Tuesday, July 05, 2005

A place nobody dared to go ... except Menudo and me.

  • Menudo "Xanadu" (ELO/Olivia Newton-John cover)
    Oh ... my... God. My pal Louis—whose Damaged Hearing radio show you can (and should) listen to here on Tuesday afternoons and Friday nights—sent me this Holy Grail today and I'm freaking out. This is in the category of covers I knew existed and desperately wanted but hadn't been able to locate on my own. A rarity, that. I believe this is the first incarnation of Menudo (read: Ricky Melendez, not Martin) and I'm in love with the horror of it. It hits me like a cannonball.

    Somewhat related—and I'm dating myself big-time here (yeah, MTV, I actually lived in a '70s house): Does anyone remember the episode of Silver Spoons where Ricky Stratton (Ricky-now-Rick Schroeder) sneaks into a hotel to convince Menudo to play at his birthday party so he can impress a girl he likes and they come out on that little train and play a song, I think, and when the song is over, the girl screams, "Ricky, I love you!" and rich-kid Ricky thinks she's talking about him, but she was really talking about Ricky in Menudo and she runs to him and hugs him and Ricky Stratton is all heartbroken? That was the shit.

    Also related: Does anyone remember the little mini-videos Menudo had on ABC in the early '80s that inexplicably replaced Schoolhouse Rock, I believe, that were about the most inane subjects ever? For decades now whenever I go to a "shopping mall," I get that damned song stuck in my head. "If there's anything you like, you can always find it in the shopping mall. Made in China, Philippines ... something something something ... in a shopping mall." Dude, according to Menudo, you can even find parrots that speak French in shopping malls. I've no proof of that though. How can there not be a site somewhere dedicated to those snippets? I need MP3s and video. Desperately. Louis? Anyone?

    One more thing. Spanish speakers help me out here: Am I hearing things or does this translation indicate that someone is playing an "armonica fantastico"? There wasn't a reference to a fantastic harmonica in the original, but there should have been!
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