Tag / The Mickey Mouse Club

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Book 35 (of 52) – Open Book

Open Book – Jessica Simpson

Open Book, Jessica Simpson’s memoir of her life as a teenage pop star, reality television goof, and fashion industry titan, is truly an open book.  She talks of her molestation at the hands of a family friend as a child, her failed attempts to break out with the Mickey Mouse Club, the pressures of being a teenager and trying to become a pop star, and, of course, her intention to remain a virgin until marriage.  Her fame exploded thanks to Newlyweds on MTV, but the show that truly made her a household name also contributed to the end of her marriage.  After years of drinking and John Mayer, she finally found her way, starting a family with a new husband and hoping to restart her music career.

I certainly did not know much about Jessica Simpson prior to reading this book.  I don’t know any of her music and haven’t seen any of her shows.  The only things I actually do know her from are her role as Daisy Duke in the Dukes of Hazzard movie and tabloid accounts of either her being shown as stupid on her show or gaffes from her social life.  She seems to finally have her personal life figured out, so I hope she can continue to be happy going forward.

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Fifty Years Of Music – 1999

Fifty years ago, I made my first appeared on the Earth.  In celebration, we are going to take a look at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for each year of my life and see what songs resonated with me at the time and if they continue to do so to this day.

We continue our look back at the music of my lifetime with 1999, the year I turned 25 and Angelina was born.  At 33 songs, we see a slight rebound in the Hot 100 that remain familiar to me today for the first time, with 17 of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.

#94: Goo Goo Dolls – Iris
iTunes stats: 19 plays

Featured on the soundtrack to City of Angels, the track debuted, and peaked, at #9 in December of 1998 following the change to allow songs with no commercial single release to chart.

#89: Jay-Z – Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)
iTunes stats: 35 plays

Featuring samples and the chorus from the Annie song, it reached #15.

#78: Len – Steal My Sunshine
iTunes stats: 18 plays

The group’s only charting single in the US, it went to #9

#77: Shania Twain – Man, I Feel Like a Woman
iTunes stats: 12 plays

The Grammy winner for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 2000, it topped out at #4 on the Hot Country Singles chart and #23 on the Hot 100.

#70: Sarah McLachlan – I Will Remember You
iTunes stats: 0 plays

Originally released in 1995, this live version peaked at #14 and earned McLachlan her second Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

#57: Shania Twain – From This Moment On
iTunes stats: N/A

The song reached #4 on the Hot 100, #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and #6 on the Hot Country Songs chart.

#54: Jewel – Hands
iTunes stats: 20 plays

The lead single from the singer’s sophomore effort, it went to #6.

#53: Will Smith – Miami
iTunes stats: 1 play

Topping out at #17, the song garnered Smith a VMA for Best Male Video.

#51: Tal Bachman – She’s So High
iTunes stats: 28 plays

The debut single from the Canadian singer-songwriter peaked at #14.

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Book 56 (of 52) – The Woman in Me

The Woman in Me – Britney Spears

After appearing in The Mickey Mouse Club as a young child, Britney Spears made her initial splash in the music world at 17 when her debut studio album, …Baby One More Time, was released.  Portrayed as the perpetual virgin, Spears dated former castmate Justin Timberlake while maintaining her hold on the top of the pop charts.  Following her breakup with Timberlake, Spears married twice in 2004, the second of which resulted in two sons born over the following two years.  After divorce proceedings led to a acrimonious custody battle, Spears appeared to spin out of control, attending rehab for a day before shaving her head in public the following night.  These antics led to her being placed under a conservatorship, where her life and estate would be controlled by her father, in January of 2008.  Fast forward to 2021, when she is finally able to break free from the conservatorship and regain control of her life and her career.

In The Woman In Me, stripped of all PR flaks and under her father’s thumb for the first time in over a decade, Britney Spears is finally able to reveal her side of the story.  She tells the tale of her upbringing in Louisiana, with parents who seemingly hated each other and vacillating between middle class and poor, depending on how much her father was drinking at the time.  How despite losing her virginity at 14 to a friend of her brothers, she was portrayed in the media as a cloying virgin, leading to press speculation about her teenage body and sex life.  How a combination of post-partum depression and a nasty custody battle led to her family turning against her and taking over her life, putting her to work to fuel their own largesse.  One can’t help but feel sympathy for the now 42-year-old. who is trying to find her way back after a decade of abuse at the hands of the people who should have been protecting her.