Tonight I was sitting on my couch calling out random letters, and enjoying yet another exhilarating evening of Wheel of Fortune. One of the puzzles, all about song lyrics, turned out to be Whitney Houston’s Greatest Love of All AND MAN, did that bring me back! No longer was I my pathetic, 26 year-old game show watching self. Oh no. I was reminded of the child I used to be: the lyric-memorizing, cassette-taping, singing-at-the-top-of-my-lungs girl.

For the fun of it (and well, because I’m sitting at home alone on a Tuesday night), I thought I’d share with you all the 5 Albums I Was OBSESSED With 1989-1994.

1989: Hangin’ Tough–New Kids on The Block
“Oh oh oh ohhhhooo/oh oh oh oh” God, this album! It really started it all for me, man. It’s the first cassette I remember playing over, and over, and overrrr. My dad used to say, “New Kids on the Block? HA! Soon enough they’ll be Old Men on the Corner!” What a joker. Little did he know I was madly in love with Joey and had our wedding planned by the time I was 6. I had NKOTB dolls, posters, even a VHS tape of their short-lived animated tv show. I bought into them hook, line, and sinker (and when I say “I,” I mean “my parents.” What six year old do you know with disposal income?)

1992-1994: The Bodyguard Soundtrack
Whitney Houston was my childhood hero. In my eyes, she could do no wrong. She was beautiful, charismatic, and could sing the crap out of any song. Like most people, I was initially drawn to this soundtrack because of her powerful rendition of I Will Always Love You. But the more I listened to the soundtrack on my Walkman, the quicker the entire album became my favorite. It was chock full of hit-singles including I’m Every Woman, I Have Nothing, and Run to You. My personal fav was the defiant dance anthem Queen of the Night. “I got the stuff that you want!/I got the thing that you need!/I got more than enough!/To make ya drop to your knees!” I practically crapped my pants when my dance instructor said we’d cover it in class. Yep, life was good those days. As an aside, The Bodyguard was actually the first R-rated movie I ever saw. It took a lot of convincing, but after a few years of begging and hearing me devote every shower to the soundtrack, they finally allowed me to see it.

1993: Music Box–Mariah Carey
I have a very vivid memory of sitting at my grandparent’s kitchen table and being in my own little world as I examined the jacket of my newly acquired cassette tape. While they chain-smoked cigarettes and drank black coffee, I interrupted their adult conversation to say, “Isn’t she pretttttty?” and raised the jacket up into their view. I then told them all about who Mariah Carey was, why her songs were good, and why she was the best thing in my 3^rd grade life. And while I had no idea what a Dreamlover was, it certainly didn’t stop me and my BFF Shelly from attempting to hit her famous high note during every single song.

1994: The Sign–Ace of Base
Although this technically came out in 1993, I don’t think it registered on my radar until ’94. At any rate, I completely associate this album and all of the songs on it with Shelly. We would sit upstairs in her bedroom, play Tetris on Nintendo, and listen to this ad nauseum (and by “listen” I mean “sing”). We prided ourselves on knowing all of the lyrics AND liking some of the non-singles. We’d go into school and say, “The Sign? Bah. Wheel of Fortune is a way cooler song.” (Hey, maybe THAT’S why I like the crappy tv show so much! Huh!)

1994: The Lion King Soundtrack
Can YOU feel the love tonight? Cause I can. Yep, good old Lion King. I’m pretty sure I hadn’t even seen the movie when Shells introduced me to the soundtrack. Also pretty sure she only saw the movie in the first place because it starred none other than teen heart throb Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Shelly realllly liked JTT. In fact, she’ll probably kill me for saying this, Shelly wrote JTT some fan mail and declared her love for him. Surprisingly he never wrote back! Ok, back to the music. Shelly and I LOVED this soundtrack. We would lie on her water bed and fight with each other over who would sing “the girl part” of each song. Then we’d rewind the tape and do the song over, switching parts. I swear my childhood wasn’t as boring as I’m making it seem here.

Well that was a nice little trip down memory lane! What were some of your favorite albums from the early 90’s? Do we have any in common? Leave a comment and tell me your favs.