Freak Like Me - Sugababes Version

Sugababes Version

In 2001, English girl group Sugababes covered "Freak like Me". Their version, however, uses a completely different backing track (sampled from Gary Numan and Tubeway Army's "Are 'Friends' Electric?") and used the radio edit lyrics of Howard's song ("brotha" is used instead of "nigga"). Numan was now credited as a co-writer of the song.

The Sugababes-recorded version was originally a bootleg mashup titled "We Don't Give a Damn About our Friends," created by producer Richard X under the alias Girls on Top. Richard X created the mashup without the permission of the copyright holders of the songs, but it became a successful underground dance track. After failing to gain permission to use Adina Howard's vocals for a commercial release, the Sugababes were chosen by Richard X to record them instead.

The sound effect featured at the beginning of the song is the coin-insert tone from the popular 1981 video game Frogger. (The sound was also used to begin the song "Froggy's Lament," about the video game itself, on Buckner and Garcia's Pac-Man Fever album.)

The song appeared on the Sugababes' second studio album, Angels with Dirty Faces. It was produced by Richard X and received rave reviews from music critics. It was released as the first single from the album, in the spring of 2002 and reached number one in the United Kingdom (where it sold 275,871 copies), number two in Ireland, and number four in Norway. "Freak like Me" was the first single to feature vocals by Heidi Range, after the departure from the Sugababes of Siobhán Donaghy in 2001. The song also appears on Richard X's album, Richard X Presents His X-Factor Vol. 1.