“Pony” by Ginuwine

"Pony" was Ginuwine's opening shot, the 1996 debut single from his first album, Ginuwine... the Bachelor, on 550 and Epic. He wrote it with Swing Mob cohorts Static Major and Timbaland, and it was the record that made Timbaland's name as a producer. It had been waiting a while: Timbaland later said in a MasterClass lecture that the instrumental dated back to 1989 and that the song itself was written and cut in 1994.

What finally came out was a bedroom jam told in horse-riding metaphors, set over machine-built music and lush backing vocals. Billboard's Larry Flick called it an even-metered gallop and reckoned Ginuwine's charm and funk made up for a lead vocal that sounded like plenty of others on the radio. It reached No. 6 on the Hot 100 and No. 1 on Billboard's R&B singles chart, and Michael Lucero directed the video.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.