Friday 13 September 2013

SWV - Right Here/Human Nature (1992)


There I was, making a mixtape for a friend on a Wednesday night in 1991, listening to Steve Jervier on Kiss FM when I hear the sample in this song kick in. I DIVED across the room and pressed 'record' on the tape; no way was my friend getting that copy. Jervier had recently interviewed Teddy Riley, who had given him a copy of this remix; the Michael Jackson connection being that Teddy had produced most of his Dangerous album in '91. Jervier uttered the fabled line "they're having some clearance problems with this one, as you can imagine".
How true Mr Jervier was; it wasn't released on US import 12" for another 6 months. I dined on that taped copy for absolutely ages. My US copy, obtained from my then-girlfriend who happened to work for Sony records in Soho, was a little odd: SWV were on RCA records, but the copy was stickered 'property of Sony records'. The UK version wasn't released for about another 6 months; in the US, it became a number-one single on the Billboard R&B chart and spent a total of 54 weeks in total, which is one of the longest chart runs of all time; it got to no.5 on the UK top 40 chart. Incidentally, The remix also features a young Pharrell Williams chanting "S, double,U, S-V, S-S double, U, double V!"

- FVS

No comments:

Post a Comment