Songoftheday 11/7/19 - Smooth just like the silk, and feel so oft and cuddly hug me up like a quilt...

"Boombastic" / "In The Summertime" - Shaggy (featuring Rayvon on "In The Summertime")
from the album Boombastic (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 23

Today's song of the day comes from reggae singer/toaster/musician Shaggy, who grew up Orville Burrell in Jamaica before coming to America and enlisting in the Marines during the first Gulf War. He released his debut single "Oh Carolina" at the beginning of 1993. A remake of a tradition reggae track by the Folkes Brothers, the song became a huge international success, going to #1 in the UK, as well as making the top ten in Austria, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, and the Netherlands. However despite the popularity of acts like Inner Circle and Shabba Ranks, in the U.S. the song peaked down at #59, though on Billboard magazine's Modern Rock chart it was a much more respectable hit at #14. His first album, Pure Pleasure, came out that summer, but even with that success in Europe the album didn't do that well, doing best in Austria, where it just missed the top-10 at #11.

After a second the following year that was barely promoted with no singles making the charts, Shaggy regrouped to record his third record Boombastic which was released in 1995. The first single released internationally was another cover, but this time of the pop/rock hit "In The Summertime", originally recorded by the British band Mungo Jerry. Unlike other British Invasion groups, the song was rather rooted in the blues-rock of the American South. and in 1970 climbed to #3 on the American pop chart...

Shaggy's take on "In The Summertime", featuring singer Rayvon from Barbados added the reggae beat which fit the lazy bum mood of the lyrics...

In Europe, where "In The Summertime" was released alone as the lead single from Shaggy's third album, it made the top 10 in New Zealand (#4), the UK (#5), and Finland (#7). It also made the top-40 in Ireland (#13), Australia (#14), the Netherlands (#21), Sweden (#30), Belgium (#32), and Austria (#35).

Meanwhile in the States, the record company released the title track "Boombastic", an original written by Shaggy with King Floyd and Robert Livingston, as the lead single, with "In The Summertime" on all of the single formats (CD, cassette, and vinyl) as the "B-side". Both tracks got another radio airplay to chart together on Billboard's Hot 100, but it was "Boombastic" that by far carried the most weight, helped by a smooth remix that sampled Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On"...

The combo of "Boombastic" and "In The Summertime" became Shaggy's first top-40 hit, making the top-3 in August of 1995. The song spent one week at #1 on Billboard's R&B chart. Internationally (as the follow-up to "In The Summertime"), the track topped the chart in the UK, Australia, Italy, Ireland, Sweden, and New Zealand. It also hit the top ten in Austria (#2), Finland (#2), Germany (#2), Norway (#2), Spain (#3), Switzerland (#3), the Netherlands (#4), Iceland (#4), Belgium (#4F/#5W), and France (#7),

Shaggy's next single, "Why You Treat Me So Bad?" featured rapper Grand Puba, and only managed to "bubble under" the pop Hot at #108, though on the R&B chart it climbed to #52. In the UK the song climbed to #11. In Britain, the combo single of "Something Different" with Wayne Wonder and "The Train Is Coming" being filmed with Bono, climbed to #21 on the general singles chart, and #22 in New Zealand for the first song. The Boombastic album won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae set in 1996.

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Here's the original studio version of the song...