October 29: Ice Ice Baby, MC Hammer, TLC, Amazon
October 29: Ice Ice Baby, MC Hammer, TLC, Amazon
Plus you'll find Sex and Candy here regardless of who's lounging in your chair
The Retro by 11 Points
Modern perspectives on ‘80s and ‘90s nostalgia
October 29th, 2021 • Issue 71
This week in nostalgic history
October 29th
30 years ago, on October 29th, 1991 - Hammer’s album Too Legit 2 Quit was released.
Today, 30 years after the album was released, I just learned Too Legit 2 Quit the album opted to spell out the initial word “Too,” while the lead single went with the numeral to be 2 Legit 2 Quit. While I have to assume the difference was rarely noticed by fans at the time, I guess it made internal bookkeeping slightly smoother at Capitol Records.
And really, that might’ve been one of the biggest considerations, as Capitol went more all-in on Hammer (no longer MC Hammer) and this album than they’d ever gone before. They poured a fortune into marketing and scheduled a two-year world tour for promotion. The album was a big hit (triple platinum sales, a few massive singles), but most likely not big enough to make up for all those costs; the world tour was canceled before the two years were up.
The largesse was also, perhaps, emblematic of early ‘90s trajectory of Hammer — and why he fell so hard and so fast financially.
Also on October 29th: John DeLorean of car fame was indicted for drug trafficking (1982)… Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson’s duet, Girl Is Mine, was released (1982)… Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton’s duet, Islands in the Stream, hit number one (1983)… Rob Base’s one hit, It Takes Two, peaked at number 36 (1988)… the famous Aaron Burr Got Milk? commercial aired for the first time (1993)… John Glenn returned to space at age 77 (1998)… Being John Malkovich hit theaters (1999)
October 30th
20 years ago, on October 30th, 2001 - Michael Jordan returned to the NBA with the Washington Wizards.
It’s hard for pro athletes to retire and stay away when they still have any gas left in the tank, even fumes. The number of athletes who have walked away by choice and stayed away is (or at least feels) far smaller than athletes who tried to walk away but came back.
Michael Jordan’s legacy wasn’t destroyed by his two fine-ish years on the Washington Wizards, but his final act certainly didn’t boost his legacy in any way. Jordan, not physically capable of being the force of nature he once was, brought eyeballs to the Wizards but not success. His first season saw him suffer a knee injury and saw the Wizards finishing with a sub .500 record; his second season was a year-long farewell tour but also a season where he undermined and destroyed the confidence of some of his young teammates and, again, the Wizards were sub .500.
Of course, the cautionary tale has not stood the test of time. Athletes continue to return and Jordan’s two-year career coda has been largely forgotten in the era of The Last Dance documentary and ‘90s Bulls nostalgia.
Also on October 30th: Men at Work’s single Who Can It Be Now hit number one (1982)… the NEC PC Engine, later called the TurboGrafx 16 and the first 16-bit video game system, was released in Japan (1987)… George Michael’s debut album, Faith, was released (1987)… Madonna’s controversial single Justify My Love was released (1990)… the Seinfeld parking garage episode aired (1991)… Snoop Dogg’s single Who Am I? was released (1993)… Haddaway’s What Is Love? peaked at number 11 and Blind Melon’s No Rain peaked at number 20 (1993)… The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror V aired (1994)… Oasis’s single Wonderwall was released (1995)…
October 31st
27 years ago, on October 31st, 1994 - TLC’s single Creep was released.
There were two shaky ground controversies around Creep when the song was released on this day in 1994 as the lead single from TLC’s anticipated second album.
Controversy one: The songs content, the story of a woman having an affair because her significant other stopped paying attention to her, drew some pearl clutching criticism — even from Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes who performed the song.
Controversy two: TLC was accused of stealing the song’s title from the Radiohead Creep two years earlier to try to maybe draft off it’s (not that huge in the mainstream) popularity.
The criticism never amounted to much and, like most “controversial” songs, it likely gave a little boost to the song’s profile. It became a number one hit and sparked TLC’s most successful period — Waterfalls was less than a year away.
Also on October 31st: India’s prime minister, Indira Gandhi, was assassinated (1984)… Debbie Gibson held a seance at her Halloween party (1988)… Are You Afraid of the Dark? premiered on Nickelodeon (1991)… the Pope apologized for the Church condemning Galileo (1992)… Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle’s single of A Whole New World was released (1992)… Prince’s album named with his symbol was released (1992)… River Phoenix died at age 23 outside of the Viper Room in L.A. (1993)… Tupac Shakur was charged with aggravated assault (1993)… Venus Williams made her pro debut at age 14 (1994)… Alanis Morissette’s single Hand in My Pocket was released (1995)… a genetic study confirmed Thomas Jefferson had at least one interracial child (1998)
November 1st
27 years ago, on November 1st, 1994 - The Amazon.com domain name was registered.
Amazon.com wasn’t the only potential name Jeff Bezos was considering when he registered its domain name on this day in 1994. He was close to several other naming selections, including Relentless.com — in fact, that name still redirects to Amazon today. Other names that were under consideration were Awake.com, Bookmail.com, and Browse.com. It must’ve been great to register domain names back in 1994 when single English words like that were still available. These days those words would even be hard to get as a .cool or .xyz.
Also on November 1st: The Playboy Channel debuted (1982)… the video game The Goonies II was released for Nintendo even though there was no sequel to The Goonies movie and no The Goonies I for Nintendo (1987)… Enigma’s single Sadeness Part I was released (1990)… Mega Man III was released (1990)… the EU was established (1993)… Flavor Flav was arrested for attempted murder (1993)… Boyz II Men’s single On Bended Knee was released (1994)… the Nirvana album MTV Unplugged in New York was released (1994)… Michael Jordan’s number 23 was retired by the Chicago Bulls (1994)… Romeo + Juliet hit theaters (1996)… ESPNews debuted (1996)
November 2nd
24 years ago, on November 2nd, 1997 - The Simpsons episode “The Cartridge Family” aired on FOX.
It’s possible “The Cartridge Family” is the best end-to-end satirical episode in the entire run of The Simpsons. (Stipulating, of course, that the show is still running and I have no idea what it’s been up to for the past decade.)
“The Cartridge Family” was a satire of guns, the allure of gun ownership, the bastardization of the 2nd Amendment, and the gun nutification of America. And this happened in 1997, even before the true explosion of the NRA and “thoughts and prayers” era following mass shooting tragedies. The Simpsons sticks the landing on the satire because it has a genuine understanding of why guns have so much of an appeal to so many people, an appeal so powerful they acquire guns under the guise of protecting their families while their irresponsible usage of those guns actually putting their families in more danger.
And if that wasn’t enough satire, the episode also begins with an extended and spot-on parody of American attitudes toward soccer versus the world’s attitudes toward soccer, which really rounds out the end-to-end satire.
Also on November 2nd: Martin Luther King Jr. Day finally became a federal holiday (1983)… Michael Jackson’s single Thriller was released worldwide (1983)… Stevie Wonder’s single Part-Time Lover hit number one (1985)… Finders Keepers premiered (1987)… the Morris Worm was the first internet-borne computer virus (1988)… Graffiti Bridge hit theaters (1990)… the two-part Saved by the Bell with Jessie’s wicked stepbrother aired on NBC (1991)… Karyn White’s single Romantic hit number one (1991)… Magic Johnson retired from the NBA for the second and final time (1992)… pre-insanity Rudy Giuliani was elected mayor of New York City (1993)… the Soup Nazi episode of Seinfeld aired on NBC (1995)… the Eels’ one hit, Novocain for the Soul, peaked at number 39 (1996)… the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series aired its series finale (1996)… Whitney Houston’s single When You Believe was released (1998)… LFO’s single Girl on TV was released (1999)… the first crew arrived at the International Space Station (2000)… Arrested Development premiered on FOX (2003)
November 3rd
31 years ago, on November 3rd, 1990 - Vanilla Ice’s single Ice Ice Baby hit number one.
All it took for rap to finally go fully mainstream was a rapper willing to appropriate everything.
Vanilla Ice’s debut hit, first and foremost, appropriated the hip hop genre. It appropriated a rough, gun-and-drug-filled street life in Miami (which suburban Robert Van Winkle did not actually experience). The “ice ice baby” refrain was taken from a chant from the Black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha. The music used to make the beat was taken, uncredited, from Queen and David Bowie (yes, even the British were appropriated).
And… all of that added up to the first number one rap single in U.S. history, one of the most famous songs of the ‘90s, and the solidification of hip hop as a viable form of pop music. Today, and dating back at least a decade now, the top 40 charts are often more hip hop than non-hip hop.
Also on November 3rd: The Nashville Network debuted on cable TV (1983)… Billy Ocean’s single Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run) hit number one (1988)… Geraldo’s nose was broken during a fight on his show (1988)… the Minnesota Timberwolves played their first game (1989)… the NBA debuted on NBC (1990)… EMF’s single Unbelievable was released (1990)… the legendary Saved by the Bell episode where Jessie gets hooked on caffeine pills aired (1990)… Whitney Houston’s single I Will Always Love You and Paperboy’s single Ditty were released, as was Rage Against the Machine’s self-titled debut album (1992)… Carol Moseley-Braun was the first Black female elected U.S. senator (1992)… Bill Clinton was elected president (1992)… The Nanny premiered (1993)… Susan Smith of South Carolina was arrested for drowning her sons (1994)… Mr. Show premiered (1995)… the Hank Scorpio episode of The Simpsons aired (1996)… Kobe Bryant made his NBA debut, then the youngest NBA player ever at 18 years, two months old (1996)… Jesse Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota (1998)… Juvenile’s album 400 Degreez and Alanis Morissette’s album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie were released (1998)… Charlie’s Angles and the Legend of Bagger Vance hit theaters (2000)
November 4th
24 years ago, on November 4th, 1997 - Marcy Playground’s single Sex and Candy was released.
Sex and Candy is an enduring ‘90s one-hit wonder, one that made a fairly large impact perhaps because it was genre-neutral. The song was pop, fitting in with the various late ‘90s Verve-named bands. The song was rock, part of the post-grunge movement. The song was adult contemporary, slotting in nicely with “hits from the ‘80s and today.”
Marcy Playground, a band named after the lead singer’s childhood elementary school (Marcy Open), was another ‘90s band with a typical ‘90s back story. Some dudes get together, make music, get discovered, get on the radio, and have one hit.
Sex and Candy was inspired by a moment when the lead singer was in his college girlfriend’s room, her roommate walked in on them amidst intimate doings, and remarked that the room smelled like “sex and candy.” The song peaked at number eight on the Billboard chart.
Nothing in the story of the band or the song is remarkable, and really, it didn’t have to be. Marcy Playground managed to have one breakthrough hit and toured off it for another 20 years; the band hasn’t made any new music since 2012, but will still pop up at festivals and shows today.
Also on November 4th: Jaws aired on TV for the first time, on ABC (1979)… Sadaharu Oh retired from baseball with 868 home runs (all in Japan) (1980)… The Fall Guy premiered on ABC (1981)… the NBA announced four new expansion teams coming in the next two years in Charlotte, Miami, Minneapolis, and Orlando (1987)… They Live hit theaters (1988)… the Charlotte Hornets played their debut game (1988)… the Orlando Magic played their first game (1989)… Roxette’s single Listen to Your Heart hit number one (1989)… Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated (1995)… the Spice Girls’ debut album Spice was released (1996)… Shania Twain’s album Come On Over was released (1997)… the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the New York Yankees to win the World Series (2001)
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news.
Nintendo launched Nintendo 64 games for Switch Online this week (inflating the price of the service from $20 annually to $50) and no one was happy about the quality of the emulation or controls.
A data mining project revealed there are at least 38 Nintendo 64 games planned for the Nintendo Switch, which you can figure out thanks to the list being in alphabetical order.
Lorne Michaels said Will Ferrell is in the “top two or three” SNL cast members ever. So who’s ahead of him? We’ll definitely never get an answer to that.
A Blues Brothers docuseries is in the works.
The screenwriter of Dune uses a 30-year-old screenwriting app called Movie Master on an MS-DOS computer.
James Michael Tyler, the actor who played Gunther on Friends, passed away at age 59 on Sunday from prostate cancer.
Throwbacks and recommendations
I guess I have to do one horror movie thing for Halloween by law, so here are the 200 best horror movies according to Rotten Tomatoes.
Here’s a new video of The Muppets covering ELO’s Mr. Blue Sky. Hearing this rendition, you wonder how the Muppets never thought to cover this song before, it feels straight out of the original TV series.
I never knew I Know What You Did Last Summer was adapted from a book. Anyway, turns out its author hated the movie.
Thanks for reading!
-Sam