Songoftheday 10/18/22 -I was checking this girl next door when her parents went out, she phoned said, "Hey boy, come on right around"...

 

 

"Fill Me In" - Craig David

from the album Born To Do It (US 2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #15 (three weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 23

 

Today's song comes from British singer Craig David, who grew up in the southern city of Southampton, the son of a Grenadian dad and Jewish mom who divorced when he was eight. Performing as a kid behind his dad's side-job reggae band, David's first big success was singing on tracks from the duo Artful Dodger (Mark Hill and Pete Devereux). The pair took a demo of David's "Last Night", and reworked it into a single "Re-Rewind (The Crowd Say Bo Selecta)" in 1999, which went all the way to #2 on the British Singles chart, hit #4 in the Netherlands, and was a critical success. A second track on Artful Dodger's debut album It's All About The Stragglers, "Woman Trouble", also was co-written by and featured David, and scored another top ten British hit at #6 in 2000. Both of those hits were in the new "2-step garage" style, which didn't rely on the usual 4-count beat on dance music to a frenetic 2-beat repetition (hence the name). The genre would go on to fuel the drum-and-bass style that has been a big force in dance music for decades since.

 

That success led David to be signed by Wildstar Records in the UK (and eventually Atlantic Records in the States), and Mark Hill produced Craig's debut solo album Born To Do It. The lead single from the record was "Fill Me In", written by the pair. The song has David macking on his girlfriend behind her parents' back at their house, and them questioning their daughter about the changes they see when they get back home. It was refreshing to have this sort of "interrogation" song that wasn't about cheating, and the sound was like nothing on the dance floor at the time. The music video pretty much played out the plot of the lyrics. The single was a huge success in Britain, and eventually made its way across the Atlantic (thanks to Atlantic Records) and became Craig's first international hit...

"Fill Me In" became David's first top-40 hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in September of 2001, while reaching #19 on the R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song hit #7 on the Pop Airplay chart, #41 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay list, and #10 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single topped the chart in the United Kingdom, and made the top ten in Canada (#4), Australia (#6), Belgium (#6W/#28F), Ireland (#7), and the Netherlands (#8). It also reached the top-40 in New Zealand (#11), Norway (#16), Iceland (#24), Sweden (#28), France (#34), and Germany (#37). The Born To Do It album, released in the U.S. in July of that year, peaked at #11 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #12 on the R&B Albums list, spending a year on each and selling over a million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2002, "Fill Me In" was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, losing to James Taylor's remake of his own "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" from Michael Brecker's Nearness Of You jazz album (a ringer, if you ask me). But Craig and the album will be back to the series, even bigger.

(10/10)

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There was a different music video for the original release in Europe, though it followed mostly the same plot...

 

 Craig's first big performance was at the Prince's Trust concert in 2000...

Fast forward to 2019 and he sounds just as good with a live band...

and lastly, back to 2000 appearing with just Hill playing guitar on Later with Jools Holland proving the song is a classic even without the production...

Up tomorrow: Brandy's infamous brother is back requesting a pause.