Baz Luhrmann’s “Sunscreen Song” — The 90s’ Most Unlikely Hit (with Avery Trufelman)

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Interviews, Music History, Music, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2020

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1999 filmmaker Baz Luhrmann released the song “Everybody’s Free To Wear Sunscreen,” a 7-minute-long graduation speech set to downtempo electronic music. It was a highly unlikely hit that made its way across continents and eventually into the ears of a young Avery Trufelman via the album NOW That’s What I Call Music Volume 2. For over 20 years, Trufelman has applied the song’s advice to her daily life: “wear sunscreen… be nice to your siblings… do one thing every day that scares you.” This unusual song has left a lasting impression, and yet for Trufelman, it makes no sense that “The Sunscreen Song” was commercially successful. We investigate the song’s many architects — novelist Kurt Vonnegut, Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich and Baz Luhrmann himself — to unpack one of the internet’s first conspiracy theories that turned into Billboard’s greatest outlier. SONGS DISCUSSED Baz Luhrmann - Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) Think - Once You Understand MORE The BBC documentary on “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszvtr Another speech set to music, Byron MacGregor/Gordon Sinclair’s “Americans,” peaked at #4 in 1974 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today's episode is brought to you by Into the Mix, a Ben and Jerry's podcast about joy and justice produced with Fox Creative.
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1:43.0	Welcome to Switched on Pop. I'm songwriter Charlie Harding.
1:46.0	This week I received a request from a friend of the show to solve a musical melody.
1:51.0	I'm Avery Trouffleman. I am a podcaster.
1:54.0	You came to me with a musical mystery, if you will, and you needed to solve some important problem. So what is that song and what mystery do you need me to solve?
2:06.0	Usually, if I'm by myself or on my bike, or just feeling contemplative, my mantra, my chant, for my whole life, has been everybody's free to wear sunscreen by Bosleman.
2:21.0	Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded.
2:32.0	The trust me. In 20 years, you look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't forget.
2:38.0	I have been listening to it since I was a little, little kid, like maybe nine.
2:44.0	It was because when I was on a family vacation in Florida, my mom and dad brought me into a virgin records and said you can pick out one CD.
2:56.0	I was a kid. I think I had three CDs in my collection. I didn't know what I liked.
	...

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