It was Johnny Gill! Did you get this one right? I’m pretty sure many would have thought that he would have chosen Al Green or Al B. because of their higher pitched voices, but nope it was Johnny Gill’s “Rub You The Right Way” that helped to get D’Angelo the loudest cheers on the show.

I wish I would have been a fly on the wall at the Apollo that day because it was probably interesting to hear D’Angelo singing Johnny’s song…especially if he sang it in his signature falsetto voice.

Anyways, check out what D’Angelo explained to interviewer/author, Nelson George, about why Apollo’s musical directors were trying to get him to sing a different song that night:

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GEORGE: What do you, tell me about that experience of going up. You’re 16, Amateur Night at the Apollo from Virginia — how was that?

D’ANGELO: It was surreal. It was amazing. The first time I went, it was sponsored by this whole thing called Kemet Productions. So we would get in the bus from Richmond and get on the highway and it would be a whole bunch of talent on the bus or whatever. And so the people that were in charge, like, I mean, you know, they were kinda trying to tell everybody what to do. “You should sing this song. You should sing a Luther Vandross song. You have a Luther Vandross type of tone.” Or, “Don’t sing a gospel song! They’ll boo you!” Type of shit like that. And you know, I had my mind set on singing Peabo Bryson. I was like, “I’m singing Peabo Bryson.” And they were like, “Don’t sing that song. Please don’t sing that song. They gonna boo you off the stage.” And they had me at the last minute, I was trying to switch the song up.

Anyway, long story short, you know, I rubbed the log or whatever and the girl that goes out right before me sings a gospel song, right, a gospel song. And they booed the shit out of it, man. Like, it was no sympathy. They was so cold-blooded. And she walked off the stage crying. “Alright, young blood, you’re next!” I rubbed the log. And the MC comes out, he’s like, “Yeah, so we got this kid. He’s from way…

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