Ace of Base. New Kids on the Block. Savage Garden. Ahum… Hanson.

Admit it, you loved them too.

I can recall countless sleepovers accompanied by these albums, several New Kids on the Block sleeping bags, hot pink lipstick and hairbrushes (which were used to lip sync to “You got it – The Right Stuff” and “Don’t Turn Around,” of course).

But the fun didn’t end there. Ace of Base’s “Livin’ in Danger” intensified the pre-teen shrieks of horror when several of my friends and I whispered “Bloody Mary” relentlessly into a bathroom mirror, a favorite sleepover pastime.

I have wonderful, although slightly embarrassing, memories with these bands, but my devotion to them has sadly passed. On occasion, you may hear one of these bands’ hits blasting from my house on a Thursday night, but these occurrences are few and far between.

However, there’s one band from that sweet time in my life that I still hold the same adoration for, just as I did when I was 10 years old. You may know them by their (only) hit, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” but to me, they’re so much more than that.

It was 1995, and I was in fifth grade. I remember hearing Deep Blue Something on the radio and falling head-over-heels. I immediately begged my dad to bring me to Princeton Record Exchange, a hip new and used music store in our town. It was there that I purchased my first Deep Blue Something “Home” tape. Yes, tape.

I remember watching my father hold up a CD and say, “Kel, what about this? Tapes aren’t going to be around much longer.”

Ha! What did he know? The only thing that mattered to me was that I could play my Deep Blue Something tape with my neon yellow boom-box. The CD would surely be used by my brothers as a frisbee.

I unwrapped the new tape. Its cover was yellow, featuring a bluish picture-frame like a window to a far-off land. I wasn’t exactly sure what the window meant, but I knew it was deep.

I moved past the band’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” hit and became infatuated with “The Kandinsky Prince,” “Josey,” “Home” and “Song to Make Love to,” just to name a few.

While some of the band’s lyrics may have lacked meaning for my 10-year-old heart, I developed an obsession.

And I was proud of it. My dad, my hero and music guru, approved of the band’s alternative style, and to me, that meant that I had found a band worthy enough to be blasted on Sunday mornings, which became a family tradition. Once I had worn out the tape, I even gave in to buying the CD with hard-earned babysitting money.

“Dad, did you know who the Kadinskys were? I do. I looked it up. Dad, did you know the lead singer used to be an English teacher at a Catholic school until he got fired because parents were complaining about the band? I know!”

It’s hard to beat my dad. His first records were The Beatles, The Allman Brothers and Bob Dylan.

While I may always be embarrassed that I once thought Jordan Knight was the “cutest boy ever,” I’ll always be proud that Deep Blue Something was my first CD, even if they never came close to reaching Beatles status.

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