Songoftheday 6/5/20 - I remember when we used to sit in the government yard in Brooklyn, observing the crookedness as it mingled with the good people we meet...
from the album The Score (1996)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart
Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #38 (one week)
Weeks in the Hot 100 Airplay Top-40: 4
Today's song of the day comes from the hip-hop trio the Fugees, whose landmark album The Score had scored an official top-40 hit with "Fu-Gee-La", along with an interpolation of Roberta Flack's timeless "Killing Me Softly" that made the runner-up position on the Hot 100 Airplay chart in Billboard magazine. Another track from the album, "Ready Or Not", was promoted to radio without a commercial single as well, and rose to #22 on Billboard's R&B Airplay chart, as well as #69 on their Hot 100 Airplay component list. However the song was massive oversees, topping the British charts and making the top ten all over Europe. For the fourth release to radio from The Score, the trio of Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, and Pras offered another cover interpolation of a classic song. This time it would be the reggae standard "No Woman, No Cry", written and performed by Bob Marley (who gave publishing credit to friend Vincent Ford, to fund his friend's soup kitchen), was on his 1974 album Natty Dread. The single reached #22 on the British singles chart in 1975, then returned in 1981 to make the top ten at #8 after the legend's death...
The Fugees brought Jamaica to Brooklyn and New Jersey in their version, with Wyclef Jean taking on Marley's part...
Since the Fugees' take on "No Woman, No Cry" wasn't released as a proper commercial single, it wasn't able to place on Billboard's official Hot 100 pop chart. However, the version got enough mainstream radio love to make the top-40 of the Airplay component of that tally in August of 1996. The song also rose to #58 on the R&B Airplay chart. Internationally, the single was another big hit, topping the chart in New Zealand, and reaching the top ten in the UK (#2), Ireland (#5), Finland (#6), and Denmark (#7). It also made the top-40 in Belgium (#11W/#31F), France (#12), Sweden (#14), Italy (#15), Australia (#20), the Netherlands (#22), Switzerland (#23), Germany (#33), and Austria (#40).
In 1997, the trio guested on reggae artist Bounty Killer's single "Hip-Hopera", which went to #81 on the pop Hot 100 and #54 on the R&B chart. That same year, after contributing a song to the documentary movie about Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, When We Were Kings, "Rumble In The Jungle", which went to #71 on the R&B Airplay chart, Wyclef, Lauryn, and Pras all split off for their own solo projects. All three have since made the top-40 on the pop chart. They reunited in 2004 for a benefit concert, and there was talk of a new album. A single was issued, "Take It Easy", which got to #40 on the R&B chart and "bubbled under" the pop Hot 100 at #119. However that comeback never came to be, as tensions between the members prevented that from happening. All three have carved their own paths since, which will be described in future songs of the day. But man, did their star burn bright when it did.
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Here's the Fugees in concert live with "No Woman, No Cry"...
and lastly, the trio at the Grammys in 1997...
Up tomorrow: Female R&B trio employ their vital organs.
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