One Hit Wondering – Snow

One Hit Wondering is a series of columns where I listen to the album of a one hit wonder, and find three songs, other than the hit, that people should hear. 

If you weren’t around in the early ‘90s it might seem impossible to believe that we, as a nation, were completely obsessed with a white, Canadian, reggae artist, but believe me when I tell you there was a brief period of time when Snow was forecast for heavy airplay on both MTV, and radio.

Snow was an enigma (his name is said to be an acronym for – Super Notorious Outrageous Whiteboy), and his hit single, “Informer,” spent seven consecutive weeks at #1 beginning March 13th, 1993. It was more than just a song, however, it was a mystery, at least to most listeners, as people couldn’t understand the vast majority of what Snow was saying.

The song was so huge, and confused so many people, that MTV eventually started airing a version of the video that featured the lyrics running underneath it. Finally, we could all sing along as Snow rapped “a licky boom boom down,” and … well … that was about it, because we stood little chance at keeping pace with the rest of it.

“Informer” was off Snow’s debut album, 12 Inches of Snow, which was released in January of 1993, and has quite the interesting backstory.

There wasn’t a lot of press for the release of either the album, or the single, because Snow was serving time in prison when all this was going on. In fact, it was while he was in jail that he saw the video for “Informer” for the first time.

Snow became a free man at the height of his fame, and was able to make some appearances, but before the year was out public desire for his music had melted.

Even though interest had waned, that doesn’t mean Snow didn’t have other good songs. In fact, I recently popped 12 Inches of Snow into my CD player, and found three songs, other than “Informer,” that you should check out.

“Girl I’ve Been Hurt”

The follow up to “Informer,” I personally loved “Girl I’ve Been Hurt.” The song did manage to crack the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #19, but that’s nowhere near the dominant reign at the top “Informer” had. It’s a damned shame, too, because this was a jam!

The video, which was of great interest to a nearly 13 year old me, led to quite a few questions – Are bikinis appropriate attire for ski season? Why are Snow and his DJ emulating Grover’s old “Near and Far” skit from Sesame Street? And what’s the turntable plugged into?!?!?

Honestly, who cares? This was great!

“Uhh in You”

Snow wasn’t about to win any awards for ambiguity with this one, but what “Uhh in You” lacked in subtlety it more than made up for with its incredibly dope musical vibe.

Speaking of that vibe, “Uhh in You” is musically similar to Color Me Badd’s “All For Love,” which was released in 1991, but being that, as was noted earlier, 12 Inches of Snow was put together before Snow was incarcerated, it doesn’t seem likely that “All For Love” was an influence.

Had “Uhh in You” been popular it might have ended up a daring inclusion on mixtapes given to girlfriends.

“Can’t Get Enough”

Legit question – how the heck was this not released as a single?!?! Did the label think the era for this kind of music had passed, or did they not even care, and were simply on to the next artist?

“Can’t Get Enough” could’ve easily been a hit, especially if it had come after “Girl I’ve Been Hurt.” It also could’ve repositioned Snow as an artist who could potentially give us some New Jack Swing.

What could have been!

Until next time, here’s to discovering more great music from one hit wonders!