Songoftheday 8/6/22 - Life is one big party when you're still young, but who's gonna have your back when it's all done...

 

 

"Angel" - Shaggy featuring Rayvon

from the album Hot Shot (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 23

 

Today's song comes from pop/reggae artist Shaggy, who had resurrected his career and went all the way to #1 on the American pop chart in the beginning of 2001 with the cheater-enabling "It Wasn't Me" featuring Ricardo "RikRok" Ducent. For the follow-up from his Hot Shot album. Shaggy collaborated with another singer, this time Barbadian Rayvon, who had previously be featured on "In The Summertime", Shaggy's top ten double-sided hit with "Boombastic" from 1995. "Angel" was built on two prominent interpolations that gave its writers full credit on the song: The Steve Miller Band's "The Joker", written by Miller with Eddie Curtis and label exec Ahmet Ertegun, and the Chip Taylor-written "Angel Of The Morning", most recently covered successfully by Juice Newton in the 1980's. Produced by Shaun "Sting" Pizzonia, Shaggy praises his woman, in the midst admitting all the shitty things he does in the relationship, but that she stays with him anyway, so I guess this is supposed to smooth all that over. I guess this could be a continuation of the plotline in "It Wasn't Me" after she catches him cheating. He definitely doesn't deserve her, mind you, but at least he's aware of that and tries to make it up at least in song, though sampling "the Joker" is an odd choice for that (even though it's just the guitar hook). The recipe worked, and Shaggy found himself on top of the charts again...

"Angel" became Shaggy's second #1 pop hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in the U.S. in March of 2001. Despite its mainstream success, the song stalled under the top-40 on Billboard's R&B chart at #46, though it got to #5 on their Rap Singles chart. On the radio, "Angel" spent eight weeks at #1 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, taking three weeks on top of the dance-oriented Rhythmic airplay list, and bringing him back at #33 to the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format. Internationally, the song was a huge hit, topping the singles charts in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, while making the top ten in Denmark (#2), France (#8), and Finland (#10). 

For the next single from Hot Shot, a rework of "Luv Me, Luv Me", a song Shaggy originally recorded with Janet Jackson for the soundtrack to the movie How Stella Got Her Groove Back in 1998, but couldn't put on his album because of Jackson's label. Redone with actress/singer Samantha Cole, it was released as a single overseas, where it reached the top ten in Ireland (#4), Belgium (#4W/#15F), the United Kingdom (#5), Portugal (#9), and Australia (#10). Meanwhile in America the track "Freaky Girl" featuring vocal duo The Kraft was (badly) promoted, where it went to #37 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart and #35 on the Rhythmic radio format, but only "bubbled under" the Hot 100 chart at #112 in the summer of 2001. The fourth international release in some countries had "Dance and Shout", originally released in America as the first single from Hot Shot where it went to #23 at Mainstream Top-40 radio but stalled under the Hot 100 at #104, paired with "Hope" with singer Mister Mydas, and the "double-A side" single peaked at #3 in Austria, #19 in the United Kingdom, and #34 in New Zealand. In other countries, both songs were released separately, with "Dance and Shout" going to #12 in Canada, while "Hope" went to #7 in Germany and #40 in Switzerland. Honestly, both songs are pretty decent, and deserved a shot in America, with Shaggy basically disappearing from our radio after "Angel". Later in 2001, Shaggy guested on Rayvon's single "2Way" with RikRok and Brian and Tony Gold, from Rayvon's album My Bad, which was a minor R&B hit at #87.

In 2002, Shaggy was featured on a novelty single from comedian Sasha Baron Cohen's alter ego Ali G for "My Julie" from the latter's film Ali G Indahouse. It was a hit in Europe, making the top ten in the UK (#2), Belgium (#3), Ireland (#6), the Netherlands (#6), and Norway (#6). Of course Ali G never caught on in the States (for good measure), so the song wasn't put out here.

Later that year, Shaggy returned with his second album on MCA Records, and sixth overall, Lucky Day. The album reached the top-40 on the Billboard 200 at #24, selling a half million copies, but that's a freefall to the six million the previous album did. Lead single "Hey Sexy Lady" featuring reggae duo Brian and Tony Gold, was an international success, making the top ten in Belgium (#3F/#6W), Portugal (#3), Canada (#4), Australia (#4), the Netherlands (#4), France (#5), Italy (#7), Austria (#9), the United Kingdom (#10), and Germany (#10). However the song basically stiffed in the States, spending a solitary week on Billboard's R&B Singles chart down at #97. The follow-up, "Strength Of A Woman", didn't do any better, only "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #119, and shortly after MCA dropped the artist.

Shaggy took his "Big Yard" label to Geffen Records, who released his next set Clothes Drop a year late in 2005. The album spent a sole week on the Billboard 200 at #144, while lead single "Wild 2Nite" featuring American singer Olivia got only modest success in Germany where it scraped the bottom rung of the top-40. However the disc was nominated for Best Reggae Album at the Grammy Awards (which he won in 1995 with breakthrough Boombastic), losing to Damian Marley's Welcome To Jamrock. 

 

Leaving Geffen/Universal, Shaggy put out Intoxication in 2008, which spent a week at #1 on Billboard's Reggae Albums sales chart, and was nominated for yet another Best Reggae Album Grammy a year later, which went to veteran band Burning Spear for Jah Is Real. However a song Shaggy recorded for the Euro 2008 soccer football tournament,  "Feel The Rush", became an unexpected smash, going to #1 in Germany and top ten in Austria (#2) and Switzerland (#6), and was tacked on to the album on its re-release. The song even popped on to my weekly personal chart. 

He continued to release albums in the early 2000s, with 2011's Summer In Kingston making the Billboard 200 at #141, his most recent appearance there, while topping the Reggae Albums list for two weeks. The record was nominated for the Best Reggae Album Grammy, losing to Stephen Marley for Revelation Pt. 1 - The Root Of Life (that family had a grip on the genre). His next album, Rise, had his most recent top-40 hit in Germany (his holdout country) with a reinterpretation of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" with rapper Eve, which went to #29 there (it's horrid). Shaggy came back in 2013 with Out Of Many, One Music, which also got the Best Reggae Album Grammy nod, this time losing to Ziggy Marley (I'm telling you) for his Fly Rasta release. 

The second half of that decade saw a resurgence for Shaggy, starting with his stand-alone single "Habibi (I Need Your Love)" featuring international stars Mohombi, Fayde, and Costi in 2015. The song made the top ten in Belgium (#6W/#38F) and the Netherlands (#10), reached the top-40 in Britain at #36, and even brought Shaggy back to the pop Hot 100 in America at #66, doing well on the radio in the dance (#16), pop (#20), and rhythmic (#36) formats. Three years later, Shaggy collaborated with a most unpredicted person, rock legend Sting, for the album 44/876 on A&M Records in the US (Sting's label). The record went to #40 on the Billboard 200 sales tally and led the Reggae Albums list for 23 weeks. A song from the set, "Don't Make Me Wait", reached #29 on the Adult Album Alternative (or "Triple A" rock radio format, while remixes of the track helped it rise to #3 on Billboard's Dance Club Play list. The album won Shaggy his second Best Reggae Album Grammy in 2019. He also appeared on Jamaican reggae artist Conkarah's "Banana" which made the American Dance Club Play chart at #25.

Since then, Shaggy has released four studio album, including a holiday album, a remake of hit Hot Shot album called Hot Shot 2020 which went to #4 on the Reggae Albums chart. This year, he released a reggae-fied "standards" collection, Com Fly Wid Mi, as well as a separate single, "Party Up" with Assailant. 

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Here's Shaggy and Rayvon appearing on Live At The Apollo...

Next up, in concert in Belgium in 2008...

and finally, with Sting and Dominic Miller on Shaggy and Sting's tour behind 44/876 in Germany...

Up tomorrow: R&B "girl-group" self-corrects.