"No Scrubs" is the title of a Grammy Award winning song recorded by American R&B girl group TLC for their album FanMail. It was released in January 1999 as the album's first single, "No Scrubs" became TLC's third number-one single and eighth top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100. It also earned them their second Grammy nomination for Record of the Year. The single is generally considered to be one of the group's signature songs and was the 2nd biggest Hot 100 single of 1999, according to Billboard's Year End Charts. The single was certified platinum in the US, the UK, and New Zealand. This song also Features uncredited background vocals from Kandi Burruss & Tameka Cottle of the Group Xscape who also wrote the song.^[2] The song is also notable because it features Rozonda Thomas, aka 'Chilli' on lead vocals. Lead vocals on TLC's major hits from Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip and CrazySexyCool were sung by TLC members Tionne Watkins and Lisa Lopes.

Chart performance [link]

"No Scrubs" climbed into the U.S. top ten as an airplay only song and jumped to number one upon the single release. The single stayed at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks from April 10, 1999 to May 7, 1999. The single stayed in the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100 for 17 consecutive weeks. "No Scrubs" airplay was at the time astonishing; it was the very first song to peak with over 140 million audience impressions,^[3] and was crowned the Top Airplay Song of 1999. It has holds the record for most weeks at #1 on the Rhythmic Top 40 with 15 weeks. "No Scrubs" is listed at number 161 on the All Time Singles Chart Worldwide with points of over 6,000,000.

Music video [link]

The futuristic music video directed by Hype Williams also received massive airplay on MTV, and won the group the 1999 MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video, beating out favorites 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys. Each member had a set in the video. The video also has a dance sequence where the girls dance in front of the "TLC" logo. The Main Mix is used in the video instead of the album version. The video features the girls in three different outfits: white, black, silver and Left Eye in blue. When there are shots of the girls together they have two different outfits: black and silver. T-Boz's hair is fuchsia in the video. The set up of the video is similar to Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson's video "Scream".

Tracklisting [link]

• US CD Single

1. "No Scrubs" (Album Version) - 3:39
2. "No Scrubs" (Instrumental) - 3:37

• International CD1

1. "No Scrubs" (Album Version) - 3:37
2. "No Scrubs" (Main Mix with Left Eye's Rap) - 4:00
3. "No Scrubs" (Instrumental) - 3:37
4. "Silly Ho" (Album Version) - 4:16

• International CD2

1. "No Scrubs" (Album Version) - 3:39
2. "Waterfalls" (Radio Version) - 4:19
3. "Creep" (Radio Version) - 4:26

Chart performance [link]

Covers [link]

• During live performances, Blink-182 commonly used the "No Scrubs" chorus during the bridge of the 1998 hit "Dammit".
• Welsh band Kids in Glass Houses covered this song at an acoustic night of the Full Ponty festival.
• Swing Out Sister also covered the "No Scrubs" chorus in their version of "Now You're Not Here" registered live on Live in Tokyo (2005).
• Marjorie Dawes sang part of the song on the UK comedy show Shooting Stars.
• Incubus covered part of "No Scrubs" during their MTV Acoustic performance
• Lisa Loeb performed an acoustic cover of part of the song when she appeared on a late-night talk show in 2000.
• Lizette Carter recorded a cover for the animated film Happy Feet (2006).
• UK band The Saturdays covered the track in 2010, but their version remains unreleased, Only a live version exists.
• Philadelphia singer/songwriter Avi Wisnia covered the song on his 2010 album "Something New"^[14]
• Karmin covered "No Scrubs" in 2011 shortly before releasing "Crash Your Party", connecting the "throwback cover" of the song to the "old school sample" in "Crash Your Party"

References [link]