Puneet Varma (Editor)

What I Am

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Released
  
November 1988 (US)

Label
  
Geffen

Length
  
4:54

B-side
  
"I Do" "Walk on the Wildside"

Format
  
7" single 12" single 3" CD single cassette single

Studio
  
Rockfield Studios, Wales, UK

"What I Am" is a song written by Edie Brickell and Kenny Withrow and recorded by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians for their debut album, Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars (1988). It peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100. It also topped the charts in Canada, but only peaked within the top forty of the charts in the United Kingdom. This version was ranked number 77 on VH1's list of The 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders. The song was featured in a 1989 episode of Miami Vice, an episode of Beavis and Butt-head, as well as an episode of Doogie Howser, M.D. and in the 1989 Patrick Dempsey film Loverboy.

Contents

The song is highlighted by a guitar solo that emulates the approach of Jerry Garcia including the use of an envelope filter.

Composition

"What I Am" is written in the key of B minor in 4
4 time with a tempo of 89 beats per minute. The song follows a chord progression of Bsus2–Dsus2–Asus2, and the vocals span from G3 to B4.

Formats and track listings

7" single / cassette single

Side A:

  1. "What I Am" – 4:54

Side B:

  1. "I Do" – 2:00
12" single / 3" CD single
  1. "What I Am" – 4:54
  2. "I Do" – 2:00
  3. "Walk on the Wildside" – 5:52

Tin Tin Out and Emma Bunton version

The song was covered by the British recording artists Tin Tin Out and Emma Bunton. Released in November 1999 as the second single from Tin Tin Out's second studio album, Eleven to Fly (1999). It also appeared on Bunton's debut solo album, A Girl Like Me (2001).

Tin Tin Out and Bunton's version debuted and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, twenty nine places higher than the original version ten years previously, losing the battle against Bunton's fellow Spice Girls member Geri Halliwell's "Lift Me Up". It sold 106,000 copies to get to number two in its first week and around 221,787 copies altogether. "What I Am" was the UK's 88th best-selling single of 1999.

Format and track listing

This is the format and track listing of the major single release of "What I Am".

UK CD single
  1. "What I Am" (radio version) – 3:54
  2. "What I Am" (Gangstarr Remix) – 4:07
  3. "Weird (Save Yourself)" (Tin Tin Out featuring Wendy Page) – 5:42

Sampling

  • The song was sampled by New Edition on their song "Something About You", from their 1996 album Home Again.
  • Portions of the song were resung by Lauryn Hill and sampled into Aretha Franklin's 1998 hit "A Rose Is Still a Rose".
  • Part of the chorus and guitar riff is sampled by hip-hop group Brand Nubian on their song "Slow Down" from their 1990 debut album, One For All.

    • References

    What I Am Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA