Songfacts®:

• The Gap Band smooth it out on "Outstanding," with a mellow groove and a lyric that finds lead singer Charlie Wilson letting his baby know just how much she means to him - she's outstanding.
  
  The song was inspired by a different kind of baby: the one-year-old daughter of Ray Calhoun, who wrote the song. Calhoun played percussion for the Gap Band and also wrote songs. One day he was playing piano at home and the tune just came to him. Looking at his daughter led to the lyric.
  
  "She was sitting there and I was happy that she was born," he said in the Billboard Book Of #1 Hits. "I got inspired and came up with the hook while I was playing the chords, saying, 'She's outstanding.'"
• The single was cut down to 3:18, but many fans prefer the extended version, which runs 6:15 with lots of nifty percussion breaks provided by the song's writer, Ray Calhoun.
• "Outstanding" was the third of four #1 R&B hits for The Gap Band, following "Burn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)" and "Early In The Morning," and preceding "All Of My Love," which came much later in 1989. The band was comprised of the three Wilson brothers from Tulsa, Oklahoma. When the disco era ended, they shined with a funk sound that mixed keyboards, drum machines and big basslines to form songs that were danceable and fun.
• The Gap Band's producer, Lonnie Simmons, could be very exacting in the studio, but according to Ray Calhoun, "Outstanding" was recorded in one take, with Simmons willing to accept any imperfections because it had the right feel.
• Shaquille O'Neal (yes, the basketball player) borrowed parts of it for his 1994 single "I'm Outstanding"; Soul For Real used the groove in their 1995 hit "Every Little Thing I Do," and Ashanti lifted pieces for her 2002 hit "Happy." A notable cover is by Kenny Thomas, whose version was a hit in the UK in 1990, going to #12.