shaggy

899. ‘Angel’, by Shaggy ft. Rayvon

/ UK #1s blog / 2 Comments

Shaggy’s three chart-toppers so far have been largely upbeat, get your ass to the dancefloor type reggae-pop songs. Here then is his final UK chart-topper, and it’s much more of a slow jam…

Angel, by Shaggy (his 4th and final #1) ft. Rayvon

3 weeks, from 3rd – 24th June 2001

‘Angel’ weaves the bass line from a seventies classic (and nineties #1) – ‘The Joker’ – together with the melody from a sixties original (and big eighties hit) – ‘Angel of the Morning’. And it would be a stretch to suggest that it improves on either. It’s cloying, it’s simplistic. It’s not quite a novelty, but it’s not far off.

Shorty you’re my angel, You’re my darling angel, Closer than my peeps you are to me… It sounds touching, if a little clumsy. Like a love letter written by a thirteen-year-old to his girlfriend. Which I’m assuming was also largely the market age for this ditty.

But listen closer, and this isn’t quite as sweet as the chorus suggests. Life is one big party when you’re still young, But who’s gonna have your back when it’s all done…? It’s all good when you’re little, You have pure fun, Can’t be a fool son, What about the long run? It turns out that Shaggy was dismissive and unfaithful towards his ‘angel’ for years, but as he got older and the fun times ended he realised he needed a steady girl… Now he wants to show the nation his appreciation.

Still, let’s hope that she had a bit of fun while she waited for her man to come to his senses. This is the flip-side of the same alpha bullshit we had on ‘It Wasn’t Me’, which I didn’t mind when it was played for laughs, but when it aims for sincerity it falls short. Plus it doesn’t help that Shaggy’s voice starts to grate the further he gets from his reggae roots. What was a playful patois on ‘Oh Carolina’ and ‘Boombastic’ now sounds a bit forced on a more straightforward pop song.

Luckily he has Rayvon on duty for the chorus, and he has a nice, slightly tender, voice for it. He had previously starred on Shaggy’s 1995 Top 10 cover of Mungo Jerry’s ‘In the Summertime’. And again, we should take a moment to appreciate the impressive spread of Shaggy’s chart-toppers. There were over eight years between ‘Oh Carolina’ and this, and there aren’t many other chart veterans from February 1993 who were still hitting it in the summer of 2001.

His hit making days were almost up, however. He managed three further Top 10s, including a comedy #2 alongside Ali G, ‘Me Julie’. He has released eleven albums since 2001, including one with none other than Sting in 2018. Shaggy continues to be very active then, as does Rayvon, who remains a dancehall/reggae voice for hire.

891. ‘It Wasn’t Me’, by Shaggy ft. RikRok

/ UK #1s blog / 9 Comments

In today’s instalment of Ask Shaggy, we have a letter from RikRok, in Jamaica… “Dear Shaggy: I was recently caught red-handed by my wife, creeping with the girl next door. Picture this, we were both butt-naked, banging on the bathroom floor…”

It Wasn’t Me, by Shaggy (his 3rd of four #1s) ft. RikRok

1 week, from 4th – 11th March 2001

Ricardo ‘RikRok’ Ducent is in a bit of a pickle alright. How could I forget that I had given her an extra key? he asks, hand to forehead. Shaggy is not in the mood for sympathy however, offering blunt advice: deny everything. To be a true player you have to know how to play, If she say a-night, Convince her say a-day…

Caught on camera? Heard the screams of passion? Marks on your shoulder? The evidence of her very own eyes…? It wasn’t me. It’s not hard, nearly a quarter of a century on, to read a sinister subtext to this well-remembered chart-topper. It’s pure gaslighting, and not something you’d be allowed to get away with in the year of our Lord twenty twenty five.

But. At the same time, this is such a silly song, the situation so preposterous, Shaggy at his most cartoonishly alpha (especially in the video), that you cannot take it seriously. The idea that his advice will work is never supposed to enter the listener’s head. And at the end of the day, morality wins out, with RikRok deciding to ignore the advice and apologise: Gonna tell her that I’m sorry for the pain that I’ve caused, I’ve been listening to your reason, It makes no sense at all…

Compared to his two earlier hits, this is a much more pop-infused reggae than in ‘Oh Carolina’ or ‘Boombastic’. And in comparison to those hits, Shaggy is not the main attraction. Most of the story is carried by RikRok, with Shaggy delivering his two verses as the devil on his shoulder (in his trademark deliciously thick patois). But the move into pop paid off, as this was Shaggy’s first big hit in over half a decade, and the year’s biggest seller. (As well as becoming the decade’s highest-selling song not connected to a TV talent show!)

It wasn’t even supposed to be released as a single, but Shaggy and his record label were convinced after a radio DJ obtained an illegal copy of the song from Napster – nice period detail, there – and it became his most requested song. The single had a full four-month build up period before being released, and smashed in at number one with sales well over a quarter of a million.

And you have to admire Shaggy’s limpet-like ability to weather changes in style, to go for years between hits, and to still re-appear at the top of the charts every so often. In fact, 2001 will go down as his most successful year by far, with one further massive number one hit to come soon. Maybe this just proves, once and for all, that reggae is the one genre which will never truly die.

727. ‘Boombastic’, by Shaggy

/ UK #1s blog / 3 Comments

In our last post, Michael Jackson was putting his syrupy, slightly sticky moves on us with ‘You Are Not Alone’. It didn’t work for me, personally. What I wanted was, it turns out, a boombastic, romantic, fantastic lover…

Boombastic, by Shaggy (his 2nd of four #1s)

1 week, from 17th – 24th September 1995

And for that we need… Mr Lover-Lover himself. Like his first number one ‘Oh Carolina’, this is rough and ready dancehall, a simple, grinding beat over which Shaggy explains exactly why he is such a superb lover. I have no idea what makes that two-note, clanking metal riff which, alongside a plonking piano, makes the skeleton of this song, but I love it.

Thanks to that riff, this is a fabulously filthy and fun record. You can almost feel the sweat dripping down the walls of whatever basement club it’s being played in. And yet, compared to The Outhere Brothers moronically offensive output, ‘Boombastic’ is all perfectly PG. Some talk of tickling foot-bottoms and sexual physique is as steamy as it gets, while lines like You are the bun and me are the cheese… are actually quite sweet. Meanwhile, for years, I thought Shaggy was being self-deprecating in calling himself ‘semi-fantastic’. Though of course, he’s actually rapping in Jamaican patois: She call me Mr Boombastic, Say me fantastic…

That patois is one of the main attractions here. The way Shaggy rolls every line around in his throat, from gruff growls to choirboy high notes, like a cat toying with its prey, is wonderful. As with ‘Oh Carolina’, there are times when I genuinely have no clue what he’s on about, but it doesn’t matter. The grinding beat means you get the gist.

I’ll show my age and call this Shaggy’s signature song. Of course, he has a much bigger, globe-conquering, hit to come; but ‘Boombastic’ seemed to be everywhere at the time. It managed to appeal to nine-year-old me as well as a much more sophisticated audience, because it’s got just enough of a novelty element to it. Who wouldn’t, at any age, want to call themselves ‘Mr Boombastic’? I had no idea what ‘Boombastic’ meant – I still don’t and, if we’re being honest, does anyone? – but it matters not.

What I didn’t realise was that ‘Boombastic’ was yet another song boosted to #1 by a Levi’s Jeans commercial. I make that five Levi’s-adjacent chart-toppers, off the top of my head, making it a genre in its own right. Also helping was the fact that Shaggy had had a big hit earlier in the year with a cover of Mungo Jerry’s ‘In the Summertime’. It couldn’t be further from the supposedly era-defining Britpop sound, but I am always here for some Shaggy – one of the oddest, and yet fun-est, pop stars of the age.

686. ‘Oh Carolina’, by Shaggy

/ UK #1s blog / 3 Comments

There’s so much to unpack with this next number one… How did this unknown Jamaican, who growls and slurs his way through his breakthrough smash, go on to become one of the longer-lasting hitmakers of the decade? Why did this summery smash, that sounds like its coming to you live from a beach bar in Montego Bay, make #1 in March? And just why is reggae the chart genre that refuses to die…?

Oh Carolina, by Shaggy (his 1st of four #1s)

2 weeks, from 14th – 28th March 1993

Let’s address that last question first. For this is the purest reggae, not the pop version of UB40, or the watered down offering of Boris Gardner. It’s ragga, its dancehall; it’s rough and grimy, so much so that you almost have to wipe the sweat from the stereo after playing it. It’s a cover of an old ska song from the early sixties, by the Folkes Brothers, the opening riff of which is sampled on Shaggy’s version, giving this a folksy, distinctive edge, a world away from the polished beats of the 1990s. This doesn’t in any way answer why reggae keeps coming back to the top of the charts – other than the fact it is impossible not to dance to songs like this – but we’re entering what is perhaps the most reggae-heavy period in chart history, between 1993 and the middle of the decade.

Once the main rhythm, and the up to date production rolls in, the song still doesn’t lose its edge. And that’s mostly thanks to Shaggy’s gruff toasting. I have no idea what he’s saying, but it all sounds pretty filthy… I believe Carolina moves her body just like a squirrel, can jump and prance… And at one point I think Shaggy claims to love how she shag… (I could just Google the lyrics, but I have no desire to prove myself wrong.)

As to why it made #1 months ahead of schedule? Well aside from a need for some escapism from a misty, miserable March, it was included on the soundtrack to the movie ‘Sliver’, starring Sharon Stone (15% on Rotten Tomatoes). Whether that helped or not I don’t know, but if it did I’m glad. This is a rough and ready song, with a wonderfully raw feel. It’s certainly Shaggy’s forgotten chart-topper, but it’s probably his most credible.

Which brings us on to the very first question I posed. ‘Oh Carolina’ has one-hit wonder written all over it, and yet… I can’t adequately explain the subsequent career of Shaggy (AKA Mr Boombastic, AKA Mr Lover-Lover), even though I lived through it. He’s somehow cool – he is an ex-Marine after all – and yet completely ludicrous. By the time of his turn-of-the-century, biggest hit (you know, the one about ‘banging on the bathroom floor’) he was basically a cartoon character. He duetted with Ali G, for Pete’s sake!

Anyway, we can address all this in good time. For now, let’s enjoy his first chart-topper, in all its raunchy, mumbling glory. (I think it helps to enjoy Shaggy when you don’t understand what he’s saying…) And, for the third chart-topper in a row, I have specific memory attached to this record. A primary school friend had a (highly unrequited) crush on a girl called Caroline. Cut to our Primary 4 disco, where we requested this song on his behalf, made sure the DJ announced who it was for, and an entertaining meltdown ensued…