, while being his first and only #1 on Billboard's Rap Singles chart. The album reached the top-40 on the Albums sales chart, and also gave Kane his biggest success in the UK with "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" (which samples the disco classic and came with a special Brixton-style remix) making it to #44. His third disc, Taste Of Chocolate, sent three singles into the R&B chart, with "All Of Me" (featuring disco/soul god Barry White) being his second-highest success after "Smooth Operator" at #14.
In 1991, Kane followed that record up with Prince Of Darkness, which contained the hit "Groove With It", which climbed to #24 on the R&B chart and all the way to #2 on Billboard's Rap Singles list. But it would take until his fifth release, Looks Like A Job For..., for Kane to finally get mainstream radio attention. After the comical lead single "How U Get A Record Deal" spend a couple of months on the R&B chart, peaking at #86, Kane put out his most aggressively pop-leaning of his career. "Very Special" was an interpolation of an 1981 R&B hit for singer Debra Laws, whose ballad (sung with brother Ronnie as an uncredited duet), which went to #11 on the R&B chart and #90 on the pop Hot 100. It now is more recognized for being the prime sample for Jennifer Lopez' #1 hit "All I Have"...
Big Daddy Kane took the basics of the chorus, using Karen Anderson and Laree Williams to recreate the duet, and paired himself with Salt-N-Pepa's DJ Spinderella, who went back and forth with him on the verses....
"Very Special" became Kane's first and only top 40 pop hit in October of 1993. The song also climbed to #23 on Billboard's R&B chart as well as #9 on the Rap Singles list. The album brought Kane back to the top ten, peaking at #9 on the R&B albums chart.
Big Daddy's next record, Daddy's Home in 1994 (his first and only with MCA), stiffed, he switched to Mercury for his so-far latest album, Veteranz Day, with "double A-side" single "Hold It Down"/"Uncut Pure" becoming minor hits in the States (#60) and the UK (#86). He continued to perform, but there's been no new music since then.
Up tomorrow: Arizonan jangle-pop heroes address one of the deadly sins.
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