At #81 on the countdown of my top artists is a young female soul/R&B/hip-hop singer who released her first album in 1987, when she was 14 years old. She has an incredible five octave range. She is known mostly for her #2 hit, I Love Your Smile, released in 1991.
#81: Shanice
Shanice was born in 1973, one of my favorite years for music. Stevie Wonder’s song You Are the Sunshine of My Life, one of my all-time favorite songs, was the #1 song the week Shanice was born. So it’s only fitting that Shanice should rank in my top 110 artists countdown.
Pretty much all of my favorite Shanice songs are ones you can dance to. Some of them make me want to get up, forget about my bum leg, and shake it. Even if my leg has problems with me dancing on it, I can nevertheless sit and bounce my good leg—and occasionally my bad leg—up and down in rhythm to the music, and I sometimes realize that I’m doing just that when I listen to my favorite Shanice songs.
I can see some striking similarities between Shanice and a young Janet Jackson in this video. I like Janet Jackson’s music too.
Video (Live Recording): Shanice – (Baby Tell Me) Can You Dance
I’ve never danced the Polka, not even before my leg injury happened. According to the Dance Store Online, the name “Polka” is from the Czech word “pulka,” meaning “half step,” so called because of the quick moves from one foot to the other when dancing the Polka. So when someone says no half-stepping, I guess they mean you’re not to dance the Polka. I’m okay with that.
Video: Shanice – No 1/2 Steppin
The largest hit for Shanice reached #2 on the US Top 100 singles chart, and #1 on the R&B chart. It’s definitely one of my favorites.
Video: Shanice – I Love Your Smile
I like several of Shanice’s songs, but I think I favor the next one slightly more than all the rest. It certainly has the best title of all of them. It gets my good leg to thumping too. This song was not released as a single, but it was included on the Ultimate Collection album, so someone thought highly of it. I suppose there was no video made for it, sadly. At least I couldn’t find one.
Album Cover w/ Audio: Shanice – You Didn’t Think I’d Come Back This Hard
Shanice only had two songs to break into the top 5 on Billboard’s Top 100 singles chart. I’ve mentioned that I Love Your Smile reached #2. This next song reached #4. It was released on the Beverly Hills 90210 soundtrack. Can you believe I used to watch that show back in the day? I can hardly believe it. But I did.
Though this song was more popular than most other songs by Shanice, it doesn’t appeal to me as much as other songs I’m showcasing here. This song sounds pretty much like anything else that a female pop or soul artist might sing as filler on an album; there’s not much that’s unique about it. And yet it reached #4 on the Top 100. Okay. That’s just another example of how elitist my musical tastes are.
Video: Shanice – Saving Forever for You
Shanice shifts between octaves effortlessly, and does it in a very sexy manner.
Video: Shanice – Turn Down the Lights
The title of this song describes how I feel about the song.
Video: Shanice – I Like
This next video is for a song from Shanice’s self-titled album, released in 1999. According to the Wikipedia page for Shanice (the album), this song held the record from 1998 to 2006 for the song making the biggest leap on the Billboard Top 100 charts, up 75 ranks, from #91 to #16, in one week. That’s pretty impressive. Surprisingly, the song’s progress up the chart screeched to a halt at #12, not even breaking into the top 10. I wonder what the circumstances were that lead to that outcome.
Video: Shanice – When I Close My Eyes
This song is also from Shanice’s self-titled album. This song did not place in the Top 100 singles chart, but did place as high as #53 on the Hot R&B chart.
Video: Shanice – You Need a Man
The same year she released her self-titled album, Shanice released an Ultimate Collection of songs selected from her first three albums. She then waited until 2006 to release another album, Every Woman Dreams. This next video is for a song from that 2006 album.
Shanice continues to hit the high notes.
Video: Shanice – Take Care of You
And now we come to 2011. Guess what… Shanice is making new music! This song was just released on 07 March 2011.
Audio: Shanice – Tomorrow
Thanks for joining me in revisiting the songs of one soulful, sexy, beautiful lady. I’m looking forward to hearing her new album!
Reader Recommended Similar Artists:
Dekh has graced us with his suggestions for videos that fans of Shanice might also like…
Like dekh, I also like Salt-N-Pepa. I remember seeing my nieces dancing to some of their songs back in the 90s, and it made me feel old even then. I own a copy of the Salt-N-Pepa album Very Necessary, and will occasionally listen to it, just as I do with numerous other albums I own from years past, as evidenced by many of the artists on my top 110 countdown so far. I just haven’t listened to Salt-N-Pepa as much over the past four years as I have the artists on my top 110 countdown. So, yeah, let’s see which Salt-N-Pepa songs dekh suggests for us, and then I’ll throw a couple of my favorites on after his, plus the Salt-N-Pepa Public Service Announcement (PSA).
Video (Live Performance): Salt-N-Pepa – Push It
dekh says: Workin’ up a sweat!
Video: Salt-N-Pepa – Let’s Talk About Sex (Original)
dekh says: How it should be.
Video (Live Recording): Salt-N-Pepa – Whatta Man
dekh says: With a Denzel face.
Whatta Man is one of my favorites from Very Necessary, too. There are several good tracks on that album.
As teenagers, my nieces liked to dance to this next track. I don’t know if they fully understood the lyrics, and I didn’t want to be the one to explain them to teenage girls. But it was cool to watch the youngsters dance anyway.
Video: Salt-N-Pepa – Shoop
My favorite Salt-N-Pepa track is Somma Time Man, but I couldn’t find it on YouTube, even as an audio track dubbed over a static image. So here’s instead a fan-made video featuring Hermione from the Harry Potter movies, with a soundtrack by Salt-N-Pepa. Not many people have viewed this on YouTube, but I think it’s interesting, and the soundtrack is one of my favorite Salt-N-Pepa tracks from Very Necessary.
Video (Fan-Made): Salt-N-Pepa – Somebody’s Gettin’ On My Nerves
Here’s a remix version of another favorite track from Very Necessary. I’d not seen this before today, but it’s entertaining, if you like female rap mixed with heavy metal.
Video: Salt-N-Pepa – None Of Your Business (Cheryl’s Metal Mix)
Salt-N-Pepa sang a lot about sex, but they were also conscious of the possible ramifications of unprotected sex and did their part to educate the teens who were buying their music. The last track of Very Necessary is an audio skit that helped drive the point home that unprotected sex is not a good idea.
Video (Fan Reenactment): Salt-N-Pepa – I’ve Got AIDS (PSA)
Okay, that’s enough sidetracking onto Salt-N-Pepa on this post about Shanice. 
More Shanice Info
ShaniceOnline – Official Site
Last.fm page for Shanice
Shanice on Wikipedia
on Amazon!
Another lady I’ve never heard of
I have to say that I’m not a fan of wobbly notes.
In the alternative…
Workin’ up a sweat!
How it should be.
With a Denzel face.
There are bound to be a few more artists upcoming on my countdown that you’ve not heard of before, dekh, so be prepared.
I like the occasional wobbly note, obviously. They can be overdone, but if the wobble is controlled just so, I like the artistry of it.
Thanks for the suggested videos; I’ve edited my post to include them, and I added a few of my favorites from that artist too.