Today, I examine the absurdity that was Eddie Murphy’s song, “Yeah,” featuring a number of iconic singers and rappers all…just saying the word “yeah.” That’s it.
In Remember to Forget, we spotlight pop culture stories that I wish I could forget, but I can’t, so I instead share them with you all, so you’re stuck in the same boat as me!
A while back, I wrote about the oddity that was Michael Jackson doing a duet with Eddie Murphy on Murphy’s “Whatzupwitu,” which was on Murphy’s album, Love’s Alright.
That song was definitely odd, but it was a normal enough pop tune…
However, on that same album, Murphy somehow had an even ODDER song with celebrity guest stars (including Jackson again).
The song “Yeah,” featured a multitude of famous singers (presumably donating their time as part of the Yeah Foundation, a charitable group that Murphy founded) all singing some variation of the word “Yeah.”
As you might imagine, that is just totally absurd in practice.
Here is a sample of the lyrics for the beginning of the song, along with the guest singers who snag these parts of the song:
Mmm yeah
[Stevie Wonder: Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah]
Well alright, yeah, well alright, yes (yeah), Alright yeah (yeah), well alright
[Babyface: (Oh yes, ah yeah)]
Oh yes, so good
Oh yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so good
[Luther Vandross: Everybody, all of the people say]
Yeah, yeah
[Johnny Gill: Say yeah, yeah]
Yeah, yeah (Alright, so good)
Yeah, yeah (Anything you wanna)
[Patti LaBelle: Say yeah, yeah]
Yeah, yeah (Anything you wanna)
Do, do, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah… (Anything you wanna)
[Heavy D: The ‘y’ to the ‘e’ to the ‘s’, yes, y’all
The ‘y’ to the ‘e’ to the ‘s’, yes]
Yeah, yeah
Julio say yes
[Julio Iglesias: Sí, sí, sí]
Oh yeah
Yeah, uh!!
Yeah, yeah
Michael Jackson also clearly sings on it. One thing that is unclear is about the other celebrities whose voices are NOT evident on the song. The tune credits the following performers as singing on the song:
Howard Hewett, Teddy Pendergrass, Richie Sambora, Paul McCartney, Patti LaBelle, Michael Jackson, MC Hammer, Luther Vandross, Julio Iglesias, Jon Bon Jovi, Johnny Gill, Janet Jackson, Heavy D, Garth Brooks, En Vogue, Emmanuel Lewis, Elton John, Barry White, Babyface, Amy Grant & Aaron Hall
I can’t pick out MOST of those singers on the song, so I imagine they’re all just doing backup harmonies at one point. It’s just BONKERS. The whole song is essentially a sort of prelude to another song, but the other song never kicks in. It’s just all setup and no payoff. It’s SUCH a bad idea, and when you have all of those famous people involved, I just don’t know who came up with this idea for simply wasting all of these iconic singers. There are four credited producers (Eddie Murphy, Trenten Gumbs, Ralph Hawkins Jr. & David Allen Jones) with Murphy as the only listed songwriter (but, again, it is clear that the singers are just riffing their lines).
Just so, so weird.
If anyone else has an idea for a future Remember to Forget, feel free to drop me a line at brian@popculturereferences.com.
Since Eddie Murphy is quite talented, a lot of people like to pretend the HEAP of films he starred in which tanked were just “flukes,” even if they added up to most of a decade. Aside for the first “SHREK,” at least the later half of the 90’s in particular were not kind to him. But no…sometimes he just wasn’t funny. It happens. Not every joke lands.
Adam Sandler (another SNL alum) had the same problem, just a decade later (i.e. his prime was in the 90’s and he started to tank in the 2000’s, whereas Murphy owned the 80’s and started to stumble in the early-mid 90’s). Sandler’s “corrected” it by basically running his own production company. And having a pal within Netflix, apparently. Murphy just…kept doing SHREK sequels.
The funniest thing I can think of Murphy doing after the turn of the century was his hosting of SNL, especially the monologue with the other famous black comedians and his return to Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood.
But I can’t think of a single funny Eddie Murphy movie since I was in high school and had a higher tolerance for his family-friendly movies like Dr. Doolittle and Daddy Daycare. (I still like Daddy Daycare just because they put together a decent cast for it.) I think that his return to SNL showed that he’s at his best when there’s a darker edge to his comedy.