Tomorrow marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Eminem's major-label debut album, The Slim Shady LP. For most of us humans, it was our introduction to Eminem and his alter ego, Slim Shady. He was an intriguing figure, mixing dark humor, social commentary, and your classic misogyny into his lyrics. The album was co-produced by Dr. Dre, who also co-wrote the three singles that were released from the album: "My Name Is," "Guilty Conscience" (which also featured Dre), and "Role Model."
The album peaked at #2 on the Billboard album chart and #1 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop album chart, as well as reaching the Top 10 on the album charts in Canada and the UK. It was certified platinum in the U.S. six weeks after it was released, and it has since gone 5x platinum in the U.S. Furthermore, it won the Grammy for Best Rap Album and it has landed on various "greatest albums" lists over the years.
"My Name Is" was the first single released from the album. It's a half-autobiographical and half-weird pop culture references, both funny and self-deprecating. The song became Eminem's first Top 40 hit in the U.S., going to #36 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also a big hit abroad, hitting the Top 10 on six international pop charts. It also earned a Grammy (for Best Rap Solo Performance), and like the album, it has found its way onto various "best songs" list. Q Magazine even put it as the #6 song of all-time, which is probably a bit of a stretch.
The video was an instant classic, with Eminem playing various characters, including a teacher, Bill Clinton, Marilyn Manson, and Johnny Carson. There is a cameo by Dr. Dre as, well, a doctor, but the best cameo is from 7' 7" NBA center Gheorghe Mureșan as a ventriloquist. I'll note that the video on You Tube has some altered lyrics to make the song more advertiser-friendly.
This Saturday -- which also happens to be Michael Jordan's 61st birthday -- marks a couple milestones for former model, actress, and MTV video vixen Tawny Kitaen. On February 17, 1984, Sunset Strip rockers Ratt's debut album, Out of the Cellar, was released. The album cover features Kitaen in an alley, crawling in a tattered leather dress towards some sort of underground chamber (a cellar, perhaps) emitting quite a bright light. Kitaen and Ratt guitarist Robbin Crosby had been high school sweethearts and were dating and living together at the time.
Fast forward five years to the day -- February 17, 1989 -- and you would see the wedding of Kitaen to Whitesnake lead singer David Coverdale. Of course, in between Out of the Cellar and Kitaen's marriage to Coverdale, she made a name for herself as one of the preeminent video vixens, first in Ratt's 1984 video for "Back For More" (also with a cameo from Milton Berle!), and then, more famously, as the sultry, car-hood-cartwheeling eye candy we all know and love in three Whitesnake videos: "Still of the Night," "Here I Go Again," and "Is This Love."
I'm going with "Still of the Night" for this week's Retro Video of the Week, as it's my favorite of the three songs. Her marriage to Coverdale was short-lived, as they got divorced in 1991. Kitaen went on to succeed Arleen Sorkin as Dave Coulier's co-host of America's Funniest People from 1992 to 1994. She also starred as Jerry's hot actress girlfriend in a 1991 episode of Seinfeld -- "The Nose Job," in which Jerry's inner brain vs. dong have a chess match to figure out if Jerry can withstand her terrible acting because of how attractive she is. She also had an affair with OJ Simpson when he was married to Nicole Brown Simpson, who OJ did not murder, according to a jury of his peers. And she was also married to MLB pitcher Chuck Finley from 1997 to 2002, but that marriage also ended in divorce after she kicked him in the legs with her high heels while he was driving. She went on to "star" in reality TV shows The Surreal Life, Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, and an episode of Botched. Over the years, she had several DUIs and issues with drugs, and she died in 2021 at the age of 59. But those of us males of a certain age will always think fondly of her whenever we see a mid-'80s Jaguar sedan.
In case you didn't know, there's a new documentary that came out last week on Netflix about the making of "We Are The World" called The Greatest Night in Pop, ant it's fantastic. I've already watched it twice, and I'd watch it again if you asked me to.
As a child of the '80s, "We Are The World" was one of those watershed moments. All I knew as a kid was that the biggest stars in music -- even if I really didn't know who some of the "old timers" were yet -- got together and recorded a song to raise money for the Ethiopian famine. All these years, I assumed this was some long-planned collaboration, where all these stars had months to learn the song and learn their parts, but it was quite the opposite.
Inspired by the December 1984 all-star charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas Time at All?" by Band-Aid, a cast of UK and Irish all-star musicians, legendary singer, actor, and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte wanted to do something similar with American musicians to raise money for African famine relief. He enlisted the help of Ken Kragen, an entertainment industry manager with many important music industry clients and several large rolodexes full of important names. Kragen turned to one of his clients, Lionel Richie, to coordinate the effort and began reaching out to other bands and artists to participate.
Knowing that the American Music Awards were going to be in Los Angeles at the end of January 1985 -- and that a who's who of musicians would be attending the AMAs -- they determined that they would have to record the song after the AMAs to get all of the participants in one place. The song was written by Richie and Michael Jackson in short order. Quincy Jones was brought on to produce. Vocal arranger Tom Bahler was tasked with determining which artists would get solos and what the order would be -- and it's safe to say he nailed it. The whole thing came together in a matter of weeks.
The vocals for the song -- both the famous chorus and all of the solo parts -- were recorded in one night, on January 28, 1985 (and well into the morning of January 29). I think one of the most poignant moments of the documentary was when Bob Geldof -- the Irish musician and force behind Band-Aid (and later that year, Live Aid) -- gave a pep talk to the entire group of musicians about the gravity of what this record would mean for famine relief. I believe he said something along the lines of, "This year, the price of a life is a seven-inch piece of plastic with a hole in the middle." That got everyone in the right head space. Without wanting to give too much else about the documentary away, I'll just tell you to watch it. I particularly enjoyed how the Huey Lewis/Cyndi Lauper/Kim Carnes solos and harmony part came about -- and I think that's now my favorite part of the song.
"We Are The World" was released in early March 1985, and it was a worldwide smash. It became the fastest-selling single in U.S. history and was the first single to be certified multi-platinum in the U.S. Since then, it has gone on to become the ninth best-selling physical single of all-time.
The song went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in April and May 1985, and it also topped the pop charts in nearly 20 other countries. It also won four Grammys, two MTV VMAs, one AMA, and one People's Choice Award, among other accolades. Most importantly, "We Are The World" raised $80 million (or over $160 million in today's dollars, according to the documentary) for African and American hunger relief.
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