Talk:Wear Sunscreen

The Speech
The speech is copyrighted material so I am going to get rid of it. If anyone wants to see it, there's a link anyway. VarunRajendran

Voice Actor
I don't believe the Lee Perry linked is the same Lee Perry who did the reading of the "speech" Sorry, but I just don't think he could suppress a Jamaican accent that completely.
 * I saw the Lee Perry who read it on TV, and he's a white Canadian/Australian. So it's not him. Sum0 17:27, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Chicago Tribune
This speech was not written by Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune, it was written by Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times, he wrote a column about how he wrote this speech. When Mary Schmich was credited as the author she never denied that she wrote it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.252.215.67 (talk) 17:42, 1 February 2009 (UTC)
 * And presumably you have a robustly reliable source to support such a claim? DoubleGrazing (talk) 10:06, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

Release Date
The dates of release for this track need to be revised. In Australia it was getting widespread airplay from about October 1997, with the original line 'Ladies and Gentlemen of the Class of 97'.


 * Yes, the release date information seems contradictory to me. Every version of the song I have found so far refers to the Class of 97 rather than 99.  I also don't understand how "In 1997 the song rated 16th most popular song out of 100 on the Triple J Hottest 100 countdown.", if it wasn't released for two more years?  Tinkstar1985 08:09, 30 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Hello there, I do recall having recorded the song (in which the class of '97 is referred to, by the way) in autumn of 1997. It was aired on a German radio (chart) show back then. I might still have it, caught on tape somewhere. Anyway, I also recall that in '99 there was a re-release of the song on which they changed the beginning to "class of '99". Hope that was helpful. Omegaquadrat, German WP 78.54.172.157 (talk) 00:11, 22 December 2008 (UTC)


 * The version I've always heard in the UK starts with "The class of '99". As heard in the Spotify version too: http://open.spotify.com/track/1TQ6a2NEA8LmKfgf0yeBvT 87.194.248.19 (talk) 17:27, 19 November 2009 (UTC)


 * In the US it was released in 1997. I recall hearing it in Middle School, because I was going from 8th grade to High School.  69.246.254.186 (talk) 04:01, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Usage in Romeo + Juliet
How can the song based on the column appear in Romeo + Juliet (the Leonardo DiCaprio version) when the movie came out a year before the column was written?


 * The melody, not the lyrics, appear in the film. Clearly Luhrman amalgamated the theme from R+J and the words form the article for the eventual single.Jayunderscorezero 22:56, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Contradiction or Coincidence in the source for the song's lyrics
The music single section indicates at one point that "The song lyrics ... were drawn word for word from the Schmich column" ... however, later on, in the same section, "portions of the lyrics of the Rozalla song can be found word by word in the Baz Luhrman song". Is it a coincidence that the Baz Luhrman song contains "word for word" two different sources (Schmich column and Rozalla song)? Perhaps it's all due to the common ancestor, the Desiderata poem. HectorH 10:32, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Actually, I can't find any phrases from the Rozalla lyrics in the Luhrman song, aside from "everybody's free", which features only in the title of the Luhrman lyrics, so I've removed the sentence "What is more, portions of the lyrics of the Rozalla song can be found word by word in the Baz Luhrman song." Correct me if I'm wrong, anyone.

Removing memetics category
I am removing the memetics category from this article since you learn no more about the article's contents from the category and v.v. Since so many things may be memes we should try to keep the category closely defined in order to remain useful. Hope you're okay with that. The link to meme would be enough I suggest. Facius 10:49, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Link goes to wrong place
Reference to link http://www.freetowearsunscreen.com/ goes to GeM, a computer company's website. Marottawriter 2:55, 13 December 2007 (EST)

German version "Sonnencreme"
I remember seeing the video to "Sunscreen" aired in late '90s German music TV channel "VIVA ZWEI", with German voiceover artist on the original beat and German lyrics. The video remained the same and the artist was billed as "Baz Luhrmann" as well. Does anyone know more about that release? The story behind it? Seems not to be mentioned at all in this article. I'm trying to find anything on the Internet, trying to get through the Google results for "Baz Luhrmann" Sonnencreme but it comes up with a lot of rubbish semi-mp3 web-sites :( My.life.is.muzik... (talk) 03:35, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
 * The german release: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B00004WPV2 and some german info: http://web.archive.org/web/20010122045300/http://www.sunscreen.de/ The speaker was Dieter Brandecker. --JonnyJD (talk) 01:10, 5 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the update! The song is even on YouTube now, but with a still image instead of a video. But, as the original video had not featured any lip-synching, it should be quite easy to mix the sounds of "Sonnencreme" with the visuals of "Sunscreen". Might even do this at some point, if noone else does. That aside, isn't Dieter Brandecker the same guy who featured on "Too Much Rain" charity single by then-popular German dance acts, together as United Deejays for Central America in the late 1990s? Is he a famous German actor/voiceover artist? Many thanks -- My.life.is.muzik... (talk) 14:02, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Recorded
Why do a lot of these CDs and songs have 'Recorded: ???'. That doesn't help at all, why even include it in the page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.119.28.67 (talk) 03:20, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Link
The column is now archived and the full text is available only for a fee. However, it is all over the Internet, for example here. Should this link be included (direct relevance, informational value) or deleted (copyright violation?)?--Illythr (talk) 18:09, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Copyright violation. Garion96 (talk) 18:21, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Oh well... How about this then? :-) --Illythr (talk) 18:49, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately all copyright violations. For the same reason links to copyrighted video's on youtube are removed from Wikipedia Garion96 (talk) 18:51, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
 * No no, I meant not the individual links, but the google search result itself. :-) --Illythr (talk) 21:54, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Sunscreen Video
The sunscreen video found in/linked to youtube does not match what barminski himself offers on the homepage, so I ask myself, if he really did that version. you can watch barminskis version at barminski.com --G4b (talk) 11:16, 21 September 2009 (UTC)
 * I created this article and, back when I did, my research showed that the youtube version, and as far as I know that's still the most well known version (4 million views just in 1 video in youtube gotta sum up to more than that Kahuna movie), was made by a publicity agency called DM9DDB (as credited in the end of the video). It's coincidentally from Brazil, reason that led me to create the article (after uploading a google video that I unfortunately don't have any control over anymore) since I'm from there too. It irritates me a little realizing that "Pedro Bial" and "Danny De Vitto" are cited in this article while DM9DDB is not. But they don't really seem to care. They don't even have any old references on their website that I could find. --Caue (T | C) 13:25, Tuesday 2010-06-1 (UTC)  —Preceding undated comment added 13:25, 1 June 2010 (UTC).

But what is the essay about?
How do we have an entire article about an essay that doesn't mention anything about the subject or content of the essay? Kaldari (talk) 00:42, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

Obscure until?
" The song was largely obscure until Aaron Scofield, a producer in Phoenix, Arizona ..."

Is there a date for this? If it was not until 1999, when the song reached the Billboard charts, it could not be considered "obscure" as it was on the Hottest 100 for 1997. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.168.100.232 (talk) 14:54, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

The Sunscreen Song
About my :

"The Sunscreen Song" is used as an alternative title on the cover of the single itself. Actually, I probably should have simply removed from my sentence (commonly called ...) the word "commonly"... I added it, now that I think about it, because "the Sunscreen Song" is the way countless YouTube vidéos, blog posts, etc., refer to the single, but the wording would probably be better without it. Also, the mention of the redirect in my edit summary was simply as an additional indication, more than a justification per se.

So, would it be okay like that: The article became the basis for a successful music single released in 1999 by Baz Luhrmann, "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)", also called the Sunscreen Song. ?

Thanks, Cos-fr (talk) 10:30, 12 December 2013 (UTC)


 * As I guessed, it's not actually called that by any reliable sources. Only insignificant people who don't know what it's called use that name. It's not called that and it would be wrong for Wikipedia to say that it is. It's also not notable that some people don't know what it's really called.
 * Personally, I think the article title "wear sunscreen" is dubious and it should be the full correct name, but I'm not bothering to go down that route. Instead, minimising the amount of Internet trivia that works its way into this article seems like a good thing. GDallimore (Talk) 15:27, 12 December 2013 (UTC)
 * OK. Still not convinced that name is trivia since it is on the cover of the single, but okay. Thanks for the answer - Cos-fr (talk) 13:33, 14 December 2013 (UTC) (PS: careful with that "insignificant people" choice of words)
 * I didn't know that. But there's your reliable source! Simple :) GDallimore (Talk) 15:46, 14 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Long after, I only see now your reply (I wasn't actually expecting one, since I thought my last comment didn't bring anything new ). I have now added it back, with a reference to the cover, and two additional sources.
 * Thanks anyway for the explanations you gave me! - Cos-fr (talk) 15:47, 19 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Long after, I only see now your reply (I wasn't actually expecting one, since I thought my last comment didn't bring anything new ). I have now added it back, with a reference to the cover, and two additional sources.
 * Thanks anyway for the explanations you gave me! - Cos-fr (talk) 15:47, 19 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks anyway for the explanations you gave me! - Cos-fr (talk) 15:47, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Title
I don't like the title for this article. It is not the WP:COMMON NAME used in most reliable sources. It's the internet meme title and a well known quotation from the song/column, but not actually a good name of this article.

Options: Either this article needs to focus on the song, in which case it should be called "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" or it should focus on the original column, in which case it should be called "Advice, like youth, wasted on the young". I vote for the former as being the best known of the two variations.

Any other suggestions? But the current title just isn't suitable. GDallimore (Talk) 12:47, 16 December 2013 (UTC)


 * I think the current title is actually suitable. What gained notoriety through email sharing, and was later adapted into the song, is the speech extracted from the column, not the column itself. I know the difference between these is subtle because the speech constitutes 90% of the column; but when you think about it, the column itself, with its title "Advice, ..." and its introduction ("Inside every adult lurks a graduation speaker..."), would never have spread as a commencement speech by Vonnegut. Heck, even Luhrmann sought Vonnegut's permission to produce his song, which shows that the fact the speech was presented alone, is a significant detail when it comes to its notability.
 * Really, the speech, extracted from the column, is the thing which gained substantial attention; the speech is what got republished everywhere, turned into a song, into videos, and into a book by Schmich; meanwhile, its origin in a column titled "Advice, ..." with an introduction, is a somewhat more obscure fact. And when you talk about the speech, the common way to name it actually is "Wear Sunscreen", as for instance the title of Schmich's book acknowledges.
 * However, I think you're right about the fact that the speech and the song are two different subjects; they should probably get covered into separate articles...
 * Cos-fr (talk) 17:14, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified (January 2018)
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2019
"Angelos Epithemiou's live tour included a parody of the song titled "Don't Muck About"."

Isn't "live" in "live tour" redundant? -22:18, 26 July 2019‎ 69.124.116.101

Podcast on the history of the track
I doubt podcast links are encyclopaedic, but this slow build on how the article circled the world to return to the US as a song is well worth your time, with payoff. An episode of Switched On Pop.

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/switched-on-pop/id934552872?i=1000479223607 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 27.33.78.26 (talk) 06:05, 30 October 2022 (UTC)