Songoftheday 2/1/20 - It was Harlem at the ruckus I saw you with your man, a smiling huh a coach bag in your hand...
from the album Mr. Smith (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (eight weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 20
Today's song of the day comes from New York rap star LL Cool J, who had followed up his hugely successful 1990 album Mama Said Knock You Out, which scored his first top ten pop hit with "Around The Way Girl", with the harder and more moderately-received (to say the least) record 14 Shots To The Dome in 1993. While the album itself returned him to the top ten at #5 (at the time his highest rank besides his 1987 breakthrough Bigger and Deffer at #3, radio was turning soft, with the biggest single from the record, "Back Seat Of My Jeep", just missing the pop top-40 at #42 while stalling down at #24 on the R&B list. But his industry cred was still there, earning him another Grammy nomination for Rap Solo Performance for single "Stand By Your Man". He also was branching out into acting, appearing in movies as well as starring in his own sitcom, In The House, which starting in 1995. Later that fall, he would release his sixth album Mr. Smith, which nodded to his given name James Smith. The lead single from the set would be his most mainstream jam to date. "Hey Lover" interpolated the music from Michael Jackson's Thriller album cut "The Lady In My Life", with both new rap verses from LL and chorus sung by Boyz II Men, who at that time were hotter than they could ever be, holding the record for weeks at #1 on the pop chart with "I'll Make Love To You", which they were also about to break with another record ("One Sweet Day"). The combination of LL Cool J's smooth as silk delivery and Boyz II Men's harmonies on this just beyond slow tempo record was an instant success with their fans, and gave the rapper his biggest pop success...
"Hey Lover" ended up spending two months in the #3 position on Billboard's Hot 100 pop chart starting in December of 1995. The song also took two weeks at #3 on their R&B chart as well. Internationally, the single peaked at #5 in New Zealand and #6 in Sweden, and reached the top-40 in Australia (#11), the Netherlands (#12), the UK (#17), Iceland (#20), France (#27), Germany (#34). At the Grammy Awards in 1997, "Hey Lover" won J his second award for Best Solo Rap Performance, while the Mr. Smith album was nominated for Best Rap Album, losing out to the Fugees for their The Score.
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The "B-Side" of the "Hey Lover" single, the edgier "I Shot Ya", got enough urban radio airplay to appear on Billboard's R&B Airplay chart for a month, peaking at #55. The single remix featured Fat Joe, Prodigy from Mobb Deep, Keith Murray, and a new female rapper named Foxy Brown.
Here's LL appearing live on Showtime At The Apollo doin' "Hey Lover"...
And with Fat Joe, Prodigy, Foxy Brown, and Keith Murray doing "I Shot Ya"...
LL did "Hey Lover" at the American Music Awards in 1996 (after a brief "Mama Said Knock You Out")...
And lastly, live for Yahoo in 2008...
Up tomorrow: Soul group promises eternal romance.
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