Songoftheday 6/18/20 - Boy you should know that I got you on my mind, your secret admirer I've been watching you...
from the album So So Def Bass All-Stars (1996)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #31 (in 1996), #27 (in 2016)
Weeks in the Top-40: 16 (in 1996), 4 (in 2016)
Today's song of the day comes from the "Miami Bass" hip-hop act Ghost Town DJ's, who came from Atlanta, Georgia, actually, and put together by soon rap star Lil' Jon for producer Jermaine Dupri's So So Def label. Member Rodney Terry co-wrote their sole hit single "My Boo", with singer Virgo Williams. The pair along with DJ Demp and Greg Street were commissioned for a single track on a bass music compilation on the label called So So Def Bass All-Stars. Surprisingly, the underground-style song way past the best by date of the genre caught on with dance radio especially in the southeast, and the track found itself a top-40 pop hit...
"My Boo" became the act's sole pop hit reaching the top-40 in October of 1996, and staying in that region for a hefty sixteen weeks and eventually 31 weeks in the Hot 100 back then. On Billboard's R&B chart, the track originally got as high as #18. Internationally, the single was a big hit Down Under, going to #3 in New Zealand and #26 in Australia in 1996. The So So Def Bass All-stars album made the albums chart because the single was scarce (I only had the 12 inch vinyl single of it), and all seemed right for a debut album. But I guess label fights arose because the album that arose from the act, Frantic, didn't come out of So So Def and didn't contain "My Boo". And it tanked. I mean, I honestly didn't even know the record was out until researching this post right today. The GTDJs just disappeared.
Until 2016.
Twenty years after the original release of "My Boo", two New Jersey students made a Vine video with a "running man"-style dance that went viral. Soon, all kinds of people were recreating the dance to the video, and eventually sales and radio airplay of the track, along with YouTube video views, put the song back into the pop top-40 for a month, peaking higher than it originally did. It also got to #10 on Billboard's R&B chart as well.
So it proves even one-hit wonders like this can have a life of their own.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
And here's the act making a rare live appearance on TV in 1996...
Here's a 10 minute compilation of the countless Vines of the meme...
And finally, here's the two kids who probably inspired Jersey boys to Vine that dance in 2016...
Up tomorrow: Aussie one-off sings about her eating hole.
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