Thursday 3 June 2010

Salt 'N' Pepa 'Push It'

Chart Peak: 2

YouTube
Originally made No. 41... Appeared on Mandela Concert 11/6/88
A spot more prescience here, as by the time the album hit the shelves, 'Push It' was runner-up to 'Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You', thanks to combined sales of the original version that had charted in the spring and a release on another label with a different flipside. More fun with spellings too: they show up on the sleeve as "Salt 'N' Pepa" but "Salt-N-Pepa" seems the more common version. It's a confusing enough name for a trio anyway, and that's not counting producer and credited writer Hurby Azor, who also features prominently as a vocalist.

I do remember watching the Nelson Mandela 70th birthday concert on the telly, possibly at my aunt's house (or I might be getting that mixed up with Live Aid). I don't remember it in a lot of detail, but I do recall Salt-N-Pepa's very energetic performance. Perhaps they were taking advantage of the fact that they were only doing one song, but it's clear with hindsight that they were offering a much more upbeat, pop-focussed version of hip-hop than we'd encountered for quite a while. Of course, I didn't grasp the innuendo at the time either, but it's one of the most fun tracks on here. The borrowed verse from 'You Really Got Me' (a song only slightly older then than 'Push It' is now!) is also, I'm pretty sure, the closest the Kinks ever came to a Now album.

Also appearing on: Now 13, 20, 21, 28 (with En Vogue)
Available on: Push It!

No comments:

Post a Comment