Songoftheday 11/5/20 - Now I've seen places and faces and things you ain't never thought about thinkin'...

 

 

"C U When U Get There" - Coolio featuring 40 Thevz

from the albums Nothing To Lose (Original Soundtrack) and My Soul (both 1997)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 12

 

Today's song of the day comes from rap artist Coolio, who had scored his fifth top-40 pop hit in the summer of 1996 with the Lakeside-sampling "It's All The Way Live (Now)" from the soundtrack to the Whoopi Goldberg movie Eddie. A year later, Artis Ivey returned with a song from another film, Nothing To Lose starring Martin Lawrence and Tim Robbins. "C U When U Get There", which interpolated the classical composer Pachelbel's "Canon In D Major",  was written by Coolio with producer Dominic Aldridge along with the duo 40 Thevz (brothers Henry and Malieek Straughter), who are featured on the single. The result was an attempt to get deep like his "Gangsta's Paradise" but with much sunnier production (which came from the sample melody)...

"C U When You Get There" became Coolio's sixth and so far last top-40 pop hit (and 40 Thevz' sole one) in June of 1997. The single did better on the pop list in America than on the urban-skewing R&B chart, where it stopped at #34, while making it to #7 on the Rap Singles chart. However, the single proved to be a much bigger success internationally, where it reached the top ten in Sweden (#2), Norway (#2), Switzerland (#2), the UK (#3), Germany (#3), Iceland (#3), Ireland (#4), Austria (#4), New Zealand (#4), Denmark (#4), Australia (#7), Belgium (#8W/#9F), Finland (#8), and the Netherlands (#10). The Nothing To Lose soundtrack rose to #12 on the Billboard 200 sales chart and spinning off a second top-40 pop hit (see tomorrow's SOTD). The track also appeared on Coolio's third solo album My Soul, his last with Tommy Boy Records, which snuck into the top-40 at #39. 

The second single from My Soul, "Ooh La La", sampled Grace Jones' club classic "Pull Up To The Bumper". Despite being another worldwide hit, peaking at #2 in New Zealand and making the top-40 in the UK, Australia, Finland, Iceland, and Sweden, the song stiffed in the U.S., causing Tommy Boy to let him go. Coolio has put out six indie albums since, with his single "Gangsta Walk" featuring Snoop Dogg from his The Return Of The Gangsta in 2006 becoming a minor British hit at #67. His most recent album, From The Bottom To The Top, landed a top-40 hit in the Netherlands in 2009 with "Lady" (#38). 

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Here's Coolio and the 40 Thevz appearing on the UK's Top Of The Pops. Later on he would appear on Celebrity Big Brother in that country...

and lastly, on the prestigious Night At The Proms broadcast in Europe, featuring a live orchestra, no less...

Up tomorrow: the other single from Nothing To Lose, with a female rapper getting the girls together.