“Creep” by TLC

"Creep" was the first taste of CrazySexyCool, TLC's second album, released on LaFace on October 31, 1994, and it's the sound of a group remaking itself, all slinky new jack swing melting into smooth R&B. Dallas Austin wrote and produced it, setting out to write from a woman's point of view and drawing on T-Boz Watkins's experience of infidelity, flipped so the women answer a cheating lover by stepping out for some affection of their own.

Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes was so opposed to that angle that she threatened to turn up in the video with black tape across her mouth, and she later added a safe-sex rap to the remixes. Matthew Rolston's clip, all satin pajamas and sharp choreography, sealed the makeover, and the single gave TLC their first Billboard Hot 100 number one, four straight weeks of it, plus a Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

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