10/13 - The '84 Best Song Oscar Featured What 5 #1 hits?
Plus an oral history of the GoldenEye N64 game and trivia on Clerks, Michael Bolton, Roseanne, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
October 13th, 2023 • Issue 173
This week in the ‘80s and ‘90s
October 13th
1984 - Stevie Wonder’s single I Just Called to Say I Love You hit number one.
I Just Called to Say I Love You beat four other number one hits for the Oscar for Best Original Song — the only time the category has featured exclusively number ones.
I Just Called to Say I Love You came from the soundtrack to the movie The Woman in Red, and won the Oscar over:
Phil Collins’ Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) from Against All Odds…
Kenny Loggins’s Footloose and Deniece Williams’s Let’s Hear it For the Boy, both from Footloose…
And Ray Parker Jr.’s Ghostbusters from Ghostbusters.
1989 - Look Who’s Talking and The Fabulous Baker Boys both his theaters.
1990 - George Michael’s single Praying for Time hit number one.
1991 - Jennifer Lopez debuted as a Fly Girl on In Living Color.
1992 - Boyz II Men’s single In the Still of the Night was released.
1995 - Demi Moore’s movie The Scarlet Letter hit theaters.
1997 - The Spice Girls single Spice Up Your Life was released.
1999 - Puff Daddy’s single Satisfy You was released.
2000 - The Ladies Man hit theaters.
2001 - Derek Jeter made a famous flip throw to get the New York Yankees an unlikely out in a playoff game against the Oakland A’s.
October 14th
1977 - Atari released the first home video game console.
1979 - Wayne Gretzky scored his first NHL goal.
1982 - Ronald Reagan declared a war on drugs.
1986 - The International Olympic Committee decided to start staggering the winter and summer Olympics instead of holding both in the same year.
1987 - Baby Jessica fell down a well.
1988 - The Accused debuted in theaters.
1989 - Michael Bolton’s single How Am I Supposed to Live Without You was released.
Michael Bolton originally wrote How Am I Supposed to Live Without You for another artist (who recorded it and had a hit with it first).
In 1983, Laura Branigan released How Am I Supposed to Live Without You, written for her by Doug James and Michael Bolton. Her version peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Then in 1989, Bolton released his own version as part of his sixth studio album. His version made it to number one and won him a Grammy.
1994 - Pulp Fiction hit theaters, as did Little Giants, Exit to Eden, and Hoop Dreams.
1996 - Spice Girls’ single Say You’ll Be There was released.
1997 - Paula Cole’s single I Don’t Want to Wait, Ma$e’s single Feel So Good, and Lisa Loeb’s single I Do were released.
2003 - Steve Bartman tried to catch a foul ball at a Cubs playoff game and became public enemy number one in Chicago.
October 15th
1980 - George Brett had to leave a World Series game due to hemorrhoids.
1981 - The first crowd wave was done inside of a sports stadium.
1981 - Metallica was formed.
1981 - Evil Dead hit theaters.
1987 - Bob Barker stopped dying his hair.
1988 - UB40’s single Red Red Wine hit number one.
1988 - Kirk Gibson hit his famous World Series game-winning home run.
1989 - Wayne Gretzky set the NHL scoring record.
1991 - Ugly Kid Joe’s album As Ugly As They Wanna Be was released.
Ugly Kid Joe’s As Ugly As They Wanna Be was the first EP ever to go multi-platinum.
As Ugly As They Wanna Be featured just five songs (and a sixth track that was 25 seconds long) and lasted less than 25 minutes. But on the strength of their almost-novelty single Everything About You, the EP was certified double platinum (2 million copies sold) by the RIAA.
It was the first EP (officially called a “Short Form Album”) to ever reach that designation.
1991 - Clarence Thomas was regrettably confirmed for the Supreme Court.
1993 - Nelson Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize.
1993 - Rudy hit theaters.
1993 - Bryan Adams’s single Please Forgive Me was released.
1999 - Fight Club hit theaters.
2000 - Curb Your Enthusiasm premiered on HBO.
2001 - Smallville premiered on the WB.
October 16th
1983 - The Baltimore Orioles won the World Series over the Philadelphia Phillies.
1983 was Cal Ripken Jr.’s only World Series appearance, even with his 2,632 consecutive game streak.
None of the 28 playoff games (including the five from this World Series) counted toward Ripken’s streak; it was regular season only.
He did, however, play in all 28 of the Orioles’ playoff games that took place during his career.
1987 - Baby Jessica was rescued from the well.
1992 - The never-before-aired and quite different Gilligan’s Island pilot episode aired on TBS.
1992 - Candyman hit theaters.
1995 - The Million Man March was held in Washington, D.C.
1998 - Practical Magic and the Bride of Chucky hit theaters.
October 17th
1981 - Christopher Cross’s Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do) hit number one.
1983 - The Sally Jessy Raphael Show premiered.
1987 - Hans and Franz debuted on Saturday Night Live.
1987 - Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam’s single Lost in Emotion hit number one.
1988 - The Traveling Wilburys’ debut album was released.
1989 - Billy Joel’s album Storm Front was released.
1989 - The World Series was delayed by an earthquake in California.
1997 - Warren G sued Garth Brooks over use of a “g” in his logo.
1997 - I Know What You Did Last Summer hit theaters.
Though I Know What You Did Last Summer came out after Scream and was sometimes considered a rip-off, Kevin Williamson actually wrote IKWYDLS first.
Williamson tried to sell I Know What You Did Last Summer but found no success… so he wrote Scream. When it went on to become a phenomenon, then he had no trouble selling and making I Know What You Did Last Summer.
1997- The Devil’s Advocate hit theaters.
1998 - Jump, Jive, an’ Wail by the Brian Setzer Orchestra peaked at number 23.
1998 - Barenaked Ladies’ single One Week hit number one, and stayed there for exactly one week.
1998 - Jay Z’s single Hard Knock Life was released.
1998 - Halloweentown premiered on Disney Channel.
October 18th
1977 - Reggie Jackson hit three home runs in a World Series game, inspiring the game of baseketball in the process.
1988 - Roseanne premiered.
Roseanne Barr vandalized Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s car for parking in Tom Arnold’s spot.
Both Roseanne and Seinfeld filmed on the same lot, at CBS Studio Center. Julia Louis-Dreyfus parked in Tom Arnold’s spot in March of 1993; she said security guards told her to because of construction.
Roseanne (married to Tom Arnold at the time), wrote two obscenities on Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s car, along with a Polaroid of a still-unidentified nude man’s hairy butt.
1991 - My Own Private Idaho and Vanilla Ice’s movie Cool As Ice hit theaters.
1996 - Sleepers hit theaters.
1996 - Swingers hit theaters.
1997 - The infamous Walker, Texas Ranger AIDS episode premiered.
2002 - The Ring hit theaters.
October 19th
1982 - St. Elsewhere premiered on NBC.
1985 - a-ha’s single Take On Me hit number one.
1987 - The stock market had the “Black Monday” stock crash.
1988 - Roxette’s album Look Sharp! was released.
1994 - Clerks hit theaters.
Only two of the 50 actors credited in Clerks had a film credit prior to the movie.
Those two were Gary Stern, who played “Tabloid Reading Customer” in Clerks, and Mitch Cohen, who played “Leaning Against Wall.”
1994 - Dinosaurs premiered during TGIF.
1998 - Cher’s single Believe was released.
1999 - Being John Malkovich hit theaters.
2001 - Riding in Cars with Boys and Mulholland Drive both hit theaters.
2002 - Making the Band 2, which made a group literally called Da Band, premiered.
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
During a standup show in Boston last weekend, Jerry Seinfeld said, “Something is going to happen that has to do with [the Seinfeld] ending. It hasn’t happened yet… and just what you are thinking about, Larry [David] and I are also thinking about.”
The creator of Doug says he’s working on a sequel series.
The first Sister Act featured an actor playing the Pope… for Sister Act 3, Whoopi Goldberg revealed that she actually met the Pope (most likely as part of the movie).
A Garbage Pail Kids animated series that’s been in development for years is “not dead yet.”
Mary Lou Retton is fighting a rare form of pneumonia and doesn’t have health insurance — so she’s using crowdfunding for her medical debt.
98 Degrees says Taylor Swift has inspired them to re-record some of their masters to take back ownership of their songs.
Carson Daly shared the story of having a panic attack on the set of Total Request Live.
In Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new self-help book/memoir Be Useful, he says he had to bite into an actual dead vulture during the filming of 1982’s Conan the Barbarian.
John Carpenter says he knows who was and wasn’t infected by the replicating alien in the ambiguous ending of 1982’s The Thing — but he won’t reveal the answer.
Recommendations of the week
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved
Check out an oral history of GoldenEye 007 from Nintendo 64, one of the most popular games for that system and of the ‘90s.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you forgot
Here’s a list of the most controversial song from the year you were born, covering every year of the ‘80s and ‘90s (and plenty before and after). While some are a bit of a stretch for milder years, there are some real forgotten gems in here.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you never knew existed
And finally, the story of someone who was “an extra in Oasis’s strangest music video.”
Have a great week!
-Sam