7/31/1993: Tag Team hit #2 with “Whoomp! There It Is”

Whoomp! There It Is Tag Team

Writer(s): Stephen Gibson, Cecil Glenn (see lyrics here) Released: May 7, 1993 First Charted: May 22, 1993 Peak: 2 US, 2 CB, 30 GR, 20 RR, 11 RB, 34 UK, 19 AU, 2 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 4.04 US Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 39.3 video, 38.26 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Tag Team formed in Atlanta in 1990. The rap duo is comprised of Cecil Glenn (DC the Brain Supreme) and Steve Gibson (Steve Rollin). While they released four albums from 1993 to 2015, only the first one, 1993’s Whoomp! (There It Is) reached the Billboard album chart, peaking at #39 and going gold. The album produced the duo’s only Billboard Hot 100 hit. The title cut was released in May 1993 and by the end of July got to #2, where it sat for five weeks behind UB40’s cover of “Can’t Help Falling in Love” before slipping to #3 for a couple of weeks and then returning to the runner up position for two more weeks behind Mariah Carey’s “Dreamlover.” “Whoomp!” broke records at the time for most consecutive weeks (21) in the top 10. Even after it slipped out, it found its way back to the top 10 for three more weeks, not leaving the upper eschelon for good until January 1994. It ranked as Billboard’s #2 song of 1993, behind Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.” WK The phrase “Whoomp! There It Is” was coined by strippers in Atlanta, according to Glenn, SF who was a DJ at an Atlanta strip club. It referred to a woman’s butt, but Tag Team repurposed the phrase to mean “look at that!” and “anything that one agrees with on a positive level.” WK The song “was part of the club-driven, hip-hop-wise style of bass that was springing out of both Atlanta and Miami, and manages perfectly to encapsulate the frenetic energy of the genre.” TB Atlanta magazine called it “da bomb party song” of the 1990s. WK Tag Team recorded the song in August 1992 and Glenn, who was working as a DJ in Atlanta, introduced the song at the club Magic City. It became requested so often in the following months, that it was clear the song had hit potential. However, it was rejected by multiple record labels because executives weren’t sure if southern bass could fin an audience nationwide. With $2500 from his parents, Glenn pressed eight hundred copies of the record, which sold out quickly. WK The one-hit wonder has become “a pop culture staple” WK being regularly featured in movies, television, advertisements, and sporting events. Regarding the latter, it is especially popular at baseball games when the home team gets a key hit. The song was featured on the first Jock Jams compilation in 1995. SF Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Tag Team SF Songfacts TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Pages 260-1. WK Wikipedia First posted 3/16/2023; last updated 3/26/2023.

Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream released

Siamese Dream Smashing Pumpkins

Released: July 27, 1993 Peak: 10 US, 4 UK, 3 CN, 7 AU Sales (in millions): 4.9 US, 0.1 UK, 7.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: alternative rock

Tracks: Song Title (writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Cherub Rock [4:58] (6/21/93, 23 AR, 7 MR, 31 UK, 91 CN, 87 AU, 12 DF) Quiet [3:41] Today [3:19] (9/13/93, 69 BA 28 AR, 4 MR, 44 UK, 82 CN, 57 AU, 6 DF) Hummer [6:57] Rocket [4:06] (7/16/94, 28 AR, 89 UK, 31 CN) Disarm [3:17] (9/11/93 48 BA 31 RR, 5 AR, 8 MR, 11 UK, 13 CN, 16 AU, 6 DF) Soma (Corgan/Iha) [6:39] Geek U.S.A. [5:13] Mayonaise (Corgan/Iha) [5:49] Spaceboy (Corgan/Iha) [4:28] (18 DF) Silverfuck [8:43] Sweet Sweet [1:38] Luna [3:20] Songs written by Billy Corgan unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 62:08 The Players: Billy Corgan (vocals, guitar, bass, etc.) James Iha (guitar) D’arcy Wretzky (bass, backing vocals) Jimmy Chamberlin (drums)

Rating: 4.244 out of 5.00 (average of 23 ratings) Quotable: “One of the finest alt-rock albums of all time.” – Greg Prato, AllMusic.com Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

The Beginning The Smashing Pumpkins formed in Chicago in 1988. They released their debut album, Gish, in 1991. It marked the alternative-rock outfit "as a band of immense potential,” TB placing them “on the ‘most promising artist’ list for many.” AM Band Strife When it came time to record a follow-up album, “troubles were threatening to break the band apart. Singer/ guitarist/ leader Billy Corgan was battling a severe case of writer's block and was in a deep state of depression brought on by a relationship in turmoil; drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was addicted to hard drugs; and bassist D’Arcy and guitarist James Iha severed their romantic relationship. The sessions for their sophomore effort, Siamese Dream, were wrought with friction.” AM When the rest of the band “failed to buy into [his] ‘weird masterplan…to be the heaviest, meaniest, rockingest” RD album they could make, Corgan assumed sole responsibility for it, eventually playing practically all the instruments, except percussion, himself. AM It was ironic that the album title refers to “living in a dream state, an organic connection between people” RD given that the band were barely on speaking terms. RD “Some say strife and tension produces the best music, and it certainly helped make Siamese Dream one of the finest alt-rock albums of all time.” AM Grunge Adjacent “While most of their grunge contemporaries were inspired by 1970s punk and 1980s metal,” TB the Smashing Pumpkins “pushed further from Nineties alt-rock to a grander, orchestrated sound with multiple guitar parts, strings, and a Mellotron.” 500 They “drew more heavily on earlier psychedelic and progressive-rock groups as well as the dreamy, wall-of-sound productions of My Bloody Valentine.” TB The album “is a sonic planet of guitar manipulations, overblown effects and Corgan’s angsty wail that drowns you in the lush, melodramatic sorrows of a man who felt outcast from the ‘90s indie-rock community.” PM There are “guitar solos galore, layered walls of sound courtesy of the album’s producers (Butch Vig and Corgan), extended compositions that bordered on prog rock, plus often reflective and heartfelt lyrics.” AM As a result, it “stands out amongst its grunge contemporaries for its dreamy, otherworldly quality…and massive volume that still maintains a quiet delicacy.” PM Siamese Dream ends up being “an exorcism of childhood demons,” RD “a megalomaniac’s masterpiece,” RD and “a full hour of hard-rock humdingers.” RD It is “an accomplished, diverse work, both heavier and more melodic than much of the alternative rock of the early 1990s.” TB It includes some of “the strongest songs of [Corgan’s] career.” TB The Songs Here are insights into individual tracks on the album. “The four tracks that were selected as singles became alternative radio standards.” AM The album’s opening song and lead single, Cherub Rock, “is a powerful statement of intent, multitracked guitar and drums, with the rest of the album divided between spacious atmospherics and unrelenting heavy rock.” TB Alongside “the anthems ‘Cherub Rock’… and Rocket” AM are as the “ringing Today,” RD and the “string-driven” RD “symphonic ballad Disarm.” AM The “ironic ‘Today’…was promoted by a music video in which Corgan drove an ice cream van.” TB “’Disarm’ is among the album’s high points, an arresting blend of fiercely strummed acoustic guitar, bells, strings, and Corgan’s pleading vocal.” TB “As a whole, Siamese Dream proved to be an incredibly consistent album.” AM “Silverfuck “fulfills Corgan’s aim ‘to blend Black Sabbath power with Led Zeppelin dynamics with Pink Floyd psychedelia.” RD “Lyrically, Corgan confronts ghosts of the past on ‘Disarm’ (his parents) and Spaceboy (his handicapped brother), spins a poetic web on Mayonaise, and picks at wounds on Soma (whose subject later became his ex-wife).” RD There are also “red-hot rockers Quiet and Geek U.S.A.” AM “plus the soothing sounds” AM of “the lullaby Luna.” RD

Resources: AM AllMusic.com review by Greg Prato RD Robert Dimery (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited: New York, NY. Page 706. PM PasteMagazine.com (6/3/2024). “The 300 Greatest Albums of All Time” 500 Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Page 268. Related DMDB Links: First posted 3/27/2011; last updated 11/28/2024.