The internet is wrong—very wrong—about when Ice Ice Baby was first released.
One day, I was describing how much we heckled a guy my senior year in high school, that last semester. We teased him, good-naturedly, about how he looked exactly like Vanilla Ice. He’d respond with dismay, claiming he wasn’t trying to and didn’t see the resemblance. Except for the fact that he dressed exactly like Vanilla, cut his hair like Vanilla, and tried to strut like Vanilla…he wasn’t trying.
Anyhow, someone told me that was impossible because that timeframe was 1989, and Ice Ice Baby didn’t come out until I was in college—in 1990.
Hmm. Not used to having my timeline challenged because my record is solid, but I was still open to the possibility of a mistake. It’ wasn’t ‘s not about ego; it’s about accuracy. I’d hate to keep repeating an inaccurate story, but beyond that, it made me question my sense of the past.
So I set out to research this and it wasn’t looking good! Page after page said 1990 for the song’s timeframe. I dug through about 20 pages of Google results and nowhere did I see 1989 specifically linked to the song. As of this post, that is still the case. What I noticed, though, was that these sources were basic gossip blogs, not major site. So it must be a case of people blindly copying content from each other wihtout verfiying.
I assumed the larger sites and media outlets would get it right, but even some of them were slightly off, inadvertently confusing readers with statements like:
“Top hit of 1990,” or “Vanilla Ice wins AMA award for Ice Ice Baby, January 1991.”
Major sites like New York Post, Billboard Magazine, and Top40 Weekly all tout it as a 1990 song. That is so misleading, yet still technically accurate.
1990 is when the song shot to meteoric fame! It topped the charts for a week, beating out Mariah Carey and other “heavy hitters” that year. So it feels like a 1990 song to most people. But for those who remember, it’s a 1989 song—and I love that! How fitting that this catchy tune became a virtual anthem for leaving the ’80s behind.
Still unresolved, I combed through the internet and found a tiny corner, a little cobweb of an article with a passing mention of him working on his album in 1989. That helped a bit and encouraged me to keep looking.
I got specific in my search with “Ice Ice Baby 1989.” Adding the year really helped! Buried a few pages in was a 1989 video of him performing the song.
Phew. Success!
Problem solved.
Crisis averted.
And Ice Ice Baby belongs to the 80s–barely but it’s ours nonetheless.
My memory is still solid. As accurate as ever, and I am relieved because I take pride in my accuracy. I want to be known as credible when I retell stories that others have forgotten.