Throwback Thursdays: Kevin Lyttle on “Turn Me On”

Words by Kevin Lyttle, as told to Jesse Serwer

It’s hard to believe but this month marks 10 years since Kevin Lyttle’s “Turn Me On” entered the Top 10 on the Billbord singles charts, culminating its rise from local carnival hit in St. Vincent to ubiquitous international smash. But its history goes back far earlier.

Even considering the slow pace with which it usually takes for Caribbean songs to rise to the pop charts, “Turn Me On” had a remarkably long-winded rise. The track was written and recorded in early 2001 for release at Vincy Mas that summer, making its way across the Caribbean in time to impact Trinidad Carnival the following winter. It had already been a hit in Canada for over a year and reached No. 1 in Holland when Atlantic Records signed Lyttle and officially released “Turn Me On” as a single featuring Spragga Benz in September 2003. Nearly a year, and two more music videos. later (a now forgotten first clip was shot in St. Vincent back in ’01), it peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts, earning Lyttle a place on year-end hit lists and, a few years later, VH-1’s one-hit winder countdown.

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of “Turn Me On”’s (as well as of Lyttle’s self-titled debut, which featured background vocals from a pre-fame Trey Songz), we spoke to Kevin Lyttle about his unlikely worldwide hit. Click here to read what he had to say.

“Turn Me On” was made in April/May of 2001 at Sky Studios in St. Vincent with the producer Adrian Bailey, and released on June 10 of 2001 at Vincy Carnival. But it was actually written in December of 2000.

My intention was to show that soca music can crossover like how Shabba and all these people crossed over into American culture. I wanted to show that soca can appeal to not just the local market but internationally. What actually happened with the song was my intention, but I didn’t expect it to work as well as it did. I said to the producer Adrian Bailey, I want that sound from those old dancehall records by people like Little Lenny and Beenie Man, on the old Punanny riddim (sings) choon-choonk-a-choonk, choon-choonk-a-choonk. The original Punanny riddim had that lighter bass line, so I took it and guided the producer with that, and that’s how the music of “Turn Me On” was designed. He’s an expert musician and did a really good job of making the tones have their own unique sound. It captured the old Punanny riddim but with a nuance with me singing that melody, which was an interpolation of a 112 song called “All My Love.”

It was kind of shocking at first, because when the song came out, people saw me bring the song and knew I sang it but a lot of people didn’t believe it was me at first, especially people who didn’t know me personally. And people who heard me sing before believe that was my voice. Because I actually used to twist my voice to [sound] something like Buju or Shaggy or Spragga. I dabbled in the dancehall a lot because I loved dancehall. It was part of the Caribbean culture that drove me as a young person in the music industry in St. Vincent.

The response was pretty incredible. [DJs] would have to play it again at first just because of how good the record was, and then I would still have the haters who would say, ‘You didn’t really sing that song,’ or ‘I don’t like that song,’ or ‘How your voice too high?‘ But the song would keep playing.

I revisited the song twice. I’ve done the version with Spragga Benz. At the time the Diwali riddim started bubbling in the Caribbean so that kind of clapping was added for the chorus of “Turn Me On” for the version on the album, but it wasn’t much different than the original version.

And there was a very strong remix with Alison Hinds that did very well because the producer of the remix was a Canadian gentleman from Trinidad, Ian Wilshire. That gave the record the extra reach it needed in Canada. Canada loved the record. I was doing all these big gigs in Canada between 2001 and 2003, reaching all the major radio stations in Canada on my own without having a major label. Ian as a Canadian citizen was able to get the song CanCon status. Which means the song has Canadian content. [That helps] a song get play on regular rotation.

All that was leading up to 2003 when Atlantic signed me and put the record out with the video with Little X. The first video for the song was shot by me in 2001 in the Carnival. Later on that year, they did the third video which was shot in Jamaica with Spragga Benz. Atlantic Records had this wonderful idea to be more urban and appeal to Hot 97 and all these stations, so we needed to sing it over and put Spragga on as a more urban soundng artist. That’s why you have three versions of the video.