Songoftheday 10/22/19 - Everywhere me go di man dem a rush me, yes a whole eep a pretty boy wah fi love me...

"Shy Guy" - Diana King
from the albums Bad Boys (Original Soundtrack) and Tougher Than Love (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #13 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 20

Today's song of the day comes from reggae/soul singer Diana King, who came from Jamaica's capital of Kingston to start a recording career in the States in the early 1990s. Her first hit came with a cover of the reggae classic "Stir It Up" from the soundtrack to the movie Cool Runnings, which went to #53 on the R&B chart in 1994. A year later, Diana contributed a song to another movie, this time the blockbuster flick Bad Boys starring Will Smith and Martin Laurence. "Shy Guy", written by King with Kingsley Gardner and producer Andy Marvel, was a bouncy and fresh pop-reggae nugget that brought the singer her first and biggest pop hit...

"Shy Guy" became King's first American pop top-40 hit in July of 1995. The song also climbed to #21 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart. But it was even more successful internationally, topping the singles chart in Sweden and Finland, and reaching the top ten in the UK (#2), Belgium (#2), Norway (#2), Denmark (#2), Australia (#3), the Netherlands (#3), New Zealand (#3), France (#4), Ireland (#4), Switzerland (#5), Germany (#6), Austria (#6), Italy (#6), and Iceland (#8).

On the strength of the song, King released her debut album Tougher Than Love. The second release from that album, "Love Triangle", didn't reach the American pop chart, it slipped on to the R&B list at #85, and was a top-40 hit in New Zealand at #21 (and a minor hit in Australia at #73). That was followed by a cover of Rufus and Chaka Khan's "Ain't Nobody", which did better; in America, the song slipped on to the Hot 100 at #94, hit #63 R&B, and was her first and biggest dance club hit at #4.

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A second music video was made for "Shy Guy" featuring Will Smith, Martin Laurence, and clips from the Bad Boys movie...