Ab major · Camelot 4B · 108 BPM
Mr. Wendal
by Arrested Development
- 108
- BPM
- Ab major
- Key
- 4B
- Camelot
- 89
- Danceability
- 2
- Acousticness
Arrested Development were riding high off their debut album, 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of..., when they put out "Mr. Wendal" in December 1992. It followed their previous hit "People Everyday", and in Europe and Australia it arrived as a double A-side with the group's next single, "Revolution". In the United States, the song climbed to number six on the Billboard Hot 100, moved 500,000 copies and picked up a gold certification, while also reaching the top 10 in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
The track earned warm words from critics on release. Larry Flick of Billboard called it "another gem", and Sharon O'Connell in Melody Maker heard rap taken off the streets and made rural, praising Speech's social concern for the homeless couched in earthy tones. NME named it Single of the Week, though another writer at the same magazine felt it was spoilt by being an exact copy of De La Soul's "Eye Know". Smash Hits gave it five out of five and named it Best New Single.
A music video directed by Keith Ward accompanied the release and picked up a nomination for Best R&B Music Video at the 1994 Soul Train Music Awards. That same year, the song received one of BMI's Pop Awards, honoring its songwriters, composers and music publishers.
Mr. Wendal runs at 108 BPM, the tempo of mid-tempo pop, dancehall and indie. In classical terms it sits in moderato territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.22 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 556 ms. It is in Ab major, Camelot 4B, which shares its notes with F minor and mixes cleanly with Db major and Eb major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.