Freak like Me


"Freak Like Me" is the debut single by American R&B singer Adina Howard. It was released on January 25, 1995, as the lead single from her debut album, Do You Wanna Ride?. It reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks, as well as number two on the Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart for four weeks, behind "This Is How We Do It" by Montell Jordan in both cases, and was certified platinum by the RIAA for sales of one million copies.

Background

"Freak like Me" is an R&B song with a g-funk beat. The song's drum beat is sampled from Sly & the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song". The song also samples "I'd Rather Be with You" by Bootsy's Rubber Band. Hence, Eugene Hanes, Marc Valentine, William "Bootsy" Collins, and George Clinton's son George Jr. are credited as joint authors and composers. In honor of the song's 20th anniversary, a documentary focusing on the song's impact was released titled Adina Howard 20: A Story of Sexual Liberation. It received a nomination for "Outstanding Independent Documentary" at the 2016 Black Reel Awards.

Music video

The original music video was directed by Hype Williams.

Official versions

  1. "Freak Like Me" – 4:04
  2. "Freak Like Me" – 4:17
  3. "Freak Like Me" – 4:12
  4. "Freak Like Me" – 4:06
  5. "Freak Like Me" – 4:10
  6. "Freak Like Me" – 2:35

    Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Tru Faith & Dub Conspiracy version

In 2000, a collaboration between two UK garage groups, Tru Faith & Dub Conspiracy, released a cover version of "Freak Like Me". English singer Imaani provided vocals on the song. This version reached number 12 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 1 on the UK Dance Chart.
CD and 12" formats include remixes by Wideboys and Dome.

Track listing

UK CD maxi-single
  1. "Freak Like Me" – 3:21
  2. "Freak Like Me" – 4:49
  3. "Freak Like Me" – 5:01
  4. "Freak Like Me" – 5:59
UK 12" vinyl

Charts

Sugababes version

In 2002, English girl group Sugababes recorded a cover of "Freak like Me". This version was conceived and produced by English producer Richard X. It uses as its backing track a sample of the 1979 song "Are "Friends" Electric?" by Gary Numan and Tubeway Army. In 2001, Richard X had created a bootleg mashup of the original recordings of "Freak Like Me" and "Are "Friends" Electric?", titled "We Don't Give a Damn About Our Friends", which he released under the alias "Girls on Top". That song became a successful underground dance track. Richard X wanted to release the mashup commercially, but he could not get permission from Adina Howard to use her vocals, so he decided to re-record the vocals, enlisting the Sugababes to do so.
"Freak like Me" was released on 22 April 2002 as the lead single from their second studio album, Angels with Dirty Faces. It was the first Sugababes single to feature Heidi Range, who joined after the departure of Siobhán Donaghy in August 2001. The Sugababes version of the song used the radio edit lyrics of Howard's song. Numan was now credited as a co-writer of the song.
A remix of the song, billed as the "We Don't Give a Damn Mix" appears on Richard X's 2003 album Richard X Presents His X-Factor Vol. 1.
The sound effect featured at the beginning of the song is the coin-insert tone from the popular 1981 video game Frogger.

Critical reception

In 2012, The Guardian named "Freak like Me" as the best number-one single of 2002. NME complimented the track as "genius" and claimed, "if this gets to number one, we'll be grinning all summer. Yes, even the Critics." Billboard named the song number 45 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time.
Numan considered the Sugababes version of "Freak like Me" to be better than "Are 'Friends' Electric?".

Chart performance

On April 22, 2002, "Freak like Me" was released in the United Kingdom. The song became Sugababes' first number-one single when it debuted at number one in the UK Singles Chart, remaining in the top ten for four weeks. It remains one of the best selling singles released by the group, selling over 275,000 copies since its release and being certified Silver.
Outside of the United Kingdom, the song was also successful. While it reached the top ten in Ireland, Norway and Belgium, the song entered the top 30 of most of the charts it appeared on. In Australia, "Freak like Me" became the fourth single by Sugababes to make the singles chart, reaching number 44. It would be their lowest-charting single in Australia until the release of "Shape" in 2003.

Music video

The music video was directed by Dawn Shadforth and Sophie Muller and was filmed in London. It uses the "We Don't Give a Damn Mix" of the song, which is more faithful to the original mash-up. The video is set in a strange nightclub, and acts as an introduction for the recent addition of Heidi Range. It begins outside the nightclub with a man tumbling down the stairs, with Keisha Buchanan in a long coat, seen only from below the knee, walking out of a door, over the man's body and up the stairs. Mutya Buena is seen standing on the stairs facing the direction where the man is lying. Inside, they spot Range dancing and flirting with many guys. They both quickly clash with her, and a fight between them ensues, which ends with Range falling to the floor unconscious. A man tries to help her up, but Buena grabs him by the neck and throws him away from her. Range wakes up again soon after, and stumbles out of the club with another man, where they begin to kiss, until she suddenly bites hard into his arm. Meanwhile, Buchanan takes a man outside, and she leads him into a dark alley, where they flirt briefly, before she scares him away. Buena then goes outside as well, and overpowers a man who towers over her. The music video ends with Buchanan and Buena accepting Range into the group, and dancing into the night. The demonstrations of supernatural strength shown throughout the video and Range biting the man on the arm are generally understood to imply that the women are, as the song suggests, vampire-like "freaks". Julian Morris stars in the music video as one of the boys running from Buena.

Track listing

  1. "Freak Like Me" – 3:14
  2. "Freak Like Me" – 3:39
  3. "Breathe Easy" – 4:09
  4. "Freak Like Me" – 3:39
  1. "Freak Like Me" – 3:14
  2. "Freak Like Me" – 8:14
  3. "Freak Like Me" – 5:33
  4. "Freak Like Me" – 5:46
  1. "Freak Like Me" – 3:14
  2. "Freak Like Me" – 3:39
  3. "Freak Like Me" – 5:46

    Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications