Songoftheday 9/2/21 - Hanging out the passenger side of his best friend's ride trying to holler at me...

 

 

"No Scrubs" - TLC

from the album FanMail (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (four weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 25

 

Today's song comes from the R&B vocal group TLC, whose sophomore album CrazySexyCool had sold millions, won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, and spun off four top ten pop hits with the two charttoppers "Creep" and "Waterfalls", the #2 smash "Red Light Special", and "Diggin' On You", which made the top ten at the end of 1995.  However despite that success the group had filed for bankruptcy and attempted to try to get out of their contract with LaFace/Pebbitone, who paid them pittance and controlled their name. All they were able to do in the end was claim their name and got a somewhat better deal in return to having to pay Pebbles (yes, the "Mercedes Boy" singer) a stipend on future releases. Also, because of Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes' "accidental" torching of her house (I mean, setting your boyfriend's shoes on fire in a fiberglass tub?) put them in major financial constraints. Aside from a cut on the soundtrack to the Whitney Houston film Waiting To Exhale, "This Is How It Works", which popped on to the R&B Airplay chart in Billboard magazine for a week at #60, TLC in itself was absent for three years. Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins released a solo single, "Touch Myself", which made the pop and R&B top-40 in the summer of 1996, as well as guested on rapper Da Brat's top-20 pop/R&B hit "Ghetto Love" the following spring. Lopes had been on the top ten pop/R&B smash "Not Tonight" with Lil' Kim. And Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas got exposure from acting in movies like Belly. But more importantly, she was romantically involved with the producer of their upcoming third record FanMail, Dallas Austin. 

 

That made everything even more complicated when her babydaddy asked for an astronomical sum to helm the album, with Lopes temporarily leaving the group when Austin rejected songs she submitted for the set. The rift went so far as to have the lead single from the set, "Silly Ho", not even have Left-eye on it, but rather an backup vocalist disguised as an automated "Vic-E". I guess Austin underestimated Lopes' draw (and his own worth), as his composition tanked, stalling at #59 on the pop Hot 100 and #21 (a too generous placing) on Billboard's R&B chart. 

 

The trio resolved their differences and with Austin still helming put out their second single from FanMail with Lopes, "No Scrubs", in February of 1999, a couple weeks before the album release. Written by Lopes with Kandi Burruss and Tameka Cottle of the group Xscape and producer Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs, the record is an ultra-smooth pushoff to the men who think they can get with them without any means of keeping themselves up. Much like Aretha Franklin's "Respect", TLC weren't asking to be taken care of, just to have a man on the same level, no Freeloaders allowed. The mid-tempo groove gave the track such swagger, and a universal appeal that I even used to two-step country dance to this song. Left-eye's rap break is phenomenal, honestly in my opinion the best of the entire decade, while the video recreates Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream" to eye-popping effect. The result was returning the trio to the top of the charts...

"No Scrubs" spent a month on top of the pop chart in America in April of 1999. The song also topped Billboard's R&B Songs chart for five weeks, and even popped on to the older-skewing Adult Top-40 radio list at #39. Internationally, the single went to #1 in Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and Poland, while reaching the top ten in the UK (#3), the Netherlands (#3),  Belgium (#3W/#5F), Germany (#4), Greece (#4),  France (#5), Switzerland (#5), Denmark (#5), Italy (#7), Spain (#7),  and Norway (#7). The FanMail album, released in February of that year, became their first and only #1 album, spending five weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 sales tally. At the Grammy Awards in 2000, "No Scrubs" won the award for Best R&B Vocal Performance, while losing Record of The Year to Santana's "Smooth". The FanMail set won for Best R&B Album, while also losing to Santana for Album Of The Year. TLC and the FanMail album will return to the series

(10/10)

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Here's the trio performing at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards...

"No Scrubs" was one of the few recent songs that inspired an "answer" record. Rap group Sporty Thievz will actually be their own SOTD with "No Pigeons", which made the top-20 only months after its inspiration...

Lastly, here's a live-in-the-studio version of "No Scrubs"....

Up tomorrow: Christian alt-rock group invites you to plant one on,