Songoftheday 11/22/24 - For the longest while we jammin in the party and you're wining on me...

 

 

"Turn Me On" - Kevin Lyttle featuring Spragga Benz

from the album Kevin Lyttle (2004)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 20

 

Today's song comes from Kevin Lyttle, who grew up as Lescott Coombs in the Caribbean island nation of St Vincent and The Grenadines (which became fully independent when he was three). Using his own nest egg and also using his two middle names, Kevin recorded his first music single, "Turn Me On", which became a regional hit in the islands. With that buzz, and a sound, in the reggae-adjacent genre of soca, that stood apart from the rest, he was signed to Atlantic Records, who released "Turn Me On" with a "remix" for radio featuring Jamaican dancehall DJ Carlton "Spragga Benz" Grant.  The track, newly produced by Adrian Bailey and Jeremy Wheatley, reworks the lyrics to R&B vocal group 112's 1998 album cut "All My Love", giving its seven composers writing credit along with Lyttle. The lyrics are clear, getting a woman from the club to go home with him for some carnal relations. The soca banter hides such lascivious lines like "one hand on the ground you bumper cock sky-high, wining hard on me got my python hollering for mercy, yeah". The soca production is much more of a dance tempo with electronic touches that brighten up the record. With a appropriately steamy music video, MTV helped get the single Kevin's big and only break in the States...

"Turn Me On" climbed all the way to the top ten on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in August of 2004, while peaking at #20 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. On the radio, the song rose to #4 on Billboard's Mainstream Top-40 chart and #5 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. Remixes from house music ace E-Smoove helped it hit #1 on the Dance Airplay list and #22 on the Dance Club Play chart. Internationally, the single was a big success, topped the Danish singles chart, and reaching the top ten in the United Kingdom (#2), Germany (#2), the Netherlands (#2), Norway (#2), Greece (#2), Italy (#3), Switzerland (#3), Australia (#3), Hungary (#4), Sweden (#5), Belgium (#5 Flanders/#11 Wallonia), Austria (#6), Czechia (#6), Romania (#7), and France (#10), and came close on the Canadian airplay chart at #12. The Kevin Lyttle album, released in July of that year, came in at #8 on the Billboard 200 sales tally as well as on the R&B Albums list, and topped the Reggae Albums chart as well, going on to sell over a half million copies. 

Kevin's follow-up single, "Last Drop", attempted to ride the momentum, also including Spragga Benz on the single version, but while it was a decent hit in some countries (#10 Finland, #20 Switzerland, #22 UK, #22 Italy, #23 Netherlands, #36 Sweden, #37 Belgium/Flanders, #39 Australia), it was passed over in the U.S..

But after this big debut, Kevin faded back into the local music scene away from international success. His next album, Fyah, was on his own Tarakon label (distributed by Universal). His most recent set, I Love Carnival, arrived in 2012. He's sporadically put out singles, with "Dutty Wine" with Black Shadow coming out last month. 

(6/10)

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There was an alternate version of the video for the album version...

In 2016, American dance duo Cheat Codes and Dutch DJ Dante Klein used "Turn Me On" for their single "Let Me Hold You (Turn Me On)", which made the British top-40 at #36...

Lastly, here's Kevin on the British show Top Of The Pops...

Tomorrow I'll run down my top hits of this week, then on Monday I'll be back with and R&B singer playing some limbo.