"Juicy Fruit" is a song written by

James Mtume James Forman (January 3, 1946January 9, 2022), known professionally as Mtume or James Mtume, was an American jazz and R&B musician, songwriter, record producer, activist, and radio personality. He came to prominence as a jazz musician, working ...

and released as the lead-off single from

Mtume Mtume (pronounced ''em-tu-may'') was an American funk and soul group that rose to prominence during the early 1980s and had several R&B hits during its career. Its founder, former percussionist James Mtume, previously played and toured with M ...

's third album, also titled ''

Juicy Fruit Juicy Fruit is an American brand of chewing gum made by the Wrigley Company, a U.S. company that since 2008 has been a subsidiary of the privately held Mars, Incorporated. It was introduced in 1893, and in the 21st century the brand name is rec ...

''. It features lead vocals by

Tawatha Agee Tawatha Agee (born November 14, 1954) is an American backing vocalist and songwriter. Her voice has been described in ''The New York Times'' as an "acrobatic, gospel-charged soprano." She was the lead singer of funk and soul band Mtume; her soulf ...

. The mid-tempo song is Mtume's most well-known, proving enormously successful on R&B radio stations when first released. The song reached number one on the ''Billboard''

Hot R&B Singles The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

chart on June 4, 1983, and remained there for eight weeks. Its success on the ''Billboard'' Pop Singles chart, however, was more modest, reaching number 45. It was ranked at number 15 among the "Tracks of the Year" for 1983 by ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

''. Though it never reached the top 40, the single was certified as selling one million copies on July 25, 1983. The song's video had different lyrics, where they replaced "You can lick me everywhere" with "Candy kisses everywhere". The single itself would become the inspiration for another act that would take the name from the song, Juicy, whose single "Sugar Free" was considered an answer to "Juicy Fruit" and itself the basis for being used as sampled backgrounds on numerous songs.

Background

According to group founder James Mtume, he worked on the song while lead singer Tawatha Agee was out on tour with English band

Roxy Music Roxy Music are an English rock music, rock band formed in 1970 by Bryan Ferry—who became the band's lead vocalist and principal songwriter—and bassist Graham Simpson (musician), Graham Simpson. The other longtime members are Phil Manzanera ...

. He had finished the ''Juicy Fruit'' album while the other band members went home. Mtume then used the

Linn LM-1 The Linn LM-1 Drum Computer is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics and released in 1980. It was the first drum machine to use samples of acoustic drums, and one of the first programmable drum machines. Its designer, the American en ...

and was pleased at what he heard. He then called the other band members back into the studio to complete the sessions. At 2 A.M., they completed the track in under two hours. He then called Agee, who was in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in between breaks of the Roxy Music tour. Agee then flew back to the studio, although Mtume didn't have the lyrics written down until Agee started recording. As she was recording the first verse, he was busy composing the second verse. They completed the song in one night and Agee flew back to London after the sessions. Although Mtume loved the song, Agee wasn't happy with it, as she felt her vocals were "dry".The story behind "Juicy Fruit" By Mtume & Tawatha Agee
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Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Instrumental remixes

A remix of the song was made in 1983 titled the "Fruity Instrumental Mix", produced by Tony Humphries. This version of the song runs over seven minutes containing mostly instrumental beats featuring the singing vocals of "Juicy Fruit", minus its starting chorus. This is the version sampled for the Notorious B.I.G. song "Juicy", the remix of Montell Jordan's "Supa Star", and the Urban Noize remix of Nicki Minaj's song "Your Love". The other instrumental remix titled "The After 6 Mix" runs about three and a half minutes featuring background effects and added instrument sounds. This remix also features vocals from the lead singers of "Juicy Fruit" but to a much lesser extent than in the Fruity Instrumental mix. This version is sampled in the Ant Banks song "It's Going On". A heavily filtered disco-edit recut of "Juicy Fruit" by Adana Twins & Doctor Dru was included on ''Black Jukebox 01'', released August 2011.

References

{{authority control 1983 songs 1983 singles Epic Records singles Funk songs Songs written by James Mtume Contemporary R&B ballads 1980s ballads