Super Freak

“Super Freak” is a 1981 single produced and performed by American singer Rick James. The song, co-written by James and Alonzo Miller, was first released on James’ fifth album, Street Songs (1981) and became one of James’ signature songs. “Freak” is a slang term for the sexually adventurous, as described in the song’s lyrics, “She’s a very kinky girl / The kind you don’t take home to mother”. Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song number 477 in its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004, number 481 in 2010, and number 153 in an updated list in 2021. The song was nominated for the Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 1982 Grammys. The song has been sampled by MC Hammer in 1990, Jay-Z in 2006, and Nicki Minaj in 2022.

Recording

“Super Freak” was recorded with other tracks for the Street Songs album during December 1980 – January 1981 at the Record Plant, in Sausalito, California and Motown / Hitsville U.S.A. Recording Studios, Hollywood, California. It features background vocals from James’ Motown labelmates the Temptations-whose bass singer, Melvin Franklin, was one of James’s idols-and Canadian singer Taborah Johnson. The bass was played by Oscar Alston. The tenor saxophone solo is by Stone City Band member Daniel LeMelle. James’ improvised lyrics were later toned down by Los Angeles DJ Alonzo Miller, who received co-writing credit. James apparently was not particularly excited about the song, but reputedly wanted to have something on the album that “white folks could dance to.”

Charts

Certifications

Beatfreakz version

In 2006, Dutch music group Beatfreakz covered the song as “Superfreak” and released it as a single. This cover reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart and number six in Finland and Hungary.

Track listings

Credits and personnel

Credits are lifted from the Dutch and UK CD1 liner notes.

Studios

Recorded at Beatfreakz Studios (Weesp, Netherlands)

Sample replays recorded at Scorccio.com Studio (Barcelona, Spain)

Personnel

Rick James, Alonzo Miller – writing

Sandro – vocals

Jassy Tamar Husk – additional vocals

Beatfreakz – production

Hal Ritson – vocal production

Mark Summers – sample replay production

Ben Cook – executive production

Dipesh Parmar – executive production assistant

Antonio Petronzio – photography

Charts

Release history

Sampling

The predominant riff of the song was most popularly sampled in 1990 by MC Hammer in “U Can’t Touch This”. The song would then be sampled by Jay-Z in his 2006 song “Kingdom Come”, American musical group Black Eyed Peas in their 2020 single “Vida Loca”, and was later sampled by Nicki Minaj in her 2022 single, “Super Freaky Girl”. Minaj previously appeared in the remix of Big Sean’s “Dance (A$$)” (2011), which sampled “U Can’t Touch This”.

The Chorus of the song appears in the scene in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen where Sam Witwicky, one of the main protagonists, is driving his Camaro, which is actually the Autobot Bumblebee, with a college girl named Alice, who is a Decepticon in disguise.

See also

List of number-one dance singles of 1981 (U.S.)

References

External links

Super Freak at Discogs