Released December 9, 1983 Genre R&B | Recorded 1983 Length 4:404:02 (7") | |
Writer(s) | ||
"Yah Mo B There" is an R&B song by American singers James Ingram and Michael McDonald. It was written by Ingram, McDonald, Rod Temperton, and producer Quincy Jones. The song originally appeared on Ingram's 1983 album It's Your Night, released on Jones's Qwest Records label. It was released as a single in late 1983, peaking at #19 on the U.S. charts in 1984, and #44 on the UK charts also in 1984, (the remixed version by John Jellybean Benitez hit #12 in the Spring of 1985 in the UK), and has subsequently appeared on several of Ingram and McDonald's greatest hits albums as well as various 1980s compilation albums.
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The performance earned the duo a 1985 Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. It was one of a series of very successful duets involving Ingram. It also received a nomination for Best R&B Song, losing to "I Feel for You" (Prince).
The song is in reference to God. And the power faith can have over difficult times. “Yah” being the shortened Yahweh – the Hebrew name for God.
In popular culture
The song was referred to in the 2005 film The 40-Year-Old Virgin. The main characters work in an electronics store in which a Michael McDonald concert DVD has constantly been playing on the TVs for two years. A salesman, David (played by Paul Rudd), has developed an intense hatred of the DVD and tells the manager, "Nothing against him [Michael McDonald], but if I hear 'Yah Mo B There' one more time, 'yah mo' burn this place to the ground!"
The song was featured in the background of a 1984 episode of the daytime soap opera The Young and The Restless.
In the web comedy series Yacht Rock, Ingram and McDonald write "Yah Mo" after mishearing Kenny Loggins say "Yeah, I'll be there" while eating an apple and talking on a cordless phone.
In the animated TV series American Dad!, the song was used in episode "Home Wrecker" as a favorite of Principal Lewis and sung by Steve and his friends.
Cover Versions
In 1988, pop/R&B singer Jon Gibson covered "Yah Mo B There" on his Change of Heart album released on Christian rock/pop label Frontline Records. The same record featured the emerging rap artist MC Hammer. Yah Mo B There was covered by Louise Seville and released in the UK in 1996. British singer Steve Brookstein covered a slightly re-written version of the song with BeBe Winans for the 2005 album Heart and Soul.