| "Freak like Me" | ||||||||||
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| Single by Adina Howard | ||||||||||
| from the album Do You Wanna Ride? | ||||||||||
| Released | January 25, 1995 | |||||||||
| Format | CD single, vinyl single | |||||||||
| Recorded | 1994 | |||||||||
| Genre | R&B, hip hop soul | |||||||||
| Length | 4:13 | |||||||||
| Label | East West, Lola Waxx | |||||||||
| Writer(s) | Eugene Hanes, Marc Valentine, Loren Hill, William 'Bootsy' Collins, George Clinton Jr., Gary Lee Cooper, Alita Carter, Kim Spikes, Livio Harris | |||||||||
| Producer | Mass Order | |||||||||
| Certification | Platinum | |||||||||
| Adina Howard singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"Freak like Me" is the first single from Adina Howard's 1995 R&B debut album Do You Wanna Ride?. Like Howard's image, the song can be best described as hypersexual. It reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified platinum by the RIAA.
The song's chorus is a lyrical interpolation of the verses found in Bootsy Collins' "I'd Rather Be With You". While the lyrics in "Freak like Me"'s chorus are different from the Bootsy Collins song, they are sung in identical melody. The song's drum beat is sampled from Sly & the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song." The song returned to public awareness when covered by British pop group Sugababes in a production by Richard X.
The song and her hypersexual image is considered groundbreaking in the U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop scene, it portrayed female hip-hop singers more aggressive rather than coy in their sexuality, in a manner that was feminine unlike the female hip-hop artists of before who dressed in men's apparel to express their aggressive image (i.e. MC Lyte). This new, hypersexual image would pave the way for upcoming R&B/Hip-Hop female artists like Foxy Brown and Lil' Kim; in addition, it allowed other artists to become more comfortable in releasing more explicit lyrical content that their previous images wouldn't be associated with. Examples of this are Toni Braxton's "You're Makin' Me High" and Monifah's "Touch It".
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The original music video was directed by Hype Williams.
Peak positions
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End of year charts
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| "Freak Like Me" | ||||||||||
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| Single by Sugababes | ||||||||||
| from the album Angels with Dirty Faces | ||||||||||
| B-side | "Breathe Easy" | |||||||||
| Released | April 22, 2002 | |||||||||
| Format | CD single, vinyl single, digital download |
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| Recorded | London, England | |||||||||
| Genre | Electronica, R&B, urban, mashup | |||||||||
| Length | 3:14 | |||||||||
| Label | Island | |||||||||
| Writer(s) | Eugene Hanes, Marc Valentine, Loren Hill, William Collins, George Clinton, Gary Numan | |||||||||
| Producer | Richard X | |||||||||
| Certification | Silver (BPI)[2] | |||||||||
| Sugababes singles chronology | ||||||||||
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In 2001, English girl group the Sugababes covered "Freak Like Me". Their version, however, used a completely different backing track (sampled from Gary Numan and Tubeway Army's "Are 'Friends' Electric?") and used the radio edit lyrics of Howard's song (the word "brother" is used instead of the word "nigga"). Numan was now credited as a co-writer of the song.
The Sugababes-recorded version was originally a bootleg mashup titled "We Don't Give a Damn About Our Friends," created by producer Richard X under the alias Girls on Top. Richard X created the mashup without the permission of the copyright holders of the songs, but it became a successful underground dance track. After failing to gain permission to use Adina Howard's vocals for a commercial release, the Sugababes were chosen by Richard X to record them instead.
The sound effect featured at the beginning of the song is the coin-insert tone from the popular 1981 video game Frogger. (The sound was also used to begin the song "Froggy's Lament," about the video game itself, on Buckner and Garcia's Pac-Man Fever album.)
The song appeared on the Sugababes' second studio album, Angels with Dirty Faces. It was produced by Richard X and received rave reviews from music critics. It was released as the first single from the album, in the spring of 2002 and reached number one in the UK (where it sold 275,871 copies), number two in Ireland, and number four in Norway. "Freak like Me" was the first single to feature vocals by Heidi Range, after the departure from the Sugababes of Siobhán Donaghy in 2001. The song also appears on Richard X's album, Richard X Presents His X-Factor Vol. 1.
The music video was directed by Dawn Shadforth and Sophie Muller and was filmed in London. The video is set in a strange nightclub, and acts as an introduction for the recent addition of Heidi Range. It begins outside the nightclub with a man tumbling down the stairs, Keisha Buchanan in a long coat, seen only from below the knee, walking out of a door, over the man's body and up the stairs. Mutya Buena is seen standing on the stairs facing the direction where the man is lying. Inside, they spot Range dancing and flirting with many guys. They both quickly clash with her, and a fight between them ensues, which ends with Range falling to the floor unconscious. A man tries to help her up, but Buena grabs him by the neck and throws him away from her. Range then wakes up again soon after, and stumbles out of the club with another man, where they begin to kiss, until she suddenly bites hard into his arm.
Meanwhile, Buchanan takes a man outside, and she leads him into a dark alley, where they flirt briefly, before she scares him away. Buena then goes outside as well, and overpowers a man who towers over her. The music video ends with Buchanan and Buena accepting Range into the group, and dancing into the night. The demonstrations of supernatural strength shown throughout the video and Range biting the man on the arm are generally understood to imply that the woman are vampire-like "freaks", as the song suggests.
The video uses the We Don't Give a Damn Mix of the song, which is more faithful to the original mash-up.
British actor Julian Morris stars in the music video as one of the boys running from Buena.
On April 22, 2002, "Freak like Me" was released in the United Kingdom. The song became Sugababes' first number one single when it debuted at number one on the singles chart, remaining in the top ten for four weeks. The single remains one of the best selling singles released by the group, selling 265,000 copies since its release and being certified Silver.[3]
Outside of the UK, the song was also successful. While it reached the top ten in Ireland, Norway and Belgium, the song entered the top 30 of most of the charts it appeared on.
In Australia, "Freak like Me" became the fourth single by Sugababes to make the singles chart, reaching number forty-four. It would be their lowest-charting single in Australia until the release of "Shape" in 2003. In recent years the Sugababes song, Freak Like Me is referred as "Freak".
These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "Freak like Me."
| Chart (2002) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Singles Chart[4] | 44 |
| Austrian Singles Chart[4] | 22 |
| Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart[4] | 10 |
| Danish Singles Chart[4] | 13 |
| Dutch Top 40[4] | 31 |
| German Singles Chart[5] | 26 |
| Irish Singles Chart[6] | 2 |
| New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart[4] | 25 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart[4] | 4 |
| Romanian Top 100[7] | 28 |
| Swedish Singles Chart[4] | 27 |
| Swiss Singles Chart[4] | 11 |
| UK Singles Chart[8] | 1 |
These are the official versions and remixes and the release they appear on, of:
"Freak like Me"
| Version | Release appearance |
|---|---|
| Radio/Album Version | "Freak like Me" single, Overloaded: The Singles Collection, Angels with Dirty Faces Change [French Version] |
| We Don't Give A Damn Mix | "Freak like Me" single, Richard X Presents His X-Factor Vol. 1 |
| Different Gear Mix | "Freak like Me" single, Overloaded: The Remix Collection |
| Video | "Freak like Me" single, Overloaded: The Videos Collection |
| Capoeira Twins Mix | "Freak like Me" single |
| Jameson Mix | |
| Girls On Top Dancehall Mix | "Round Round" single |
| Brits 2003 Version | "Shape" single |
| Maida Vale Session | Overloaded: The Live Collection |
"Breathe Easy"
| Version | Release appearance |
|---|---|
| Single Version | "Freak like Me" single |
| Acoustic Jam | Angels with Dirty Faces |
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| Preceded by "The Hindu Times" by Oasis |
UK number one single Sugababes version April 28, 2002 - May 4, 2002 |
Succeeded by "Kiss Kiss" by Holly Valance |