Songoftheday 9/14/19 - I don't care what they say I'm not about to pay nobody's way, 'cause it's all about the dog in me...
from the album Do You Wanna Ride? (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 27
Today's song of the day comes from R&B singer Adina Howard, who was born in the city of Grand Rapids in the center of Michigan. At the start of 1995, Adina released her debut single "Freak Like Me". Built on an interpolation of a Bootsy Collins funk record ("I'd Rather Be With You") the salacious song was credited to Collins, George Clinton, and Mudbone Cooper. The extra funky track was greatly helped by Howards more-than-compatible vocals, with her selling the sexy song without going into cheesy territory. This is probably one of the most sexy up-tempo songs out there at the time, and Adina was rewarded with her first and biggest hit in America...
"Freak Like Me" was Adina's first pop hit and her biggest in the U.S., spending two weeks in the runner-up spot on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in May of 1995. The song also took a month (four weeks at #2 on their R&B chart. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in New Zealand (#22), the Netherlands (#26), and the UK (#33).
Her follow-up to this massive hit, "My Up And Down", attempted to recapture the erotic nature of the debut, with a new remix. The record reached the R&B top-40 in Billboard at #32, but was unable to match the momentum of her debut down at #68 on the pop Hot 100. Then came "It's All About You", which got to #58 R&B, while missing the pop chart altogether. I guess with Mary J Blige at her high mainstream stations had their slot filled, as they say.
After the lead single from Adina's sophomore effort Welcome To Fantasy Island, "(Freak) And You Know It", peaked at #32 R&B while stalling down at #70 on the pop chart, her label cancelled the album release, a fatal blow on most music careers. What did give her a lifeline was one of the two soundtrack cuts she recorded after the first album. A redo of Tina Turner's "What's Love Got To Do With It" with rapper Warren G granted Adina a second top-40 hit, as well as her biggest international single, and will be featured in a future SOTD. But her next album wouldn't appear until 2004's indie release Second Coming, which went to #61 on the albums chart. That same year, she guested on a single from producers/rappers Play-n-Skillz, "Freaks" also featuring Krayzie Bone of the Cleveland rap group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, which got to #52 R&B/#69 Pop/#24 Rap Singles. Adina has released a couple of albums since, with her latest being 2017's Resurrection.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
And here's Adina doing a live TV performance of the song in 1995...
And live in concert around that same time...
In 2000, a remake of "Freak Like Me" was released from dance acts Tru Faith and Dub Conspiracy, with British Eurovision runner-up finalist from 1998, Imaani on vocals. The result went to #12 in the UK...
But by far the biggest international version of the song came a couple years after that one, when British girl-group Sugababes released their version of the song, substituting the Bootsy Collins funk for a direct sample of Gary Numan's electronic hit "Are Friends Electric?". Their "Freak Like Me" went to #1 in Belgium as well as the UK, while reaching top ten in Ireland (#2) and Norway (#4)...
And lastly, back to Adina, with a jazzy live version she had in her Unsung episode on BET TV...
Up tomorrow: Philly boys have gratitude.
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