Everything about Wear Sunscreen totally explained
Wear Sunscreen or
Sunscreen Speech 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.
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'd 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.
The poem-like piece has drawn frequent comparison to the
Max Ehrmann poem
Desiderata, which was also the subject of an
urban legend misattribution.
"Wear Sunscreen" as a music single and video
"Wear Sunscreen" was set to music, renamed "Baz Luhrmann Presents: Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen): The Sunscreen Song (Class of '99)" 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 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 . 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" .
The song features a spoken-word track set over a mellow backing track. Contrary to popular belief the essay isn't read by Baz Luhrmann, or
Richard Dreyfuss, on the track; it's narrated by Australian voice actor Lee Perry
(External Link
). 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.
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'd 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."
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".
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.
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". 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.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Wear Sunscreen'.
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