Songoftheday 5/20/19 - As you brush your shoes and stand before your mirror, and you comb your hair and grab your coat and hat...
from the album Dance Naked (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 33
Today's song of the day comes from the mainstream rocker from Indiana, John Mellencamp, whose first album of the 1990s, Whenever We Wanted, was his first since he hit big with American Fool in 1982 to not produce a top ten pop hit, though it did have a pair of moderate successes with "Get A Leg Up" and "Again Tonight", both of which were #1 rock radio hits. John's next record, Human Wheels, was released two years later and while it reached the top ten on the albums sales chart and had a #1 rock radio hit with "What If I Came Knocking", none of its tracks even hit the pop top-40 (the title track "Human Wheels" peaked at #48). With pressure from his record company to come up with something more palatable to the mainstream, Mellencamp went and recorded his next record, Dance Naked, in two weeks. The first single released from the album would be his first remake single, "Wild Night". Written by iconic Irish singer/songwriter Van Morrison, "Wild Night" originally appeared on his 1971 album Tupelo Honey. The track climbed to #28 on the American pop chart, and #20 in Canada...
For Mellencamp's version, he first made the song a duet, with an African-American bisexual neo-soul newcomer that had just gotten her career started. Me'Shell Ndegeocello (born Michelle Johnson as an American army brat in Berlin), who grew up in Washington DC, gigged with a few bands before going solo, releasing her first single "Dred Loc" in 1993. That song, the lead single from her debut album Plantation Lullabies, went to #86 on the R&B chart in Billboard magazine. But the second release from the set, "If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night)", did much better, becoming her first top-40 R&B hit at #23, crossing over to the pop Hot 100 at #73, and making the Dance Club Play chart with its remixes at #20, all in the beginning of 1994. But with her striking almost bald head and ambisexual dress code, she was more of an underground taste of neo-soul lovers. That changed with their version of "Wild Night", which played of both of their respective strengths to transform Morrison's original into a totally new animal, riding on Meshell's prominent and fluid bassline...
Mellencamp's version of "Wild Night" connected with the public in a big way, becoming his biggest hit since 1986, and his most recent top ten pop hit in September of 1994. The song was massive on "easy listening" radio, spending two months (eight weeks) at #1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary formar chart, while also crossing over to the Mainstream Rock list at #17. Internationally, the single hit #1 for three weeks in Canada, and reached the top-40 in Australia (#18) and the UK (#34). John released the title track "Dance Naked" as the follow-up single, but despite the success of (or more likely because the overlong success of) "Wild Night", that original single stopped just short of the pop top-40 at #41 (though it did climb to #7 in Canada). "Dance Naked" also reached #21 on the Mainstream rock chart and #37 on the Adult Contempoary tally.
As for Me'Shell, "Wild Night" would be her biggest chart success, and her first and only top ten hit on the pop chart. She returned in 1996 with her sophomore effort, Peace Beyond Passion. The controversial lead single "Leviticus: Faggot" missed all the radio charts, but the remixes of the track helped it go to #15 on Billboard's Dance Club Play list. It was the most powerful thing she's ever released. But to help up sales of the album, she them put out another cover song, this time of Bill Withers' "Who Is He and What Is He To You", which was her second top-40 R&B hit at #34, while again the remixes helped it rise to #1 on the Dance Club Play chart. That same year, Me'Shell also guested on Chaka Khan's single "Never Miss The Water", which also topped the dance chart at was her most recent top-40 R&B single at #36. The Peace track "Stay" also hit the R&B list at #67, her most recent appearance there. In 2002, her song "Earth", from her fourth release Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape, climbed the dance chart to #29 with help from remixes from Ben Watt of Everything But The Girl. She has released several albums since then on various labels. Her most recent album, Ventriloquism (coincidentally an album of cover songs), earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Urban Contemporary album.
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A second version of the music video was made with no alternate storyline, just the band and John and Me'Shell...
And here's John without Meshell performing live on Letterman...
In 1974, Motown great Martha Reeves recorded "Wild Night" as a single, which was a minor R&B hit at #74, but it much more famous for its inclusion in Thelma & Louise...
Back to John and Me'shell live at the MTV Music Video Awards in 1994...
and again, John solo at Farm Aid in 1995...
Up tomorrow: A crazy-haired rapper takes a trip.
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