June 6, 1999 –
Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen), on this date. As I move follow (read: age) this silly tune becomes more and more poignant to me.
Actor Lee Perry read the narrative. 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 lyrics are from an essay called “Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young” by columnist Mary Schmich. It first appeared in 1997 in the Chicago Sunday Tribune, although the article was originally wrongly credited as being a collegiate commencement speech delivered by author Kurt Vonnegut. (Just a brief aside – Since I graduated college 44 years ago, the song cut very close to the bone.)
The Haus of Dcaligari 