Addams Groove

This is the theme, custom-written by MC Hammer (real name: Stanley Kirk Burrell), for the launch of the 1990s run of The Addams Family film series, which introduced a whole new generation of fans to the comically creepy characters. MC Hammer was still on the rise, and having a rap artist do the theme song added a contemporary feel to the movie, which was based on a '60s TV series.

The music video is a wildly creative production, starting with Wednesday and Pugsley about to have Hammer's pumpkin in a basket with their guillotine, then Hammer seeking refuge in an iron maiden (by the way, check the history - such a devise was never actually used), Hammer spinning on a torture wheel, Hammer's head on a platter at the dinner table, Hammer dancing in a trench in the graveyard, sword-fighting with the cast, hi-fiving Thing (the disembodied hand), and mixing a sample from "2 Legit 2 Quit."

"Addams Groove" was released as a single late in 1991 not long after "2 Legit 2 Quit," the title track to MC Hammer's much-anticipated fourth album. With big-budget videos and his hype machine in high gear, both songs made a strong showing, with "2 Legit" reaching #5 in America and selling Platinum, and "Addams Groove" making at #7 and going Gold - both songs reached their chart peak the same week: January 11, 1992. These were solid showings, but not by the lofty expectations set by Hammer, who expected the momentum from his 1990 album Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em to keep going strong. Both songs faded fast and the subsequent tour was cut short. "Addams Groove" gets about as much airplay these days as The Addams Family movie gets viewings, but it stands as a marker for when franchise movies started to intersect with hip-hop. The next film in the franchise, Addams Family Values, was released in 1993 and tried a similar strategy, with the rap duo Tag Team handling the theme song: "Addams Family (Whoomp!)."