“Push It” by Salt n Pepa

"Push It" started out as a B-side, tucked behind Salt-N-Pepa's "Tramp", until the flip took over: put out again through Next Plateau and London Records, it climbed to number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 early in 1988. Hurby Azor and Ray Davies share the writing credit, and it's also on the group's album A Salt With a Deadly Pepa.

Britain needed a second look. The single first stalled at 41 there, then came roaring back after the group performed it at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute, and by July 1988 it had reached number two. It went platinum in the US, and the lists have kept it close ever since: Rolling Stone later placed it at 446 among the 500 greatest songs of all time, and VH1 ranked it ninth among the greatest hip-hop songs.

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