Wild Thing (Tone Lōc song)

“Wild Thing”
Single by Tone Lōc from the album Lōc-ed After Dark
Released	1988
Genre	Rap/Hip-Hop
Length	4:23
Label	Delicious Vinyl
Writer(s)	Young MC
Tone Lōc singles chronology
"Wild Thing" (1988) "Funky Cold Medina" (1989)

"Wild Thing" is the name of rapper Tone Lōc's 1989 hit single from the album Lōc-ed After Dark. The title is a reference to the phrase "Doin' the wild thing", a euphemism for sex, unlike The Troggs' hit song, "Wild Thing", (with a later psychedelic version by Jimi Hendrix) in which the Wild Thing was a girl.

Tone Lōc's song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, and spawned at least one parody (by "Weird Al" Yankovic, called "Isle Thing"). It eventually sold over two million copies. It also peaked at number 21 on the UK Singles Chart.

The track was produced by The Dust Brothers, who would later go on to produce albums by the Beastie Boys and Beck.

The song uses an uncredited sample of Van Halen's "Jamie's Cryin'". Van Halen's management at the time asked for a flat fee (credited in some reports to be USD$5,000) as payment to have the song sampled by Tone Lōc. Apparently, this decision was taken without consulting the band's original members (credited as co-authors of the song), who in turn did not expect Wild Thing to become the major hit it became. A subsequent civil lawsuit was settled out of court, with the band receiving USD$180,000 as settlement payment. Alex Van Halen has gone on record saying that he had heard the song over the radio halfway and not realizing it had been sampled until he recognized his (by now famous) tom-tom break at least a few times. Concerning the settlement, he said: "Well, at least we got something. Tone Lōc and his people made millions out of it..."

At the end, Tone says "Hasta la vista baby." Coincidentally, this song predates Terminator 2.

The song was remixed in 2007 with additional production and vocals from Peaches.

Number 39 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop.

Video

A music video was made for the song at a reported cost of only $500, copying the style of Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love" with mini-skirted women playing guitars next to Tone Lōc, which went into heavy rotation on MTV.

In the media

• Played in the 1989 movie Uncle Buck
• Played on the 1989 television series Doogie Howser, M.D. (pilot episode).
• Played in the 2000 movie Bedazzled
• Played in the 2001 movie The Animal
• Played in the 2002 movie Dark Blue
• Played in the 2003 movie Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
• Played in the 2004 movie Taxi
• Parodied in the 2006 movie Totally Awesome (Crazy Stuff)

Charts

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