1/17 - What Was the 1st #1 Song of the '90s?
Plus trivia on Ally McBeal, John McEnroe, Michael Bolton, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
January 17th, 2025 • Issue 239
Be Kind, Rewind
What happened on this day in the ‘80s and ‘90s — plus lots of bonus trivia
January 17th
1984 - The Supreme Court ruled it was legal to use your VCR to record TV shows.
1986 - Iron Eagle hit theaters.
1987 - Gregory Abbott’s single Shake You Down hit number one.
1988 - “The Fumble” cost the Cleveland Browns a trip to the Super Bowl.
1992 - A method to cheat to win ToppsGold baseball cards was revealed on Prodigy.
1994 - A 6.7-magnitude earthquake hit Northridge, California.
1997 - Beverly Hills Ninja hit theaters.
1998 - Savage Garden’s single Truly, Madly, Deeply hit number one.
1998 - Matt Drudge broke the Clinton-Lewinsky story.
1999 - Gary Anderson’s missed field goal cost the Minnesota Vikings a trip to the Super Bowl.
1999 - Shawn Mullins’s one hit, Lullaby, peaked at number seven.
Shawn Mullins’s Lullaby was inspired by a woman who told him her life story after a show — only hers wasn’t tragic.
Shawn Mullins had been an independent musician for years before his breakthrough hit Lullaby (it came on his fourth album).
He says the song was inspired by a woman who shared her life story with him after a show. She’d grown up in Los Angeles and her parents were Hollywood-adjacent, so they went to celebrity parties and the like.
But… unlike the point-of-view in Lullaby, this woman’s story wasn’t a tragic one. Mullins said she had a bright smile and hadn’t been torn up and psychologically damaged by her past.
A happy outcome didn’t make for much of a song, though. So he gave the story its emo twist and that worked.
January 18th
1986 - Dionne Warwick’s single That’s What Friends Are For hit number one.
1987 - Degrassi Junior High premiered.
1990 - Washington, D.C., mayor Marion Berry was arrested for smoking crack in a sting operation.
1991 - Eastern Airlines went out of business after 62 years.
1991 - Amy Grant’s single Baby, Baby was released.
1993 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day became official in all 50 states.
1995 - Yahoo.com was registered.
1996 - The Major League Baseball owners approved interleague play.
1996 - Lisa Marie Presley filed for divorce from Michael Jackson.
1998 - Ally McBeal beat Seinfeld to win the Golden Globe for Best TV Comedy.
Ally McBeal was the first hour-long dramedy to win a major award for TV comedy.
These days, most of the shows that win the Golden Globe and Emmy for Best Comedy are dramatic shows with occasional comedic flashes. (They’ve all accurately identified that those shows are more likely to win in the comedy category than against prestige dramas.)
Ally McBeal was the first to break that barrier. It was the first hour-long show that leaned into as much drama as comedy — if not more — to get a major TV comedy award.
It won the Golden Globe in 1998 and the Emmy the following year.
January 19th
1980 - Michael Jackson’s single Rock with You hit number one.
1983 - A minor league hockey player was traded for a bus.
Yes, a minor league hockey player was traded for a bus.
The Seattle Breakers minor league hockey team had the rights to Tom Martin after the Winnipeg Jets drafted him in 1982.
But he refused to play for the team because they wouldn’t pay for his education. He was willing, however, to play for his hometown Victoria Cougars.
So… the Breakers traded him to the Cougars for a used team bus.
Martin actually did eventually make it to the NHL; he scored 12 goals for the Winnipeg Jets.
He also got the nickname “Bussey” — which stuck for his whole career.
1985 - Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? peaked at number 13.
1988 - 48 Hours premiered on CBS.
1989 - Ronald Reagan pardoned George Steinbrenner for making illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon.
1990 - Tremors hit theaters.
1991 - “Deep Thoughts with Jack Handey” debuted on Saturday Night Live.
1991 - “Coffee Talk” debuted on Saturday Night Live.
1991 - Janet Jackson’s single Love Will Never Do (Without You) hit number one.
1992 - Ric Flair won the vacated WWF title at the Royal Rumble.
1993 - Snow’s album 12 Inches of Snow was released.
1993 - Fleetwood Mac reunited to play at Bill Clinton’s inauguration.
1993 - FOX expanded its prime-time lineup to seven days a week.
1996 - From Dusk Till Dawn hit theaters.
2000 - The WWF’s Times Square restaurant opened.
2000 - Michael Jordan joined the Washington Wizards as part owner.
2002 - The NFL’s Tuck Rule game helped kick off the New England Patriots’ decades of success.
January 20th
1981 - 52 American hostages were released in Iran 20 minutes after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration.
1982 - Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a bat.
1985 - The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins in the Super Bowl.
1989 - Ronald Reagan became the first president elected in a year ending with “0” to leave office alive since 1840.
1990 - Michael Bolton’s single How Am I Supposed to Live Without You hit number one.
How Am I Supposed to Live Without You was the first number one hit of the 1990s.
The number one song on the first two Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1990 (January 6th and 13th) was a carryover from 1989: Phil Collins’s Another Day in Paradise.
So when Michael Bolton climbed to the top on January 20th, he registered the first new number one hit of the ‘90s.
The hit also changed Michael Bolton’s career; prior to that point, he’d been more known as a songwriter than a singer. (Even How Am I Supposed to Live Without You contributed to that; he wrote it in 1982 and Laura Branigan had a #12 hit with it in 1983.)
1990 - Digital Underground’s single The Humpty Dance was released.
1990 - Roseanne Barr married Tom Arnold.
1991 - The Scorpions’ single Winds of Change was released.
1992 - The series finale aired of the G.I. Joe animated series.
1992 - The Heights’ single How Do You Talk to an Angel was released.
1993 - Aubrey Hepburn passed away.
1996 - FOX debuted the glowing hockey puck in its NHL coverage.
1996 - Deep Blue Something’s one hit, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, peaked at number five.
1998 - Dawson’s Creek premiered on the WB as the network expanded to Tuesday night programming.
1998 - Wyclef Jean’s single Gone till November was released.
2002 - Michael Jordan played in Chicago for the first time as a member of another team.
January 21st
1984 - Yes’ single Owner of a Lonely Heart hit number one.
1985 - President Reagan’s second inauguration was the coldest history; his first had been the warmest in history.
1989 - Phil Collins’s single Two Hearts hit number one.
1990 - John McEnroe was ejected from the Australian Open for smashing his racket.
Despite his reputation, John McEnroe was only ejected from one tournament.
McEnroe had run into problems with his temper and antics before. After a meltdown at Wimbledon in 1984, for example, he was disqualified from competing in a tournament the following week.
But he was only thrown out in the middle of a tournament once: The 1990 Australian Open. He was booted for smashing his racket and swearing at the umpire, supervisor, and referee.
1990 - MTV Unplugged premiered.
1994 - Lorena Bobbitt was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
2000 - Down to You and The Boondock Saints both hit theaters.
January 22nd
1984 - The L.A. Raiders defeated the Washington Redskins to win the Super Bowl.
Marcus Allen was the first running back to win Super Bowl MVP.
It took until this Super Bowl, the 28th, for a running back to win MVP.
Three fullbacks won Super Bowl MVP prior to this: Larry Csonka in 1974, Franco Harris in 1975, and John Riggins in 1983.
1984 - Apple’s famous “1984” commercial aired during the Super Bowl.
1987 - Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer committed suicide on live TV.
1989 - The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals to win the Super Bowl.
1994 - Bret Hart and Lex Luger both fell from the ring and were declared co-winners of the WWF Royal Rumble.
1994 - Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, and Sting’s single All for Love hit number one.
1994 - Culture Beat’s one hit, Mr. Vain, peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100.
1998 - The Unabomber plead guilty.
2003 - Chappelle’s Show premiered on Comedy Central.
January 23rd
1983 - The A-Team premiered on NBC.
1984 - Hulk Hogan defeated the Iron Sheik to win his first WWF Championship.
1986 - The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted its first members.
1988 - Michael Jackson’s single The Way You Make Me Feel hit number one.
1989 - Salvador Dali passed away at age 84.
Salvador Dali’s body was exhumed in 2018 — and his signature mustache was still in “excellent condition.”
Dali maintained his famous thin, up-curled mustache even through his final, isolated, illness-stricken years.
In 2018, his body was exhumed for a paternity test. And the examiner noted that even then, three decades later, his mustache was still in “excellent condition.”
Also, he was NOT the father.
1996 - The Smashing Pumpkins single 1979 was released.
1996 - Moesha premiered on UPN.
1996 - The first version of the Java programming language was released.
1998 - Spice World hit theaters.
1999 - Eagle Eye Cherry’s one hit, Save Tonight, peaked at number five.
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
Warner Bros. has Gremlins 3 and a Goonies reboot both officially in the works. Let’s not make it a crossover between them, k?
There’s a rumor that an Air Force One reboot could be happening at Sony.
4 Non Blondes are performing their first official show in 30 years at BottleRock Napa Valley in May.
The Home Alone house in Winnetka, Ill., sold for $5.5 million — that’s above asking — after seven months on the market.
The owners of the brownstone featured in the exterior shots of Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment in Sex and the City have been approved by the city to put up an iron gate to keep fans off their stoop.
Eric Clapton’s famed 1992 appearance on MTV Unplugged is getting an extended release on Paramount+ on February 12th. And on January 27th and 28th, the 90-minute special will screen at some U.S. and U.K. movie theaters.
Director David Lynch, of Twin Peaks and many, many other movies and TV series, passed away this week at age 78.
Mr. Baseball Bob Uecker, the former baseball player turned actor and broadcaster — or both, per his iconic role in Major League — passed away on Thursday at age 90.
Get Your Book-It Stickers Here
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Here’s a ranking by The A.V. Club of the 40 best Aerosmith songs.
Have a great week!
-Sam