49 Doo Wop (That Thing)

LAURYN HILL 1998

Hill’s debut solo single following the success of the Fugees’ The Score was a bit different from what fans had heard from the young star. “She wanted to bring some of that doo-wop swing essence to the song,” backup singer Lenesha Randolph recalled.

Hill and her singers recorded it after dinner one night, channeling a barbershop-quartet style as Hill warns both men and women of being too concerned with sex and power. It was a potent entrance for the then-23-yearold artist, and it became the first Number One single to be written, produced, and performed by a sole woman in a decade.