Essentially a proto-N-Dubz, 3 Of A Kind are perhaps the epitome of One Hit Wonder. That is to say they had one hit single - a big, Number One hit single - and then vanished.
From left to right in the above picture are Marc Portelli AKA Marky P, Liana Caruana AKA Mz Tipzta and Nicholas Gallante AKA Devine MC. Crazy names, crazy guys. Together they produced 'Baby Cakes', a song they described as a "summer-soaked, sultry slice of up-tempo 2-step". So basically it was shit. Not that that held them back.
Miraculously, something about the track connected with the record buying public - admittedly not a very large group of people, with this being summer 2004 - selling 55,000 copies in its week of release and therefore beating Real Music deities The Libertines to Number One. The unintentionally hilarious video, with its terrible puns, unsubtle misogyny and shots of Marky P enjoying platefuls of cake was a favourite on the music channels. By Christmas it had sold 230,000 copies, making it the 12th best selling single of the year. The group itself, however, had already sunk without trace. A follow up, 'Wink One Eye' (with the endearing lyric "I feel aroused like I'm around Girls Aloud") was mooted, but never released, thus ending the 3 Of A Kind story.
...Or so you might think. A Google search for 'Nicholas Gallante' pulls up his Twitter page as the first hit. It's there that he trumpets "BACK IN THE STUDIO WITH 3 OF A KIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" On their Twitter, 3 Of A Kind proudly state that they are "best known for our 2004 #1 hit Baby Cakes. The members are Liana Caruana(Miz Tipzta) Nicholas Gallante(Mc Devine) & WE ARE BACK." It's all very exciting. Except for one thing. Where's Marky P? Surely it's a fundamental flaw for a band called 3 Of A Kind to have only two members. Perhaps, as they did with the problem of 'Baby Cakes'' monumental shitness, they'll plough on regardless. In fact: "SOON COMING GUYS NEW SONG FROM 3 OF A KIND - Look out for smokemachine"
Where did you hear wink one eye? Was it a good song?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I haven't had the pleasure of hearing it. It might be floating around the internet somewhere though, the information I found about it came from old message board posts by people who did.
Delete