Debbie Gibson was one of my favorite pop stars when I was in fifth or sixth grade ("Electric Youth" was released in 1989; "Out of the Blue" was released in 1987, when I was nine and seven years old, respectively). She was in the New Kids on the Block and Tiffany era. I remember having a tape of her “Electric Youth” album – she has on a blue jacket and a black hat and also launched a fragrance called “Electric Youth” based on the success of the album. The Electric Youth perfume bottle had pink lightning bolts on it. I remember it clearly because I also owned the Electric Youth perfume. In addition to “Electric Youth,” Debbie’s hit songs include “Lost in Your Eyes” and “Only in My Dreams.”
Last night on the critically acclaimed SyFy channel (insert sarcasm here), I found out what happened to Debbie Gibson: she’s moved on to starring in C-list movies. Several of my friends and I watched in horror as she played a leading role in “Giant Octopus Versus Mega Shark” or something. The movie’s concept was similar to “Alien Versus Predator” but featured a Mega Shark - the prehistoric Megladon, a 60 to 70 foot shark species like a great white on steriods - and a Giant Octopus. These creatures have long been extinct. However, one of each of them was frozen in a giant iceberg which melted in the beginning of the movie, unfreezing them to reign terror down on airplanes, the Golden Gate Bridge and other people in the movie. It is so bad it received an 11% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average 3.3 out of 10 rating from the 18 people that reviewed it. I’ll try to erase this memory of Debbie Gibson and download an album on iTunes to remember her much more successful music career. Ouch. It could be more painful than watching David Hasselhoff sing, “Get In My Car.”
