Swedish singer-songwriter and rapper
Neneh Cherry's interpretation of "I've Got You Under My Skin" was released as the lead single for the
Red Hot + Blue charity album in September 1990 and reached number 25 on the UK Singles Chart. Additionally, it was a top-10 hit in Greece and entered the top 20 in the Netherlands and Sweden. It received critical acclaim from music critics. The accompanying
music video was directed by
Jean-Baptiste Mondino. Cherry replaced most of the lyrics with a rap on
AIDS victims and how society reacts to them. Of the original Cole Porter lyrics, she kept only the first four lines and "Use your mentality, wake up to reality".
Critical reception William Ruhlmann from
AllMusic described the song as one of the most "radical reinterpretations" on
Red Hot + Blue.
David Browne from
Entertainment Weekly felt the words have special urgency in Cherry's "stark, bass-line-propelled take" on "I’ve Got You Under My Skin", because the song begins with a
rap about
AIDS. Paul Lester from
Melody Maker wrote that it's "pretty much unrecognisable from the original tinkly-suave piano nugget loved by pub singers and talent show chancers the world over." He explained, "Neneh's version starts with a rap, leads into a rubbery "
White Lines" bass squiggle, before steel thwacks and programmed claps enclose the song in a glistening metal case. Not bad." Pan-European magazine
Music & Media called it an "utterly brooding version of the old
Cole Porter song, in a splendid production for the
Jungle Brothers'
Baby Afrika Bambaataa." Nick Robinson from
Music Week stated, "With its dark atmosphere and subject matter, it's grim but effective." Gavin Martin from
New Musical Express wrote, "Her provocative revision [...] not only reaffirms her status as the straightest, sharpest shooting soul sister on the block but matches sensitivity with invective in an elegant, mysterious refrain." Parry Gettelman from the
Orlando Sentinel found that the singer "eerily deconstructs "I've Got You Under My Skin" and injects it with a
hip-hop safe-sex message." James Hunter from
Rolling Stone remarked that the "genuine innovations" of Cherry set the tone of the album. Marc Andrews from
Smash Hits felt the track "is the closest any of the artists here get to really putting the message across". Chris Norris from
Spin complimented the singer-songwriter's "chillingly metaphorical" version of the jazz standard.
Charts Weekly charts Year-end charts Release history ==References ==