He did the thing!

And just like Ralph Tresvant to walk in between them. Real lead singer behaviour.

🎵"Miss her, kiss her, love her, (wrong move you're dead)"🎵

scrubs (2001-2010) s5e9 feat. "poison" by bell biv devoe

Year-End Poll #41: 1990

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Wilson Phillips, Roxette, Sinéad O'Connor, Bell Biv DeVoe, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Phil Collins, En Vogue, Billy Idol, Jon Bon Jovi. End description]

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Welcome to the 90's! Much like the previous years, soft rock and ballads are still a reliable way to get noticed on the charts, as is the soundtrack single. But while we're still in the late 80's in terms of sound, there are still some notable changes I'd like to draw attention to.

The first is the debut of Mariah Carey, whose self titled album was released in June 1990. Mariah's presence on the charts will continue far past this year, and we'll even see her break records in terms of chart longevity. With Bell Biv DeVoe's Poison and Madonna's Vogue, we're also seeing two genres (new jack swing and house music respectively) that got their start well before the 90's, but whose sound will soon leave their marks on the decade. Vogue is also notable for introducing middle America to the Black and queer Ballroom scene. The history of disco in the 70's is already echoing less than twenty years later.

As far as the business side of the Billboard Charts, a major change is brewing to take place, but we won't see the fruits of that until the next year (unless you were listening to country music at the time). The "world music" album chart would also debut this year, but that wouldn't have as much of a noticeable effect on the Hot 100. At least not yet.

Earth angel, earth angel, Will you be mine? My darling dear, love you all the time. I'm just a fool, A fool in love with you.

New Edition - Earth Angel

Style and flow. 📻🎤🎶🟥🟢🟧💛

Bell Biv DeVoe performing live at the 1991 American Music Awards, Airdate: January 28th, 1991

Listen to both songs before voting, and define "better" any way you wish!

Old Song I Know

I consider the music playing in my car to be a critical part of the experience for my passengers when I’m driving for Uber/Lyft.

I’ve had thousands of people in my back seat, and trying to ensure that whatever song is playing when they get in my car appeals to them is no easy feat. Whether they are with me for 3 minutes or 2 and a half hours, I want that time to be as enjoyable as possible. Often a passenger is heading somewhere undesirable, like work, and other times they may just be having a bad day. If possible, I want to help them escape for a few moments.

The first couple of weeks I did Uber/Lyft, I didn’t have anything playing in my car. I was still navigating the whole process and I wasn’t sure what was normal or comfortable. In hindsight, the silence was probably pretty awkward for those early passengers. At some point, I began putting on a local radio station that played the most current and popular music. That was okay, but then I found that after a couple of years I was still listening to the same songs 9 or 10 times in a single day. More often than not, songs I hated. I decided there had to be a compromise to where I wasn’t spending my entire workday trapped in a car listening to what I considered to be insufferable music. I made a playlist of just the popular songs I didn’t hate and began using that. It worked for a while, but then I grew tired of it as well. Eventually, knowing that on some level 80’s music appeals to most people, I threw together a playlist of instantly recognizable and upbeat songs like “Take On Me” and “Beat It.” It proved to be a pretty successful move, and passengers would regularly hum or sing along to artists like Prince or Don Henley, while in-between rides I would serenade the empty space with The Outfield or Depeche Mode.

About a year ago, I started producing a 90’s themed podcast and YouTube channel. (the90sweekbyweek.com, thanks for asking!) While deep diving into the music of that era, which is far more representative of my formative years than the 80’s, I decided to switch to a 90’s Uber/Lyft playlist. As I watch people my age reminisce over a song or a moment they associate it with, I’m offered a sense of shared nostalgia. For instance, I had a passenger the other day talk about a tour they recently attended that included the band New Edition. While New Edition itself is more closely associated with the 80’s, they spawned several acts that are considered quintessential 90’s. In this case, the song “Poison” by Bel Biv Devoe had come on while they were in my car. “Poison,” by far, elicits some of the most positive reactions from my passengers. Rightfully so. I’ve heard it a thousand times in the past year and still haven’t gotten tired of it.

Selecting songs from the 90’s to put into a playlist for an extremely diverse group of random people is a lot harder than it may seem. Especially when you’re trying to find music that you yourself don’t hate or will get burned out on quickly. Obviously, if you’re trying to bring someone’s mood up or give them a positive experience, you can’t just go with what were considered the most popular songs of the 90’s. Many of them have inappropriate lyrics or intense musical arrangements, and others tend to be too mellow or melancholy. In addition, what I consider to be the best songs of the 90’s may not be the best choices for an Uber/Lyft ride. I long considered Pearl Jam’s song “Black” to be my favorite of any era. After years of playing it over and over, I’m not as high on it as I once was, but still consider it a vital part of any 90’s playlist I’m making for myself. Honestly, every song off the “Ten” album could go on a 90’s playlist and I’d consider it acceptable. Not a single song on that album, however, has made it on my Uber/Lyft 90’s playlist. I just don’t see them helping anyone’s mood for the amount of time I’m taking them wherever they are going. On the other hand, “Jump” by Kriss Kross or “Fantasy” by Mariah Carey have a pretty high success rate.

Sometimes, after I’ve listened to a song for the hundredth time, I start to question my decision to include it in the first place. And I’m not going to lie, “Ice Ice Baby” is still in rotation, but every time it comes on, I get a little embarrassed. God forbid that anyone who doesn’t know that I compiled a list of popular 90’s songs think that I just chose to listen to Vanilla Ice on my own accord. I’m not judging anyone that chooses to express their inner Rob Van Winkle on a regular basis, he’s just not real indicative of anything I choose to associate with. Another example of a song on my current 90’s Uber/Lyft playlist that I second guess is “So What’Cha Want” by the Beastie Boys. It’s one of my favorites on there, but with such a heavy beat and staticky vocals, I wonder if the appeal is broad enough for the myriad of people entering my car. Conversely, while it’s also currently in rotation, I fear that “Plush” by Stone Temple Pilots has a tempo that is too slow to bring or keep people’s spirits up.

It's difficult to separate your affinity for certain songs and the memories you attach to them from the unknown experiences of others. Especially complete strangers. I’m constantly questioning and refining my 90’s playlist. Imagine you are getting in an Uber or Lyft, and the driver is playing 90’s music. If you are looking to be in a festive or positive mood, what songs would you want to hear? What songs would it be hard not to smile at or begin humming along to? Feel free to leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments and thanks in advance!

And now…a haiku:

though the songs differ

everyone has a soundtrack

if you will listen

“Where words fail, music speaks.” ~ Hans Christian Andersen

Some more tidbits revealed by Zach Braff and Donald Faison during their Scrubs Rewatch podcast “Fake Doctors, Real Friends”:

Zach grew up with Lauryn Hill and she went to his bar mitzvah

Donald went to high school with Tara Reid and the first place he had moonshine was at her sweet sixteen; it was moonshine her dad made (they had Tara on as a guest to discuss the episodes she was in and she called Donald by his childhood nickname “Shun” which his mother also used when they had her on in another episode)

Tom Cavanaugh (who played JD’s brother Dan) was on a show called “Ed” in the 90s, which had billboards all over the country when it premiered. Zach’s mom saw one of the billboards and thought it looked enough like Zach it prompted her to call him and ask if he had gotten an acting job.

Donald is the biggest Star Wars fan; he and Joelle (one of the producers) regularly discuss Star Wars. Donald realized he was sitting in front of George Lucas during the premiere of “Revenge of the Sith” and after the movie was over, Donald turned around and enthusiastically screamed “You did it, George! YOU FUCKING DID IT!” He turned back around and told his girlfriend how much he loved the movie; she told him how terrible his breath was.

There was a fundraiser/auction for autism research during the run of the show and everyone from NBC attended. One of the auction items was a puppy that Sarah Chalke immediate fell in love with. Seven people from Scrubs each bus $1000 in Sarah’s name so they could win the puppy for her. She named the puppy Lola, who lived 14 years (Donald hadn’t realized Lola had passed and was sad when Sarah mentioned this when they had her on). John C McGinley paid Sarah the money the night of the auction and said “fast money, fast friends”. Ken Jenkins also paid her that night with a check and asked her regularly if she had cashed it yet. Donald paid her four years later.

Bill Lawrence based almost all of Jordan’s character on Christa Miller’s actual personality, so much so that during the early years of the show Zach asked Bill, “where did you meet Christa? Was it at mean camp?”

The dance Donald does to “Poison”- the famous one, the one Fortnite used- was done in one take, and was not rehearsed beforehand. Donald was told he would need to come up with a dance routine, the day of filming he showed up late and a little hungover. While Rob Macchio was doing the “working for the weekend” dance (they only use about twenty seconds in the show but he did a dance for the whole song) Donald was told the song he would be dancing to was “Poison” by Bell Biv Devoe. Donald thought “oh I can do this” as this was one of his favorite songs. Some of the moves he did in the dance were from a dance routine he made up as a kid.

Bill Lawrence was approached about taking all of the closing voiceovers/advice JD does at the end of the show and combining them to make a book. When they started compiling a list, they realized an overwhelming number of the closing voiceovers, without the show context and the sad indie song, made almost no sense and were very repetitive. The book idea was dropped.

John Ritter was supposed to guest star on the show again before he passed- like RIGHT before he passed. Ritter was supposed to be on the show on Monday; Bill Lawrence was informed of Ritter’s death Saturday night. He rewrote the episode Sunday night to be about the death of JD’s father and called Tom Cavanaugh to appear in the show instead; this is the episode “My Cake” that they then filmed four days later.

When Zach and Donald met Benjamin Bratt, they were so giddy with how handsome he is they were excitedly grabbing each other’s hands.

At the beginning of the show, John C McGinley was going through a bad divorce and announced he was never getting married again. Bill bet him $10,000 that John would be married again before the show ended. Bill used the 10 grand he won from this bet to throw an engagement party for John six years later.

Donald and his wife- who he met and married during the run of Scrubs- have a Turk/Carla and JD dynamic with Zach where they all hang out together and they would try to help him find girlfriends and would advise if they thought he would be good with women or not.

Zach sends Donald “progress shots” when he’s working out.

I can't believe Bell Biv DeVoe's Poison is in Fortnite. What the hell. It's come full circle.