Jump to content

Do It (Nelly Furtado song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by BatterBean (talk | contribs) at 00:38, 17 February 2008 (→‎Charts: It peaked 66# on teh Chartifacts. And provided source). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For other uses, see the Nelly Furtado song.
"Do It"
Song
B-side"Say It Right"

"Do It" is a song on Canadian pop singer Nelly Furtado's third album, Loose (2006). It was written by Furtado, Timbaland and Nate Hills and produced by Timbaland and Hills. It features a prominent influence of 1980s dance-pop music and sexually suggestive lyrics, in which the song's protagonist asks a lover to satisfy her physically.

In January 2007, allegations arose that Timbaland plagiarized the synth line in "Do It" from an earlier track by Finnish demoscener Janne Suni—for more information, see 2007 Timbaland plagiarism controversy. Alongside a remix featuring rapper Missy Elliott, the song was released as the fifth single from Loose in North America in mid-2007, and Furtado co-directed the accompanying music video. "Do It" reached the top twenty in Canada and was a number-one club hit in the United States, where it became Furtado's lowest peaking single on the Billboard Hot 100; it reached higher positions on charts in Europe.

Style and lyrics and Art

MTV News summarised "Do It" as a "roller-skating jam [that] is all percolating, bubblegum keyboards", and said it contained "one of Timbaland's best beats since he put the snakey whistle on Ludacris' "The Potion"".[2] Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times wrote of the album and song, "Ms. Furtado and Timbaland love unexpected details, and this secretly meticulous CD is full of them [...] in "Do It", Ms. Furtado mutters a casual "Yeah"; Timbaland samples it and turns it into a rhythm instrument that returns at the end of the song, to reward everyone who's paying attention."[3] Billboard magazine wrote that the song contains "breezy uptempo rhythmic instrumentation alongside a sensual lyric that requests a suitor to deliver the physical goods",[4] and that it is one of the tracks on Loose on which "she extorts Gwen Stefani's '80s vibe and schoolgirl chants".[5]

Other critics have identified a 1980s influence in the song. Stylus magazine described "Do It" as an "undeniable 80s dance-pop" song on which "she [Furtado] conjures the ghost of Vanity, weaving her wickedly mischievous falsetto through Timbaland's synth splashes."[6] According to The Northern Light, Furtado "sings on a bouncy '80s-style track—complete with the keyboard solo—about something reminiscent of a night of high school romance. The track echoes Gwen Stefani's "Crash", but with less of a dance groove."[7] The Observer said that the song "drops an early Eighties Street Sounds electro-pop motif into some frisky footwork from Timbaland",[8] and Slant Magazine characterised the song as an "'80s uptempo cut that imagines what The Jets would've sounded like if they'd been singing about getting some instead of just having crushes".[9] The website Okayplayer called "Do It" and the Loose tracks "Maneater" and "Glow" "electronic-influenced dance songs" similar to another track, "Promiscuous", with "a club-friendly '80s-influenced synthesizer melody."[10] The Sun Media described it as "'80s-era Madonna-reminiscent",[11] and a writer for the blog MTV Buzzworthy said it sounds like "a mash-up of old-school Madonna".[12]

Furtado has credited the influence of 1980s musicians such as Blondie, Madonna, The Police, Prince and Talking Heads on Loose, saying that the album's creative team "were picking up on some of the more surreal, theatrical elements of '80s music, the stuff that puts you in sort of a dream state. There's a mysterious, after-midnight vibe to this album that's extremely visceral. I want people to escape into the music and indulge their most animalistic impulses."[13] Referring to the sexually suggestive lyrics in "Do It" and other songs on Loose, Furtado cited the influence of what she described as "the assertive female sexuality of '90s hip-hop, from Queen Latifah to MC Lyte, Yo-Yo, Salt-N-Pepa, TLC. They were sexy, smart and creative—strong women in control. That's what I like about the sexual content on Loose: It's very organic."[2]

Critical reception

The song received a positive review from Billboard magazine, which said "[it] again demonstrates Furtado's striking versatility [...] Missy Elliott is stripped onto the single version, with a midsection breakdown . . . amusing, but hardly necessary in scoring yet another essential moment from [Loose]".[4] Stylus magazine cited the track and "No Hay Igual" as the album's "undisputed highlights [...] The two songs couldn't possibly be more different, yet the duo [Furtado and Timbaland] manages to convincingly pull off both of them."[6] Slant Magazine said the song is "deliciously '80s",[9] and The Guardian wrote that Furtado "delivers the irresistible hooks of Maneater, Promiscuous and Do It with punchy, playful charisma rather than breathy cooing."[14] Blogcritics published a more negative assessment of the song:

The songs are much more upbeat and not recognizable as the Nelly Furtado that has come to make our ears flutter with her beautiful eclectic sounds that infused so many different instruments that somehow, magically, came out great. Take for example the song "Do It". What a blast from '80s past! Here we have a song that would be a huge hit in the '80s thrown in on an album that so desperately wants to score a club hit so that teenagers will download the song as a ringtone. It's a mess. Should we blame Timbaland for the need to clean up aisle 3?[15]

The Village Voice wrote that the song "weakly evokes J.J. Fad" and exemplified why Loose "isn't a love child [between Furtado and Timbaland], but a bump-and-grind that never finds a groove".[16] The Northern Light editorialised, "Although "Do It" fits well after "Say It Right" [the preceding track on the album], there is something very C+ about the song. As cute as it is, it sounds like something that was just better than a filler track."[7]

Music video

File:DoItVideo3.PNG
The music video of "Do It".

The "Do It" music video was co-directed by Furtado and Aaron A., the documentarian on Furtado's Get Loose Tour. The shoot took place on location in Detroit, one of the stops on the tour.[17] It begins in a women's restroom, in which dancers on Furtado's tour are getting ready to go out. Furtado emerges and starts singing, and she and the dancers leave the restroom and walk out of the club while Furtado is holding a gnome. During daytime, Furtado's dancers walk down the street to her apartment, walk into her bedroom and wake her up. They get dressed and ready to dance, run down the stairs and tow a car into the studio, where Furtado begins performing choreography with her dancers. The video is intercut with shots of Furtado and her dancers wearing white clothing while singing in feathers.

The video was premiered on MuchMusic on July 13, 2007,[18]and on MTV's Total Request Live on August 1 2007. It debuted on the TRL top ten countdown on August 9, returned to it on August 27[19] and reached number one on six days. The video spent seventeen days on the countdown.[20][21] It also reached number one on VH1's VSpot Top 20 Countdown, Furtado's most successful video on that countdown [22]

Plagiarism controversy

Main article: 2007 Timbaland plagiarism controversy

In January 2007, several news sources reported that Timbaland (Timothy Z. Mosley) was alleged to have plagiarized several elements (both motifs and samples) in the song "Do It" without giving credit or compensation. The song itself was released as the fifth North American single from Loose on July 24, 2007. The producer later vaguely admitted to "sampling", but he didn't consider it theft, as he claimed it was impossible for him to check who the source material belonged to.

A video which claims to show proof of the theft was posted to YouTube on January 12, 2007.[23] Another video was posted to YouTube on January 14, 2007, claiming Timbaland also stole the tune a year earlier for the ringtone Block Party, one of several that were sold in the United States in 2005.[24]

The claimed original track, entitled "Acidjazzed Evening", is a chiptune-style 4-channel Amiga module composed by Finnish demoscener Janne Suni (a.k.a. Tempest).[25] The song won first place in the Oldskool Music competition at Assembly 2000, a demoparty held in Helsinki, Finland in the year 2000.[26] According to Scene.org, the song was uploaded to their servers the same year, long before the release of the song by Furtado. The song was later remixed (with Suni's permission) by Norwegian Glenn Rune Gallefoss (a.k.a. GRG) for the Commodore 64 in SID format—this is the version which was later allegedly sampled for "Do It". It was added to the High Voltage SID Collection on December 21, 2002.[27]

Single release and chart performance

"Do It" was the fifth single from Loose in North America, and was released to mainstream contemporary hit radio in the United States on July 24, 2007 (see 2007 in music).[1] The remix of the song released as a single features rapper Missy Elliott[1] and was released at the iTunes Store on August 7, 2007.[28]

The song debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at number eighty-eight[29] but dropped off the next week.[30] It peaked at number sixty on the Billboard Pop 100.[31] "Do It" was Furtado's second consecutive single not to reach the top twenty on the Hot 100 or Pop 100 charts, and the lowest peaking single from Loose on both charts; it is also Furtado's lowest charting entry on the Hot 100.[31] It became the fifth number-one single from Loose on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.[31] On the Canadian Hot 100, the song debuted at number sixty in early August 2007 and peaked at number eleven.[30]

In Europe, "Do It" reached number twenty-two in Germany, remaining on the singles chart for nine weeks, and it peaked at number seventy-five on the UK Singles Chart, on which it remained for one week.[30] The single reached the top twenty in the Netherlands and Norway and the top forty in Switzerland and Belgium. It charted outside the top forty in Austria.[30]

Credits

Formats and track listings

Charts

Template:Succession box one to one

References

  1. ^ a b c "Available for Airplay - 2007 - 7/24 Mainstream". FMQB.
  2. ^ a b Shepherd, Julianne. "How Nelly Furtado Got Her Ghetto Pass". MTV News. June 7 2006.
  3. ^ Sanneh, Kelefa. "Critics' Choice - New CD's - Nelly Furtado - "Loose" (Geffen)". The New York Times. June 19 2006.
  4. ^ a b Taylor, Chuck. "Do It". Billboard.
  5. ^ Hope, Clover. "Album Reviews - Loose - Nelly Furtado". Billboard.
  6. ^ a b Schwartz, Barry. "Nelly Furtado - Loose". Stylus. June 19 2006.
  7. ^ a b Ozoma, Onyelo. "Furtado's low not bad". The Northern Light. July 11 2006, section A & E.
  8. ^ Flynn, Paul. "Nelly Furtado, Loose". The Observer. May 21 2006.
  9. ^ a b Keefe, Jonathan. "Nelly Furtado - Loose". Slant Magazine. 2006.
  10. ^ Ruhi, Adrian. "Nelly Furtado - Loose". Okayplayer.
  11. ^ Stevenson, Jane. "Save On Foods Memorial Centre, Victoria - March 21, 2007". Sun Media. March 22 2007.
  12. ^ "Help! We’re Obsessed...". MTV Buzzworthy. August 6 2007.
  13. ^ "Nelly Furtado :: Loose". Universal Music Canada.
  14. ^ Lynskey, Dorian. "Nelly Furtado, Loose". The Guardian. June 9 2006.
  15. ^ Robert, James. "CD Review: Nelly Furtado - Loose". Blogcritics. July 4 2006.
  16. ^ Catucci, Nick. "Get Away From Him". The Village Voice. July 3 2006.
  17. ^ Staff. "Mariah Carey Says Tommy Mottola Was 'Restrictive'; Plus Diddy, Beyonce, Britney Spears, Ja Rule, Game & More, In For The Record". MTV News. August 22 2007.
  18. ^ Nelly Furtado's Do It premier MuchMusic.com
  19. ^ "The TRL Archive - Recap - August 2007". atrl.net. Retrieved September 7 2007.
  20. ^ "The TRL Archive - Recap - September 2007". atrl.net. Retrieved October 3 2007.
  21. ^ "The TRL Archive - Recap - October 2007". atrl.net.
  22. ^ VH1 Countdown Archive ATRL.com
  23. ^ YouTube Producer Timbaland steals song from finnish musician
  24. ^ YouTube Timbaland steals song - more proof!
  25. ^ Tempest's website
  26. ^ Scene.org's Assembly 2000 results data
  27. ^ High Voltage SID Collection Update #34
  28. ^ "Do It - Nelly Furtado". nellyfurtado.com.
  29. ^ Cohen, Jonathan. "Kanye Caps Banner Week With Hot 100 Chart-Topper". Billboard. September 20 2007.
  30. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "Nelly Furtado ft. Missy Elliott - Do It". aCharts.us.
  31. ^ a b c d e "Nelly Furtado - Artist Chart History". Billboard.
  32. ^ Germany two-track CD single Amazon.de
  33. ^ 12 Vinyl single
  34. ^ Promo single
  35. ^ German CD single amazon.de
  36. ^ Australian CD single Sanity.com.au
  37. ^ [1].
  38. ^ Italian Single Chart Fimi.it
  39. ^ Latvia Singles Chart
  • Unknown (2006). In Loose [CD liner notes]. United States: Geffen Records.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Do_It_(Nelly_Furtado_song)&oldid=191962381"