Songoftheday 12/09/24 - Non-stop looks to kill straight talk sex appeal, one touch gives me chills and we ain't even close yet...
"Scandalous" - Mis-Teeq
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #35 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 3
Today's song comes from the female R&B vocal group Mis-Teeq, who came together in London at the end of the 1990s originally calling themselves Face2Face. After a couple of personnel charges and being signed by British major label Telstar, lead singer Sabrina Washington along with Alesha Dixon, Zena McNally, and Su-Elise Nash released their debut single "Why" in 2001, which climbed to #8 on the British Singles chart. Despite that success, McNally left the group feeling put in the backdrop (the "Destiny's Child" effect). She would go on to have two minor hits in the UK, with "Been Around The World" almost making the top-40 at #44 in 2004. The remaining trio released their first album Lickin' On Both Sides which went to #3 on the British Albums chart, and spun off an incredible four more top ten hits in their homeland with "All I Want" (#2), "One Night Stand" (#5), "B With Me" (also at #5), and the double-song single "Roll On" and a remake of Montell Jordan's "This Is How We Do It" (#7).
With all that momentum, Mis-Teeq returned with their second international album Eye Candy. The lead single from the record was "Scandalous". Written by Dixon, Nash, and Washington along with producer Stargate (Tor Hermansen and Mikkel Eriksen) and former Stargate member Hallgeir Rustan, the song was definitely in the early Destiny's Child wheelhouse having them macking on a lover for making them nuts over them in passion, despite their "dangerous" nature. The production from Stargate is extra smooth, and while Sabrina asserts her dominance on the vocals, Alesha and Su-Elise deliver punchy backup with reggaeton-style phrasing. With a sleazy-lite music video from a club I may have went to in the 1990s, the trio found themselves with another big British hit. After two more singles internationally, the group was contracted by Reprise Records in America, who combined tracks from both their albums for a self-titled set in 2004, and they set to conquer the "new world", scored a success with "Scandalous", which was also put as the theme to the disaster that was the Catwoman movie with Halle Berry...
"Scandalous" became Mis-teeq's first and only hit in the U.S., reaching the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart in July of 2004. On the radio, the song just missed the top ten on the Mainstream Top-40 list at #11. The remixes of the track, done by Joe Bermudez and Griffin amongst others, got it to climb to #2 on the Dance Club Play chart. Internationally, the single matched their best in the UK at #2, while reaching the top ten in Ireland (#3), New Zealand (#4), Canada (#4 airplay), Denmark (#9), and Australia (#9). "Scandalous" also made the top-40 in Greece (#11), Romania (#15), Finland (#19), Belgium (#19 Flanders/#25 Wallonia), Hungary (#25), France (#27), Italy (#33), The Netherlands (#34), Sweden (#35), and Switzerland (#35). The US album Mis-Teeq, released in July as the single was cresting, went to #125 on the Billboard 200 sales tally.
The second single from the Lickin' album, "Can't Get It Back", scored another top ten hit in the UK at #8, and went to #14 in neighboring Ireland, but didn't get any notice in the States. That was followed by "Style", which interpolated "West End Girls" by the Pet Shop Boys, which stopped at #13 on the British chart and made the top-40 in Finland (#18), Greece (#31), and Ireland (#38).
But by the time their tries in America were spent, their British label Telstar had folded, and Reprise wasn't really going to promote them well, so after the usual hits collection (for just two albums) Mis-Teeq packed it up.
What was surprising is despite Sabrina Washington being the lead singer, her first solo single in 2009, "OMG (Oh My Gosh)" which cribbed Snap's Eurodance classic "Rhythm Is A Dancer", tanked. But Alesha Dixon's star was just rising, as she signed a high-profile record deal with Polydor in Britain. Her first solo single "Lipstick" came in at #14 on the UK Charts. However after the follow-up stalled under the top-40, she was summarily dropped, with a proposed debut album Fired Up only finding an indie release in Japan.
Alesha resurged in the public eye by appearing on the British "reality competition" show Strictly Come Dancing (which is the original of the American Dancing With The Stars). After winning her season, Dixon was now courted by labels, including the one that dumped her. Joining Asylum Records, she released The Alesha Show in Britain, Europe, and Australia in 2009. and landed a big hit with the lead single "The Boy Does Nothing". The swing-disco pastiche that reminded me of Blu Cantrell's "Hit 'Em Up Style" was one of my fave guilty pleasures of that year, and made the top ten in the UK, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, Czechia, Hungary, Finland, Norway, Romania, and Switzerland. Her next single "Breathe Slow" also made the British top ten at #3. After securing a judging role on Strictly, Alesha released her second disc on Asylum, The Entertainer in 2010, which spun off a #15 British hit with "Drummer Boy". But sagging record returns ended her stint with Asylum. Alesha has since been a fixture on British television as a judge on Britain's Got Talent, and was one of the hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest when it was held in the UK (as a fill-in for war-torn Ukraine) in 2023. Her most recent album Do It For Love came out in 2015, and this year Alesha returned with a new single "Ransom".
As for Su-Elise, she has popped up on TV from time to time, once to support Sabrina Washington as the latter appeared on the I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Outta Here jungle survival reality show.
(6/10)
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's Mis-Teeq appearing on Top Of The Pops...
and lastly on a televised concert...
Well, this is the last Song of the Day for 2024 as I prepare for my year-end recaps which will be coming soon. Later today I'll put out this week's "robbed hit" and on Saturday as well as the 21st and 28th I'll still be doing my weekly chart, then next year SOTD will be back. Thanks for being patient and staying with me! Cheers, 2SC
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