5/10 - What '90s 1-Hit Wonder Earlier Wrote "We Built This City"?
Plus trivia on Aaliyah, In Living Color, Onyx, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
May 10th, 2024 • Issue 203
Be Kind, Rewind
What happened on this day in the ‘80s and ‘90s — plus lots of bonus trivia
May 10th
1983 - The series finale aired of Laverne & Shirley.
1985 - The Go-Go’s broke up.
1985 - The first episode of WWF’s Saturday Night’s Main Event was taped.
1986 - Pet Shop Boys’ single West End Girls hit number one.
1986 - Tommy Lee and Heather Locklear were married.
1990 - New Kids on the Block’s single Step by Step was released.
1991 - Bushwick Bill of the Geto Boys lost his right eye when he was shot by his girlfriend.
1993 - UB40’s single I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You was released.
1994 - Nelson Mandela was sworn in as president of South Africa.
1994 - Aaliyah’s debut single Back & Forth was released.
Aaliyah was Gladys Knight’s niece.
Aaliyah’s uncle, Barry Hankerson, was married to Gladys Knight for five years (with their marriage ending the same year Aaliyah was born).
At age 11, Aaliyah performed at Knight’s concerts.
(Hankerson, who was an entertainment lawyer, signed Aaliyah to his record label when she was 12.)
1994 - Crystal Waters’ single 100% Pure Love was released.
1994 - Weezer’s debut blue album was released.
1996 - Twister hit theaters.
1997 - Duncan Sheik’s one hit, Barely Breathing, peaked at number 16.
2001 - The XFL folded after one season.
2002 - Dr Pepper announced its first new flavor in 117 years, Red Fusion.
2002 - The Charlotte Hornets moved to New Orleans.
May 11th
1980 - Dr. J had his signature NBA highlight, a flying baseline layup.
1981 - Cats first premiered on stage, in London.
1981 - Bob Marley passed away.
1984 - The Natural hit theaters.
1985 - Madonna’s single Crazy for You hit number one.
1989 - The series finale aired of Dynasty.
1991 - Monie Love’s one hit, It’s a Shame, peaked at number 26.
1991 - Roxette’s single Joyride hit number one.
1993 - Onyx’s single Slam was released.
Onyx got a record deal after befriending Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay during a traffic jam.
The guys from Onyx got together in 1988 but never found any success until the early ‘90s… when they met Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay in a traffic jam leaving a festival in New York. He gave them a few weeks to put together a demo, they did, and he signed them to his label.
1997 - Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in chess, the first time a computer defeated a world champion.
2000 - Road Trip hit theaters.
May 12th
1980 - Billy Joel’s single It’s Still Rock & Roll was released.
1982 - The USFL was formed.
1984 - Lionel Richie’s single Hello hit number one.
1985 - The New York Knicks won the first NBA Draft Lottery in dubious fashion.
1988 - The series finale aired of Max Headroom.
1989 - The last graffiti-covered NYC subway car was retired.
1989 - The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game was released for NES.
1993 - The series finale aired of The Wonder Years.
1994 - The series finale aired of In Living Color.
The whole Wayans family left In Living Color before the fifth and final season.
Keenen Ivory Wayans left the show after his endless battles with FOX, and he was followed by Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, and Kim Wayans. Damon Wayans had already left to pursue a film career.
So the fifth season featured all non-Wayans cast members (though that did include Jim Carrey, Tommy Davidson, David Alan Grier, and Jamie Foxx).
1994 - Pulp Fiction premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
1994 - Elton John’s single Can You Feel the Love Tonight was released.
1995 - Crimson Tide hit theaters.
2000 - Battlefield Earth and Screwed both hit theaters.
2001 - S Club 7’s one hit, Never Had a Dream Come True, peaked at number 10.
May 13th
1976 - Breakout was released for Atari.
1981 - Pope John Paul II was shot.
1989 - Bon Jovi’s single I’ll Be There for You hit number one.
1990 - The season finale of the first season of The Simpsons aired on FOX.
1991 - Yankees fans sang Like a Virgin to Jose Canseco to mock his relationship with Madonna.
1993 - The series finale aired of Knots Landing.
1994 - The Crow hit theaters.
1994 - Scottie Pippen pouted while Toni Kukoc hit a game winning shot for the Chicago Bulls.
1994 - Johnny Carson made his final TV appearance, on Late Night with David Letterman.
1995 - Martin Page’s one hit, In the House of Stone and Light, peaked at number 14.
Before hit time as a one-hit wonder, Martin Page wrote several well-known hits.
Martin Page was a prolific songwriter before he took a shot at a performing career.
The songs he wrote before he came out with In the House of Stone and Light include Starship’s We Build This City, Heart’s These Dreams, and Go West’s King of Wishful Thinking.
He was also the keyboard player on Ray Parker Jr.’s Ghostbusters.
1995 - The Rednex’s one hit, Cotton Eye Joe, peaked at number 25.
1996 - No Mercy’s single Where Do You Go was released.
May 14th
1981 - Boston defeated Houston to win the NBA Championship.
1982 - Conan the Barbarian hit theaters.
1983 - Thomas Dolby’s one hit, She Blinded Me with Science, peaked at number five.
1988 - Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine’s single Anything for You hit number one.
1989 - The series finale aired of Family Ties.
1989 - The series finale aired of Moonlighting.
1991 - Paula Abdul’s album Spellbound was released.
1992 - Lyle Alzado passed away.
1994 - Big Mountain’s one hit, Baby, I Love Your Way, peaked at number six.
Big Mountain’s cover of Baby, I Love Your Way made it higher on the Billboard Hot 100 than Peter Frampton’s original version.
Frampton’s version peaked at number 12 in 1976.
Big Mountain’s version — which was in Reality Bites — peaked at number six.
But neither version hit the heights of Will to Power’s 1988 cover, the Baby, I Love Your Way/Freebird Medley — which was a number one hit.
1995 - The WWF held its first In Your House pay per view.
1996 - Donna Lewis’s single I Love You Always Forever was released.
1996 - Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas were married.
1997 - The series finale aired of Coach.
1997 - Aqua’s single Barbie Girl was released.
1998 - The Seinfeld series finale aired on NBC.
1998 - Frank Sinatra passed away.
1998 - George Michael plead no contest to committing a lewd act in a public bathroom.
1998 - Celebrity Deathmatch premiered on MTV.
2001 - The series finale aired of Baywatch.
2003 - The series finale aired of Dawson’s Creek.
May 15th
1981 - The Harlem Globetrotters made-for-TV Gilligan’s Island movie aired.
1981 - SCTV debuted on NBC.
1982 - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder’s single Ebony and Ivory hit number one.
1984 - The San Diego Clippers moved to Los Angeles.
Clippers owner Donald Sterling moved the Clippers from San Diego to Los Angeles even though the NBA denied his relocation request.
Donald Sterling spent decades building his case to be called a “disgraced former NBA owner” — and his franchise relocation was a piece of that puzzle.
He attempted several times to move the Clippers from San Diego to L.A., but the NBA kept managing to stop him in court.
In 1984, he finally won a court battle which allowed him to move — despite the NBA denying him permission to relocate and fining him $25 million for doing so.
1985 - Prince’s single Raspberry Beret was released.
1987 - The series finale of The Late Show with Joan Rivers aired on FOX.
1987 - Ishtar hit theaters.
1990 - Snap’s album World Power was released.
1990 - Mariah Carey’s single Vision of Love was released.
1992 - Lethal Weapon 3 hit theaters.
1993 - Janet Jackson’s single That’s the Way Love Goes hit number one.
1997 - Amazon went public.
1997 - Norm Macdonald and Courtney Thorne-Smith had a legendary exchange on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.
1999 - Everlast’s one hit, What It’s Like, peaked at number 13.
1999 - Tracy Morgan’s character Brian Fellows debuted on SNL.
2001 - R. Kelly and Jay-Z’s single Fiesta was released.
2003 - The Matrix Reloaded hit theaters.
May 16th
1981 - Kim Carnes’ single Bette Davis Eyes hit number one.
1983 - The Motown 25 special featuring Michael Jackson’s first moonwalk aired on NBC.
1984 - Prince’s single When Doves Cry was released.
1984 - Andy Kaufman passed away, although people doubted it for decades.
1985 - Michael Jordan won the NBA’s Rookie of the Year.
1986 - Top Gun hit theaters.
Top Gun received financing from the U.S. Department of Defense — but in exchange, the Pentagon got to edit the script.
The government gave Top Gun millions and millions of dollars in discounts to use the military’s actual planes and aircraft carriers.
In exchange, they got to review the movie script and veto parts they felt didn’t portray the military as they wanted. For example, they changed Goose’s death from a midair plane collision to an ejection, because the Navy didn’t like the idea of pilots crashing.
1986 - Bobby Ewing returned from the dead on Dallas.
1987 - U2’s single With or Without You hit number one.
1990 - Sammy Davis Jr. passed away.
1990 - Jim Henson passed away.
1990 - After 7’s single Can’t Stop was released.
1992 - Weird Al Yankovic had a rare top 40 hit when Smells Like Nirvana hit number 35.
1998 - The series finale aired of Unsolved Mysteries.
2000 - The Artist Formerly Known As Prince went back to being called Prince.
2000 - Britney Spears’ album Oops... I Did It Again was released.
2002 - Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones hit theaters.
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
The official trailer is out for Twisters, the Twister sequel. It comes to theaters on July 19th.
The Crow is returning to theaters May 29th and 30th for its 30th anniversary.
Weird Al’s UHF is getting a 4K release for its 35th anniversary.
Gedde Watanabe, who played Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles, says it “didn’t really occur to [him] that it was a stereotype, because there wasn’t really anything out there for Asian actors at the time.”
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Have a great week!
-Sam