Wear Sunscreen
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Wear Sunscreen or the Sunscreen Speech[1] are the common names of an essay actually called "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young" written by Mary Schmich and published in the Chicago Tribune as a column in 1997.
The most popular and well-known form of the essay is the successful music single released in 1999, credited to Baz Luhrmann.
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[edit] Chicago Tribune column
Mary Schmich's "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young" was published in the Chicago Tribune as a column on June 1, 1997. In her introduction to the column, she described it as the commencement address she would give if she were asked to give one.
The column soon became the subject of an urban legend, in which it was alleged to be an MIT commencement speech given by author Kurt Vonnegut in that same year (in truth, MIT's commencement speaker that year was Kofi Annan). Despite a follow-up article by Mary Schmich on August 3, 1997, in which she referred to the "lawless swamp of cyberspace" that had made her and Kurt Vonnegut "one", by 1999 the falsely attributed story was widespread.
When the column was later turned into a song, Schmich's "wish" came true when the University of Zagreb's Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing started to play the song Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) at every graduation ceremony[2].
The poem-like piece has drawn frequent comparison to the Max Ehrmann poem Desiderata, which was also the subject of an urban legend misattribution.
[edit] Music single and video
| “Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by Baz Luhrmann from the album Something for Everybody |
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| B-side | "Love Is In the Air" | ||||
| Released | March 9, 1999 | ||||
| Format | CD | ||||
| Genre | Spoken Word | ||||
| Label | EMI | ||||
| Writer(s) | Mary Schmich, Nigel Swanston, Tim Cox | ||||
| Producer | Baz Luhrmann | ||||
| Baz Luhrmann singles chronology | |||||
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The essay was used in its entirety by Australian film director Baz Luhrmann in his remixing of the song "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)" from the film William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, entitled Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen). It appeared on the album Something for Everybody in April, 1998 and was subsequently released as a single (with the opening words changed to "Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '99").
Luhrmann explains that Anton Monsted, Josh Abrahams and he were working on the remix when Monsted received an email with the supposed Vonnegut speech. They decided to use it but were doubtful of getting through to Vonnegut for permission before their deadline, which was only one or two days away. While searching the internet for contact information they came upon the "Sunscreen Controversy" and discovered that Schmich was the actual author. They emailed her and, with her permission, recorded the song the next day.[3]
The song features a spoken-word track set over a mellow backing track. The "Wear Sunscreen" speech is narrated by Australian voice actor Lee Perry.[4] The backing is the choral version of "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)", a 1991 song by Rozalla, used in the film William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. The chorus, also from "Everybody's Free", is sung by Quindon Tarver.
The song was a worldwide hit, reaching #45 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, and #1 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, partly due to a media campaign by Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles. It was a part of the end credits in John Swanbeck's movie The Big Kahuna, starring Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito and Peter Facinelli.
The are four versions of the song: the original 7:09 minutes mix from the album Baz Luhrmann Presents: Something For Everybody; a 1999 single release which features an 5:05 minutes edit that lacks both choruses; "Geographic's Factor 15+ Mix" that runs for 4:42 minutes and a "2007 Mix" of the original 7:09 minutes version released on the 10th Anniversary Edition of the William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet soundtrack on which the opening words are changed to "Ladies and gentlemen of the class of 2007".
The video which uses the 1999 single edit of the song was directed and animated by Bill Barminski. The video aired on all major networks in the United States and was featured on the The Tonight Show, The Today Show and The View as well as VH1 and MTV. It also appeared in the UK, Australia and Japan.
The song also appeared in Germany, and was soon followed by a German version with the title "Sonnencreme".[5] The German translation is narrated by the German actor Dieter Brandecker.[6] There is also a Brazilian version which is narrated in Portuguese by Pedro Bial.
On August 10, 2008, the song re-entered the UK Singles Chart at #72, possibly related to Jo Whiley playing it on her show on BBC Radio 1 on August 7.
[edit] Parody
The Baz Luhrmann song version inspired numerous parodies. John Safran released a song entitled "Not the Sunscreen Song". The musician and comedian Chris Rock enjoyed great success with his spoken word song "No Sex (In the Champagne Room)." The song was also parodied in an episode of House of Mouse where Jiminy Cricket performed it. The comedy group Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie also made a parody entitled "The Sunscreen Marketing Board". Jegsy Dodd and the Original Sinners' version, "Grumpy Old Men" was voted favourite track of 2005 by BBC Radio 1 listeners in their annual Festive 50 poll.
The song was also parodied by DJ Chris Tarrant on the London Capital Radio Breakfast Show with a song called "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Class of '97 - wear slippers"
Hawaiian comedian and observational humourist Frank de Lima recorded Eat Rice which includes island-style advice such as, "Laugh at ethnic jokes; you’re ethnic, whether you like it or not."
The fictional character Johnson or "Jay" Keane, brother of Irish soccer player Roy, on the radio program Gift Grub on Irish radio station Today FM has also recorded a version. In this version Jay tells us to "Support Munster", i.e. the Munster rugby team. Munster being one of the four provinces of Ireland and participants in the 2009 Heineken Cup.
[edit] External links
- Chicago Tribune.com: Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young The column that inspired the song (archive, full text requires subscription)
- Mary Schmich's columns in the Chicago Tribune includes archive, biography and story collections
- Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) at Youtube
[edit] References
- Wear Sunscreen (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1998) ISBN 0-8362-5528-3
| Preceded by "Candle for Kosovo" by Rain / Various Artists |
Irish Singles Chart number one single June 5, 1999 - June 12, 1999 |
Succeeded by "That Don't Impress Me Much" by Shania Twain |
| Preceded by "Sweet Like Chocolate" by Shanks & Bigfoot |
UK Singles Chart number one single June 6, 1999 - June 12, 1999 |
Succeeded by "Bring It All Back" by S Club 7 |
