Songoftheday 1/21/19 - It's Friday night and the weekend's here I need to unwind where's the party...
from the album Pronounced Jah-Nay (1994) and Roll With The Flava (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #6 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 20
Today's song of the day comes from the alternative soul duo Zhané, who both attended Temple University in Philaelphia, before being signed after signing backup for fellow Philly natives DJ Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith on their remake of "Ring My Bell". Their first cut, which would eventually appear on their debut album Pronounced Jay-Nay, originally appeared on a various artist compilation from Flavor Unit Records, Roll With The Flava. Put together but label mother Queen Latifah, who already had success on her label with Naughty By Nature, included the track "Hey Mr. D.J." to introduce the pair. Well it turned out that Zhané way overshadowed anything else on the album, as radio and club DJs flocked to the easy-going post-disco nugget written by member Renee Neufville along with Naughty By Nature's Kay Gee, Zane Grey (of the dance duo Grey & Hanks), and R&B artist Leon Ware. Grey and Ware wrote the song that was the prominent sample for the record, "Looking Up To You" by Michael Wycoff, which went to #47 on the R&B singles chart in Billboard magazine in 1982. Here's his original...
So obviously, Kay Gee doesn't do much to the production of Wycoff's and just cuts and pastes so Neufville and partner Jean Norris-Taylor can vamp over it. And honestly that's all you need, this groove was criminally overlooked in the first place. The rap on the break is from a guy called Fam, who wasn't given a featured credit, but deserved attention...
"Hey Mr. D.J." became Zhané's first and biggest pop hit, reaching the top ten in October of 1993. The song spent an entire month (four weeks) at #3 on Billboard's R&B chart, while the dance remixes of the song helped it take two weeks at #2 on their Dance Club Play list. Internationally, the single was most successful in Australia, peaking at #9, while also reaching the top 40 in New Zealand (#20), the UK (#26), Austria (#27), Germany (#29), and France (#32).
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Here's the house music remix done by Maurice Joshua which helped the song get to #2 on the dance chart in Billboard...
And here's Renee and Jean performing live on Arsenio Hall...
...and tearing the house down at Live At The Apollo...
And finally, Renee and Fam made an appearance at a Naughty By Nature release party in 2012...
Up tomorrow: Female rapper doesn't want a weakling.
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