2022 Update: Toni Basil won sole ownership of the rights to Mickey, and can now profit off of the song at last. She says she is still going strong and feels she has much more creativity in her lifetime.
2019 update: Toni Basil was credited as a choreographer in Quentin Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. 75 years old, and the woman is still working her butt off. Good for her!
Indeed as a kiddie I was completely bowled over by Once in A Lifetime (i.e. the first record I ever bought) and have always thought of Toni Basil as a complete star for helping come up with that nonsense. And obviously had a total crush on her. Me 10 she 37 - times were different then.
I hate to be that guy, but it bares mentioning that Tony Basil was not just in "a dance troupe." She was a founding member of The Lockers, one of the very first commercially successful break-dancing acts.
I recognized some breaking moves in that shopping video. I thought to myself that reminds of breakin' the movies from the 80's. sure enough the actor that played turbo was dancing in the background.
I like how he passed over the fact that she was one of the founders of the group that created locking, As in pop n locking, By saying "Oh and she started a dance troupe"...
To be fair, OHW episodes are meant to be short-form history/retrospectives that, if he's pushing it, caps off around the 30 minute mark. If he were to dedicate a proper video to the illustrious career of Toni Basil, it would likely run as long as an official full-length documentary. And Todd is... well, to put it nicely, he's a bit of a procrastinator and seems prone to burnout very easily. He could probably do that if he wanted to, but I imagine if he did, he'd disappear for at least six months minimum to recuperate. What I'm saying is, don't hold it against him for not going into every minute detail for the career of a celebrity you like.
@@cannibalisticrequiem I've watched alot of his one hit wonderlands and like, most of them contain a tonne of just lies. Idk if he just dosent research enough.
@@graceygal2664define research when it comes to bands exactly. It's usually a lot of he said she said speculation and even outside of that I wouldn't represent anything in a video I wasn't sure about for obvious reasons
My dad taught me all about Toni Basil's illustrious career when I was like 15 and first getting into 80's music. It was def strange to go from knowing her as "the singer of that obnoxious song my mom sings to wake me up for school" to knowing my dad had a celebrity crush on her. Strange times indeed. He showed me several movies including the ones you listed ostensibly to point her out. Though Easy Rider is a classic that everyone should see. She is a fascinating and mega talented woman. I think my dads crush was well placed. hmmm what a weird sentence I just wrote, the internet takes me to bizarre places.
not only do they not get enough respect, they are currently suing the NFL for essentially forcing them to prostitute them to big doners to the team. as well as paying them next to nothing...
@@jakobbokaj123 Cheerleaders in general are suing the NFL? Or NFL Cheerleaders are suing the NFL? I don't think anyone here is talking about the highest level cheerleaders in the damn world lol
I find there are two kinds of cheerleaders: The sort that do the acrobatics and human pyramids and whatnot...and what the girls at my high school did, Which was stand on the track on Friday nights, looking confused, occasionally clapping and stomping in a halting and unsure fashion, occasionally mumble "Let's go" and then one or two would attempt half a Russian split. Most of them I think were in it for the makeup.
I swear Shopping From A-Z sounds and looks like it belongs on Sesame Street. They could've actually played it during an episode back then and it wouldn't have felt out of place.
This is actually a guilty pleasure song for me. I can't help but like it. It reminds me of my elementary school days. It was still going strong on the cheerleading scene in the early 2000's.
I absolutely love this song despite everyone hating it. There's something about "Oh Mickey what a pity you don't understand, you take me by the heart when you take me by the hand" just does something to me
Both "Mickey" and "Shopping" sound like they have the kind of lyrics of doo wop and bobby sox fifties or sixties tunes, only set to eighties synthesizer music. It' kind of odd that way.
I think it’s important to remember that while these songs where released on an album - Toni Basil was signed specifically to be a video artist and I think she was the first person to sign a “video” deal and not a “record” deal. I think she was far more interested in exploring a new art medium than making “music”. The music was just one component of the art piece she was making & the videos where also a brilliant way for her to showcase her dance/choreography skills.
Fountains of Wayne isn't really a one hit wonder. They're still around, were and are very popular in the alternative scene; and Stacy's Mom peaked at just 21.
Trivia time: Toni Basil briefly dated Jerry Casale of Devo, hence her three Devo covers. One of them, "Space Girls" was based on "Space Girl Blues", an old 70's demo that Devo wouldn't release until the 90's when their basement tape compilation came out. They "borrowed" the first verse lyrics from an old DC comic called Mystery in Space.
The Talking Heads is my moms favorite band, I owe my love for underground music to her extremely eclectic taste in music and actually accepting to most new music instead of writing it off for not being from her time
Fun fact: "Shopping A to Z" was actually covered by Japanese pop artist Shinohara Tomoe in the '90s -- an artist best known for the ridiculously fast-paced song "Ultra Relax," which anime fans know as the second opening theme to the classic show Kodocha (or the only opening theme, if you're most familiar with the English DVD release of the show, since the rights to the first opening theme were unobtainable for overseas use). Shinohara Tomoe's version of Shopping A to Z is actually pretty damned good, too -- I'd say better than Toni Basil's, at the very least, partially due to her retooling of the lyrics to include some more logical Japanese choices for certain letters (though X is still "nothing"!). I think the biggest reason her version is better, though, is because Shinohara Tomoe is pretty much the most hyperactive human being on the planet, so a song like Shopping A to Z is perfectly suited to her extreme energy level and generally child-friendly musical stylings. Her version IS on RU-vid, too, so check it out if you're interested: MhX_YmV2cKk
This is an old-ass comment on an old-ass video, but thanks for this 6 years later. I was obsessed with Kodomo no Omocha in middle school and loved the soundtrack to the series. "Ultra-Relax" ruled. I had no idea about this connection!
God, this song is among the most nostalgic shit I can think of right now. I remember in elementary school gym class that there was a cycle of classic rock and 80's pop that the teacher would play over our pathetic attempts at athleticism. This was one of them. Also, it was used hilariously in Lollipop Chainsaw...which is a great game, sue me.
I have this vague recollection of one of those Disneyland concert specials where Mickey and Minnie were Toni Basil's backup dancers for this song, so six year old me was also convinced that this song about about being in love with Mickey Mouse. It's the same reason I thought Donna Summer's She Works Hard For The Money was about a waitress, because she performed this song on a Disneyland concert special dressed as a waitress.
I'm not about to go through 1300 comments, but a fun bit of trivia is the uniform Toni wears in the video is her cheerleading outfit from her Las Vegas High School days ... twenty years before this came out. "Mickey" is and will always be a banger.
What about Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl"? That's another one I think of when I think of cheerleading songs (no, she's not a one-hit wonder), and it also gets stuck in your head the moment you hear it ("This sh** is bananas/B-A-N-A-N-A-S!") Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn also wrote Exile's "Kiss You All Over"
She also released one record single back in the 1960s. I discovered it by accident while playing old songs on RU-vid. The song was called 'Breakaway', and it appeared in a short film she was in with the same title. The B-side was a Graham Gouldman song called 'I'm 28', which is actually really good. As far as I know, that's all the singing she did until the '80s. She also helped launch Weird Al's career, as his first charting hit was 'Ricky'.
I agree with the "1980 and 1981 aren't really the 80s yet" idea. The movie Heavy Metal seems like a 70's movie that just happened to be released in 1981.
But... video games! In video games the 80s started with Space Invaders in 1978. Everything before that was a 70s-style game. The music 80s... you could make a case with the commercial breakthrough of punk and New Wave in 1977, but that was going on concurrently with the height of disco which is definitely not the 80s. So I guess MTV running the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" on August 1, 1981 is as good a Big Bang as any. (note, though... that song is from 1978. Video in '79.)
Hmm, the difference between "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "Return of the Jedi" (1983) definitely suggests that the 80s got started somewhere in between. On the other hand... "Raiders of the Lost Ark" seems very 80s to me (even though it's a period piece), and that was 1981.
As someone who unironically really likes this song, I think you did a great job showing respect for the artist despite not actually enjoying the song or her singing.
I recall hearing that Toni turned down "Walk Like An Egyptian". Obviously, that was a huge hit, but I feel like it'd have been so different in Toni's hands than the Bangles, so it's hard to say if it'd be anywhere near as big.
Shopping from A to Z. The reaction shot says it all. I lived my teenage years in the 80s. I never heard this song or saw the video before until just now. I want to thank Mtv and all media for never playing it during my lifetime. I’m not angry that I know about it now. It’s important to know the truth.
Toni Basil is a bit like the Buggles in that having more hits would have probably wrecked their very rewarding and lucrative careers later in life (e.g., Toni Basil's choreography, Trevor Horn's producing career, and how Geoff Downes can make money touring with Yes or Asia anytime he wants).
This song has a special place in my heart. Growing up, I had a brother - Michael - who was older than me and physically I was no match for him. He knew this of course and used this advantage to be quite mean to me at times. But I had one weapon. He absolutely HATED this song and provided I executed my taunt at a safe running distance, when I sung this song to him, in my mind I was getting a punch in.
Your "Hey Toni, you did fine" chant actually made me laugh out loud! Anyway, it's funny - Wayne's World had a hand in reviving a lot of songs for people my age. "Mickey," "Ballroom Blitz" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" were all (sort of) included in the movie and were how we discovered a lot of them in 1992 (I never saw the video for "Mickey" because I didn't have cable as a kid).
I was born in 1998 and knew "Mickey" because it was big when my mom was in her early 20s and it plays on the radio here. I knew "Bohemian Rhapsody" because Queen has remained MASSIVE and inescapable since 1992. But "Ballroom Blitz"... yep I knew that one straight from Wayne's World. I remember watching it for the first time and thinking "that song is incredible"
@@BonJoviBeatlesLedZepQueen's popularity in the US (which I'm going to assume the original commenter is from) basically died after The Game. The Game was a Billboard 200 #1 album, then they never even sniffed the top 20 again. The wake of Wayne's World got Bohemian Rhapsody to #2 (behind Kris Kross's "Jump"), while it peaked at #9 in April 1976.
According to Variety, Basil recently gained the copyright to Word of Mouth (the album Mickey is from) and by extension Mickey itself using a provision of the Copyright Act that allows artists to reclaim the copyright after 35 years, presuming the Court of Appeals ruling isn't reversed by the Supreme Court.
She’s a great artist! Dancing and choreography are a huge part of pop music. Her legacy can be seen in Taylor Swift all the way to ultra catchy KPop choreography that is so quirky sometimes it almost seems avant-garde!
Hey give cheerleaders sine respect. I think it's something like 80% of all female sports injuries are cheerleaders, and while the chants might be easy to repeat, they come with choreographed motions that have to be synchronized with the team, even at the junior level. I absolutely hated cheerleaders in high school and now my friends all tease me as the mom of 2 cheerleaders. My ass is in those stabs every weekend though.
Sounds more like a problem with unskilled failed gymnasts trying to do gymnastics with pom poms. 80% of female "sports" injuries lmao. What an insult to the females who actually craft a skill and protect their bodies while doing it.
@@B3Band That actually is the problem; girls performing difficult and dangerous gymnastics moves without the training or safety equipment that you always see gymnasts using. Especially when talking about the high energy dance/gymnastics routines you often think about, yeah, I have no problem calling that a sport. It's at least as athletic as marching band, which I got my varsity letter in. Now, what the girls at my high school did (stand around in the little fetish costumes, looking confused, occasionally clapping and mumbling "okay, team, go" then bouncing up and down for a second then standing there looking around for half an hour) is A. safer and B. Not remotely a sport.
@@NoNo-uo6rw 1. We had varsity archery and golf teams and the band was at least that athletic, 2. we went to competitions and usually won, and 3. most of the people who came to our Friday night football games were there to see the halftime show rather than our pathetic excuse of a football team.
Shoppin from A to Z was Jeff Bezos' favorite album. Loved it so much he turned it into a company. Forgot to mention she's launched the career of Weird Al.
Ricky was the second single of his debut, but it was 100% Doug Feiger of The Knack that got Al his big break (yeah, Dr. Demento got him airplay, but Doug got him a record deal...even if it fell flat)
I remember when this came out and the promotion around it. It was mostly a novelty in this pop/art factor of as I recall all the songs of the album having a video (I wouldn’t be surprised if modern art museums screened it) and Mickey being a hit was a fluke of this thing meant to be more of an art project.
1981 was the year Journey released Escape, which is definitely more of an 80’s album than a 70’s album. It’s not as 80’s as Frontiers, but it’s still Porto-80’s arena rock whose influences can be found across the rest of the decade. I think 81 was really the start of the 80’s sound - the beginning of the transition from 70’s disco/soul-inspired pop to new wave and hair metal.
Arena rock was already pretty big in the late 70s, it wasn't a revolution when it peaked in popularity in '81. The styles associated with early MTV predated the channel by a few years but didn't fully break thru in the US until '82.
@@AforementionedAnd I'm willing to bet that the UK synthpop/post-punk/"New Wave" bands got popular because those were the bands that were making music videos. Promo videos for singles were already a big deal in the UK in the 70s, whereas in the US, you just had live performances from The Midnight Special. So yeah, the bands from the market with experience in the format would do a lot better than "hastily assembled mimed performance" video the American bands had to rush out.
I actually really like "Mickey". But "Shopping from A to Z" is the most baffling, horrid pop song I have ever heard. Why does this exist? Why did anyone green light her to even record this, let alone release this as a single?
I had on MTV all the time in the early-80s, and I actually remember them playing Shopping From A to Z on a fairly regular basis for at least a bit. The song was of course nonsense, but I remember watching it because there were some really mesmerizing dance moves on display. This was before the break dancing movies started coming out, and there was a lot of stuff on there you really didn't see anywhere else.
7:43- she suddenly reminds me of this show I used to watch when I was about five- The Big Comfy Couch. The main character was supposed to be a clown, I think, and she spazzed around just like that. Her outfit and makeup aren't really helping.
I saw her first album for $1 in a budget bin a few years ago, I bought it because I like "Mickey" and I think I had recently seen this video for the first time. I think it's actually a really good, fun record that doesn't take itself too seriously. A lot of dance pop is repetitive and gets boring to listen to unless you're actually dancing to it, but "Word Of Mouth" has so much going on and she has such a unique voice.
That's what it was called? I remember watching it. Why did I watch it??? Oh yeah, now I remember. My sister was renting it and I had nothing to do on that day. We were poor back then, but now we're okay-ish.
I've been bingeing the whole ohw playlist, and I think the ones that end with "this artist didn't deserve better, but mostly because they didn't actually care that much about pop music and were also wildly successful in this other field" are my favorites.
I just subscribed the other day and I binge watched all the One Hit Wonderland videos this weekend, so I was pleased to see a new video today. Thanks Todd!
Shoppin from A-Z is also an earworm. I still randomly get "GOOD GIRLS SHOP, BAD GIRLS SHOP" blaring in my head even 4 years after I first heard of it on this video
One one-hit-wonder from the 80s that went down particularly well in my home country (NZ) was "Break My Stride" by Matthew Wilder. I don't know why it did so well here but seriously if you play that song in NZ everybody will stop what they're doing and sing along. Also Matthew Wilder apparently did the music for Mulan.
Thanks for introducing me to that "Shopping From A to Z" song. It made the partner dancing lesson I have tonight seem like something to look forward to when it's always the dread of my whole week.
Her later video with the spear gives off some strong Toto Coelo vibes, who are probably another OHW candidate in the already saturated '80s new wave category. I also thought the Monkees' HEAD was unwatchable the first time I tried it, but upon revisit I gotta say it's great, with Basil's dance number a true standout. They filmed the same choreography twice, each take with opposite colors, and spliced it together in a way which is truly trippy. Recommend!
I watch these videos and I'm just fascinated at how sucessful these "One Hit Wonders" are. Sure they only have 1 hit to their name, but holy shit do they do so much behind the scenes.
I was six years old when the song came out and I actually remember it on MTV. I’m in that weird Xennial Age group so I’m too young to enjoy anything generation X but I’m old enough to at least remember the stuff. I’m gonna do a TickTock with this damn song because I just absolutely love it
I love these videos, dude. Because you REALLY present the history and research on the people that got this one blip of a hit in their careers, but expand to let us know background, and where they went. So I'm maybe a "touch" addicted... but I honestly watched this just to make sure you included her acting credits including (or maybe especially) "Easy Rider" (there is a fisheye view of her naked there for the *ahem* aficionados) and "5 Easy Pieces." So good for you buddy. Charitably, you could call the "shopping" song a parody about commercialism, or materialism, something... And IF you're doing covers of other more obscure originals... how about "You Oughta Know" that Alanis Morissette made into a hit? And JUST to depress you more about the whole cheerleading thing... there are serious (yeah, serious, like gymnastics serious) competitions, professional coaching, I mean these people can get a full ride scholarship to major universities for cheerleading. They can ride through college getting their physics or economics or chemistry degree by cheerleading. Yeah, seriously.
4:09 That is so weird, I literally just watched the MST3K "Village of the Giants" episode today. I had no clue Toni Basil was in that, it certainly explains some why they kept making Mickey references during it, lol.
i'm surprised no one in here has mentioned this fun fact: walk like an egyptian was originally written and offered to her. however, she turned it down. think about it, she could've been a two hit wonder.
She was also in one of my favourite abstract/avant-garde short films, Breakaway by Bruce Conner! Which was a kind of proto-music video way back in 1967! You even show it being filmed for a second at 13:21 (which she didn't really direct, as far as I know).
Wasn't expecting this as the second upload, still neat. It's not a song I really seek out but don't hate when it's on. Certainly is lasting, was part of the Lollipop Chainsaw soundtrack. Also in a far more hipster reference, was sampled by artist goreshit for the tomboyish love for daughter album. It's the third track and is just the Mickey chorus pitched way up and played over a sledgehammer of a beat. Also wasn't this song about an obsessive fan?
Yeah, I can't say that this song is near and dear to me in any way, yet, I immediately, involuntarily began singing along. I can't help it. It's infectiousness is undeniable.
