Rate Your Music score: 3.41 out of 5!
"Turn on your Lite-Brite..."
Turn on your Lite-Brite! Go ahead! Turn it on!
I considered Wang Chung to be central to the musical and societal happenings of the mid-1980s. Their presence on our TV screens just screamed mid-'80s. But they haven't reached the top 40 since 1987, when they gave us this memorable lost hit.
And remember it we shall.
When I was 14, we went on a great family vacation to Iowa. As we were scooting across the Illinois prairie on Interstate 74, I heard "Hypnotize Me" on the car radio. The chorus commanded, "Turn on your white light." Being the musical genius that I am, I immediately came up with new lyrics: "Turn on your Lite-Brite."
This was reminiscent of an early 1980s commercial for Del Monte canned peaches, to which I intoned, "Come on over to the Lite-Brite"...
Del Monte went on to sell a grand total of about 3 cans of its "lite" variant. It had to be a tax write-off.
In 2007, a marketing campaign in Boston used electric signs similar to Lite-Brites. Local authorities were afraid of Lite-Brites and cracked down hard, saying the signs were actually bombs. The incident is still known as the Boston Mooninite panic.
Eek! Lite-Brites!
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