“I Wish” by Skee-Lo

Skee-Lo's "I Wish" was the lead single and title track of the rapper's 1995 debut album, released on Scotti Brothers and recorded at Sunshine Studios in Hollywood. He produced it with Walter "Kandor" Kahn, and most of its easy, rolling groove is borrowed: the instruments come largely from Bernard Wright's "Spinnin'", and a burst of shouting voices is lifted from Malcolm McLaren's "Buffalo Gals". McLaren, Trevor Horn and Anne Dudley share the writing credit with Skee-Lo and Alvin Flythe.

That good-natured bounce carried it to 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and a gold record, with top-ten placings in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Switzerland and the Netherlands. It even drew a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance, losing to Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise", and Blender later ranked it 359th on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born".

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