Songoftheday 3/18/19 - And although most men are ho's he flows on the down low, 'Cause I never heard about him with another girl...
from the albums Very Necessary (Salt 'N' Pepa, 1993) and Runaway Love (En Vogue, 1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 24
Today's song of the day comes from female rap trio Salt 'N' Pepa, who had landed their first top ten pop hit of their career in the winter of 1993 with "Shoop". For the follow-up single, Salt, Pepa, and Spinderella teamed up with another very successful R&B/pop crossover act, En Vogue, who had spun off five top-40 pop hits from their most recent full-length album Funky Divas. They had followed that up with an EP in the fall of 1993, Runaway Love; the title track was released as a single, but while it climbed to #15 on the R&B chart in Billboard magazine, "Runaway Love" stalled at #51 on the pop Hot 100 (it did a little better in the UK, peaking at #36). Another track from the EP, the house music jam "What Is Love", climbed to #6 on the Dance Club Play list, but missed the pop chart altogether. So by the time "Whatta Man" was released, they were definitely in need of a change in momentum. The funky mid-tempo ode to male goodness (whether beauty, emotion, or success) was an anthem to the ladies of the mid-nineties to get the man they deserve. All this was a reinterpretation of a single from 1968 from "blue-eyed" soul singer Linda Lydell, "What A Man", that was used to sample and interpolate lyrics from...
"Whatta Man" became the second top ten hit (and highest-charting single for Salt-N-Pepa) in February of 1994. The song also spent a week at #3 on Billboard's R&B chart. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in Australia (#2), the Netherlands (#3), the UK (#7), and New Zealand (#10), while making the top 40 in Ireland (#12), Canada (#13), Austria (#27), France (#28), Belgium (#34), Sweden (#37), Germany (#39), and Iceland (#40). "Whatta Man" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Duo/Group Vocal Performance (there was no "Rap/Sung" category), losing out to Boyz II Men's "I'll Make Love To You".
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Here's the original "What A Man", recorded by Linda Lyndell, which went to #50 on the R&B chart in 1968. Subsequent harrassment by white racists caused her to retreat from her career tragically...
And here's Salt 'n' Pepa performing the song on Australian TV...
Next up in concert at Woodstock '94...
and on TV on Letterman promoting the single...
In 2011, German singer and Eurovision winner Lena Meyer-Handrut covered Lyndell's original of "What a Man", which went to #21 on the German singles chart...
From that same year, Salt and Pepa live at the Sirius Radio studios...
Fast forward four years with Salt N Pepa and En Vogue on stage with the song...
In 2016, K-pop group I.O.I. covered "Whatta Man", and climbed to #2 on the Korean singles chart...
Lastly, Salt N Pepa, En Vogue and Kelly Clarkson come together at the Billboard Music Awards...
Up tomorrow: Nasty girl attributes romance.
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