So Groovy Now

About the only good thing to come from the movie Mo’ Money was its soundtrack. I mean, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis after all. Luther, Janet, MC Lyte, Ralph Tresvant, Sounds of Blackness, and this little known single that sampled Reach Out of the Darkness by K.R.U.S.H.¹.

Nowadays mostly only referred to in lists of short-lived girl groups. They popped into my head, not just because this track holds a permanent spot on my workout list, but this past weekend at brunch I ended up having a “bar patron conversation”. This guy in town on business with (maybe) his girl who lives here ordered gin and OJ and his friend, the bartender and I made a gin & juice reference from Mambo No. 5 which he didn’t get but then disparaged the song and that era of pop music in general.

We then proceeded to school him on music–what can I say, we were day drinking–and how the 90s seemed to see a much bigger rise for the boy band than the girl band and how the boy vs girl band (mostly singers) has flipped back and forth over time. It also made me rattle off some other of my faves that could also be considered “short-lived”, and update the playlists.

I remember clipping the start of this one for my outgoing answering machine message. Because in the 80s and 90s, we liked to torture people before forcing them to leave an awkward message that we’d probably see them in person before even hearing it.

So many memories, so many cassette/CD-singles.

And that’s not counting the better-selling groups like SWV or the 4-to-5 girl groups like Spice Girls and Destiny’s Child before even they figured out that 3 is the magic number.

Mmm, time to start sorting out some of these tracks by BPM!