Thong Song

"Thong Song"
Single by Sisqó
from the album Unleash the Dragon
Released	December 31, 1999
Format	CD single, vinyl record, music download
Recorded	1999
Genre	R&B
Length	4:12
Label	Def Soul
Writer(s)	Mark Andrews, Tim Kelley, Bob Robinson, Desmond Child, Robi Rosa
Producer(s)	Tim & Bob
Sisqó singles chronology
"Got to Get It" (1999) "Thong Song" (1999) "What These Bitches Want" (2000)

"Thong Song" is a song recorded by American R&B artist Sisqó. It was released in late 1999 as the second single from Sisqó's 1999 debut LP Unleash the Dragon. It was the last single he released in the 1990s. "Thong Song" garnered 4 Grammy nominations and numerous other awards as well. The song peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, Sisqó's second highest-peaking, and the biggest hit in the United States. It was a major success worldwide as well, reaching the top ten throughout European charts, including number one in Sweden and Norway, and number three in the United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Denmark. The song also topped the charts in New Zealand.

Content

The song is about women who wear thong underwear and bikini bottoms.

Production

The song was written by Sisqó, Tim Kelley and Bob Robinson and also produced by Tim & Bob as well. Songwriters Desmond Child and Robi Draco Rosa receive songwriting credit because of the interpolation of part of their composition, "Livin' la Vida Loca" (Ricky Martin), in the song's lyrics. The strings heard throughout the song are lifted from Wes Montgomery's cover of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby".

The alternate version, the official remix to the original version, "Thong Song Uncensored" (which has no explicit adult language), features a guest rap from Foxy Brown in the spot where Sisqó whispers the main verse for the third time, and is included on the soundtrack for Nutty Professor II: The Klumps. A second, more urban-themed, video was shot for the remix by Little X.

Music video

MTV version

Set in Miami, Sisqó goes to the beach from his home to participate in a Spring Break party with a large number of young women who are all wearing bikinis and thongs, with the exception of one female who wears a g-string. There are also scenes with Sisqo and the members from Dru Hill driving a Bentley Azure down the highway and cameos from Method Man, Redman, Ja Rule and LL Cool J. Sisqó proceeds to perform acrobatic feats atop the crowd that contradict the laws of physics, culminating in a stage performance lit with blacklights and an orchestra in the background. The whole video, being cuts between Sisqó and barely clad women, drew minor criticism for exploiting women as sex objects, and was credited for starting a new wave of "booty" videos. The director of the video, Joseph Kahn, was quoted as saying, "I listen to 'Thong Song', and I say, 'Well, this song is about asses.' So you can either accept it and do something like I did, or you can go and try and turn the 'Thong Song' into some kind of Chemical Brothers video and make it all pretentious; about some fucking communist upheaval or something. Let's just relax and make a booty video, and let's make a really good one, and make it fun."^[1]

Alternate version with Foxy Brown

After giving a radio interview in his home town of Baltimore, Sisqó escapes from a group of fans with the help of Foxy Brown to a fashion show, where models strut in sexy costumes, which (again) all consist of bikinis just as in the original video, this time for the exception of two females who did sport thongs. The video also features a cameo by professional wrestler Big Show. The song was done for the soundtrack of Nutty Professor II: The Klumps. The video was directed by Little X.^[2]

Charts and sales

Chart successions

Notes