Multi-Platinum hitmaker Shaggy has one more reason to celebrate as his fourth ‘Best Of’ collection has been certified Gold in the U.K.
The Hot Shot artist told WMV “I’m filled with gratitude, anytime you have a body of work that is recurrent as this it is a significant accomplishment, especially in our genre.”
Shaggy’s “Best of Shaggy: The Boombastic Collection,” spawns hits from both his Boombastic era and his most successful Hot Shot album era. The compilation album released in 2008 was first certified Silver on July 13, 2018 upgraded its status to a Brit Certified Gold Award after it sold over 100,000 units in the U.K. as of Friday October 14, 2022.
Shaggy’s fourth “Best Of” compilation is a 19 track hits filled project with songs produced by R&B legends Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Prince Buster, and Tony Kelly, Shaun “Sting” Pizzonia, and Christopher Birch.
The album has remained in the top ten on the Billboard Reggae chart for the last three years among other “Best Of” compilations by Sean Paul and Bob Marley & The Wailers. The 54 year old says it’s not a strategy per se to do a collection album so he could drive record sales, but more-so a testament to the value of his catalogue.
“It’s not so much of a strategy, it’s kinda what you do when you have a catalogue of popular works that is still relatable and consumable, you wanna make it easy for the consumer to connect by putting them in a greatest / best of,” the Boombastic artist said.
Beginning with Oh Carolina’s Silver certification in 1993, this latest accomplishment brings Shaggy music certifications to 24 in total from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
The single Boombastic which is also on the Gold certified Collection album is one of the few Jamaican reggae songs to debut at No. 1 on the British singles chart. The song was so impactful that Shaggy is forever known as Mr. Boombastic, fantastic, romantic lover, A.K.A Mr. Luva Luva by woman all over the world.
The 1995 album of the same name won the Grammy award for Best Reggae Album in 1996.
Robert Livingston, Shaggy’s then manager and producer of the track told World Music Views how acceptable the world was to Jamaican music at the time;
“When Boombastic was number one on the British Chart I had 4 different No. 1 records at the same time,” he explained to WMV News.
The rock infused track saw successes in Ireland, UK, Sweden, New Zealand, and Australia, where it topped the singles charts. It spent a week at number one on the US Billboard R&B chart, and reached number three on theBillboardHot 100.
Part of the original Boombastic’s success is due to its involvement in a Levi’s commercial which became popular all over the world in key music markets. Theclaymation commercialfeatured the song playing as a man used the core of his Levi’s jeans to save a woman from a burning building as they both swing on a makeshift zip-line into each other’s arms.
Shaggy told Anthony Miller of Entertainment Report last year that artists should make more songs that can synchronize if they want success.
“So we have to think about what that sound is – and the language and the melodies, and all of these things that work. Songs like what Barrington Levy is doing and all of these songs. Those songs are great sync records and we have to create sync records, records that do well in movies and commercials and stuff like that. You can’t just do it fi yuh likkle niche market. Is either you gwine keep it local or global,” Shaggy told Miller.
Speaking on how Boombastic was composed for the foreign markets so that it would get radio play Shaggy recalls when his team, “…put in Marvin Gaye sample under Boombastic to create a leverage so that we can get on these platforms, and that’s kinda what we have to kinda figure out. Because we are in the age of hybrids. Everything is a hybrid at this point,” he explained.
As for how much he makes with his catalogue of hits including Boombastic? Shaggy told World Music Views last year May, “my catalogue does very well. My syncs do better than any other reggae artists including Bob. We just did Cheetos, Chase. But I have partners because when I came out the only way to get on the radio is to have samples. We did covers and samples and whatever was needed to get on the radio. So I share revenue with them even though the catalogue makes money, I have partners.”
Othercountrieswhere Boombastic the single has certifications include Australia : certified Platinum (70,000),Austria certified Gold (25,000),France certified Gold (250,000),Germany certified gold (250,000),New Zealand certified Platinum (10,000),Norway certified Platinum (10,000), and United Kingdom where the song first took off it is certified Gold for selling more than 400,000 units.
Grammys
Meanwhile Shaggy’s latest LP, “Come Fly With Me; Sinatra SongBook”, produced by Police frontman Sting, he says the album has been submitted for Grammy consideration. Released on May 26 the cover album sold 358 copies and peaked at No. 1 on the Reggae iTunes Chart and charted at No. 28 in Austria on iTunes.
“Our new album ‘Com Fly Wid Me’.. has been submitted for Grammy consideration, the album was released earlier this year and features reggae covers of Sinatra’s song book , produced by my brother Sting (police frontman) and 19 time Grammy winner.”
Even with the backing of music legend Sting and their reputation of making the commercially successful 44/876 album which won the Best Reggae Album at the 61st Grammy Awards, “Come Fly With Me” is your against a myriad of factors. For starters a cover album has never been nominated for Best Reggae Album and it may fall prey to a grammy voter’s affinity render cover singles and albums ineligible for a Best Reggae Album.
The Grammy rules state that, “a cover song can only be submitted in a performance category (like Record of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Country Duo/Group Performance, etc.) or in an arrangement category.” Cover songs are also not eligible for songwriting since they were written in a previous eligibility period, or sometimes before.
This year more than 100 original reggae albums were submitted for consideration at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards. Both Stephen Marley and Ziggy Marley released a cover album and deluxe project respectively.
California music label Ineffable Records submitted more than 9 albums from their roster including sets from Koshens, Demarco and Stick Figure. Then there is fellow dancehall hit maker Sean Paul who released his Island Records debut Scorcha after he was snubbed last year when “Live N Livin” lost to SOJA’s “Beauty In the Silence.”
After the April 3 awards this year, Sean told the host of The Breakfast Club on Power 105 in New York: “Funny story though I was standing up in the hallway and looking at the different nominees of the thing and getting myself geared up for what I am gonna say and I heard “and the winner is ‘shh’, and I am like it’s either me or Spice and I Heard SOJA, I was like ‘damn’.”
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