…I’m not one of them, and never was. I never imagined the song could be about me. Actually, I’ve never been inside an A&F store, on some sort of vague “principle” formulated when I was about 14. That was also the age when I became a teeny bit obsessed with the band LFO. My years of listening to top-40 radio were limited but intensive. In particular, I would often listen to the top 8 at 8 on Q102, and then call in to try to be the 8th caller and win a prize.
One night this worked, and I won 2 tickets to see the band LFO. I hadn’t heard any of their songs except “Summer Girls,” but I loved that one, so I was psyched. Honestly, I still like “Summer Girls,” and I’m only slightly ashamed to admit it. It’s catchy and (unintentionally?) hilarious with its mish-mash of topical references and other random allusions, as well as some creative slant-rhyming (“When you take a sip you buzz like a hornet/ Billy Shakespeare wrote a whole bunch of sonnets”).
I don’t remember much about the concert itself, though I recall having a good time, and I wouldn’t have remembered the lead singer’s last name — though of course his first name is easy to remember (“When I met you I said my name was Rich / You looked like a girl from Abercrombie & Fitch”). I do remember a vehement disagreement with my dad, in which I denied that LFO was a boy band. No, they didn’t play any instruments, and yes, they were all pretty boys, but duhh they wrote their own songs and therefore did not qualify. In retrospect I recognize my error.
I don’t think I’ve seen or read anything about the band or its members in almost a decade. So I was surprised to read today that Rich Cronin died a couple days ago, from leukemia, at age 35. Apparently he had started a foundation dedicated to educating people about the disease and encouraging people to be bone marrow donors.
This is just to say thanks for a completely fun & silly song that still makes me smile when it shows up in my iPod shuffle, even if it’s pretty hard to get out my head once it’s there.
PS: a nice tribute plus the music video for the song can be found over here.
PPS: Check it out. I found this Actual Diary Page from my 8th grade journal:
Yup. Heart stickers and all.
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