Songoftheday 10/15/19 - Too many wakes and funerals full of tears You say there's something on your mind, well hey, I'm all ears...
from the album Don't Fight The Feelin' (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #39 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 2
Today's song of the day comes from hip-hop artist Rappin' 4-Tay (aka Anthony Forte), whose second album Don't Fight The Feelin' scored him a top-40 pop hit in the fall of 1994 with "Playaz Club". The second release from the album, though, was custom-made for mainstream radio, with one of the finest pop/soul records ever made being the sample base and providing the title for the record. "I'll Be Around", which interpolates the #1 R&B/#3 Pop hit from the Spinners from 1972...
Rappin 4-Tay's verses lay on top of the Spinners' record so flawlessly that I'm sure Puff Daddy was jealous. And the Spinners got a featured credit on the single, landing them their first top-40 pop hit since "Cupid/I've Loved You Such A Long Time" in 1980...
"I'll Be Around" became 4-Tay's second and final top-40 pop hit in April of 1995. The song also climbed to #37 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart (his highest mark there), and peaked at #5 on their Rap Singles chart. Internationally, the single spent three weeks at #1 in New Zealand, and made the top-40 in the UK at #30. In France, it just missed the top-40 at #44.
A year later, 4-Tay returned with his third effort Off Parole. Trying to repeat the success of this single, he again paired a sweet single from the early 70s, in this case the Four Tops' "Ain't No Woman (Like The One I Got)" with his verses to make "Ain't No Playa Like...", which made it up to #55 on the R&B chart, but stalled down at #73 pop Hot 100 in America. A second single, "A Lil Some'em Some'em", was his last charting single at #74 R&B, while it only "bubbled under" the pop Hot 100 at #117. He's released a flow of albums since then, most recently in 2011 when he put out three studio sets including Still Standing.
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And here's Forte and the Spinners performing live on the Jon Stewart Show...
Up tomorrow: British Eurodance singer resurrects a #1 hit from 1983 and nearly matches it.
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