Pump It

"Pump It"
Single by The Black Eyed Peas
from the album Monkey Business
Released	January 17, 2006[1]
Format	CD single, digital download
Recorded	2004
Genre	Hip hop
Length	3:35 (Single Version/Radio Edit) 3:33 (Album Version)
Label	A&M, will.i.am
Writer(s)	William Adams, Allan Pineda, Stacy Ferguson, Nicholas Roubanis, Thomas Van Musser
Producer(s)	will.i.am
The Black Eyed Peas singles chronology
"My Humps" (2005) "Pump It" (2006) "Mas Que Nada" (2006)

"Pump It" is a 2006 song by The Black Eyed Peas. It was released as the fourth single from The Black Eyed Peas' 2005 album Monkey Business. This song was also remixed for the deluxe edition of the group's fifth studio album The E.N.D. as "Pump It Harder". "Pump it" heavily incorporates music from Dick Dale's 1962 surf version of the song "Misirlou" (known by many for being featured in the 1994 Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction). "Misirlou" is a popular folk song of Greek (Asia Minor) origin dating back to 1927, the arrangement of which is credited to Nicholas Roubanis for his 1941 released jazz version.

Origins

"I was in Brazil doing some CD," The Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am recalls. "I came across this compilation [disk] and I thought it was one thing but it turned out to be something else. The Dick Dale song Miserlou was on it. At first, I was angry this isn't what I wanted to buy," he laughs. "But then, really, that song is hot. I said, 'We should do a song like this.' I jump-started the computer and made some beats on the train. Then we had to fly to Tokyo and I tightened up the beat on the plane. Then I recorded vocals in this park in Tokyo, and that's how we recorded the song 'Pump It'."^[2]

Music video

The music video for "Pump It" features The Black Eyed Peas in speeding through a basement. Then they arrive and Steve Terada is ready to fight. Here they have a dance/fight off and eventually will.i.am wins. Next they are shown in the basement of a store with will.i.am holding a football, knocks people out and apl.de.ap starts running then runs on them sideways. Last Fergie is shown and Taboo punches the camera.

Chart performance

Before the single was officially released, the song peaked at number 82 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 2005. This was mainly based on digital download strength due to exposure in the Best Buy ads. After its official airplay release, it peaked at number 18 in March 2006. The single was released to stores in the United States on February 14, 2006 and in the United Kingdom on March 13, 2006.

This single, compared to other Monkey Business singles performance on US charts, is the lowest ranking single from the album. One probable factor of this is that it was released after The Pussycat Dolls single "Beep" was released, which has vocals from will.i.am, or that "My Humps" was still in rotation and on the charts when it was released.

The song reached higher spots on charts in other countries. In Australia, the song peaked at number 6. The song was also popular in the United Kingdom, becoming their 8th hit single there. "Pump It" peaked at number 3 on the UK Singles Chart, matching the chart success of previous single "My Humps". It was the first song ever to make the UK Top 40 on sales of downloads alone.

As of April 2009, the song has so far sold 1,390,000 digital downloads in the United States.^[3]

Official versions

• "Pump It" - 3:35
• "Pump It" (Album Version) - 3:33
• "Pump It" (Radio Edit) - 3:35

Charts

References

External links

• Full lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics