Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Song of the Day: 'Whatta Man' by En Vogue (Featuring Salt-N-Peppa)


When my child-of-the-'90s hubby decided to get us tickets for En Vogue's Pride Sunday show, I figured I would have fun enjoying their couple hits while having even more fun seeing my guy in his element. (He is to female R&B of the decade as I am to '80s new wave chicks.) So you can imagine my surprise when I realized I basically knew every single song -- my not knowing they'd had a whopping 11 Top 40 hits during their brief reign on the Billboard Hot 100. While I went in remembering "Free Your Mind" and "Hold On," the entire house was standing for so much more, including but not limited to "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)," "Giving Him Something He Can Feel," "Don't Let Go (Love)" and this No. 3 smash, which apparently was a reworking of a Linda Lindell single that peaked at No. 50 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1968, called "What a Man."


For those curious, En Vogue these days is a trio consisting of founding members Terry Ellis and Cindy Herron plus Rhona Bennett, who has toured with the band on and off since 2003, depending on whether co-founder Dawn Robinson is in the mood. Maxine Jones, the fourth original member, apparently teamed up with Robinson years ago to perform (along with Shaunté Usual) as Heirs to the Throne and then later Jones attempted to perform under the name En Vogue to the Max. Although Ellis and Herron unsuccessfully attempted to sue to stop her, it doesn't sound like she got very far as I'm not sure the market warranted two versions of a group that hasn't had a hit single since 1997.

3 comments:

Paul Denton said...

En Vogue is amazing and I'm jealous that you got to see them.
Happy Pride!

RomanHans said...

You kids! “Giving Him Something He Can Feel” is Aretha. It’s like saying “Ain’t Nobody” is by Felix Jaehn.

Kenneth M. Walsh said...

@romanhans: of course. but their cover reached No. 6 on the Hot 100, which is actually 22 places higher than Aretha's!