Harry Belafonte has died at the age of 96. Belafonte was a Tony, Emmy, and Grammy-winning singer and actor, civil rights activist, philanthropist, humanitarian, and UN Goodwill Ambassador.
Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. was born in Harlem on March 1, 1927. From ages five to thirteen, Belafonte lived with his grandmother in her native Jamaica. Upon returning to the states, he attended George Washington High School in Washington Heights, then joined the U.S. Navy and served during World War II. After the war, Belafonte found work as a janitor’s assistant. A tenant tipped him a pair of tickets to the American Negro Theatre, where he fell in love with acting AND met his lifelong friend and collaborator Sidney Poitier. He attended the New School’s Dramatic Workshop alongside Poitier, Marlon Brando, Bea Arthur, and Walter Matthau and later found work on Broadway. He earned a Tony Award for his performance in John Murray Anderson’s Almanac.
Belafonte’s music career began as a way for him to pay for acting classes, but he found some success as a club singer. He debuted with Charlie Parker before making his way to the legendary Greenwich Village jazz club, the Village Vanguard. Belafonte’s love wasn’t jazz, though; it was folk music. In 1953, he signed a contract with RCA Victor; that same year, he made his film debut in the Dorothy Dandridge-starring Bright Road. The following year, Belafonte released his debut album, Mark Twain and Other Folk Favorites, and reunited with Dandridge for Carmen Jones.
Fun fact: Dorothy Dandridge was the first black woman to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Actress (she lost to Grace Kelly).
In 1956, Belafonte recorded his breakthrough album, Calypso, which contained the song that would become his signature: “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)”. Calypso spent thirty-one weeks at #1 on the Billboard album chart and was the first album in history to sell more than one million copies. That same year, Belafonte filmed his follow-up to Carmen Jones, Islandinthe Sun, a film about race relations and interracial romance in a fictional Caribbean nation. He also co-wrote the film’s theme song.
“Jamaica Farewell” is another well-known track from Belafonte’s Calypso.
After his musical career peaked in the early 1960s, Belafonte took much of the decade off to raise a family with his second wife, Julie Robinson, and to participate in the civil rights movement. He didn’t make another motion picture until 1970’s The Angel Levine (though he did make the occasional television appearance). In 1972, he co-starred with Poitier in the latter’s directorial debut, Buck and the Preacher.
The remainder of the 1970s saw Belafonte working on beloved projects like The MuppetShow and Marlo Thomas’ Free to Be… You and Me, as well as recording the occasional album. His final studio album, Paradise in Gazankulu (a protest of the South African government’s policy of apartheid), was released in 1988.
Also in 1988, Belafonte was introduced to a new generation when four of his songs – including “Day-O” and “Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)” – were featured in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice.
With his recording career behind him and his movie roles few and far between, Belafonte focused primarily on humanitarian and political causes but still made the occasional television appearance. In 1997, PBS aired An Evening with Harry Belafonte and Friends; the event ended with a rousing sing-along of “Day-O”.
In 2018, Belafonte made his final film appearance in Spike Lee’s Oscar-winning BlacKkKlansman.
Harry Belafonte died of congestive heart failure on April 25, 2023, at the age of 96. He left behind a wife, four children, five grandchildren, and a cultural and artistic legacy for the ages. Here are a few more highlights from Belafonte’s life and career:
Belafonte had a minor hit in 1961 with his duet with Odetta of “Hole in the Bucket”.
Belafonte, who was blacklisted during the McCarthy era for his involvement in the civil rights movement, helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, famous for Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
The recording session for Belafonte’s brainchild “We Are the World” inspired this joyful behind-the-scenes tribute.
Belafonte paid tribute to Sidney Poitier at the 1992 AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony.
Belafonte was an outspoken critic of the “morally bankrupt” Bush II administration.
Belafonte was the subject of the 2011 documentary Sing Your Song, which you can rent on Amazon or Apple TV.
Belafonte secured his EGOT status when he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 87th Academy Awards.
In 2020, Belafonte celebrated his 93rd birthday at Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theater. It was one of his final public appearances.
Initially published in 2021, this post has been edited for content and clarity.
HAPPY 4/20, Y’ALL!!! Why do we celebrate cannabis culture on April 20th? According to legend, the holiday’s roots date back to 1971, when a group of teens in San Rafael, California, used the term “420” for their search for an abandoned cannabis crop (they met after school at 4:20 PM). The boys never found the crop, but they inadvertently created a term still used more than fifty years later. A piece in High Times magazine in 1998 told the story of the boys and their treasure hunt; one of them, Dave Reddix, later became a roadie for Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, so the consensus is that Reddix passed the phrase along to Lesh and the Deadhead community helped popularize it.
Recreational marijuana use has been legalized in Canada, Mexico, and several US states, including my home state of Michigan. Outside of North America, only a few countries – Thailand and South Africa among them – have legalized recreational cannabis, though many more have either decriminalized it or legalized medical use. And even though 38 US states have legalized medical use and 21 have legalized recreational use, the federal government still classifies cannabis as a Schedule I controlled substance alongside drugs like heroin and ecstasy. I acknowledge the privilege that allows me to legally consume recreational cannabis, so let me make my position clear: I am in favor of full decriminalization and legalization of cannabis.
In locations where cannabis use is still illegal, 4/20 observances are often used as a platform for legalization or decriminalization and sometimes involve acts of civil disobedience (the penalty for cannabis possession in the US is typically a civil infraction/fine or a misdemeanor charge but in some countries, one could potentially be imprisoned for years).
However you celebrate, I hope you all have a happy 4/20. And if you don’t observe the occasion, you could always spend the evening with one of these fictional stoners:
Ron Slater, Dave Wooderson, and Randall “Pink” Floyd – Dazed and Confused
Before I even saw Dazed and Confused, I knew that I would love it; the reviews were glowing, and I’d enjoyed director Richard Linklater’s first film, Slacker. What I didn’t realize was how much I would love a scrappy little stoner boy named Ron Slater. Played by the adorable Rory Cochrane, Slater is the quintessential slacker, single-minded in his pursuit of recreation. But he’s also a philosopher and historian; his theory about George and Martha Washington being weed farmers is one of the funniest bits in the movie. Slater’s sole disappointment in life? He never gets shotgun.
Yes, Wooderson is super creepy – if he were a real person, he’d have been a “Times Up” cautionary tale by now. But I admire Wooderson’s motto: “Just keep livin’…L-I-V-I-N”. Matthew McConaughey, in his first film role, oozed confidence and charisma, and the part expanded to match his outsized personality. Linklater apparently hesitated to cast McConaughey because he was “too handsome” (and you can hardly blame him), but I’m glad Linklater saw past McConaughey’s absurd good looks to the actor underneath. In a film full of fantastic characters, McConaughey steals scene after scene.
Randall “Pink” Floyd (Jason London) is experiencing an existential crisis. He wants to continue playing football but is uneasy about the pledge his coaches have asked him to sign, promising not to engage in “drinking, drugs or any other activity that would jeopardize the goal of a championship season in ’76”. Pink just wants to enjoy the last day of school -and the rituals that accompany it – but he’s caught between his teammates and his stoner friends. When Pink, Wooderson, and company are busted on the fifty-yard line of the school’s football field, the police call the coach. In the end, Pink crumples up the pledge and tosses it at the coach (“I may play football, but I will never sign that”), then goes off with the stoners – to the strains of Foghat’s “Slow Ride” – to buy Aerosmith tickets.
The Dude – The Big Lebowski
Please do not refer to Jeff Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) as Mr. Lebowski – it’s “The Dude”, thank you very much (“or His Dudeness, or El Duderino, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing”). The Dude just wants to bowl with his friends Walter and Donny, drink White Russians, and get high. His tranquil life is disrupted when he is mistaken for another Jeff Lebowski, whose trophy wife Bunny owes money to porn tycoon Jackie Treehorn. Treehorn’s goons break into The Dude’s apartment and, realizing they have the wrong Lebowski, leave – but not before urinating on his favorite rug (“That rug really tied the room together”). This sets off a farcical chain of events that can only occur in a Coen film. Featuring a fantastically talented supporting cast (among them, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, and Philip Seymour Hoffman), The Big Lebowski nevertheless rests on Bridges’ more-than-capable shoulders.
Larry “Doc” Sportello – Inherent Vice
Paul Thomas Anderson’s underrated gem Inherent Vice, based on the Thomas Pynchon novel of the same name, stars the incomparable Joaquin Phoenix as “Doc” Sportello, a hippie private investigator who finds himself embroiled in LA’s criminal underworld. Phoenix’s performance feels entirely lived-in, and he was deservedly nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy (he lost to Michael Keaton). The film itself could best be described as “Sam Spade meets Cheech & Chong”. Speaking of which…
Anthony “Man” Stoner and Pedro de Pacas – Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke
For all intents and purposes, Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong created the stoner buddy genre. The two met in Vancouver in the late 1960s; Chong was a Canadian citizen, and Marin had moved there to avoid the Vietnam War draft. They started performing stand-up together and released their first album in 1971. Their success culminated in Up in Smoke, their first of several films. Mainly consisting of a series of skits, Up in Smoke‘s plot is primarily an excuse for the pair to smoke comically large joints. The movie was a critical failure but a box office hit, earning $104 million on a $2 million budget, and Cheech and Chong became one of the most successful comedy duos ever.
FUN FACT #1: Ivan Reitman conceived Stripes as a Cheech and Chong vehicle, but the two demanded creative control, so Reitman had the screenwriter rework it for ultimate stars Bill Murray and Harold Ramis.
FUN FACT #2: The Lion King‘s hyenas, Shenzi and Banzai, were modeled after the duo, and the film’s producers offered them the voice roles. The two weren’t getting along at the time, so Chong declined, and Whoopi Goldberg was cast as Shenzi to Marin’s Banzai.
Jeff Spicoli – Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Sean Penn’s turn as Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High is the kind of comedic performance that can only be achieved by a remarkable dramatic actor. Penn also has terrific chemistry with Ray Walston, who plays Spicoli’s nemesis Mr. Hand, and with Anthony Edwards and Eric Stoltz as his stoner buds. Fast Times was the cream of the ’80s teen sex comedy crop and has aged remarkably well. Penn’s performance, which provides some much-needed levity to balance the film’s darker elements, is still the best thing about it.
FUN FACT: Don Phillips was the casting director for both Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Dazed and Confused.
Floyd –True Romance
On the cusp of superstardom in 1993, Brad Pitt turned in one of his funniest performances ever in True Romance, playing Floyd, the stoner roommate of Clarence’s friend Dick. Pitt makes the most of his mere minutes of screen time, wringing laughter from the tiniest details, like Floyd’s honey bear bong. Pitt purportedly improvised much of his dialogue, and it is pure genius. The following year, Pitt would land on the A-list with the one-two punch of Interview with the Vampire and Legends of theFall, and his days of taking supporting roles like Floyd were over. It’s too bad, because I’ll take Floyd over Louis and Tristan any day.
Ted and Marshall – How I Met Your Mother, multiple episodes
Since Future Ted is telling his kids this story, he resorts to using an interesting euphemism for smoking weed – “eating a sandwich”. The joke first appears in the season 3 episode “How I Met Everyone Else”, as Future Ted tells his kids how he first met their Uncle Marshall. It became one of the series’ best running gags, featuring in several flashbacks throughout its run. Once in a while, older Ted and Marshall would eat a sandwich as well; in the standout season 7 episode “Tick Tick Tick”, the two (along with a pregnant Lily) attend a concert and eat a sandwich that may have been laced with “hard meats”. The results are harrowing for Ted and Marshall, and absolutely hilarious for us.
Dale Denton and Saul Silver – Pineapple Express
The Cheech and Chong of the 21st century, Seth Rogen and James Franco both got their start on the lovely, canceled-before-its-time Freaks and Geeks. Rogen and Franco vaulted to stardom, and their well-documented love of cannabis culminated in 2008’s Pineapple Express. The movie is shockingly violent for a stoner buddy comedy, as Saul and Ted are ensnared in a war between a corrupt cop and an Asian gang. Named for a particularly heady strain of marijuana, Pineapple Express was a box office success, making a worldwide total of $101 million on a $26 million budget. A sequel was planned, but the filmmakers and the studio couldn’t agree on a budget. We were treated to a pseudo-sequel by way of the movie-within-a-movie in 2013’s This Is the End.
FUN FACT: The inspiration for Pineapple Express was True Romance‘s Floyd. Producer Judd Apatow thought it would be interesting to follow Floyd out of his apartment and watch him get chased by bad guys.
Scooby and Shaggy
Scooby and Shaggy never smoked weed onscreen; in fact, the folks at Hanna-Barbera never intended for the pair to be perceived as stoners. But we know what they were doing in the back of that van. The only question is, were Scooby snacks edibles or just his cure for the munchies?
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Steve (Jon Lovitz) – Friends, “The One with the Stoned Guy”
Andrew, Brian, and Claire – The Breakfast ClubForman, Kelso, Hyde and Fez – That ’70s ShowJay and Silent BobSmokey – FridayHarold and Kumar
CHART POSITION: #8 in the US, #7 in the UK, #10 in Australia, #1 in New Zealand
SINGLES: “Big Log”, “In the Mood”, “Other Arms”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Wreckless Love” and “Horizontal Departure”
FUN FACT: Phil Collins played drums on five of the album’s eight tracks, including “In the Mood,” and former Jethro Tull drummer Barriemore Barlow performed on two. For the remaining song, “Big Log”, a drum machine called the Roland TR-808 provided the beat. The 808 was used extensively in the 1980s; you can hear it in singles like Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing”, Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me), and “Going Back to Cali” by LL Cool J.
The Crossing – Big Country
CHART POSITION: #18 in the US, #3 in the UK, #4 in Canada
SINGLES: “Harvest Home”, “Fields of Fire”, “In a Big Country”, “Chance”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Inwards” and “The Storm”
FUN FACT: Big Country shared a producer – Steve Lillywhite – and an ethos with other socially conscious UK bands like U2, Simple Minds, and The Pogues. They were known for their bagpipe-like guitar sound, created using the MXR Pitch Transposer 129 Guitar Effect and an EBow, a device that alters a guitar’s sound. You can also hear the EBow on songs like “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” by Blue Öyster Cult, The Church’s “Under the Milky Way”, Talking Heads’ “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)”, and R.E.M.’s “E-Bow the Letter”, which also namechecks the device.
No Parlez – Paul Young
CHART POSITION: #79 in the US, #1 in six countries, including the UK, Sweden, Italy, and Germany
SINGLES: “Iron Out the Rough Spots”, “Love of the Common People”, “Wherever I Lay My Hat”, “Come Back and Stay”, “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Ku Ku Kurama” and the title track
FUN FACT: “Come Back and Stay” was written by Jack Lee, who also composed “Hanging on the Telephone”, a big hit for Blondie in 1978.
Kill ‘Em All – Metallica
CHART POSITION: #155 in the US – but it didn’t enter the Billboard 200 until 1986, when the tragic death of bassist Cliff Burton in a tour bus accident boosted the band’s back catalog.
SINGLES: “Whiplash” and “Jump in the Fire”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: I won’t pretend to be a Metallica fan (I’m just not a fan of the genre), but I appreciate their incredible talent and artistry.
FUN FACT: Kill ‘Em All‘s original title was Metal Up Your Ass; the proposed cover art was a hand clutching a dagger emerging from a toilet. The band took the label’s advice to change the title to something less potentially controversial but eventually sold t-shirts that used the Metal Up Your Ass artwork.
Good for Your Soul – Oingo Boingo
CHART POSITION: N/A
SINGLES: “Wake Up (It’s 1984)”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Who Do You Want to Be”, title track, “No Spill Blood”, “Sweat”, “Nothing Bad Ever Happens to Me”,
FUN FACT #1: As a kid, bandleader (and future film composer) Danny Elfman demonstrated an aptitude for science – but not for music. He failed to make his elementary school’s orchestra because he showed “no propensity for music”.
FUN FACT #2: “No Spill Blood” was inspired by 1932’s Island of Lost Souls, an adaptation of H.G. Wells’s novel The Island of Doctor Moreau. In the film, Charles Laughton plays Dr. Moreau, whose “House of Pain” is a laboratory for horrific experiments on human-animal hybrids. Bela Legosi portrays the “Sayer of the Law”, who recites Moreau’s laws (and ultimately rebels against the doctor). Wells’s dialogue “Not to go on all-fours; that is the Law. Are we not men?” inspired the “No Spill Blood” lyric “We walk on two legs not on four / To walk on four legs breaks the law / What happens when we break the law? / What happens when the rules aren’t fair? / We all know where we go from there! / To the house of pain!”
FUN FACT: The album – and its creator – was dismissed as disco fluff by many critics, one of whom compared Madonna to “Minnie Mouse on helium”. Madonna later parodied the critique in a 1987 photoshoot with Herb Ritts because she is an absolute fucking boss.
Close to the Bone – Tom Tom Club
CHART POSITION: #79 in the US, #31 in New Zealand, #42 in Sweden
SINGLES: “Pleasure of Love” and “The Man with the 4-Way Hips”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “On the Line Again” and “Measure Up”
FUN FACT: Tom Tom Club is the side project of married Talking Heads members Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, best known for the 1981 hit “Genius of Love”. That song has been sampled numerous times, most notably for Mariah Carey’s 1995 #1 smash hit “Fantasy”. Close to the Bone didn’t yield any hits in the US, but “The Man with the 4-Way Hips” reached #82 on the UK charts.
Burning from the Inside – Bauhaus
CHART POSITION: N/A
SINGLES: N/A
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “She’s in Parties”, “King Volcano”, “Slice of Life”, title track, “The Sanity Assasin”
FUN FACT: Bauhaus (named for the German art school of the same name) broke up after the making of Burning from the Inside. Peter Murphy went on to have a successful solo career and Daniel Ash co-founded Tones on Tail and Love and Rockets.
Lawyers in Love – Jackson Browne
CHART POSITION: #30 in the US
SINGLES: “Lawyers in Love”, “Tender is the Night”, “For a Rocker”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Downtown” and “Say It Isn’t True”
FUN FACT: The title track was Browne’s last US top-twenty hit, peaking at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Punch the Clock – Elvis Costello and the Attractions
CHART POSITION: #24 in the US, #3 in the UK
SINGLES: “Everyday I Write the Book”, “Let Them All Talk”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “The Greatest Thing”, “Shipbuilding”, and “Charm School”
FUN FACT: “Everyday I Write the Book” was Costello’s first US top-forty hit. The music video – featuring silent film clips and (inexplicably) Charles and Diana lookalikes – received significant airplay on MTV. Costello would later admit that he didn’t understand the reason for using Charles and Diana, which was apparently the director’s idea.
An Innocent Man – Billy Joel
CHART POSITION: #4 in the US, #2 in the UK, #1 in New Zealand
SINGLES: “Tell Her About It”, “Uptown Girl”, title track, “The Longest Time”, “Leave a Tender Moment Alone”, “Keeping the Faith”, “This Night”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: This isn’t my favorite Billy Joel album (that’d be The Stranger). I do appreciate the desire to revisit the music of one’s teen years (I’m literally doing that right now), but doo-wop was never my cup of tea to begin with.
FUN FACT #1: “This Night” is credited on the album’s sleeve to L. v. Beethoven; the basis for the song’s chorus is Beethoven’s Sonata Pathétique.
FUN FACT #2: An Innocent Man was nominated for Album of the Year at the 26th Grammy Awards. It lost – rightfully – to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, as did Let’s Dance and Synchronicity.
Construction Time Again – Depeche Mode
CHART POSITION: #6 in the UK (didn’t chart in the US)
SINGLES: “Everything Counts”, “Love, in Itself”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Pipeline”, “The Landscape is Changing”, “And Then…”
FUN FACT: “Get the Balance Right!”, one of my favorite DM tunes, was recorded during the Construction Time Again sessions and released as a single but didn’t make the album’s final cut. In the music video, the first two lines are sung by Alan Wilder, even though Dave Gahan provided the song’s vocals. Apparently, the video’s director assumed Wilder was the lead singer and the band didn’t want to embarrass him by pointing out his mistake.
LOOK AT THESE BABIES
Bent Out of Shape – Rainbow
CHART POSITION: #34 in the US, #11 in the UK, #3 in Japan
SINGLES: “Street of Dreams”, “Can’t Let You Go”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Fire Dance” and “Drinking with the Devil”
FUN FACT: The music video for “Can’t Let You Go” was inspired by the 1920 German Expressionist silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which Roger Ebert once called “the first true horror film”.
Mummer – XTC
CHART POSITION: #51 in the UK, #145 in the US
SINGLES: “Great Fire”, “Wonderland”, “Love on a Farmboy’s Wages”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Beating of Hearts”, “Human Alchemy”, and “Funk Pop a Roll”
CHART POSITION: #1 in the UK, New Zealand and the Netherlands, #39 (1983) and #14 (1988) in the US
SINGLES: “Red Red Wine”, “Please Don’t Make Me Cry”, “Many Rivers to Cross”, “Cherry Oh Baby”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Keep On Moving”, “Sweet Sensation”, “Version Girl”
FUN FACT #1: UB40’s name is a reference to the acronym for Unemployment Benefit, Form 40, given to UK unemployment claimants.
FUN FACT #2: Labour of Love made its way back onto the charts – and finally cracked the US top twenty – in 1988 after UB40 performed “Red Red Wine” at a 70th birthday celebration for Nelson Mandela, who at the time was still imprisoned in South Africa for the crime of being black.
Why yes, I am annoyed by Ali Campbell’s gum-chewing
During that same performance, UB40 shared the stage with Chrissie Hynde for “I Got You Babe”, which they had a hit with in 1985
Sports – Huey Lewis and the News
CHART POSITION: #1 in the US, #23 in the UK, #22 in Australia
SINGLES: “Heart and Soul”, “I Want a New Drug”, “The Heart of Rock & Roll”, “If This Is It”, “Walking on a Thin Line”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Honky Tonk Blues”
FUN FACT: “Heart and Soul” was written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, a songwriting team known for ’70s hits like “Ballroom Blitz” (The Sweet), “My Sharona” (The Knack), “Heart of Glass” (Blondie), and “Kiss You All Over” (Exile). Exile originally recorded “Heart and Soul” for their 1981 album of the same name, but the single failed to crack the Billboard Hot 100. Lewis’s version made it to #8 and earned the band a Grammy nomination.
More Fun in the New World – X
CHART POSITION: #86 in the US
SINGLES: “The New World”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “The New World”, “We’re Having Much More Fun”, “Make the Music Go Bang”, “Devil Doll”
FUN FACT: More Fun in the New World was the last X album produced by Ray Manzarek of the Doors. For their follow-up album (Ain’t Love Grand!), X worked with Michael Wagener, who is best known for his work with ’80s metal bands like Accept, Dokken, Great White, and White Lion.
What’s New – Linda Ronstadt & the Nelson Riddle Orchestra
CHART POSITION: #3 in the US (it was kept off the top of the charts by Thriller and Lionel Richie’s Don’t Slow Down) #31 in the UK
SINGLES: “What’s New”, “I’ve Got a Crush on You”, “Someone to Watch Over Me”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance”
FUN FACT: Ronstadt first performed “I’ve Got a Crush on You” in a 1980 episode of TheMuppet Show.
Genesis – Genesis
CHART POSITION: #9 in the US, #1 in the UK, Germany, and Finland, top five in eight other countries
SINGLES: “Mama”, “That’s All”, “Home by the Sea”, “Illegal Alien”, “Taking It All Too Hard”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Silver Rainbow” and “It’s Gonna Get Better”
FUN FACT: Genesis perfectly bridges the gap between the band’s progressive roots and its ’80s pop sensibilities; it’s my favorite Genesis album. A British reviewer credited the band with making “a Genesis album for people who normally hate Genesis.”
I love this song so fucking much! It’s so dark and weird, which is how I felt in 1983.
Colour By Numbers – Culture Club
CHART POSITION: #1 in the UK, Australia, and Canada, #2 in the US (it was kept off the top of the chart by – you guessed it – Thriller)
SINGLES: “Church of the Poison Mind”, “Karma Chameleon”, “Victims”, “Miss Me Blind”, “It’s a Miracle”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above
FUN FACT #1: Colour By Numbers made the year-end charts in several countries, including the US (#5), Canada (#7), and Australia (#3), where it was also the 16th-best-selling album of the DECADE.
“Karma Chameleon” was Culture Club’s only #1 in the US (it also went to #1 in the UK, where it was the biggest-selling single of 1983)
FUN FACT #2: A lyric in “Miss Me Blind” – “I’m never really sure / If you’re just kissing to be clever” – is a reference to the title of Culture Club’s 1982 debut.
She’s So Unusual – Cyndi Lauper
CHART POSITION: #4 in the US, top five in seven other countries (including Canada, Australia, and New Zealand)
SINGLES: “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”, “Time After Time”, “She Bop”, “All Through the Night”, “Money Changes Everything”, “When You Were Mine”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Yeah Yeah”
FUN FACT #1: Annie Leibovitz photographed Lauper for the She’s So Unusual cover, which earned art director Janet Perr a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package.
FUN FACT #2: “She Bop”, an ode to female masturbation with a be-bop back beat, was one of the “Filthy Fifteen”, fifteen pop and rock songs deemed offensive by Tipper Gore and the PMRC (for more on the PMRC, click here: https://peanut-butter-and-julie.com/2021/09/20/warning-pmrc-advisory/).
Blueboy magazine was actually a gay men’s magazine. Apparently, someone left a copy at the recording studio, prompting Lauper’s attention and inspiring “She Bop”.
Soul Mining – The The
CHART POSITION: #27 in the UK (it didn’t chart in the US)
SINGLES: “Uncertain Smile”, “Perfect”, “This Is the Day”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “The Sinking Feeling”
FUN FACT: The artwork for Soul Mining was done by frontman Matt Johnson’s brother Andrew, under the pseudonym Andy Dog. The typeface for the band’s iconic logo was created by Johnson’s girlfriend, graphic designer Fiona Skinner.
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Playing Guitar” and “Lovin’ Mother Fo Ya”
FUN FACT: “Crumblin’ Down” was the last song written for Uh-Huh! After listening to the album’s masters, Mellencamp felt he didn’t have a strong enough lead-off single. He contacted longtime songwriting partner George Green, with whom he’d collaborated on “Hurts So Good”. “Crumblin’ Down” was the first single Mellencamp released that credited his real name and not “Cougar”.
Pipes of Peace – Paul McCartney
CHART POSITION: #15 in the US, #4 in the UK, #9 in Australia
SINGLES: “Say Say Say” (duet with Michael Jackson) and the title track
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Keep Under Cover”, “The Man” (another duet with Jackson), “Through Our Love”
FUN FACT: Much of Pipes of Peace was recorded during the sessions for McCartney’s previous album, Tug of War, so it feels a little like leftovers – more of the same, not quite as good, but more satisfying than cooking a whole new meal. The presence of Michael Jackson lent this project an extra helping of good will. Anyway, I’ll always show up for a former Beatle.
Hearts and Bones – Paul Simon
CHART POSITION: #35 in the US, #34 in the UK
SINGLES: “Allergies” and “Think Too Much”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Hearts and Bones”, “Train in the Distance”, “René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War”
FUN FACT #1: “Hearts and Bones” was inspired by Simon’s relationship with Carrie Fisher. I particularly love the opening lyric: “One and one-half wandering Jews / Free to wander wherever they choose”. Fisher and Simon divorced in 1984 and after a period of depression, Simon took a trip to Johannesburg, South Africa, where the seeds of his next album – Graceland – would be sown.
FUN FACT #2: “René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War”, probably my favorite track on Hearts and Bones, was inspired by a photograph (below) of the surrealist painter and his mate taken by Lothar Wolleh (though the photo was taken in the 1960s).
Rebel Yell – Billy Idol
CHART POSITION: #6 in the US, #36 in the UK
SINGLES: “Rebel Yell”, “Eyes Without a Face”, “Flesh for Fantasy”, “Catch My Fall”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “(Do Not) Stand in the Shadows”
FUN FACT: Several years before I struggled through two semesters of college French, “Les yeux sans visage” (“Eyes without a face”) was one of the first French phrases I ever learned, thanks to Billy Idol. The lyric is actually the name of a French-language horror film about a plastic surgeon attempting to give his daughter a face transplant after she is disfigured in an auto accident.
“Eyes Without a Face” provides the soundtrack to snippets of 1960’s Les Yeux sans Visage in this YouTube clip from Music Video Vault
90125 – Yes
CHART POSITION: #5 in the US, #16 in the UK
SINGLES: “Owner of a Lonely Heart”, “Leave It”, “It Can Happen”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Changes” and “City of Love”
FUN FACT: 90125, named for its Atco Records catalog number, is Yes’s best-selling album in the US. Sales were augmented by the success of “Owner of a Lonely Heart” and its Storm Thorgerson-directed music video, which went into regular rotation on MTV; the single was the band’s only US #1.
This video freaked me out in 1983, and I’ll be honest, it is fairly disturbing to me in 2023, as well (content warning for creepy crawly creatures and a visual reference to suicide)
Touch – Eurythmics
CHART POSITION: #1 in the UK and New Zealand, #7 in the US, #4 in Australia
SINGLES: “Who’s That Girl?”, “Right by Your Side”, “Here Comes the Rain Again”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: Just, all of them. Seriously, I can’t choose. The combination of Annie Lennox’s soulful voice and Dave Stewart’s crisp synths remain a match made in synth-pop heaven.
FUN FACT #1: As mentioned in volume one of this post, this is Eurythmics’ second album on the list – Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) was released in January. In 2012, Rolling Stone placed Touch at #492 on its list of “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.
FUN FACT #2: Lennox and Stewart actually met in 1976; the two were in a band called the Tourists, who had a top-ten UK hit in 1979 with a cover of Dusty Springfield’s “I Only Want to Be with You”. The Tourists broke up in 1980 (as did Lennox and Stewart’s romantic relationship), but the pair wanted to continue their musical partnership. Eurythmics assumed the Tourists’ recording deal with RCA and their first album, In the Garden, was released in 1981.
Seven and the Ragged Tiger – Duran Duran
CHART POSITION: #8 in the US (where it was also the tenth best-selling album of 1984), #1 in the UK and the Netherlands, #2 in Australia, top twenty in nine other countries
SINGLES: “The Union of the Snake”, “New Moon on Monday”, “The Reflex”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “I Take the Dice”, “Of Crime and Passion”, “Shadows on Your Side”, “The Seventh Stranger”
FUN FACT #1: There probably isn’t a way to put into words what Duran Duran meant – and still mean – to me. My friends and I pored over every lyric and scoured the racks at the indie record store, searching for the imports and 12-inch singles you couldn’t find at the chains. My love affair with the band has never wavered, but it certainly reached its peak in 1983. I don’t know if I’ve ever anticipated an album as much as I did Seven and the Ragged Tiger. Obviously, I wanted it as soon as it was available, but my parents were reluctant to drive me into Ann Arbor on a weeknight (which, as an adult, I TOTALLY understand), so I had to call the store and verify they had it. I’ll never forget how the sales associate answered the phone: “Thank you for calling Record Town, where we have the new Duran Duran album, how can I help you?” Clearly, I was not the first 14-year-old whose parents made them call.
FUN FACT #2: “The Reflex”, buoyed by a Nile Rodgers-produced remix, was Duran Duran’s first US #1 single. It was one of two songs – the other being Prince’s “When Doves Cry” – that kept Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” from topping the charts. Rodgers later co-founded The Power Station with Robert Palmer and D2 members John Taylor and Andy Taylor.
I love that in a Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic wasteland, the lads still have perfectly coiffed hair
The scene at the end of the band dancing is CRINGE and they agree, with Nick Rhodes and Andy Taylor confirming in separate interviews that “New Moon on Monday” is Duran Duran’s least-favorite music video
Conflicting Emotions – Split Enz
CHART POSITION: #3 in New Zealand, #13 in Australia, #137 in the US
SINGLES: “Strait Old Line”, “Message to My Girl”, “I Wake Up Every Night”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Our Day” and “The Devil You Know”
FUN FACT: Split Enz were best known for their 1981 single “I Got You”, which went to #1 in Australia and the band’s native New Zealand and #53 in the US. Escalating tensions between bandmates – and brothers – Tim and Neil Finn meant that ConflictingEmotions was aptly titled. In fact, Split Enz would break up the following year. Neil went on to form Crowded House, one of my favorite bands of the ’80s and ’90s.
Drummer Paul Hester, who later co-founded Crowded House with Neil Finn, joined Split Enz just in time to feature in the “Message to My Girl” video
The Politics of Dancing – Re-Flex
CHART POSITION: #53 in the US
SINGLE/MY FAVORITE TRACK: “The Politics of Dancing”
FUN FACT: There were, inexplicably, five more singles released from The Politics of Dancing, but none of them made an impact. Re-Flex’s follow-up album, Humanication, was planned for 1985 but the band parted ways with EMI and it sat on a shelf for 25 years. But if you’re going to be remembered as a one-hit wonder, you could do a lot worse than “The Politics of Dancing”. I was really into the new romantics at the time (Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet, specifically), and synth-pop in general, and Re-Flex fit right into that niche. Anyway, don’t take my word for it. In a sign the single was destined for immortality, “The Politics of Dancing” was featured in a key scene in 2017’s Atomic Blonde, almost thirty-five years after its release.
Bark at the Moon – Ozzy Osbourne
CHART POSITION: #19 in the US, #24 in the UK
SINGLES: “Bark at the Moon”, “So Tired”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Bark at the Moon”, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Rebel”, “Centre of Eternity”, “Slow Down”
FUN FACT: The music video for “Bark at the Moon” features Osbourne as a mad scientist who transforms, Jekyll and Hyde-style, into the werewolf depicted on the album’s cover. The creature makeup was done by seven-time Oscar winner Rick Baker, who also did the makeup for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video.
After completing this volume, I compiled a list of my top-tier albums of 1983; the albums I listened to regularly then that have also stood the test of time for me. I landed on a top twelve; I couldn’t narrow it down further (my blog, my rules).
Seven and the Ragged Tiger – Duran Duran
Genesis – Genesis
Murmur – R.E.M.
Madonna – Madonna
Synchronicity – The Police
War – U2
Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes
Touch – Eurythmics
Too Low for Zero – Elton John
Good For Your Soul – Oingo Boingo
She’s So Unusual – Cyndi Lauper
Naked Eyes – Naked Eyes
Here is the final 1983 playlist. It is absurdly long, but I’m a completist, so here you go:
Here’s an abbreviated, (roughly) singles-only version of the playlist, for those of you who aren’t completists:
Forty years ago today, R.E.M. released their first full-length album, Murmur, and my life would never be the same. Widely regarded as one of the best albums of the 1980s – and one of the greatest debuts of all time – Murmur was a game-changer.
R.E.M. got their start in 1980 in Athens, Georgia. In January of that year, Michael Stipe met Peter Buck at Wuxtry Records, where Buck was an employee. Both University of Georgia students, the two bonded over a shared love of proto-punk artists like Television and The Velvet Underground. Through a mutual friend, Stipe and Buck met Mike Mills and Bill Berry, who had known each other since high school, and the quartet started rehearsing together in an abandoned church. The newly minted R.E.M. (legend has it that Stipe chose the name out of the dictionary at random) played their first gig on April 5th – the mutual friend’s birthday party.
Success for R.E.M. came quickly in Athens, and the band began touring all over the south. An R.E.M. show in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, so impressed a record store clerk named Jefferson Holt, he moved to Athens to manage the band. In April, 1981 – just a year after they played their first gig together – R.E.M. recorded their first single, “Radio Free Europe”, followed by an EP called Chronic Town in October of that year.
I.R.S. Records, impressed with a Chronic Town demo, signed the band in May, 1982. R.E.M. entered the studio on January 6, 1983, to begin recording their debut LP. Included in the sessions was a re-recording of “Radio Free Europe”, which would become Murmur‘s first single. I honestly had never heard the original recording of the song until just now, and it’s remarkable: faster, punkier and far less polished, it demonstrates the raw potential of an extraordinary band in its infancy.
Original 1981 Recording
Murmur version
I heard “Radio Free Europe” on my local college radio station (Ann Arbor’s WCBN FM-88.3), and I was gobsmacked. I bought Murmur as soon as I could, and listened to it until the grooves wore out. The music, with its jangly guitar, melodic basslines, and Stipe’s mumbly vocal style and cryptic lyrics, was unlike anything I’d heard before (or since, if I’m being perfectly honest). It was a refreshing change of pace from the polished pop, bombastic rock and synth-heavy new wave of the time period. For reference, here are the top ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100 from the week Murmur was released:
Billie Jean – Michael Jackson
Come On Eileen – Dexy’s Midnight Runners
Mr. Roboto – Styx
Jeopardy – Greg Kihn Band
Beat It – Michael Jackson
Hungry Like the Wolf – Duran Duran
One on One – Hall and Oates
Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) – Journey
Der Kommissar – After the Fire
Do You Really Want To Hurt Me – Culture Club
Don’t get me wrong, there are some bangers here – the only song on this list that I actively dislike is “Jeopardy”, but even that yielded this stone-cold classic from Sir Alfred Yankovic, so I can’t hate on it too much.
The point is, nothing on this – or any other – list sounds quite like R.E.M. They sounded completely fresh, yet utterly timeless. Listening to Murmur again now, I can’t get over how innovative it still feels. And though Murmur didn’t end up being R.E.M.’s best album (I’d argue that title belongs to Automatic for the People, but this band’s discography is an embarrassment of riches), it is their most important album. R.E.M. remains one of my favorite artists, and they are a perfect example of a band that has achieved incredible success while consistently maintaining their authenticity.
This post is dedicated to my favorite siblings, Dianne and Barbara.
Happy National Siblings Day, y’all! In honor of the occasion, here is a selection of iconic pop culture siblings and, as always, a few of my favorites.
The March sisters – Little Women
We’re on a first name basis with the March girls: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. From the beloved 1868 Louisa May Alcott novel to the numerous adaptations, including three Oscar-winning feature films, generations have grown up with the sisters.
Monica and Ross Geller – Friends
The relationship between the Geller siblings provided Friends with some of its funniest moments, but at its core, their relationship was built on mutual love and respect – and the occasional sibling rivalry.
Fun fact: Monica is Ross’s younger sister but in real life, Courteney Cox is two years older than David Schwimmer.
Lindsay and Sam Weir – Freaks and Geeks
In a refreshingly candid series like Freaks and Geeks, it’s no surprise to find a sibling pair as heartwarming and hilarious as Lindsay and Sam Weir. I’ve professed my undying love for this lovely little one-season wonder before – and I’ll do it again. If you’ve never seen this gem of a show, do yourself a favor and check it out (you can stream it on Hulu and Paramount Plus).
The Bennet sisters – Pride and Prejudice
Another set of iconic pop culture sisters – Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia Bennet – made their first appearance in Jane Austen’s 1813 literary classic. Notable adaptions include a 1995 BBC production and the beloved 2005 film version for which Keira Knightley received a Best Actress Oscar nomination.
Fun fact: Bridget Jones’s Diary is one of many loose adaptations of Pride and Prejudice. Colin Firth, who played Mr. Darcy in the 1995 BBC miniseries, also portrayed Mark Darcy in the Bridget Jones trilogy.
Lucas and Erica Sinclair – Stranger Things
On a series full of sibling pairs – Mike and Nancy Wheeler, Will and Jonathan Byers, creators Ross and Matt Duffer – the one that stands out for me is Lucas and Erica Sinclair. Sarcastic and whip smart, Erica is her big brother’s nemesis early on, until the gang recruits her for D & D and, later, monster hunting.
A typical Lucas/Erica exchange, from the season three premiere
Elliott, Michael, and Gertie – E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
The magic of E.T. isn’t just the special effects; it’s the combination of writing, directing, casting, and acting that gave us one of the most believable families in cinema history. The three siblings share an awfully big secret – there’s an alien living in their bedroom closet – but their relationship is grounded in relatable sibling dynamics.
Fun fact: Among the actresses who auditioned for the role of Gertie were Juliette Lewis and Sarah Michelle Gellar. I love them both, but I can’t imagine anyone but Drew Barrymore in the role.
The cast had an adorable reunion last year on Barrymore’s talk show, in honor of the film’s 40th anniversary
HAIM
Este, Danielle, and Alana Haim are multi-talented songwriters, vocalists, instrumentalists, and all-around badasses (Alana also made a splash – and earned BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations – for her role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza). HAIM is one of my favorite musical artists of the past ten years, just pure pop perfection.
I’ve watched this at least a dozen times, and I’ll never be over how fucking awesome it is
The Brothers Gibb
The Gibbs – Barry, twins Robin and Maurice, and baby brother Andy – have been serenading audiences since the 1950s, when the three eldest brothers formed their first band, the Rattlesnakes. The Bee Gees sold more than 220 million albums and achieved icon status with the release of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Barry, the sole living Gibb brother, is still recording and performing.
I made this playlist in 2021 to celebrate Barry’s 75th birthday
Sparks
Ron and Russell Mael – better known as Sparks – have been making some of rock’s weirdest music for more than fifty years. The brothers have steadfastly defied categorization, moving from art rock to glam to synth pop – and back again. The duo’s latest single, released in March, is titled “The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte”; the music video features Oscar winner Cate Blanchett.
“I Predict” was my introduction to Sparks, and the first of their singles to hit the Billboard Hot 100
Their duet with Go-Go Jane Wiedlin was also a minor hit
I love this so much
Wednesday and Pugsley Addams
This iconic sibling pair was created by Charles Addams for The New Yorker; they’ve appeared in numerous adaptations since their first appearance in 1938, including a beloved 1960s sitcom, an animated series, a film series, a live musical, and most recently, the Netflix series Wednesday.
For many, the favorite Wednesday/Pugsley combo is from the 1991 feature film and its sequel (Christina RIcci and Jimmy Workman)
Dottie Hinson and Kit Keller – A League of Their Own
Yes, A League of Their Own is about the members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. But at its heart, the beloved film is about two sisters: Dottie, the older and worldlier of the two, ready to settle down and have kids with her GI husband, and Kit, her feisty baby sister. I’ve always loved the chemistry between Geena Davis and Lori Petty; the rivalry feels authentic and earned but at the end of the day, their affection for each other shines through.
Fun fact: A League of Their Own is the most successful baseball movie in history. In fact, it’s made as much at the box office as Field of Dreams and Bull Durham combined.
Alex and Maia Shibutani
Known collectively as the “Shib sibs”, Alex and Maia are eight-time US medalists, two-time Olympians (they placed 9th at the Sochi games and 3rd in Pyeongchang), and three-time World medalists. They are absolute cutie pies, but most importantly, they are amazing skaters. I heart these two.
The Pointer Sisters
June, Ruth, and Anita Pointer are one of the most successful sibling pop vocal groups ever, earning thirteen top-twenty hits in the US and winning three Grammy Awards (sister Bonnie left the group in 1978 to pursue a solo career). The trio reached the height of their success in the early 1980s with the albums So Excited! and Break Out. Anita and Bonnie are no longer with us, but Ruth is still performing as the Pointer Sisters with her daughter Issa and her granddaughter Sadako.
The best thing about ’80s videos is how they could ironically juxtapose lyrics about sex with literal long jumpers
The Brady kids – The Brady Bunch
No list of pop culture siblings would be complete without the musical Brady children: Greg, Marcia, Peter, Jan, Bobby, and Cindy.
Ann and Nancy Wilson
Ann Wilson was a founding member of Heart; younger sister Nancy joined the band in time for its 1975 debut, Dreamboat Annie. Though they made their best music in the 1970s, they experienced a commercial resurgence in the late ’80s and early ’90s. They formed a side gig, The Lovemongers, to record a blistering remake of Led Zeppelin’s song “The Battle of Evermore” for the soundtrack to the movie Singles, directed by Nancy’s then-husband Cameron Crowe.
I grew up in the 1970s, the golden age of Saturday morning cartoons, and the various iterations of the Super Friends/Justice League hour was one of my favorites. I particularly loved the shape-shifting superheroes-in-training Zan and Jayna, AKA the Wonder Twins. The twins’ powers were hilariously specific: Zan could only transform into some form of water and Jayna could only become an animal. When they fist-bumped to activate their powers, I couldn’t wait to hear what weird combo it would be.
Fun fact: Zan and Jayna’s personalities were inspired by another iconic sibling pair, Donny and Marie Osmond.
The Von Trapp kids – The Sound of Music
And finally, from my all-time favorite movie musical, the Von Trapp children: Liesl, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta, and Gretl. Nothing else needs to be said:
I had intended this post to be longer, but I ran out of time and had to make some cuts (the Cusacks, AWrinkle in Time‘s Meg and Charles Wallace Murry, the Coen brothers, and the Sanderson sisters from Disney’s Hocus Pocus, among others). Perhaps I’ll do a volume two at some point. In the meantime, I’d love to hear from y’all: who are YOUR favorite pop culture siblings?
The other night, hubby and I finished watching a PBS docuseries titled The U.S. and the Holocaust. Directed by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein, the series takes an unflinching look at the human toll of the Nazis’ “Final Solution” and how the United States, desperate to maintain neutrality in the early years of WWII, failed to do anything to help the millions of European Jews our government knew were in peril. The U.S. and the Holocaust makes excellent use of voiceover, not only the narration by Burns’ longtime collaborator Peter Coyote, but guest stars including Meryl Streep (who provides the voice for Eleanor Roosevelt), Paul Giamatti, Joe Morton, and Bradley Whitford. The series also incorporates stunning archival footage and interviews with Holocaust survivors such as Eva (Geiringer) Schloss, a childhood friend of Anne Frank’s. The U.S. and the Holocaust is not an easy watch, nor should it be. The series ends by convincingly connecting the dots between Nazi Germany and a recent rise in fascism and antisemitism here in the U.S. If you have access to PBS’s catalog, I highly recommend this series, which holds a 100% rating and an audience score of 83% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Obviously, this series has a content warning for antisemitism, genocide, war, and other atrocities
I also just finished watching a Showtime true crime docuseries called Buried, which covers a case I was unfamiliar with. Twenty years after her best friend Susan Nason was murdered, Eileen Franklin suddenly remembered what her conscious mind had tucked away – that her father had committed the crime. The controversial case was the first instance of a recovered memory being used as evidence in a criminal prosecution. Buried is an absolutely fascinating look at generational trauma and the power of memory.
A Place in the Sun, directed by George Stevens and starring Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on this day in 1951. Based on the 1925 Theodore Dreiser novel An American Tragedy – and loosely based on the real-life 1906 murder of Grace Brown – A Place in the Sun went on to win six Academy Awards, including Best Director, as well as the first ever Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Drama.
Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor
Japanese electronic music pioneer and Oscar-winning film composer Ryuichi Sakamoto has died at the age of 71. His BAFTA-winning score for Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is a personal favorite of mine; he earned his Oscar four years later – along with a Golden Globe and a Grammy – for Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor. Among the other films Sakamoto scored are The Sheltering Sky, Little Buddha, Snake Eyes, and The Revenant. He also composed music for the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics.
One of Sakamoto’s most popular – and beautiful – tracks, “Bibo no Aozora”, plays over the final scene in 2006’s Babel
On this day in 1965, the 37th Academy Awards were held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. It was the only time in Oscar history that three films were each nominated for at least twelve awards (Mary Poppins with 13, My Fair Lady and Becket with 12). My Fair Lady was the night’s big winner, with eight awards, but the highlight was Julie Andrews – who had originated the role of Eliza Doolittle on Broadway but was passed over for the film adaptation in favor of established star Audrey Hepburn – taking home the Best Actress prize for her debut, Mary Poppins (Hepburn, whose singing was dubbed by Marti Nixon without her knowledge, wasn’t even nominated).
” I know you Americans are famous for your hospitality, but this is really ridiculous”
Hulu’s Tiny Beautiful Things, based on the book by Cheryl Strayed, premieres this Friday. The glorious Kathryn Hahn stars as Clare, an advice columnist whose personal life is falling apart. Emmy winner Merritt Wever co-stars as Clare’s mom in flashbacks. I haven’t read the source material, but the series is getting fantastic reviews and honestly? I’d watch Kathryn Hahn in literally anything. I’m in.
Also coming soon (April 14th) is Apple TV’s The Last Thing He Told Me, which is based on the novel of the same name by Laura Dave and stars Jennifer Garner as a woman unraveling the mystery of her husband’s disappearance. The supporting cast includes Mare of Easttown‘s lovely Angourie Rice, Aisha Tyler, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
Also arriving on the 14th is Universal’s Renfield, which puts Dracula’s (Nicholas Cage) long-suffering servant, played by Nicholas Hoult, front and center. Based on this gruesome, hilarious trailer, this flick is going to be entertaining as hell.
The second teaser and additional promotional materials have been released for the upcoming theatrical release, Barbie. Written by romantic partners Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, and directed by Gerwig, the film stars Margot Robbie as the iconic doll and Ryan Gosling as Ken, as well as a tremendous supporting cast that includes Issa Rae, Nicola Coughlan, Kate McKinnon, Simon Liu, Michael Cera, and many more (oh, and Helen Mirren narrates!). They can just take my money now because I will be the first in line for this.
And finally, Disney+ has released the first teaser for The Muppets Mayhem, a series that follows the iconic Muppets house band, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, as they attempt to record their first album. I actually cancelled my Disney+ subscription a while back, but I’ll probably need to re-up for this one.
***** CONTENT WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS REFERENCES TO HOMOPHOBIA, TRANSPHOBIA, PEDOPHILIA, MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES, SUICIDE, GUN VIOLENCE, AND HOMELESSNESS *****
Drag is under fire these days, mainly from far-right radicals with neither a sense of humor nor a basic understanding of history. The narrative – that they’re protecting children from LGBTQ+ “groomers” – is absolute bullshit, and they know it (not that these people care about statistics, but the vast majority of pedophiles are cisgender, heterosexual men). The question that keeps getting asked is, “How will we explain drag to the children?” The simple fact is we have all been exposed to drag, usually from a very young age. Animated characters such as Bugs Bunny, Mulan, Robin Hood‘s Little John, The Lion King‘s Timon, and SpongeBob SquarePants have been dressing in drag for decades.
Mulan (depicted here in Disney’s 1998 animated feature), in a tradition that dates back centuries, disguised herself as a man to join the military
So, if most of us were exposed to drag from a young age and didn’t need it explained, what are these people protesting? It’s actually quite simple; they’re protesting queerness. Because these people fetishize LGBTQ+ folks, they can’t picture them in a non-sexual scenario. The conclusion is drawn that a drag queen reading a book to children must be a lascivious act. Obviously, that couldn’t be further from the truth; these events are wholesome AF, and your kid is far safer there than alone with the wrong teacher, priest, Boy Scout leader, or family member. In fact, the only people I’d want to shield my kid from are the protesting bigots. I’m not a parent – I’m not getting into it here, but if you’re interested in the whole story: https://peanut-butter-and-julie.com/2021/05/05/the-baroness-of-barrenness/ (CW for infertility) – but if I had a child who asked me about a drag performer, I’d say something like, “Sometimes adults play dress-up, too.”
The right – emboldened by T*ump and fueled by conspiracy theories – is chipping away at LGBTQ+ rights, passing laws that criminalize LGBTQ+ folks for existing in public spaces. TERFs like She Who Must Not Be Named spew their transphobic hate all over social media. These people actively do harm and don’t even try to pretend otherwise. And they’re doing it all “for the children,” which is absolutely laughable. If these people really cared about children, they’d work to improve access to school lunches and sex education and health care, or maybe do something – ANYTHING – to make it a little harder for people to commit mass shootings. And if all this makes me woke, then fuck yes, because woke is an adjective meaning “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination.” I’ll never get over how many people side with prejudice and discrimination.
Teaching children tolerance should not be controversial, but here we are. Children are far more open-minded than many adults give them credit for. Children aren’t born with hate; they learn it. No one is trying to turn kids gay (the gay agenda, as far as I can tell, is survival, equal rights, and maybe brunch if there’s time). For kids questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity, for those enduring bigotry or bullying or abuse, and for those who just feel different and aren’t really sure why, finding a role model – someone who lets them know that it’s okay to be themselves – can be lifesaving. Gender-affirming care can be lifesaving. LGBTQ+ kids have higher suicide rates and incidences of mental health issues. They’re more likely to experience homelessness, bullying, and violence. Many are abused and disowned by their families. It will be worth it if these drag story hours save even one young life. Plus, they look like a blast.
The history of drag in pop culture dates back to ancient Greek and Roman times. Many societies banned women from appearing on stage, so men played female roles. Instances of drag appear in mythology, folklore, literature, and opera. Women have dressed in drag for centuries to enter male-dominated spaces such as the labor force and the battlefield.
Among the many women who disguised themselves as men to fight in the US Civil War was Frances Louisa Clayton, known to her fellow soldiers as Jack WIlliams. To pass as a man, Clayton took up gambling, swearing, and cigar-smoking.
Drag in cinema dates back to the 1910s, when motion pictures were in their infancy. Silent film artists such as Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, who honed their craft in the English music halls of the late 19th century (more on those later), often dressed in drag for comedic effect. Bugs Bunny, who debuted in 1939, often dressed in drag to confound opponents like Elmer Fudd. In 1959, drag was a key plot point in what many consider the greatest American comedy of all time, Some Like It Hot.
Best. Last. Line. EVER.
After the end of the Hays Code era (ICYMI: https://peanut-butter-and-julie.com/2021/04/01/the-hays-code/, CW for SA and racism), drag in film went mainstream, with beloved movies like Rocky Horror Picture Show, Tootsie, Mrs. Doubtfire, and The Birdcage and pop culture icons like RuPaul, Dame Edna (Barry Humphries), and Divine. During the same period, live drag shows also became increasingly popular. Musicians such as David Bowie, Annie Lennox, Boy George, and Prince dabbled in androgyny. Today, drag is everywhere: Pride celebrations, reality competitions like RuPaul’s Drag Race, Tyler Perry’s blockbuster Madea franchise, and yes, even children’s story hours.
So, in celebration of drag in all its forms, here is a timeline of drag in popular culture and, as always, a few of my personal favorites.
Ancient Greece and Rome
In ancient Western societies, women were not allowed to perform onstage, so female roles were, by necessity, portrayed by men. In Greece, men and boys were required to dress in drag for certain religious ceremonies.
A depiction of Greek actors in drag
Mummers’ play
Mummers’ plays are folk plays that originated in the British Isles, with troupes of traditionally all-male performers. The written history of Mummers’ plays is sparse, but it’s believed to date back at least to the 13th century. The tradition is still upheld, with variations of Mummers’ plays performed for holidays like Christmas, Easter, and Plough Day, an English holiday celebrating the beginning of the agricultural year.
A modern-day Mummers’ play
Shakespeare
In the English Renaissance Theater, women were still forbidden to appear onstage, so Shakespearean heroines were played by men. Shakespeare also used drag as a plot device, most notably in Twelfth Night (heroine Viola impersonates a man and winds up in a love triangle).
FUN FACT: English laws against women appearing on stage began to relax during the reign of Charles II, who took the throne in 1660, almost fifty years after Shakespeare died.
In 1998’s Shakespeare in Love, Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow) pretends to be a man in order to appear on stage in Romeo and Juliet
Music Halls
Another English tradition, music hall entertainment, was the direct ancestor of vaudeville. Music halls were Victorian-era variety shows featuring a mix of songs, comedy, and specialty acts like magicians, ventriloquists, and both male and female drag artists.
Music hall drag stars Winifred Emms AKA Hetty King (L) and Arthur Askey (R)
Silent film
In the early days of film, comedians such as Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, who came to the US in 1910 as part of Fred Karno’s comedy troupe, often dressed in drag in the English music hall style. Later comedians such as the Three Stooges, Milton Berle, and Flip Wilson carried on that tradition.
Charlie Chaplin in drag in the 1915 short film A Woman
Ball Culture
The Ballroom scene originated in the late 19th century when LGBTQ+ folks began to organize drag shows in defiance of anti-drag laws. In the 1920s, tired of the racism and discrimination at many of these events, black and Latino drag queens started organizing their own underground balls in New York City, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia. In the 1980s, ball culture inspired a dance style called Vogue, which gained mainstream notoriety in 1990 with Madonna’s #1 smash hit single of the same name and the award-winning documentary feature Paris Is Burning.
FUN FACT: The origin of the word “drag” is disputed, but one theory suggests it is derived from the term “grand rag,” a historical slang term for a “masquerade ball.”
1920s drag queensParis is Burning
The video for “Vogue”, directed by David Fincher, won three MTV Video Music Awards but lost Video of the Year to Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” (Fincher took home the Best Director prize, though)
One more, because this is too perfect not to share
Bugs Bunny
One of the ultimate drag icons, Bugs Bunny has appeared in drag more than forty times. Other LooneyTunes characters to dress in drag are Wile E. Coyote, Porky Pig, and Daffy Duck. Since the ascendence of Bugs, countless animated characters – including Fred Flintstone, SpongeBob SquarePants, and many a Disney sidekick – have appeared in drag, delighting children and adults alike. Drag is also a common plot element in Japanese anime.
Some Like It Hot
Because of its depiction of cross-dressing, Some Like It Hot was released without the approval of the Motion Picture Production Code (AKA the Hays Code). Despite that lack of support, the film was a critical and commercial success, and a six-time Oscar nominee (inexplicably, it was not nominated for Best Picture). Some Like It Hot‘s success was a key step in the relaxing of standards in the 1960s and the ultimate abolition of the Code.
TheRocky Horror Picture Show
Going to a Rocky Horror midnight show was a Gen-X rite of passage. And Tim Curry dressed in drag as Dr. Frank-N-Furter – “the sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania” – also provided many a sexual awakening. Rocky Horror was one of the first notable cinematic instances of queer drag, making it a landmark film for LGBTQ+ visibility; the earliest midnight screening attendees were queer folks celebrating their newfound representation.
Torch Song Trilogy / La Cage aux Folles / The Birdcage
Beginning with 1982’s Torch Song Trilogy, Tony-winning actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein helped usher in an era of mainstream media depictions of drag. In the three-act play, Fierstein plays torch singer and drag queen Arnold Beckoff. Torch Song Trilogy was a watershed moment in LGBTQ+ history; its frank representations of gay marriage and adoption were unusual for the time. Two years later, Fierstein wrote the book for LaCage aux Folles, a musical adaptation of the 1973 French play of the same name, about a gay couple forced to play it straight when their son invites his fiancée’s ultra-conservative parents to dinner. If that plot sounds familiar, it’s because La Cage auxFolles was also the basis for 1996’s The Birdcage.
Tootsie
In some respects, Tootsie has not aged well. Let’s be honest, Michael Dorsey is an asshole, and it enrages adult me that he ends up with Julie despite his lies and manipulations (she deserves so much better). But certain scenes are still comedy gold, like when Michael, dressed as Dorothy, meets his agent (Sydney Pollack) at the Russian Tea Room to test his new disguise. Tootsie was a critical and commercial smash, earning more than any 1982 movie that wasn’t E.T. and garnering ten Oscar nominations (and winning one, Best Supporting Actress for Jessica Lange).
Hairspray
The Hairspray franchise began in 1988 with a film by John Waters featuring his muse (and drag icon) Divine as housewife Edna Turnblad. In 2002, the film was adapted into a Broadway musical, which co-starred Harvey Fierstein in a Tony-winning performance (the show won eight Tonys in all, including Best Musical). John Travolta took over as Edna in the 2007 musical feature, but Fierstein reprised the iconic role for a 2016 live performance on NBC.
OG Edna Turnblad Divine
RuPaul
RuPaul Andre Charles, known simply as RuPaul, burst onto the national scene in 1993 with the album Supermodel of the World and its hit single, “Supermodel (You Better Work).” Modeling contracts, more recordings, and a VH1 talk show quickly followed. In 2008, RuPaul launched a reality competition franchise with RuPaul’s Drag Race. Arguably the most commercially successful drag queen of all time, RuPaul is the winner of multiple awards, including a Tony, twelve Emmys, and a GLAAD Vito Russo Award.
RuPaul has won twelve Emmy Awards for the wildly entertaining – and wildly popular – RuPaul’s Drag Race
Mrs. Doubtfire
In 1993, Robin Williams brought equal amounts of humor and heart to his dual role of Daniel Hillard/Euphegenia Doubtfire. In the process, Williams won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and America’s collective heart. In one of my favorite scenes, Daniel transforms into Mrs. Doubtfire with the help of his makeup artist brother (Harvey Fierstein, AGAIN!).
Williams’ acceptance speech – in which he channels both Euphegenia Doubtfire AND Harvey Fierstein – showcases his power to make you laugh through your tears
Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
A personal favorite, Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is a decidedly Australian film starring Terence Stamp in an Oscar-worthy performance as Bernadette, a trans woman traveling cross-country with two drag queens (Guy Pearce and Hugo Weaving) in a dilapidated old bus they christen Priscilla. Come for the Oscar-winning costume design by Lizzy Gardiner and Tim Chappel and the killer soundtrack; stay for Stamp’s gorgeous, BAFTA- and Golden Globe-nominated performance.
Madea
Mable Earlene Simmons, AKA Madea, is filmmaker Tyler Perry’s ode to the strong-willed, street-smart women in his life. In Perry’s words, Madea is “exactly the PG version of my mother and my aunt, and I loved having an opportunity to pay homage to them. She would beat the hell out of you but make sure the ambulance got there in time to make sure they could set your arm back.” Madea, the most prolific drag queen of the 21st century, has appeared in eleven plays, thirteen films, a handful of series, and a 2006 book, Don’t Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings.
More depictions of drag in pop culture:
The Rocky twins, drag vaudeville performers who gained fame in 1930s ParisKatharine Hepburn in 1935’s Sylvia Scarlett (L) and her frequent co-star Cary Grant in 1938’s Bringing Up Baby (R)1949’s Kind Hearts and Coronets, in which Alec Guinness plays eight characters, including Lady AgathaBarry Humphries, AKA Dame EdnaOne of M*A*S*H‘s most memorable characters, Jamie Farr’s Corporal Klinger, dresses in drag in an attempt to obtain a Section 8 dischargeAttendees of a drag ball in 1970s HarlemJulie Andrews, in her Oscar-nominated performance in 1982’s Victoria/VictoriaBarbraStreisand with Mandy Patinkin in 1983’s Yentl, about a young Jewish woman who dresses and lives as a boy in order to receive an education in Talmudic lawJoyce Hyser, center, and the cast of 1985’s Just One of the Guys, a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night1994’s Ed Wood, starring Johnny Depp as the cross-dressing cult filmmakerTimon in 1994’s The Lion KingAttendees at the 10th annual Wigstock festival in Manhattan’s East Village (1995)Wesley Snipes, John Leguizamo, and Patrick Swayze in 1995’s To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar1999’s Flawless, skippable except for Philip Seymour Hoffman’s heartbreaking, SAG Award-nominated performance as drag queen Rusty
2005’s Kinky Boots, the basis for the hit musical (that’s Chiwetel Ejiofor as Lola, the role that would later earn Billy Porter a Tony)
2006’s She’s the Man, another adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
IT’S SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!! Time to stuff your face, drink some beer, and watch the Kansas City Chiefs face off against the Philadelphia Eagles. And when the game is over, and the NFL champions have been crowned, you can stick around and watch Gordon Ramsey in the season premiere of Next Level Chef, this year’s Super Bowl lead-out program.
Gordon Ramsay, center, with Richard Blais and Nyesha Arrington on Next Level Chef, which apparently has a rotating, three-level kitchen
The history of the Super Bowl lead-out program dates back to before the championship game was even CALLED the Super Bowl. Did you know that Super Bowl I was referred to as the AFL and NFL World Championship Game? Or that it actually aired on two networks? NBC and CBS held the exclusive rights to broadcast AFL and NFL games, respectively, and the game was only referred to as the Super Bowl retroactively (in fact, the moniker wasn’t adopted until 1969). On January 15, 1967, after the Green Bay Packers finished spanking the Chiefs, both networks went with family-friendly fare for the post-game program: CBS aired an episode of Lassie titled “Lassie’s Litter Bit”, and NBC aired something called “Willie and the Yank: The Mosby Raiders” for Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. The two networks combined received a 59% share that night, meaning more than half of American television sets were tuned in.
I couldn’t find a good picture, but “Willie and the Yank: The Mosby Raiders” co-starred Jeanne Cooper and a 16-year-old Kurt Russell
For the first eighteen years of its existence, the Super Bowl aired exclusively on NBC and CBS, and the two networks continued to use the lead-out for G-rated content: GE CollegeBowl, 60 Minutes, golf tournaments, and more episodes of Lassie. In 1982, the NFL renegotiated its deal with the networks, and ABC got in on the action with Super Bowl XIX. The network used the coveted post-game time slot to air the pilot of MacGruder and Loud, a series that lasted one season. I don’t remember it, nor do I remember The Last Precinct, which aired the following year after NBC’s coverage of Super Bowl XX. In fact, the lead-out slot is littered with the corpses of series that didn’t make it to season two.
L: MacGruder and Loud starred John Getz and Kathryn Harrold as partners who keep their marriage a secret from their boss (he sneaks into her apartment through a secret door behind her grandfather clock!) R: The Last Precinct – with Adam West and Ernie Hudson – was about a wacky group of Police Academy-style rejects in a seedy LAPD precinct. Both series were cancelled after one season.
In more recent years, the networks have utilized the lead-out slot to air established properties: special episodes of popular series (TheSimpsons, House, and TheBlacklist, to name a few) or season premieres of highly rated reality shows like Survivor and The Voice. Last year, NBC returned us to the Winter Olympics (fun fact: under the new contract that takes effect in 2024, NBC will air the Super Bowl exclusively in Winter Olympics years, so expect that to be a regular occurrence). These days, the Super Bowl lead-out tends to receive lower ratings, which isn’t all that surprising. With hundreds of cable channels and countless streaming options, more and more people are tuning out as soon as the game is over. Each year, the ratings dwindle a little more, and the networks put less work into making the time slot a special event. That’s why reality competition programming – which is far cheaper to produce than a scripted series – has become a common lead-out; something like NextLevelChef gives Fox a much bigger ratings bang for their buck.
The Simpsons, “Sunday, Cruddy Sunday”, Super Bowl XXXIII
So, in honor of Super Bowl Sunday, here are some notable Super Bowl lead-outs – and a couple of my personal favorites.
Friends – “The One After the Super Bowl” (Super Bowl XXX, January 28, 1996)
If you’re wondering, “What’s the highest-rated post-Super Bowl episode of all time?”, wonder no more. It’s Friends‘ imaginatively titled “The One After the Super Bowl”, and it’s not even close. After watching Dallas beat Pittsburgh by ten, 46% of households – almost 53 million people – tuned in for this one-hour episode of the Gen X sitcom. Not only was Friends (then in its second season) a ratings smash, but one of its actors (Matthew Perry) was dating the biggest movie star on the planet, Julia Roberts. Roberts guest starred on this episode, along with Brooke Shields, Chris Isaak, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Fred Willard, and Dan Castellaneta.
Matthew Perry and Julia Roberts in “The One After the Super Bowl”
Like a lot of Friends episodes, this one hasn’t aged particularly well. Brooke Shields is a scene-stealer, but the stalker storyline, which pokes fun at the character’s obvious mental illness, just feels icky. And Monica and Rachel fighting over JCVD is just *eye rolls*. My favorite storyline is Phoebe singing for the kids at the library; Lisa Kudrow’s chemistry with guest star Isaak is adorable (“Are you gonna kiss me?” “Thinkin’ about it”) and this scene cracks me up every time.
Fun fact: Brooke Shields, who was best known at the time for romantic dramas like TheBlueLagoon and EndlessLove, earned rave reviews for “The One After the Super Bowl”. The gig helped Shields land her own series, SuddenlySusan, for which she received two Golden Globe nominations.
Alias – “Phase One” (Super Bowl XXXVII, January 26, 2003)
Few shows have pushed the reset button as hard as this spy thriller did on Super Bowl Sunday, 2003, midway through its second season. After a cold open that gives the show an excuse to show off Jennifer Garner’s ridonkulous body (not to mention her badassery), Sydney, Vaughn, and the CIA are finally able to infiltrate SD-6 and shut it down. Sydney and Vaughn share their long-awaited first kiss, and Sydney deals with the fallout of having had to lie to her SD-6 partner Marcus. And in a shocking twist, the episode ends with the murder of Sydney’s BFF Francie – and the installation of Francie’s “double” Allison into Sydney’s life. “Phase One” was the highest-rated episode of Alias; unfortunately, it was also one of the lowest-rated Super Bowl lead-outs ever, and because the episode didn’t begin until after 11 pm EST, it wasn’t in the coveted prime time bracket. It’s too bad, because “Phase One’ could have earned Alias a lot of new fans.
RIP, Francie
“Phase One” set the stage for one of my favorite fight scenes ever (“I just remembered, Francie doesn’t like coffee ice cream”)
Homicide: Life on the Street – “Gone for Goode” / Pilot (Super Bowl XXVII, January 31, 1993)
One of the best network procedurals of all time began as the Super Bowl XXVII lead-out program thirty years ago. Academy Award nominee Paul Attanasio created the series, based on David Simon’s book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. The cast (all hail Andre Braugher!) is sublime. “Gone for Goode”, though a ratings disappointment for NBC, earned Oscar winner Barry Levinson an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series.
The cast of Homicide: Life on the Street, circa 1997
Fun fact #1: Richard Belzer’s Law & Order: SVU character John Munch was created for Homicide. After the series ended, Munch moved from Baltimore to New York City, just in time for the series premiere of SVU.
Richard Belzer, left, with his Law & Order: SVU partner, Ice-T
Fun fact #2: David Simon, then a journalist for The Baltimore Sun, spent a year (1988) with the homicide unit at the Baltimore PD before writing the Edgar Award winning Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. The cases he wrote about served as inspiration not only for Homicide: Life on the Street, but for Simon’s later series, The Wire, as well.
The A-Team – “Children of Jamestown” (Super Bowl XVII, January 30, 1983)
The A-Team – about a Special Forces unit convicted of a crime they didn’t commit who escape prison and become a team of mercenaries – kicked off with a two-hour pilot episode the week before and aired its first regular episode after Super Bowl XVII. Starring George Peppard, Dirk Benedict, Dwight Schultz, and Mr. T, The A-Team was a formulaic, cartoonishly violent series – and viewers couldn’t get enough. The series spawned a franchise that includes comic books, video games, and a (terrible) 2011 film adaptation.
Fun fact: NBC did not have high expectations for The A-Team, but one person predicted from the beginning that the show would be a hit, and that was star George Peppard.
The Wonder Years – Pilot (Super Bowl XXII, January 31, 1988)
After Washington routed Denver 42-10, ABC aired the pilot for its new coming-of-age dramedy, TheWonder Years. Starring Fred Savage as ’60s suburban kid Kevin Arnold, with voiceover narration by the criminally underrated Daniel Stern as a middle-aged Kevin, The Wonder Years was an instant hit. For its abbreviated (six episode) first season, The Wonder Years won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series; the following year, thirteen-year-old Savage became the youngest-ever nominee for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy alongside legends like Ted Danson, Michael J. Fox, John Goodman, and eventual winner Richard Mulligan. Hubby and I recently binged the entire series on Hulu, and I’m pleased to say it holds up pretty well.
Fun fact: The Wonder Years was the inspiration for a 2021 Disney+ series of the same name starring Dulé Hill. That series was renewed for a second season, which will air sometime in 2023.
The X-Files – “Leonard Betts” (Super Bowl XXXI, January 26, 1997)
After years on the sidelines, Fox made the most of its first Super Bowl outing with this outstanding episode of its hit sci-fi series, The X-Files. Paul McCrane stars as the titular character, a cancer-eating mutant with the powers of regeneration. It’s also the episode where viewers learned of Scully’s cancer diagnosis (it’s a pretty important plot point). Almost 30 million viewers tuned in for “Leonard Betts”, making it the most-watched episode of the series’ eleven season run.
“I’m sorry, but you’ve got something I need” <shivers>
Survivor: The Australian Outback – “Stranded” / Survivor: All-Stars – “They’re Back!”
The inaugural season of Survivor was a runaway ratings success in the summer of 2000, so naturally CBS rushed a second season into production as soon as possible. The season two premiere aired after Super Bowl XXXV, more than 43 million Americans tuned in, and a franchise was born. Three years later, Survivor‘s first all-star season was the lead-out for Super Bowl XXXVIII, and 33 million watched. Twenty-two years later, Survivor is still on the air (season 44 will premiere on March 1), a testament to the franchise’s staying power.
The cast of Survivor: The Australian Outback was stacked with future all-stars like Colby Donaldson, Tina Wesson, Amber Brkich (later Mariano), Kimmi Kappenberg, and Jerri Manthey
60 Minutes (Super Bowl XXVI, January 26, 1992)
CBS initially planned to air its news magazine series, 48 Hours, after Super Bowl XXVI. But at the last minute, this abbreviated episode of 60 Minutes was added to the schedule to address presidential nominee Bill Clinton’s relationship with Gennifer Flowers. Flowers, who had sold her story to a tabloid, claimed that she and Clinton carried on a long-term affair, a claim Clinton initially denied (spoiler alert: he lied). This interview is best remembered for Hillary Clinton’s statement that “I’m not sittin’ here, some little woman, standing by my man like Tammy Wynette.” Wynette took Clinton to task for her remarks, but the two later made up.
Criminal Minds – “The Big Game” (Super Bowl XLI, February 4, 2007)
For its time in the post-Super Bowl spotlight, CriminalMinds wrote the game into the plot (a couple is murdered after hosting a party) AND gave us a cliffhanger (Reid is kidnapped by the killer). “The Big Game” also introduced us to one of the show’s most memorable unsubs, James Van Der Beek’s Tobias Hankel. The storyline wrapped up three nights later with the episode “Revelations”, and Van Der Beek proved he was much more than Dawson’s Creek.
Malcolm in the Middle – “Company Picnic” (Super Bowl XXXVI, February 3, 2002)
This dysfunctional family sitcom was in its third season when it received the coveted post-Super Bowl time slot. The episode, titled “Company Picnic”, gives Bryan Cranston the opportunity to show off his slapstick skills. Guest stars include Christina Ricci, Bradley Whitford (then-husband of series star Jane Kaczmarek), Patrick Warburton, Stephen Root, and NFL legends Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long.
Malcolm in the Middle has one of my favorite theme songs of all time, courtesy of art rock/power pop duo They Might Be Giants
Fun fact: When Vince Gilligan was casting BreakingBad, AMC – who knew Bryan Cranston only as Malcolm in the Middle‘s Hal – were skeptical that Cranston was right for the role of Walter White. AMC’s choice for the role was either John Cusack or Matthew Broderick. Thankfully, Gilligan (who had worked with Cranston on an episode of The X-Files called “Drive”) stuck to his guns, and Cranston went on to win a whopping four Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
The Office – “Stress Relief” (Super Bowl XLIII, February 1, 2009)
I’ve saved the best for last. “Stress Relief” is the gold standard of Super Bowl lead-outs. First, there’s this masterpiece of a cold open, The Office at its chaotic best:
Then there’s this:
Michael confusing “Stayin’ Alive” with “I Will Survive” is perfection
I rest my case.
Fun fact: Jeffrey Blitz won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for “Stress Relief”. The episode was also nominated for Outstanding Picture Editing for a Comedy Series but lost to 30 Rock.
The 2023 nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced this week. Kate Bush, my all-time favorite female artist, has been nominated for the fourth time in six years. Among the first-time nominees are Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, Cyndi Lauper, George Michael, Willie Nelson, The White Stripes, and Warren Zevon. You can vote daily for your favorite artists here:
Speaking of nominations, the Oscar class of 2022 has been announced. EverythingEverywhere All at Once leads the pack with eleven nominations. Sixteen of the twenty acting nominees are first-timers, the most in history. The 95th Academy Awards will be held on March 12. Here is the complete list of nominees:
Two of my childhood favorites – Laverne and Shirley‘s Cindy Williams and The Addams Family‘s Lisa Loring – passed away this week. A BAFTA nominee for Best Supporting Actress for her role in American Graffiti, Williams is best known for playing Shirley Feeney opposite Penny Marshall’s Laverne DeFazio on ABC’s long-running Happy Days spinoff. Loring, the OG Wednesday Addams, began modeling at the age of three; she was just six years old when she won the role that would make her a television icon. She also portrayed Cricket Montgomery on As the World Turns in the early 1980s.
L to R: Cindy Williams as Shirley Feeney, Lisa Loring as Wednesday Addams, Loring in more recent years
The Last of Us is so. damn. good. This week’s exceptional episode, “Long, Long Time”, explores the relationship between Bill (Nick Offerman, who should absolutely be nominated for an Emmy for his performance) and Frank (Murray Bartlett, also terrific). No spoilers here, but if you haven’t checked out The Last of Us yet, I highly recommend you do so.
I redeemed an offer for three free months of Apple TV just in time for Shrinking, the hilarious and poignant new series from Scrubs showrunner Bill Lawrence. Lawrence co-created the show with Ted Lasso‘s Brett Goldstein and star Jason Segel, who plays a therapist coping poorly with the death of his wife. The excellent supporting cast includes Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams, Michael Urie, and Christa Miller. I’m all in on this one.
TheMidnight Special premiered on NBC fifty years ago this week. The series, produced by Burt Sugarman, was known for featuring musical artists singing live (rather than lip-synching, which was the custom at the time).
Sixty-four years ago today, a plane crashed in a cornfield near Clear Lake, Iowa. Along with pilot Roger Peterson, the crash killed J.P. Richardson (better known as “The Big Bopper”), Buddy Holly, and Ritchie Valens. Richardson, who was suffering from the flu, had asked Waylon Jennings, a member of Holly’s backing band, to give up his seat; Valens, just 17 at the time, “won” his seat on a coin toss. In 1971, singer-songwriter Don McLean coined the phrase “the day the music died” for his single, “American Pie”.
L to R: Buddy Holly, J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, Ritchie Valens
At more than eight and a half minutes, “American Pie” was the longest #1 single in Billboard history for almost fifty years
Pixar, which began in 1979 as a division of Lucasfilm known as the Graphics Group, became an independent company on this day in 1986 (thanks to a $10 million investment from Steve Jobs). At the time, though they had produced short films (including Luxo Jr., the tiny desk lamp that serves as Pixar’s mascot), the technology was still too expensive for feature-length animation. While waiting for the tech to catch up, Pixar formed a working relationship with Disney, working on films like The RescuersDown Under. Disney would ultimately agree to a three-picture deal with Pixar; that deal produced Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and Toy Story 2. Since 2006, Pixar has been a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios; they’ve now produced 27 feature films, including this summer’s Elemental. Here are some of my personal favorites:
Toy Story, Pixar’s first feature (fun fact: Paul Newman, Robin Williams, and Clint Eastwood were all considered for the role of Woody, which ultimately – thankfully – went to Tom Hanks)Monsters, Inc.Finding Nemo, my personal favorite of the Pixar animated feature filmsWALL-EThe gorgeous, heartbreaking UpThe gorgeous, heartbreaking Inside OutThe gorgeous, heartbreaking Soul
I’m super excited for this one, scheduled to hit theaters on June 16
These albums are all turning forty this year. This list is in chronological order by release date and covers albums released between January and June of 1983.
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) – Eurythmics
CHART POSITION: #15 in the US, #3 in the UK, top ten in five other countries
SINGLES: “This Is the House”, “The Walk”, “Love Is a Stranger”, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “I Could Give You (A Mirror)” and “This City Never Sleeps”
FUN FACT: Eurythmics, the only artist to make two appearances on this list, were nominated for Best New Artist at the 26th Grammy Awards but lost to Culture Club (though they did take home the same prize at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards).
PERFECTION
Pyromania – Def Leppard
CHART POSITION: #2 in the US, #4 in Canada
SINGLES: “Photograph”, “Rock of Ages”, “Foolin'”, “Too Late for Love”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Rock Rock (Till You Drop)”
FUN FACT: Pyromania was produced by Robert John “Mutt” Lange, who also worked on classics like Foreigner’s 4, AC/DC’s Back in Black, and The Cars’ Heartbeat City (and who later had a tabloid fodder marriage to – and divorce from – frequent collaborator Shania Twain).
Frontiers – Journey
CHART POSITION: #2 in the US, #6 in the UK
SINGLES: “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)”, “Faithfully”, “After the Fall”, “Send Her My Love”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Chain Reaction”
FUN FACT: “Only the Young” was recorded for Frontiers but didn’t make it on the finished product; the song reached the US top ten two years later when it was featured on the soundtrack for Vision Quest.
I fucking love this movie! Fun fact: Madonna made her film debut in Vision Quest!
Porcupine – Echo & The Bunnymen
CHART POSITION: #2 in the UK, # 137 in the US
SINGLES: “The Back of Love”, “The Cutter”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Back of Love”, “My White Devil”, and “Heads Will Roll”
FUN FACT: Echo & the Bunnymen, my second favorite band from Liverpool, were once booed off the stage after two songs while opening for ska faves Madness (more on them later).
Kilroy Was Here – Styx
CHART POSITION: #3 in the US, #67 in the UK, #6 in Sweden, #3 in Norway (apparently, Scandanavians really love Styx)
SINGLES: “Mr. Roboto”, “Don’t Let It End”, “High Time”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Cold War” and “Double Life”
FUN FACT: The album’s title was inspired by the famous graffiti tag (pictured, above right) used by US soldiers during WWII. After the Nazis found the tag on a piece of captured American equipment, Hitler came to believe that “Kilroy” was the code name of an Allied spy.
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Seconds” and “Surrender”
FUN FACT: Many of the album’s lyrics were written in August, 1982, while Bono was on honeymoon in Jamaica with his wife Ali, which is perhaps the most Bono thing ever.
Side Kicks – Thompson Twins
CHART POSITION: #34 in the US, #2 in the UK (where it was known as Quick Step & Side Kick)
SINGLES: “Lies”, “Love on Your Side”, “We Are Detective”, “Watching”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “If You Were Here” (known to movie fans as the song that plays over the romantic final scene of Sixteen Candles) and “Love Lies Bleeding”
FUN FACT: The trio’s name was inspired by the bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson in the English language version of the comic strip The Adventures of Tintin. The duo, by the way, is voiced by Nick Frost and Simon Pegg in the 2011 feature-length adaption from Steven Spielberg.
Dazzle Ships – Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD)
CHART POSITION: #162 in the US (where OMD wouldn’t catch on for another two years), #5 in the UK
SINGLES: “Genetic Engineering” and “Telegraph”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “The Romance of the Telescope” and “Of All the Things We’ve Made”
FUN FACT: The album’s cover art was inspired by Vorticist artist Edward Wadsworth’s 1919 painting, Dazzle-ships in Drydock at Liverpool (pictured, above right). Wadsworth frequently worked with nautical themes after spending WWI designing dazzle camouflage for the Royal Navy.
True – Spandau Ballet
CHART POSITION: #19 in the US, #1 in the UK, New Zealand, and Netherlands
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Heaven Is a Secret”
FUN FACT: The title track, the first Spandau Ballet single to reach the Billboard Hot 100, is the band’s signature tune; it’s been used extensively in pop culture, in movies like SixteenCandles and 50 First Dates and television series such as Modern Family. It was also sampled for the 1992 song “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss” by P.M. Dawn.
The Hurting – Tears for Fears
CHART POSITION: #73 in the US, #1 in the UK
SINGLES: “Suffer the Children”, “Pale Shelter”, “Mad World”, “Change”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “The Hurting” and “Watch Me Bleed”
FUN FACT: In 2001, Michael Andrews and Gary Jules covered “Mad World” for the DonnieDarko soundtrack.
The Final Cut – Pink Floyd
CHART POSITION: #6 in the US, #1 in seven countries, including the UK
SINGLES: “Not Now John”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “The Post War Dream”, “The Hero’s Return”, and “Paranoid Eyes”
FUN FACT: The album began life as a soundtrack to the motion picture Pink Floyd – The Wall (released in 1982); several of The Final Cut‘s tracks, including “When the Tigers Broke Free”, were recorded during sessions for The Wall album three years earlier.
Eliminator – ZZ Top
CHART POSITION: #9 in the US, top five in five countries, including the UK
SINGLES: “Gimme All Your Lovin'”, “Sharp Dressed Man”, “TV Dinners”, “Legs”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Got Me Under Pressure” and “If I Could Only Flag Her Down”
FUN FACT: The custom 1933 Ford coupe seen on the cover was used in the videos for three of the album’s singles, including “Legs”, which won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video.
Naked Eyes – Naked Eyes
CHART POSITION: #32 in the US, #88 in Australia (where it was known as Burning Bridges)
SINGLES: “Always Something There to Remind Me”, “Promises, Promises”, “When the Lights Go Out”, “Voices in My Head”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “I Could Show You How”, “Fortune and Fame”, “Burning Bridges”, “Low Life” and “Emotion in Motion”
FUN FACT: “Always Something There to Remind Me”, Naked Eyes’ only US top ten hit, is a remake of a Burt Bacharach/Hal David song that was originally recorded by Dionne Warwick.
The Luxury Gap – Heaven 17
CHART POSITION: #72 in the US, #4 in the UK
SINGLES: “Let Me Go”, “Temptation”, “We Live So Fast”, “Come Live with Me”, “Crushed by the Wheels of Industry”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Who’ll Stop the Rain”
FUN FACT: Two of Heaven 17’s members – Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware – founded The Human League in 1977; they left that band in 1980 over creative differences with lead singer Philip Oakey.
Murmur – R.E.M.
CHART POSITION: #36 in the US
SINGLES: “Radio Free Europe”, “Talk About the Passion”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: Literally all of them – this album changed my fucking life
FUN FACT: R.E.M.’s bright, jangly guitar drew comparisons to The Byrds (both used Rickenbacker guitars, known for their distinctive chime sound). But their melodic basslines, courtesy of Mike Mills, combined with Michael Stipe’s cryptic, mumbly lyrics, gave R.E.M. a sound uniquely their own.
Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes
CHART POSITION: #171 in the US and #34 in Australia
SINGLES: No singles were released but that didn’t stop songs like “Blister in the Sun”, “Kiss Off”, “Add It Up”, and “Gone Daddy Gone” from making a lasting mark on ’80s pop culture
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Please Do Not Go”, “Prove My Love”, and “Good Feeling” (AKA Lily and Marshall’s “song” on How I Met Your Mother)
FUN FACT: In 2021, Trixie Mattel recorded a version of “Blister in the Sun” for her EP Full Coverage, Vol. 1.
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Ricochet” and “Cat People (Putting Out Fire)”
FUN FACT #1: One of the musicians who played on Let’s Dance – a then-unknown blues guitarist named Stevie Ray Vaughan, whose debut album had yet to be released – will appear later on this list.
FUN FACT #2: After his good friend John Lennon’s death, Bowie was looking for a new creative direction and he chose Chic’s Nile Rogers to produce Let’s Dance. Bowie and Rogers discovered they shared a love of ’50s music, which informed the sound of the album.
Whammy! – The B-52s
CHART POSITION: #29 in the US, #33 in the UK
SINGLES: “Legal Tender”, “Whammy Kiss”, “Song for a Future Generation”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Moon 83”, a reworking of “There’s a Moon in the Sky (Called the Moon)” from the B-52’s’ 1979 self-titled debut
FUN FACT: Whammy! was the final album credited to guitarist Ricky Wilson, who died of AIDS in 1985 while the group was at work on their fourth studio album, Bouncing Off the Satellites.
Cargo – Men at Work
CHART POSITION: #3 in the US, #1 in Australia, #8 in the UK
SINGLES: “Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive”, “Overkill”, “It’s a Mistake”, “High Wire”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Settle Down My Boy”
FUN FACT: My parents and I were vacationing in northern Michigan that August and they surprised me with tickets to the Men at Work/INXS concert at Castle Farms in Charlevoix. We were out to dinner earlier in the evening; our server asked if we were going to the show and I said, “I wish!” It turns out that I was going, I just didn’t know it at the time. Men at Work ended up having a relatively short shelf-life, with the first split occurring just a year later, so I was glad I got the chance to see them before they imploded.
Hootenanny – The Replacements
CHART POSITION: N/A
SINGLES: None
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Color Me Impressed”, “Take Me Down to the Hospital”, “Within Your Reach”
FUN FACT #1: The album cover was inspired by the cover of the Crestview Records compilation The Original Hootenanny (pictured, above right).
FUN FACT #2: Six years after the release of Hootenanny, “Within Your Reach” was included on the soundtrack to the quintessential Gen-X rom-com, Say Anything…
In Outer Space – Sparks
CHART POSITION: #88 in the US
SINGLES: “Cool Places”, “All You Ever Think About Is Sex”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Popularity” and “I Wish I Looked a Little Better”
FUN FACT: “Cool Places”, a duet with Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go’s, was Sparks’ highest-charting single, reaching #49 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Madness – Madness
CHART POSITION: #41 in the US (North American release only)
SINGLES: None, because this is a compilation album released in North America to capitalize on the success of “Our House”, Madness’ only US top ten hit
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Our House”, “Tomorrow’s Just Another Day”, “It Must Be Love”, “Primrose Hill”, “House of Fun”, “Rise and Fall”, “Cardiac Arrest”
FUN FACT: Madness – along with bands like The Specials and The Beat – were part of the Two-Tone (named for the 2 Tone record label, pictured above right, to which several of the bands were signed) movement, which fuzed ska and reggae with elements of punk and new wave.
Power, Corruption & Lies – New Order
CHART POSITION: #4 in the UK, #3 in New Zealand, #38 in Australia
SINGLES: “Blue Monday”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Blue Monday”, “Age of Consent”, “The Village”, “Ultraviolence”, “Leave Me Alone”
FUN FACT: “Blue Monday”, which was only included on the cassette version of the album (and later, the CD), is the best-selling 12-inch single of all time.
“Weird Al” Yankovic – “Weird Al” Yankovic
CHART POSITION: #139 in the US
SINGLES: “Another One Rides the Bus”, “Ricky”, “I Love Rocky Road”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Stop Dragging My Car Around” and “My Bologna”
FUN FACT: “Weird Al” was just sixteen years old when he had his first comedy song played on The Dr. Demento Radio Show; Yankovic later quipped, “If there hadn’t been a Dr. Demento, I’d probably have a real job now.”
I didn’t realize at the time how young Yankovic was (23!)
Holy Diver – Dio
CHART POSITION: #56 in the US, #13 in the UK
SINGLES: “Holy Diver”, “Rainbow in the Dark”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Stand Up and Shout”, “Holy Diver”, “Caught in the Middle”, “Rainbow in the Dark”
FUN FACT: Holy Diver, Dio’s debut album, also features the first appearance of the band’s demonic mascot, Murray.
Too Low for Zero – Elton John
CHART POSITION: #25 in the US, #7 in the UK, #2 in Australia
SINGLES: “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues”, “I’m Still Standing”, “Kiss the Bride”, “Cold as Christmas (In the Middle of the Year)”, “Too Low for Zero”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Whipping Boy” and “One More Arrow”
FUN FACT: After a several-album slump, Too Low for Zero marked a critical and commercial comeback for John. And yes, that IS Stevie Wonder playing the harmonica on “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues”.
Speaking in Tongues – Talking Heads
CHART POSITION: #15 in the US, #21 in the UK, top twenty in nine other countries
SINGLES: “Burning Down the House” and “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Making Flippy Floppy”, “Girlfriend is Better”, and “Slippery People”
FUN FACT: “Burning Down the House” was Talking Heads’ only US top-ten hit but the single wasn’t successful outside of North America (though a 1999 cover version by Tom Jones and the Cardigans reached the top ten in several countries, including the UK and Australia).
State of Confusion – The Kinks
CHART POSITION: #12 in the US
SINGLES: “Come Dancing”, “Don’t Forget to Dance”, “State of Confusion”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Definite Maybe” and “Heart of Gold”
FUN FACT: “Come Dancing”, which peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, was the band’s most successful American single since 1965’s “Tired of Waiting for You”.
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Wild Heart” and “I Will Run to You” (duet with Tom Petty)
FUN FACT: “Stand Back” was inspired in part by the lush synthesizers on Prince’s “Little Red Corvette”, which Nicks heard on the radio the day she married Kim Anderson; the couple stopped and got a tape recorder on the way to their honeymoon destination, where they recorded the first version of the song. After telling Prince the story of how the song came to be, Nicks invited him to appear on the record and though his contribution wasn’t credited on the album, Nicks did agree to split the royalties with him 50-50.
Texas Flood – Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
CHART POSITION: #38 in the US
SINGLES: “Love Struck Baby”, “Pride and Joy”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Texas Flood” and “Testify”
FUN FACT: Jackson Browne heard Vaughan and Double Trouble perform at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival and offered them three free days in his studio, where Vaughan recorded the demo that got the band signed to Epic Records.
Synchronicity – The Police
CHART POSITION: #1 in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Italy
SINGLES: “Every Breath You Take”, “Synchronicity I”, “Wrapped Around Your Finger”, “King of Pain”, “Synchronicity II”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of them except “Mother”, written and sung by Andy Summers; “Mother” should have been left off the album in favor of the far superior “Murder by Numbers”, which was a bonus track on the cassette version.
FUN FACT: Synchronicity was inspired by Arthur Koestler’s The Roots of Coincidence, which delved into Carl Jung’s theory of synchronicity. Koestler, who (coincidentally?) died on March 1, 1983 (about three and a half months before Synchronicity‘s release), drew on Jung as well as the work of Paul Kammerer, “collector of coincidences”. Koestler claimed that while he was writing The Roots of Coincidence, he was subjected to “a meteor shower” of coincidences as if Kammerer was sending him a message from beyond.
“Every Breath You Take” was the best-selling single of 1983 in the US and won the Song of the Year award at the 26th Grammys
Here is the 1983 playlist, which I will update once I publish the second volume of this post:
PB & Julie + Julie C. Trivia 