Songoftheday 9/24/20 - So much for all your highbrow Marxist ways, just use me up and then you walk away...
"Your Woman" - White Town
from the album Women In Technology (1997)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #23 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 15
Today's song of the day comes from the one-man alt-rock act White Town, the moniker used by musician Jyoti Mishra. Born in India but immigrating to the UK as a toddler with his family, Mishra created the White Town group at the end of the 1980s. After four independently released EP (extended play) records in the early 90s, Mishra released his debut full-length Socialism, Sexism, and Sexuality in 1994. From the buzz on that Marxist-themed release White Town landed a contract with Chrysalis Records, where he recorded his next album, Women In Technology. The lead single, "Your Woman", took a manipulated sample of a record by Portuguese South African singer Al Bowlly from 1932, "My Woman", and created a synth-laden layer of funky beats on top, turning gender on its end in the despondent lyrics about not being good enough. The single was a huge success in Britain, and then carried over to American shores for its own crossover. Jyoti only appears on the television in this throwback video...
"Your Woman" became White Town's first and only pop hit in America, cresting in the top-40 in May of 1997. The single peaked at #5 on Billboard magazine's Alternative Rock radio chart, while making it to #16 on their Adult Top-40 format list. The remixes of the track helped the song reach #26 on the Dance Club Play tally as well. Internationally, the single topped the British singles chart, as well as in Spain and Iceland, and reached the top ten in Australia (#2), Italy (#3), Canada (#4), Denmark (#4), Finland (#4), France (#5), Ireland (#5), Norway (#5), New Zealand (#5), Hungary (#5), Belgium (#7W/#20F), and Sweden (#10). The Women In Technology album made the top 100 sellers in the US (#84) and the UK (#83).
Despite the big success of the single, Mishra follow-up, "Undressed", only was able to make #57 on the UK chart, not even making an impression in the States. He left the label shortly thereafter and has since released four more albums independently, the most recent being Deemab in 2018, which included a redone version of "Your Woman" with instrumentation from 1917.
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For reference, here's the original Al Bowlly song "My Woman" from 1932 that formed the basis of Mishra's record...
In 2005, British singer Tyler James covered "Your Woman", and reached #61 on the UK singles chart...
Five years later, producer Naughty Boy interpolated the record on his single with rapper Wiley and singer Emeli Sande, "Never Be Your Woman", which went to #8 on the British charts...
Here's Mishra's "1917" version of "Your Woman" from his Deemab album...
And lastly, White Town/Jyoti performing the song live...
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