This Is Not Gangsta Rap

I'm eighteen with a bullet

Got my finger on the trigger

Gonna pull it





Do not let these threatening lyrics fool you. This is not gangsta rap. It is a song from 1975. Sung in pitch-perfect doo wop style, "Eighteen" features the kind of pure vocal harmony that went out of style a decade before the song was recorded.

The lead singer of Eighteen With A Bullet is Pete Wingfield. I'm certain that bets have been lost as to his racial identity. The best way to answer that question is to paraphrase Jefferson High School's Nikki Hill. Think of Pete Wingfield as white on the outside and black on the inside.

But don't let the last paragraph fool you. Mr. Wingfield is much more than a singer. Wikipedia describes him as an "English record producer, keyboard player, songwriter, singer and music journalist." He is also a tongue-in-cheek satirist, redundancy notwithstanding.

The Eighteen refers to the Billboard chart position and the Bullet refers to a hit song that is quickly climbing up the charts.

As a pianist, Pete Wingfield has recorded with B. B. King, Van Morrison and a guy named Paul McCartney. For eighteen years, he toured with the Everly Brothers.

Frieda Ensultem, an executive officer of Plan 9 Music concept insists on this addendum.

Anyone who thinks Pete Wingfield, of Eighteen With A Bullet fame, is a One-Hit Wonder is someone with a one-digit IQ.