Bubbling Under: The Gap Band- "Beep A Freak"

A track that hit the Bubbling Under charts around the same time I was born

Welcome to Bubbling Under. Each edition I cover an artist that charted outside the Hot 100 on Billboard's Bubbling Under chart. This week: The Gap Band

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Today’s selection bubbled under on January 12, 1985, five days after I was born. This wasn’t the first time The Gap Band hit the Bubbling Under chart (though it was the last). I’m a pretty big fan of some of their other singles, so I’m going to start this post off in 1985 with the intent to cover The Gap Band again at a later date.

The Tulsa based Gap band formed in 1967 around brothers Charlie, Ronnie, and Robert Wilson. The group was originally called The Greenwood, Archer, and Pine Band. Later, this was shortened to The Gap Band.

By 1984, the trio had released nine albums and scored three #1 R&B hits. They’d had two Billboard Top 40 hits with “Early In The Morning” and the banger “You Dropped A Bomb On Me” as well as a string of UK hits.

“Beep A Freak” was released towards the end of 1984 and peaked at #2 on the R&B charts. It also became a minor dance hit at #66 and just barely missed the Hot 100 at #103.

“Beep A Freak” is an uptempo funk track about the singer getting his girlfriend a beeper so he can continue to communicate with her when she’s not at home. Or something along those lines. There might be a double entendre I’m missing.

Like most hardcore funk tracks that were huge hits on the R&B charts this just wasn’t pop enough to cross over.

Following “Beep-A-Freak”, the brothers had a bit of a downturn. The follow-up, “I Found My Baby” was a #8 R&B hit. I preferred this over “Beep-A-Freak”:

They also had a #2 R&B hit about a year later with another ballad “Going In Circles” as well as a top ten with “Big Fun”. “Big Fun” also became their highest charting UK hit when it crossed over to #4 on the pop charts.

By 1988, things improved somewhat when they provided the theme tune to the classic Wayans Brothers comedy “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka”.

After this, the Gap Band had one more big R&B hit with the #1 charting “All Of My Love”. They released three more largely ignored albums in the 1990s.

After some personal problems which resulted in him being homeless at one point, Charlie resumed his solo career and scored two minor hits on the Hot 100 during the 2000s. His biggest solo hit was in 2005 with the title track to his album “Charlie, Last Name Wilson” which peaked at #67.

Robert and Ronnie later both passed away in 2010 and 2021, respectively. The Gap band do live on, however. They’re extremely influential and a number of their songs have been sampled by many artists over the years. Most recently, they were sampled by Canadian hip hop duo LNDN DRGS (a play on the Canadian pharmacy chain) on their track “Fun”. Neither the duo nor the track is my cup of tea so I decided against posting it, but it’s great to see The Gap Band still influencing artists to this day.

Sunday: With help from Brad Kyle of Front Row And Backstage I cover three minor chart hits from 1975.