Wear Sunscreen

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Wear Sunscreen or 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.

Contents

[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 to be "one", by 1999 the falsely attributed story was widespread.

When the column was later turned into a song, Schmich's "wish" came true when 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] "Wear Sunscreen" as a music single and video

“Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”
“Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)” cover
Single by Baz Luhrmann
from the album Something for Everybody
B-side "Love Is In the Air"
Released May 31, 1999
Format CD
Genre Spoken Word
Label EMI
Writer(s) Mary Schmich
Producer Baz Luhrmann
Baz Luhrmann singles chronology
- "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)"
(1999)

"Wear Sunscreen" was set to music, renamed "Baz Luhrmann Presents: Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen): The Sunscreen Song (Class of '99)" [3] or in short "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" and released on an album by Australian film director Baz Luhrmann. The song was released by Luhrmann under the EMI Music Australia Pty. Ltd. label on the 1998 album Something for Everybody (a collection of remixed and reinterpreted songs from the film, theater and opera of Baz Luhrmann) which features the original 7:09 minutes mix [4] as well as on a 1999 single release which features an 5:05 minutes edit that lacks both choruses and "Geographic's Factor 15+ Mix" that runs for 4:42 minutes [5]. In February 2007, a "2007 Mix" of the original 7:09 minutes version was released on the 10th Anniversary Edition of the William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet soundtrack ; the only difference is that it now says "Ladies and gentlemen of the class of 2007" [6].

The song features a spoken-word track set over a mellow backing track. Contrary to popular belief the essay is not read by Baz Luhrmann, or Richard Dreyfuss, on the track; it is narrated by Australian voice actor Lee Perry.[7] The chorus is sung by Quindon Tarver.

The song lyrics, which consist of a litany of humorous but practical advice, were drawn word for word from the Schmich column except for a date change from "'97" to "'99" - although an early mix exists with the original line of "Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97" still in place.

The song is a remix of "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)" performed by Quindon Tarver in Luhrmann's 1996 film William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. The melody of the backing track can be heard being sung by a choir during the wedding scene. "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)" and consequently "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" seem to be some sort of a cover version of Rozalla's 1991 hit single "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)" as all three songs share the same writers, Tim Cox and Nigel Swanston, published by Peermusic Ltd. [8]

The mix was conceived and directed by BLAM, the music production team comprised of Baz Luhrmann and Anton Monsted. BLAM continued as a music producing partnership on album tracks for the film Moulin Rouge!. While Nellee Hooper produced the 1996 version, Josh Abrahams did remix and additional production on the "Sunscreen" version.

Baz Luhrmann explains how the song came about:

"Anton Monsted, Josh Abrahams and I were working on a remix of "Everybody's Free" when Ant showed me something he had received from a friend by e-mail; apparently Kurt Vonnegut's graduation speech to students at MIT. On reading it, Vonnegut's simple observations and ideas seemed to provide a profoundly useful guide for getting through life, and we instantly decided to record it. The problem was we only had a day or two to go on the deadline and contacting Vonnegut's agent in time was impossible. The idea seemed unlikely. It was two o'clock in the morning, and this somewhat depressed us, so Anton plugged his computer into the wall and surfed the net to find more information on contacting Vonnegut. What he found was to surprise us all: newspaper articles on what had become the "Sunscreen Controversy" and what was to prove an amazing moment in the early life of the internet. Anton was immediately printing out news of how the work of a brilliant columnist for the Chicago Tribune had been lifted from her column, and a student as a hoax had connected Vonnegut's name and chain e-mailed it to students all over the world. The words struck a chord with those who read them, and so Vonnegut's "sunscreen speech" was born. It was now four o'clock in the morning and we sat stunned as we read pieces of information. It seemed to us, whether Vonnegut wrote it or not, the ideas in the piece make such great sense. Back onto the internet again, and we were e-mailing Mary Schmich, the young journalist who wrote it for the Chicago Tribune. Fortunately, Mary had quite a connection to both "Strictly Ballroom" and "Romeo + Juliet", so a day later we were in Sydney recording with a local actor the spoken element of what is now "Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen)." What I think is extraordinary, apart from the inherent values in the ideas, is that we were experiencing ourselves a historical moment in the life of the internet, an example of how massive publishing power is in the hands of anyone with access to a PC." [9]

In 1997 the song rated 16th most popular song out of 100 on the Triple J Hottest 100 countdown. This version has the original opening line "Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97"[10].

The video which uses the 1999 single edit of the song was directed and animated by Bill Barminski QuickTime. 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 was a worldwide mega hit, becoming a cult hit in the US, reaching #45 on the Billboard Hot 100, and reaching #1 in the UK and Ireland.

In 1999 the song was a part of the end credits in John Swanbeck's movie The Big Kahuna, starring Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito and Peter Facinelli.

The song was also included on Now That's What I Call Music! 2.

[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)." Denis Leary has been rumoured to have performed a version called "Drink Beer" however this is a popular internet myth and upon hearing, sounds nothing like Denis Leary. The song was also parodied in an episode of House of Mouse where Jimminy 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.

There are also many fan-made parodies, including a Star Wars version featuring pieces from the six feature films and also behind-the-scenes, and a person imitating Yoda performing a version by the name of "Everybody Free to Be a Jedi Is". The soundtrack CD for the animated cartoon series King of the Hill contained a parody of "Wear Sunscreen" as well. A German version entitled "FKK (Everybody's free to wear gar nichts)" was published by Die Gerd-Show imitating the former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

The song was also parodied by Nob Nation on Irish radio station 2FM with a song called "Not the Sunscreen Song". [11] Also parodied on Norfolk, VA radio station FM99 WNOR by The Tommy and Rumble Morning Show.

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"

While not an official parody, the track "This Is Your Life" taken from the soundtrack to the movie Fight Club could be considered as a dark reflection of the Sunscreen song.

On the Millennium episode "Via Dolorosa," a serial killer on Florida's death row uttered "wear sunscreen" as his sardonic last words.

[edit] External links

General
Parodies
Biographies

[edit] References

  1. ^ View Images
  2. ^ (Croatian) News post regarding the graduation ceremony on FER
  3. ^ View Images
  4. ^ Various - Baz Luhrmann Presents: Something For Everybody
  5. ^ View Images
  6. ^ GeM Solutions, Inc.-Industrial Strength AnyWhere 2 AnyWhere Email Migration Solution Provider
  7. ^ [1]
  8. ^ Compare [2], [3] and [4].
  9. ^ Something for Everybody
  10. ^ Triple J Hottesto 100, 1997
  11. ^ RTÉ - Nob Nation
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