History's Dumpster = GLORIOUS trash! Kitsch, music, fashion, food, history, ephemera, and other memorable and forgotten, famous and infamous pop culture junk and oddities of yesterday and today. Saved from the landfill of time...
In 1973, Jack In The Box ran a TV
commercial for it's Jumbo Jack burger featuring a cute little
kid named Rodney Allen Rippy, who held the Jumbo Jack in his hands
and said "It's too big to eat!". But being a little kid, it came out as "It's too big-a eat!". It became a national catch-phrase in 1973-1974.
This led to a 45 RPM single with Bell
Records called "Take Life A Little Easier". At age five, he also became the youngest person ever to have a Billboard charting pop hit. A record that to this very day, remains unbroken.
So whatever happened to Rodney Allen Rippy?
Well according to his website, after his Jack In The Box commercial run, he starred in other commercials, including Nehi soda, Chevrolet and others. He graduated from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 1995.He's taken on a few TV acting roles since his childhood stardom backin the early 1990s and appeared in the 2003 David Spade comedy Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. He also hosted a Los Angeles radio talk show.
Contrary to many internet hoaxes and urban legends, Rodney Allen Rippy is still very much alive and well. He was badly injured in a bike crash in 2010, but he's fully recovered.
Oh no, it's another one of those damn child singer records. But on a more serious subject.
PowerSource were a Texas based Christian pop group. Like many acts in this genre, they were/are largely unknown outside these circles. And "Dear Mr. Jesus" is unquestionably a Christian themed song about child abuse, sung from the perspective of a 6 year old girl writing a letter to Jesus after seeing a TV news report of "a little girl beaten black and blue". Not only that, she confesses at the the end "Please don't tell my daddy, but my mommy hits me too."
Six year old Sharon Batts, the lead vocal on this song, wasn't the designated lead singer of the group. Just on this particular song. And thankfully, she wasn't physically abused.
This song almost became a Top 40 hit in 1987. CHR, Adult Contemporary, Country and of course, Christian radio stations were playing this in December of 1987 shortly after the track was added to the playlist of New York City's influential Z-100 and the song broke. A distribution deal was quickly secured, leading to a nationwide re-release of the song.
It was also timely, as the story of a little New York City girl named Lisa Steinberg made national headlines then after she died after being beaten by her adoptive father while he was under the influence of crack cocaine.
The song made #61 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained on the charts for seven weeks.
Hot on the heels of the Donny & Marie "If the Carpenters can do it, we can too!" craze of corny sibling pop, comes this slice of sheer pasteurized processed cheese product.
Kristy McNichol had already made a name for herself as Buddy in the ABC drama Family and other ABC TV network productions and Jimmy McNichol (who?) hosted something called "Hollywood Teens". Somebody thought pairing them on a record would move them onto the A-List in no time. So they convinced RCA Records to sign them.
And so came this album. And this was it: A family friendly album of mostly cover versions of early '60s pop songs an average teenage girl (and the parents of) in the late '70s would probably like (they really didn't.) The same stuff that Leif Garrett and Shaun Cassidy were slinging out. The same stuff TV variety shows were filled with.
Interestingly, they got The Chiffons to sing backup on their own song "He's So Fine".
I'm no fan of child recording stars in any way. I just can't handle the
high, shrill frequencies that leave me screaming for a Fiona Apple
tune. But this record bears a special horror to me, as my mom once
owned a copy of this album.
If you're not familiar with the name
Lena Zavaroni, you probably weren't around in 1974. Because for most of that year, this Scottish girl was "The
Next Big Thing", appearing on American variety shows and telethons and
scoring a debut album at the tender age of 10 with Ma! He's Making Eyes At Me.
But
beyond who this girl who seemed to come out of nowhere was, it
was the impact it had on an American R&B institution.
This
album was most shockingly released in America in
1974 on Stax Records, the once mighty home of powerhouse soul like Otis
Redding, Booker T. & The MGs, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Rufus
Thomas, Issac Hayes, etc, etc, etc.
But by this time, all of
Stax's biggest artists from the '60s had been stolen by Stax's former
distributor, Atlantic Records by 1968 and Stax was left with only a
handful of lesser soul acts on the label. Even the original master tapes
of Stax's most successful '60s hits were taken. The label virtually had
to start all over again from the beginning.
How do you recreate such a massive institution Stax was?
After 1968, Stax had
floundered so badly in a lopsided distribution agreement with CBS Records
that in a Faustian deal (it's the only way I can describe it) Stax
quickly signed this girl for American distribution (I'm not sure whether
it was Stax themselves that signed her as a last ditch attempt to bring
their sorry financial house back in order or CBS that forced them into
it in the hopes of killing off a potential rival to CBS's own home
roster of R&B acts - the story varies.) But thanks to the crappy CBS
distribution deal, the only way they could promote this album was
through a massive TV campaign of commercials for the album (which my mom
succumbed to), and other TV appearances because most record stores had
trouble even getting Stax's regular R&B output.
Stax was also considered
the bratty stepchild within the CBS household and with the exception of a few token spins of her only charting single (the album's title track) American radio simply
would not play her songs. (10 year olds singing songs that only
grandmothers liked has a way of doing that.)
And even more
embarrassing for Stax, which was once one of the biggest and most
respected R&B record labels in America were some of the blackface Al
Jolson songs this little 10 year old white girl sang on this album,
including "Mammy" and "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby (With A Dixie Melody)"
The
gambit failed - HORRIBLY. Stax suffered a massive backlash from it's
loyal base of hardcore R&B fans over this album and Stax went
bankrupt in 1975. It's name and remaining assets were picked up by Fantasy Records and aside a few releases every so often, was mostly dormant until the 2000s.
But she disappeared as quickly as she came in
America.
She maintained a small cult following in Europe (where she
became more or less the Connie Francis of the '80s, still singing pop
standards at a time when most young women her age were singing far more
edgier rock material.) While considered a throwback in the '80s, she would probably seem very mainstream today.
She had a variety show in the UK (where the variety TV show format survived well into the '80s.)
However, she suffered from anorexia. Her weight dropped to a deadly 70 lbs. On top of struggling to maintain a fading career. At the end of her life, she was living on UK government benefits. She also suffered from chronic depression, at one point begging for doctors to operate on her brain so she wouldn't have to suffer anymore (This was before the days of newer medications and treatment programs.)
The eternal tragedy of the former child star. Perhaps the most Faustian deal there is.
