Ghetto Day/What I Need

"Ghetto Day" / "What I Need"
Single by Crystal Waters
from the album Storyteller
Released
  • June 20, 1994
  • October 1994 ("What I Need")
StudioBasement Boys (Baltimore)
Genre
Length
  • 3:32 ("Ghetto Day"; album version)
  • 3:14 ("Ghetto Day"; radio mix)
  • 3:20 ("What I Need"; album version)
  • 3:14 ("What I Need"; LP radio edit)
Label
Songwriter(s)
  • Crystal Waters, Sean Spencer ("Ghetto Day")
  • Crystal Waters, Doug Smith, Richard Payton ("What I Need")
Producer(s)The Basement Boys
Crystal Waters singles chronology
"100% Pure Love"
(1994) 		"Ghetto Day" / "What I Need"
(1994) 		"Relax"
(1995)
Alternative cover
Separate single release of "What I Need"

"Ghetto Day" and "What I Need" are two songs by American singer-songwriter Crystal Waters, issued as a double A-side in June 1994 as the second single from her second studio album, Storyteller (1994). It was produced by the Basement Boys and released by Mercury Records, A&M Records and A&M's division AM PM.[1] Waters and Sean Spencer wrote "Ghetto Day", which is a funk song that contains samples from The 5th Dimension's song "Stoned Soul Picnic" and Flavor Unit's "Flavor Unit Assassination Squad". According to Spin, the track's lyrics talk about "those balmy, front-stoop, 40-swinging summer afternoons."[2] The single's second A-side, "What I Need", is a house track written by Waters, Doug Smith and Richard Payton.

Contemporary critics complimented both songs and noted them as the album's highlights. Commercially, the joint release entered the top forty in the United Kingdom. "What I Need" was released separately in October 1994 and later became Waters' fourth single to top the US Billboard Dance Club Songs Chart.[3][4] It also reached the top spot of the Bubbling Under Hot 100 and No. 82 of the Billboard Hot 100. In other media, "What I Need" was featured in the film Double Dragon (1994) and an episode of television series So You Think You Can Dance Canada.

  1. ^ Ghetto Day / What I Need (CD single). Crystal Waters. United Kingdom: A&M / AM PM. 1994. 858 959-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  2. ^ Spin staff(s) (June 1994). "Spins" (Google Books). Spin. Vol. 10, no. 3. SpinMedia. p. 99. ISSN 0886-3032. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  3. ^ "Maxi-Single Sales Chart for week ending Oct. 15, 1994" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 106, no. 48. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. October 15, 1994. p. 26. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  4. ^ "Crystal Waters – What I Need". austriancharts.at. Retrieved April 13, 2018.