Whip It was American new wave band Devo’s second single off their 1980 album, Freedom of Choice. The single is based on a motorik beat with the lead instrument being a Minimoog synthesizer. Gerald Casale (vocalist of the band) claims the lyrics are about trying to overcome adversity and they often claim it’s about Jimmy Carter. Unfortunately, the general population took the lyrics at face value and think the song is about either S&M (which the video funded by $15,000 of Devo’s own money helped to reinforce) or inhaling nitrous oxide from whipped cream cans.
Meanwhile, the song hit #77 in Australia, #11 in both Canada and New Zealand, #51 in the UK, #14 on the U.S. Hot 100 and #8 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play. Whip It became the best known of Devo’s three singles and regularly appears on One Hit Wonder charts.
This musical comedy was based on a 1933 script by Reinhold Schunzel, and was a remake of the 1933 German movie Viktor und Viktoria. The American film Victor Victoria was produced by Tony Adams, directed by Blake Edwards and scored by Henry Mancini. Victor Victoria was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won for Original Music Score.
Set in Paris in 1934, Victoria Grant (Julie Andrews) is a struggling singer. She and her friend Toddy (Robert Preston), a nightclub entertainer, hatch a scheme to make Victoria a showbiz success by impersonating a male performer. A Chicago gangster (James Garner) arrives to throw a monkey wrench into the plans.
In 1995, the film was adapted into a Broadway musical.
Brown Sugar was D’Angelo’s debut album. Initially, sales were slow but picked up as the popularity of the album’s singles grew.
D’Angelo was born Michael Eugene Archer on February 11, 1974 in Richmond, Virginia. His demo tape caught the attention of executives at EMI Records in 1991. His first foray on the music charts was with the single U Will Know performed by Black Men United for the 1994 film Jason’s Lyric. (It hit #28 on the Hot 100 and #5 on the R&B charts.)
The next year D’Angelo’s debut album Brown Sugar was released. The lead single Brown Sugar hit #27 (Hot 100) and #5 (R&B). The follow-up single Cruisin only went to #53 on the Hot 100 and #10 on the R&B charts. His third single Lady brought him into the spotlight and helped (finally) the album fly off the shelves. Lady hit #10 on the Hot 100 and #2 on the R&B chart. Lady pushed the album to Platinum status.
Brown Sugar helped to propel D’Angelo into the stardom that the neo-soul genre provided to other artists such as Maxwell, Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill. The album was somewhat of a critical success, but not as much as his 2000 follow-up album, Voodoo.
This toy played a record if the children’s rhyme “3 Blind Mice.” It also featured a plastic farmer’s wife that chased the three plastic mice. So cute! (Let’s hope it didn’t include the chopping off of their tails.)
If you can believe it, flagpole sitting was indeed a fad during the 1920s. This popular spectator sport was started by stunt actor and former sailor Alvin “Shipwreck” Kelly. It’s unclear why he decided to do it, either by dare or as a publicity stunt, but his initial sit in 1924 lasted 13 hours and 13 minutes. You can thank the Depression for killing this crazy fad.
Mr. Big Stuff was from singer Jean Knight’s 1971 debut album, Mr. Big Stuff. The song spent five weeks at number one on Billboard’s Soul Singles chart and went to #2 on the Hot 100. It’s one of Stax’s most recognizable hits.
Born Jean Caliste on January 26, 1943 in New Orleans, Knight began her singing career after high school graduation by singing at her cousin’s bar “Laura’s Place.” In 1965 she signed her first contract with Jet Star/Tribe label. She began getting local attention, but didn’t receive any national attention. (It was during this time that she adopted her stage name as she felt her real name was too hard to pronounce.) After a few years, she grew defeated and took on a job as a baker in the Loyola University cafeteria.
In early 1970, Knight was discovered by songwriter Ralph Williams who encouraged her to record some songs with him. In May 1970 during a studio session Mr. Big Stuff was recorded. The song was shopped around to national music labels. When King Floyd went to number one in early 1971 (which had been recorded in the same studios), a producer at Stax Records released Mr. Big Stuff. The single went double platinum, received a Grammy nomination and sold two million copies. Minor hits followed and disagreements soon found Knight and Stax terminating relations.
Her last minor hit was in 1985. My Toot Toot reached #50 on the Hot 100. Currently, Knight continues touring and gives live performances. In October 2007, Knight was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
Macho Man Randy Savage (November 15, 1952 – May 20, 2011)
Randy Mario Poffo was born in Columbus, Ohio. His father Angelo Poffo was featured in Ripley’s Believe it or Not during the 50s and 60s for his ability to do sit-ups for hours. Randy’s younger brother is a professional wrestler, better known as The Genius or Leaping Lanny Poffo.
After graduating high school, Savage was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team as a catcher. During the fall and winter (baseball’s off season) of 1973, Savage began wrestling as The Spider. At the suggestion of Ole Anderson, he changed his stage name to Randy Savage. Eventually, he decided to leave baseball to focus on a full-time wrestling career and worked with his brother and father.
In June 1985, Savage made his debut with, what at that time, was called the World Wrestling Federation. In September 1989 Savage adopted the moniker “Macho King” after defeating Jim Duggan in a King of the Match. Towards the end of 1990, he decided to retire from active wrestling and focus on broadcasting where he adopted the name “Macho Man.” (He occasionally wrestled from this point and officially — and completely — retired in 2005.)
During his wrestling career, he held the WWF Championship twice, and the WCW Heavyweight Championship six times. He was a ICW World Heavyweight Champion three times and the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Champion once.
Savage’s first wife was wrestling figure “Miss Elizabeth” Hulette. They divorced in September 1992. In May 2010, he married his long-time girlfriend, Barbara Lynn Payne. Savage is most recognized for his distinct raspy voice, his flashy wardrobe, his catch phrase “Ooh yeah!” and his intensity for wrestling.
Initial reports indicated that Savage died during a car accident on May 20, 2011. Autopsy reports said Savage died after suffering a sudden heart attack while driving with his second wife in Seminole, Florida. Both Savage and his wife were wearing seat belts at the time of the crash. His wife received minor injuries. Savage was only 58 years old.
Originally published in serial installments in the Russian periodical, “The Russian Messenger” from 1873 to 1877. A clash between writer Leo Tolstoy and the RM editor Mikhail Katkov prevented the final installment, therefore the full story wasn’t published until the novel’s release. The words “flawless” and “greatest” are continually found in the same sentence as the novel’s title.
Anna Karenina chronicles the doomed love affair between married aristocrat and socialite Anna Karenina and Count Vronsky. The story also chronicles the love between newlyweds Kitty and Levin, and together, the novel attempts to answer the larger question on how to live a fulfilled life.
Anna Karenina has been adapted into 23 films (the first in 1911 and the most recent in 2012 starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law), a ten-episode BBC series (in 1977) and a 2000 mini-series. The enduring love for this novel continues.
Hi-C was created in 1946 by Niles Foster and is a soda drink made by Minute Maid, a division of Coca-Cola. The name Hi-C refers to its high vitamin content. The formula for Hi-C contains orange juice concentrate, peel oil and orange essences, sugar, water, citric acid and vitamin C (absorbic acid). Currently there are three product lines of Hi-C — the drink box (which has twelve flavors), Hi-C Blast (11 flavors) and three flavors of Hi-C Sour Blast.
In 1987, Hi-C struck a deal to promote the cartoon series The Real Ghostbusters (a spin-off of the 1984 film Ghostbusters). Initially, Minute Maid only expected the Ecto-Cooler to last as long as the series was popular; the box and commercials, not to mention the name of the product, featured Slimer, a Real Ghostbusters character. After the series was cancelled in 1991, sales of the Ecto-Cooler stayed steady. Slimer disappeared from the packaging in 1997, but the Ecto-Cooler remained available until 2001. It was then re-named Shoutin Orange Tangergreen. In 2006 it was re-named again to Crazy Citrus Cooler. In 2007, the Crazy Citrus Cooler was discontinued completely.
First off, let it be known that Punky Brewster was a real person. She was the childhood crush of the then NBC chief of programming Brandon Tartikoff. They even approached her to use her name and, she cameoed as a teacher in the episode “The Search” that aired November 10, 1985.
Meanwhile, Punky Brewster, the show, was a sitcom that aired from September 16, 1984 to September 7, 1986; in first-run syndication from October 30, 1987 to May 27, 1988 and spawned an animated spin-off It’s Punky Brewster from September 14, 1985 to December 6, 1986. (Notice that the sitcom and the animated series ran primarily at the same time and the original cast of the sitcom voiced the same characters on the animated version.) It is, in no way, an understatement that the show pushed a lot of boundaries.
The show starred Soleil Moon Frye as Penelope Brewster, a young girl abandoned by her parents. After escaping the orphanage, Punky and her dog Brandon (Sandy the dog) decide to tough it out on the Chicago streets. They eventually wind up in an abandoned apartment where the building’s super Henry (George Gaynes) discovers them. After a court battle, which was shown on the show, Henry becomes Punky’s foster parent and later, legally adopts her.
Over its 88 episode run, the show took on a variety of social issues, including kidnapping, runaways, gang violence, drug use and retardation. One of the episodes that will always be remembered was an episode where, in 1986, Punky and her classmates watched the Challenger space shuttle disaster unfold live. (A few weeks after this episode — the second season finale — aired, NBC decided to cancel Punky Brewster).
Punky Brewster was quite popular with children. NBC aired the series on Sundays, usually after football games which typically tend to run long, the network taped six fifteen-minute episodes instead of a full-length episode because it upset the children when they had to join the series “in progress.”
All four seasons have been released on DVD (only in Region 1 though) and each season contains the subsequent animated season as well.
