From the album, At Home, the Dutch band Shocking Blue scored a number one single on the Hot 100 chart in 1969 with Venus. In the U.S., Venus sold a million copies and was certified Gold. Worldwide, Venus sold iver 7.5 million copies. Venus also went to number one in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy and Spain.
In 1986, Bananarama turned the single into a dance song for their third album True Confessions. Initially met with resistance, the group succeeded and Venus returned to the top of the charts in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Mexico, South Africa and the U.S.
This 1988 American fantasy comedy film combined live action with animation. Who Framed Roger Rabbit was directed by Robert Zemeckis and based on Gary K. Wolf’s 1981 mystery novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? The film starred Bob Hoskins as P.I. Eddie Valiant, Charles Fleischer as the voice of Roger Rabbit, Christopher Lloyd as Judge Doom and Kathleen Turner as the voice of Jessica Rabbit. It’s been said that the success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit spearheaded the modern era of American animation.
In 1947, in Toontown (near Hollywood) cartoon characters live among humans. Maroon, the human owner of Maroon Cartoon studios hires Valiant to look into the rumors that Jessica Rabbit is having an affair. Jessica’s lover is found dead and her husband Roger becomes the prime suspect.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit took in over $11 million in its opening weekend. Worldwide, it took in $329.8 million and became the second highest grossing film of 1988 behind Rain Man.
In the early 90s you could dance the Roger Rabbit inspired by the movements in the film. Similar to the Running Man, you skip backwards and flap your arms and hook your thumbs back as if you’re wearing suspenders (see the video on how to do the dance underneath the trailer below).
RIP to actor Bob Hoskins who passed away April 29, 2014 after coming down with pneumonia. Hoskins was only 71.
CrazySexyCool was TLC’s second album. It peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 album chart and kept right on charting for the next two years! CrazySexyCool contained two number one singles and won two Grammy awards for the girls. CrazySexyCool holds the distinction of being the first album by a girl group in history to be awarded Diamond status. Selling over 23 million copies worldwide, CrazySexyCool is the best selling girl group album in the U.S. Worldwide, it sits at number two (the 1996 debut album by the Spice Girls Spice is number one).
CrazySexyCool marked a slight departure of sound for TLC. Their debut album Ooooooohhh…On the TLC Tip was more rap oriented while CrazySexyCool saw the girls experiment more with an R&B sound. As such, more vocals were done from Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas with less raps from Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes. CrazySexyCool refers to each of the girls’ personalities — Left Eye being the crazy one, Chilli being sexy and T-Boz being the cool one.
In quite another feat, all four singles reached the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Creep spent four weeks stop the Hot 100 and went to number one on the R&B/Hip Hop chart. Creep became the third biggest single of 1995. Red Light Special peaked at number two. Waterfalls spent seven weeks at the top of the Hot 100 and was the second biggest single of 1995 and remains TLC’s most successful single to date. The final single release Diggin on You peaked at number five.
CrazySexyCool won as Best R&B Album and Creep won as Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 1996 Grammy awards. At the 1995 Billboard Music Awards, TLC were honored as Artist of the Year.
It hasn’t always been roses for TLC. After the release of their third album, Fanmail in 1997, Left Eye toyed with the idea of leaving the group and actually recorded her debut solo album, Supernova. Before completion of her second album, Lopes was killed in a car crash in La Ceiba, Honduras on April 15, 2002. TLC’s final album with Lopes, 3D was released in November 2002. After Lopes’ death, TLC decided to retire.
The enduring love from their fans led to T-Boz and Chilli reuniting for concert series/tours over the ensuing years. They signed a contract with Epic Records and released a compliation album, 20 in 2013. Currently, T-Boz and Chilli are working on their fifth album, due out sometime in 2014.
Originally titled Mark Strong, this first prototype was only released in Europe. Inspired by G.I. Joe, Big Jim was smaller than Joe (Jim was 10″ while Joe was 12″) and Jim was less military affiliated than Joe. Jim had a push button on his back so he could perform a karate chop. His arms contained a mechanism that could simulate the bicep bulge when his arm was bent. Jim was a secret agent.
The original Big Jim series of 1972 consisted of Jim, Jack, Josh, Jeff, Dr. Steel and Chief Tankua. The P.A.C.K. series in 1976 added Warpath, The Whip, Torpedo Fist and Zorak. The 1982 Spy series contained Agent 004, Joe (the alpinist), Professor O.B.B. and Boris. The Global Command series in 1985 ended the collection with Commander Jim, Astros, Dr. Alec, Baron Fangg and Vektor.
Big Jim made several cameo appearances on the 2000 – 2003 TV series Max Steel.
Popples were plush toy characters created by Those Characters from Cleveland (TCFC) company. Popples were brightly colored teddy bears or marsupial characters that had long tails with pom-pom tips. They had pouches on their backs that allowed them to roll up into a ball. Susan Trentel was the designer who came up with the idea to roll them up — she got the idea from rolling up socks. Plush Popples were manufactured by Mattel from 1986 to the early 90s.
Soon after the plush toys went on sale, for two seasons, from 1986 to 1987, the Popples cartoon series aired. There were also four comic books published from Star Comics.
In 2007, Playmates Toys attempted to revive Popples with some new characters.
Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of…) by Lou Bega (RCA, 1999)
Mambo No. 5 was originally released and composed by Cuban Damaso Perez Prado in 1949.
In 1999, German musician Lou Bega remixed and covered the song for his debut album A Little Bit of Mambo. Bega’s version spent 8 weeks at the top of Australia’s music charts and became the best selling single of the year. In France, it was at the top of the chart for a record setting 20 weeks! In fact, Mambo No. 5 topped the charts in most of Europe (22 countries/charts in total). In the U.S., it only hit #3 on the Hot 100. The U.S. was the only major chart where Mambo No. 5 didn’t hit #1.
Bega (born David Lubega) was born in Munich, Germany. His musical signature combines musical elements of the 40s and 50s with modern beats and grooves.
Bega continues performing and has released four more albums, none of which have made much impact anywhere. His most recent album, A Little Bit of 80s was released in Germany in 2013 and covers classic 80s hits like Smooth Operator, I’m So Excited, Red Red Wine and Karma Chameleon.
Ferrah Leni Fawcett’s career was made when she posed in a red swimsuit for a poster; that poster became an iconic American image.
Fawcett was born in Corpus Christi, Texas. She graduated from W.B. Ray High School where her classmates voted her “Most Beautiful.” She went on to attend the University of Texas at Austin. During her freshman year, Fawcett was named one of the “ten most beautiful coeds on campus;” it was the first time a freshman had ever been chosen. Her photo was passed around Hollywood talent agencies. David Mirisch took the bait and called her immediately. She turned down his offer. Undeterred, he continued to call Fawcett for two years! Finally, unable to resist Hollywood’s siren calls, and with her parent’s permission, after completing her junior year in 1968, Fawcett moved to Hollywood.
She began appearing in commercials and guest starred on The Flying Nun and I Dream of Jeanie. Fawcett married actor Lee Majors in 1973 and appeared in four episodes of his show The Six Million Dollar Man.
In 1976, that poster idea was pitched to Fawcett. It was Fawcett who styled her hair and did her own makeup for the shoot. From 40 rolls, Fawcett selected her favorite six and out of those came the infamous shot. That poster has sold twenty million copies! The poster landed her a supporting role in the science fiction film Logan’s Run. But it was her next gig that would cement Fawcett’s place in pop culture history.
Fawcett and Majors regularly played tennis with a producer named Aaron Spelling. He chose Fawcett to play Jill Munroe in a TV movie called Charlie’s Angels. (It aired in 1976.) The success of the movie led to a TV series that debuted in September 1976. The success of Charlie’s Angels made a star out of every part of Fawcett even her “Farrah-flip” hairstyle. Fawcett left Charlie’s Angels after only one season as the royalties from her poster sales far surpassed her salary on the show.
She continued with film roles after her split from Charlie’s Angels. Fawcett and Majors divorced in 1982. In 1983, she began appearing Off-Broadway. For the remainder of her career, she continued to act in movies and TV movies. Fawcett has been nominated for three Emmys and six Golden Globes. Her work in the miniseries Small Sacrifices helped it to win a Peabody award.
Refusing to appear in adult magazines for two decades, in 1995, she finally posed for Playboy. At age 50, two years later, in 1997, she appeared in Playboy again. (This issue became one of their top sellers.)
Throughout her life, Fawcett was romantically involved with actor Ryan O’Neal. In 1985, Fawcett gave birth to a son. In 2006, Fawcett was diagnosed with anal cancer. Months later on her 60th birthday, Fawcett announced she was cancer-free. For her final years, she documented her battle with this rare type of cancer. Unfortunately, Fawcett lost that battle on the morning of June 25, 2009 in an intensive care unit of a Santa Monica hospital.
If you don’t remember hearing much about Fawcett’s death, it could be because another pop culture icon (Michael Jackson) died later that same day in the afternoon.
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Little, Brown, 2002)
The Lovely Bones was the sophomore novel from American novelist Alice Sebold. The Lovely Bones tells the story of 14-year-old Susie Salmon who is raped and murdered on her way home from school. Nothing unusual yet, right? What makes The Lovely Bones unique is that Susie tells the whole tale as she looks down from heaven on her friends and family as they struggle to come to terms with her death.
The Lovely Bones received a multitude of critical praise after its release and quickly became a best-seller. Sir Peter Jackson, the New Zealand film director behind The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit trilogies personally purchased the film rights. The film, starring Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Rachel Weisz, Saoirse Ronan and Susan Sarandon, was in limited release in December 2009. It scored a wide release in January 2010. Tucci nabbed an Academy award nomination as Best Supporting Actor.
Pepsi is well aware that they are the number two soft drink maker behind Coke. In 2002, Coke began mass producing Vanilla Coke. In 2003, Pepsi introduced Pepsi Vanilla. Pepsi put a lot into their market research in order to claim that consumers wanted a lighter, smoother vanilla drink. Coke continued mass production of Vanilla Coke until 2005. Pepsi Vanilla disappeared about a year later, in late 2006.
Both Vanilla Coke and Pepsi Vanilla had mass appeal. A search of message boards will tell you that both drinks are much missed. (In fact, Vanilla Coke has been re-introduced in some markets.) When you look at the facts, both products were well-received, but sales began to taper off. Why? (Trust me, it was not the products.) At this time, all soft drink sales were slowing down because bottled water was on the rise. So, take heart Vanilla fans, the problem was not you: it was bottled water.
The Hilarious House of Frightenstein was a Canadian (children’s) sketch comedy television series. I’ve put children’s in brackets because the show was indeed marketed and targeted to children, but this show has become such a cult hit that even adults adore it. At the time, Frightenstein was the most ambitious TV show attempted by Canadian producers. All 130 episodes of this series were filmed over a nine-month span.
Canadian comedian Billy Van played the title character of Count Frightenstein (the 13th son of Dracula). In fact, Van played most of the characters on the show, including The Wolfman, The Grammar Slammer, Bwana Clyde Batty, Dr. Pet Vet, Grizelda, the Ghastly Gourmet (a female character), the Maharishi and The Oracle.
Other stars were Fishka Rais, who played Igor, Frightenstein’s assistant. Rais was an accomplished jazz singer. Guy Big played the Midget Count. Julius Sumner Miller was an American physicist that played The Professor. (It was he who provided much of the educational content that Frightenstein presented.) The biggest coup for Frightenstein? Landing Vincent Price. Yes, Vincent Price, the illustrious horror genre actor. Price provided most of the introductions for each segment on every show. He was attracted to the show because he wanted to do a show for children. Price and Miller’s segments were all filmed during the summer of 1971.
Frightenstein also made use of puppets. Harvey Wallbanger (the postmaster), Gronk (a purple sea serpent that interacted and interrupted a reading Count or joked with The Wolfman) and the Grammar Slammer Bammer (a large puppet that corrected Igor’s grammar).
If you are unfamilar with Frightenstein, it is definitely a show that needs to be seen to be believed. Every once in a while, Frightenstein reappears on some Canadian TV stations, like Space, TV Land or Drive-In Classics.