August 20: Ginuwine, Teen Wolf, O.P.P.
Plus Kiss from a Rose, Netscape, Little Monsters, and more
The Retro by 11 Points
Modern perspectives on ‘80s and ‘90s nostalgia
August 20, 2021 • Issue 61
This week in nostalgic history
August 20th
25 years ago, on August 20th, 1996 - Ginuwine’s single Pony was released.
Pony, a song that manages to be regarded as among the sexiest and most seductive in history despite the very could’ve-gone-either-way extended metaphor between sex and horseback riding, was the debut song for Ginuwine. It was also the first major track for Timbaland as a producer. There was a lot riding on pony. Pun not intended and instantly regretted.
Again, I’m not sure Pony should’ve worked. Beyond the pony metaphor (an unintentional follow-up to R. Kelly’s song the previous year where he metaphorically compared a sexy lady to his Jeep, music, car being detailed, and bank account), Pony also featured a Looney Tunes slide whistle on the backing track and a music video where Ginuwine gave a Chippendales-esque performance at an un-receptive country bar. (The performance eventually wins the crowd over but the first half of the video is less seductive and more tense based on the undertones of what bad things might happen.)
But Pony still managed to work. It was a big hit in 1996 and now, 25 years later, it might be just as popular (maybe more popular) thanks to everything from Magic Mike to, well, just how addictive it is.
Also on August 20th: Saved by the Bell premiered on NBC (1989)… The Menendez brothers killed their parents (1989)… SWV’s Right Here/Human Nature was released (1992)… the South Park episode Weight Gain 4000 aired on Comedy Central (1997)
August 21st
25 years ago, on August 21st, 1996 - Netscape 3.0 was released.
Netscape 3.0 marks a milestone, and not just because it was the first browser used by oh so many people as they made their first journey onto the World Wide Web. The other milestone: As far as I can tell, Netscape 3.0 was the last browser of note that cost money.
Most of us haven’t paid for a web browser, well, ever. They’ve more or less always been free, making their money in other ways (from nonprofit donations to getting paid by search engines to collecting and selling all of your private data to trapping you in an OS ecosystem). But in 1996, Netscape — a company that had gone public one year earlier — put a price tag on their browser. $49, to be exact. Meanwhile, Microsoft was rapidly closing the browser gap, getting Internet Explorer’s functionality (quirky functionality to be sure, but still functionality) up to the same level as Netscape’s. And IE 3.0 was free.
Netscape began to lose market share, so by the time Netscape 4.0 rolled, course correction was in effect to try to stop the bleeding. Netscape 4.0 was free — and in second place in browser market share. It would never regain the top spot and would vanish (or, more accurately, adapt and evolve).
Perhaps they were playing the long (and I mean long) game. Netscape made its browser open source, the code was taken over by the Mozilla Foundation, and decades later, the Mozilla-based Firefox would be one of the popular browsers that led to the sunsetting of Internet Explorer.
Also on August 21st: Dirty Dancing and The Garbage Pail Kids Movie both hit theaters (1987)… Prince’s soundtrack to Graffiti Bridge was released, as was Ratt’s album Detonator (1990)… the Ruby Ridge standoff ended tragically (1992)… I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers peaked at number three on the Billboard charts and Slam by Onyx peaked at number four (1993)… John Denver was charged with drunk driving after crashing his Porsche into a tree (1994)… Dead Man on Campus hit theaters, as did Blade (1998)
August 22nd
23 years ago, on August 22nd, 1998 - Harvey Danger’s one hit, Flagpole Sitta, peaked at number 38.
I decided to talk about Harvey Danger as my August 22nd topic because it occurred to me I knew absolutely nothing about Harvey Danger. I was a big fan of Flagpole Sitta at the time but the band? No idea.
And looking into it, Harvey Danger is such a charmingly stereotypical ‘90s one-hit wonder it cooled my icy heart.
Seriously. Get your ‘90s band bingo card ready. Harvey Danger was formed by a couple of friends at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1992. They both worked at the student newspaper and thought it would be cool to start a band. They got the name “Harvey Danger” from some graffiti on the newspaper office wall. From there, they started playing music at frat parties and college bars, worked their way up to non-college bars, and eventually signed with a tiny independent record label. They released an album in 1997 featuring Flagpole Sitta and it caught the attention of KROQ in Los Angeles. It spread from there, made it onto a bunch of soundtracks… but that was about it.
Harvey Danger never really made it huge from there, going the way of so many of those ‘90s bands with that same origin story. Guys left, new guys started, reunions happened, small solo projects were released, more reunions happened… and finally, they broke up for good in 2009. At least until the next reunion.
Also on August 22nd: Stand By Me hit theaters (1986)… The Legend of Zelda was released in North America (1987)… Madonna’s single Who’s That Girl hit number one (1987)… Tom Cochrane’s Life is a Highway peaked at number six on the Billboard charts (1992)… GI Jane hit theaters (1997)… Jay Z’s single Can I Get A… was released (1998)
August 23rd
36 years ago, on August 23rd, 1985 - Both Teen Wolf and Better Off Dead hit theaters.
Was counterprogramming not a thing in the ‘80s? On this day, both Teen Wolf and Better Off Dead hit theaters… aiming for, I would say, literally the identical audience. Both were teen comedies with a bit of a darker side (though BoD was darker, Teen Wolf incorporated at least lite horror tropes). Both aimed to capitalize on a young rising star (Michael J. Fox in Teen Wolf and John Cusack in Better Off Dead). Both movies featured the classic ‘80s array of goofy sidekicks of various shapes and sizes and traditional ‘80s bullies. Both even featured sports at their core and had a major sporting event serve as their climax.
Teen Wolf was received better contemporaneously, although it’s hard to say which has remained more relevant over time. Teen Wolf is a bigger name and earned an MTV reboot series… but the ski race cliches of Better Off Dead have become arguably bigger pop culture go-tos over the past three-and-a-half decades.
Also on August 23rd: Ferris Bueller the TV show premiered (1990)… the Super Nintendo went on sale in North America (1991)… Jeff Buckley’s album Grace was released (1994)… The Price Is Right aired its 25th anniversary special (1996)… That ‘70s Show premiered on FOX (1998)… Blogspot launched (1999)… Destiny’s Child’s single Bug a Boo was released (1999)… the season finale that cemented reality TV as the new force to be reckoned with, the finale of season one of Survivor, aired on CBS (2000)
August 24th
30 years ago, on August 24th, 1991 - O.P.P. by Naughty by Nature was released.
There are lots of unsolved mysteries in music history. The acronym in the song title of O.P.P. is not one. In the lyrics of the song itself, the gentlemen of Naughty by Nature reveal three meanings of the second “p” (the “o” is definitively “other” and the first “p” is definitively “people’s”). Those three meanings: common terms for both male and female genitalia, as well as the word “property.” The lyrics, featuring multiple tales of infidelity, reinforce those tangible definitions.
The song itself was a major hit for the debuting Naughty by Nature as it pulled off a feat still largely unattainable in the early ‘90s: A rap song with mainstream appeal in its pop musicality that avoided corniness or a loss of authenticity. O.P.P. topped out at number six on the Billboard charts, extraordinarily high for a rap single at the time. It also launched Naughty by Nature, although perhaps they cheapened things just a little when they tried to replicate O.P.P.’s pop hook with Hip Hop Hooray on their follow-up album.
Also on August 24th: The Facts of Life premiered (1979)… Mark David Chapman was sentenced to 20 to life for killing John Lennon (1981)… Huey Lewis and the News’ The Power of Love hit number one (1985)… Pete Rose was banned from baseball (1989)… The Witches hit theaters (1990)… Windows 95 was released (1995)… Donna Lewis’s one hit, I Love You Always Forever, peaked at number two (1996)… Christina Aguilera’s self-titled debut album was released, as was LFO’s debut album (1999)
August 25th
32 years ago, on August 25th, 1989 - Little Monsters hit theaters (but in a very small release).
Little Monsters was a Fred Savage movie during the Fred Savage golden years that received an almost nonexistent theatrical release and went straight to video. (Quite a bold move in an era where families either didn’t have a VCR or were on their first model.)
I remember watching this movie at various slumber parties as a kid. The movie, whose plot I’d basically forgotten, I now see is very, very similar to Monsters Inc. A boy meets a friendly monster under his bed then goes into the world of those monsters, fending off the evil ones with the help of his blue-monster-with-a-heart-of-gold. Ultimately, the kid needs to get back home safe in a race against time.
So why didn’t Little Monsters receive a real release? According to just about the only article on the topic (an interview with Howie Mandel, who played the monster in the movie and apparently wasn’t thrilled about it), the production company behind the movie went bankrupt before the movie could be released, and after a shuffling of rights, eventual distributors MGM/United Artists decided they weren’t really interested in doing anything with it. Even with the red hot 1989 Fred Savage in the mix.
Little Monsters has what I’d call a very light cult following, although it did receive a slight bump from nostalgic now-adults after Monsters Inc. came out and grumblings of it being a rip-off came to the surface.
Also on August 25th: The Knack’s single My Sharona hit number one (1979)… Paul Simon’s album Graceland was released (1986)… Metallica’s album And Justice For All was released (1988)… Linux was created (1991)… Mary J. Blige’s single Real Love and Wreckx-n-Effect’s single Rumpshaker were both released (1992)… My So-Called Life premiered on ABC (1994)… Lauryn Hill’s album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was released (1998)… Bring It On hit theaters (2000)… Aaliyah died in a plane crash (2001)
August 26th
26 years ago, on August 26th, 1995 - Seal’s single Kiss from a Rose hit number one.
Kiss from a Rose became a big hit during the summer of ‘95, when it was attached to Batman Forever — actually quite a good pairing between a brooding, mysterious movie and a brooding, mysterious song. However, that wasn’t the first movie that tried to capitalize on Kiss from a Rose’s enigmatic gravitas by putting the song on its soundtrack. One year earlier, the song made its debut on the soundtrack for The NeverEnding Story III. That movie was only released in Germany (although it did get a very limited release in the U.S. in 1996).
Why did Seal initially shuffle off the song — a song that would ultimately win the Grammys for both Record and Song of the Year, and which became a number one hit on this day in 1995 — to a no-account, straight-to-Dusseldorf threequel? It’s most likely because he thought Kiss from a Rose wasn’t very good.
The lyrics, which instantly tread into nonsensical obfuscation and never venture back out, were not a point of pride for Seal — nor was singing those lyrics with so much sincerity and passion. He created the song in the mid ‘80s, long before he debuted as a major label artist, and the song only became a “thing” when his producer found the recording, touched it up, and convinced him to use it for a soundtrack.
But in spite of Seal’s objections, a quarter of a century later, Kiss from a Rose is his biggest hit and most enduring song; if you were to ask someone to name a Seal song, what else would they say?
Also on August 26th: Natural Born Killers hit theaters (1994)… 7th Heaven debuted on the WB (1996)… Mariah Carey’s single Honey was released (1997)… Tubthumping by Chumbawumba was released (1997)… Creed’s debut album My Own Prison was released (1997)… WWF Smackdown premiered (1999)… Janet Jackson’s single Doesn’t Really Matter hit number one (2000)
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news.
This is an unexpected, to say the least, collab: Adidas x Ned Flanders. The shoes go on sale on October 3rd (the 30th anniversary of the Leftorium episode) for $130.
Lots of Field of Dreams stuff afoot: The game last week had the largest audience of any regular season MLB game since 2005 — which is back when everyone actually had cable. The game sparked significant sales of copies of Field of Dreams on DVD and Blu-Ray. And a Field of Dreams TV reboot got a series order at Peacock.
After getting an initial “no,” Casa Bonita has agreed to sell to the South Park guys.
The Punky Brewster reboot at Peacock has been canceled after one season.
Debra Winger just revealed she quit the lead role (ultimately played by Geena Davis) in A League of Their Own when Madonna was cast because she thought it hurt the integrity of the movie.
A GoldenEye 007 player just pulled off a trick no one’s been able to do since the game came out for Nintendo 64 in 1997.
Throwbacks and recommendations
A new survey broke down everything you could possibly want to know about band tees — which genre’s fans own the most (heavy metal), which band sells the most (AC/DC), and a whole lot more.
The first trailer is out for the Frogger game show, premiering on Peacock on September 9th.
A trailer has been released for Netflix’s other new He-Man series.
If you’re not familiar with the world of video game speedrunning, this article will give you a headache: A legendary Mario Kart 64 player just retired after an opponent beat him with poor etiquette.
Thanks for reading!
-Sam