Songfacts®:

• This song's bass line is sampled from Betty Wright's "Tonight is the Night," which chronicles a young woman's very first "intimate encounter" with a man. In that song, which was recorded during a live performance, Ms. Wright is heard telling her audience the story of how she came to write the song, and how her mother did not exactly approve of her performing it in public. According to Ms. Wright, her mother, properly mortified by the song's subject matter, righteously exclaimed, "I KNOW you're not gonna sing THAT song!" That line ("I KNOW you're not gonna sing THAT song.") can be heard throughout "I Wanna Sex You Up." >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Robin - Birmingham, AL
• This was the debut single for both the group and the record label, Giant Records. It was a huge hit, but it did offend the sensibilities of some listeners. At a few radio stations, they referred to the song as "I Wanna Love You Up."
• This was written for the 1991 movie New Jack City starring Wesley Snipes and Ice-T. When they were looking for songs for the film, the producers wanted the modern R&B sound - "New Jack Swing" - that artists like Bobby Brown and Jodi Watley were using. To get it, they contacted the producer/songwriter Elliott Straite (knows as "Dr. Freeze"), who had written the Bell Biv Devoe hit "Poison."
  
  They showed him the film and let him pick a scene to soundtrack; he chose one where the character Uniqua (Tracy Camilla Johns) does a striptease for Nino, the kingpin played by Snipes. He wrote this sexy song specifically for the scene.
• Bryan Abrams, Kevin Thornton, Mark Calderon, and Sam Watters formed the group (originally called Take One) at Northwestern High School in Oklahoma City. They made their debut at a high school talent show singing a jingle from a jeans commercial. When they were starting out, the group was known for its impromptu auditions, having sung without notice to Ronnie Milsap, Huey Lewis, Sheila E, The O'Jays, Jon Bon Jovi, Kool & the Gang, and Tony! Toni! Tone!
• This is by far Color Me Badd's most famous song, but it's not their biggest American chart success: Their next two singles, "I Adore Mi Amor" and "All 4 Love," went to #1.
• This was used on Color Me Badd's first album, and also on the New Jack City soundtrack. The version on the soundtrack is rougher and a little more raunchy, with a spoken interlude where one of the guys tells a girl to "just lay back and enjoy the ride."
• Bryan Abrams sang lead on this track. When he heard the playback, he hated his vocal, but he got over it fast when the song became a huge hit.
• The soundbite "to the tik tok ya don't stop" that's sampled throughout is from "La Di Da Di," the 1985 hip-hop single from Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh.