3/14 - What '90s Song Debuted on SNL 8 Years Before It Hit?
Plus trivia on the Goo Goo Dolls, The Greatest American Hero, Joan Jett, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
March 14th, 2025 • Issue 247
Be Kind, Rewind
What happened on this day in the ‘80s and ‘90s — plus lots of bonus trivia
March 14th
1987 - Huey Lewis and the News’ single Jacob’s Ladder hit number one.
1990 - Heart’s single All I Want to Do Is Make Love to You was released.
1992 - Farm Aid V was held in Irving, Texas.
1992 - The Soviet newspaper Pravda shut down.
1995 - The Goo Goo Dolls’ album A Boy Named Goo was released.
Walmart pulled A Boy Named Goo off the shelves over its album cover.
The cover of A Boy Named Goo shows a kid covered in blackberry juice. But some Walmart customers thought it was blood… so the chain stopped selling the album.
Goo Goo Dolls lead singer John Rzeznik called it ridiculous: “The name of the album is A Boy Named Goo. The picture is of a boy covered with goo. What part of this concept are they unclear on?”
1995 - Collective Soul’s single December was released.
1996 - A Canadian Football League team drafted a dead player... for the second year in a row.
1998 - KP & Envyi’s one hit, Swing My Way, peaked at number six.
1998 - Will Smith’s single Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It hit number one.
1998 - Ray Charles made his first solo performance in 53 years on QVC of all places.
March 15th
44 B.C. - Julius Caesar was stabbed to death despite prophetic warnings.
1981 - The series finale aired of the original version of The Muppet Show.
1985 - Symbolic.com was the first .com domain name ever registered.
1986 - Starship’s song Sara hit number one.
1988 - The St. Louis Cardinals NFL team moved to Phoenix.
1994 - Madonna’s single I’ll Remember was released.
1996 - Executive Decision hit theaters.
Paramount traded Executive Decision to Warner Bros. for Forrest Gump.
In the early ‘90s, Paramount had the script for Executive Decision and Warner Bros. had the script for Forrest Gump.
The studios both wanted each others’ project… so they swapped the two.
At the time, Executive Decision was considered a hotter property than Forrest Gump.
March 16th
1985 - Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s one hit, Relax, peaked at number 10.
1993 - France legalized ostrich eating.
1994 - Tonya Harding plead guilty to conspiracy in the Nancy Kerrigan attack.
1995 - Eazy-E announced he had AIDS.
1997 - The famous prohibition episode of The Simpsons aired on FOX.
1999 - The PC game Everquest was released.
Everquest was the first 3D MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role-playing game).
Everquest became the most popular MMORPG for the next five years, until World of Warcraft came on the scene.
2001 - WCW Monday Nitro and WCW Thunder were both canceled by Turner Broadcasting, bringing an end to wrestling’s Monday night wars.
2001 - Memento hit theaters.
March 17th
1988 - Apple sued Microsoft for copyright infringement over Windows.
1990 - Biz Markie’s one hit, Just a Friend, peaked at number nine.
1992 - Reforms to end apartheid passed in South Africa.
1992 - En Vogue’s single My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It) was released.
1995 - The first chickenpox vaccine was approved by the FDA.
1997 - The Eagles’ album Their Greatest Hits tied Michael Jackson’s Thriller as the bestselling album in U.S. history.
1998 - K-Ci and JoJo’s single All My Life was released.
All My Life by K-Ci & JoJo was originally written by JoJo for a female artist.
JoJo, of K-Ci & JoJo, wrote the song for a female artist on their label. But once it was done, he and K-Ci realized it was “too hot” and decided to keep it for themselves.
2000 - Erin Brockovich, Final Destination, and Beyond the Mat all hit theaters.
March 18th
1981 - The Greatest American Hero and its theme song premiered on NBC.
The main character of The Greatest American Hero had a name change — from Ralph Hinkley to Ralph Hanley — after John Hinckley Jr.’s attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan.
The Greatest American Hero premiered on this day in 1981, just a few weeks before the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan.
The show scrambled to change the lead character’s last name, and dubbed over “Hanley” for the next two episodes of the show.
By season two, the character was back to being Hinkley.
1988 - Police Academy 5 hit theaters.
1990 - The largest art heist in the history of the world went down in Boston.
1992 - Leona Helmsley was sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion.
1993 - Duice’s single Dazzey Duks was released.
1993 - 15th-seed Santa Clara upset 2nd-seed Arizona in the NCAA tournament.
1994 - Naked Gun 33-and-a-Third hit theaters.
1995 - Michael Jordan announced his comeback to the NBA.
1996 - Mark Morrison’s single Return of the Mack was released.
1997 - Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves hit theaters.
1997 - Ben & Jerry’s introduced its Phish Food ice cream flavor on stage at a Phish concert.
2000 - Destiny’s Child’s single Say My Name hit number one.
2003 - The Da Vinci Code hit bookstores.
March 19th
1982 - Porky’s hit theaters.
1983 - Nancy Reagan appeared on Diff’rent Strokes to kick off her “Just say no” campaign.
1985 - Spin magazine debuted.
1987 - Televangelist Jim Bakker resigned as host of The PTL Club over a sex scandal.
1993 - Collective Soul’s single Shine was released.
1995 - Michael Jordan played his first game after coming out of his first retirement.
1995 - The first futuristic episode of The Simpsons aired, “Lisa’s Wedding” — and five years later to the day, the second futuristic episode, “Bart to the Future”, aired.
1996 - Tracy Chapman’s single Give Me One Reason was released.
Tracy Chapman performed Give Me One Reason on an episode of Saturday Night Live in 1989.
Even though Give Me One Reason was part of her 1995 album New Beginning and wasn’t officially released as a single until this day in 1996, Chapman had been kicking around the song for a while.
She performed it during her 1988 tour and then on SNL in 1989.
But since it never got great reactions on the road, she wasn’t in a rush to put it on an album… which is how it took until the mid ‘90s for it to get an official release.
1999 - Forces of Nature hit theaters.
2002 - Andy Richter Controls the Universe premiered on FOX.
March 20th
1982 - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts’ single I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll hit number one.
I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll was a cover… and was Joan Jett’s second attempt at recording that cover.
I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll was originally recorded by a British rock band called The Arrows in 1975.
Joan Jett saw them perform it on TV during her U.K. tour with The Runaways in 1976 and loved it.
She first tried recording it and releasing it in 1979, joined by two members of the Sex Pistols. But that version didn’t catch on.
So in 1981, she recorded it again with The Blackhearts. And this time, it became a hit — and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts’ only number one hit.
1989 - Major League Baseball announced Pete Rose was under investigation for gambling.
1990 - Sinead O’Connor’s album I Do Now Want What I Haven’t Got was released.
1990 - Bell Biv DeVoe’s album Poison was released.
1991 - Eric Clapton’s young son tragically died after falling out of the window of their New York City apartment.
1992 - Janice Pennington was awarded $1.3 million for an accident on the set of The Price Is Right.
1992 - Basic Instinct hit theaters.
1993 - Positive K’s one hit, I Got a Man, peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100.
1994 - Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon had their famous ladder match at WrestleMania X.
1995 - A new Beatles single, Baby It’s You, was released.
1996 - The Menendez brothers were convicted of murder.
1998 - Primary Colors and Wild Things both hit theaters.
1999 - Legoland opened in California.
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
Amazon’s Cruel Intentions reboot series has been canceled after one season.
Netflix is rebooting Stephen King’s Cujo. The book came out in 1981 and the movie in 1983.
The sequel to This Is Spinal Tap, called Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, will come to theaters on September 12th.
Three early, unreleased Tupac songs — lyrics and recordings — are up for auction.
Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean crashed the stage at Roberta Flack’s memorial to play two songs, including their famous version of Flack’s Killing Me Softly. Hill says, “We weren’t formally asked to do this because I think they were a little shy in asking us to attend.”
A street in West Philadelphia will be renamed after Will Smith.
Molly Ringwald says she has “complex” feelings about being John Hughes’s muse. It “didn’t seem that strange to me [then], I mean, now it does.”
Kevin Bacon says he hates when he’s at a wedding and the DJ plays Footloose. Because then “suddenly the wedding becomes about me.”
Rick Springfield just found out he has lingering brain damage from a fall during a concert 25 years ago.
Get Your Book-It Stickers Here
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Here’s a list of the 30 best music videos of the ‘80s.
Have a great week!
-Sam