Things That Bring Back Memories “I Remember You” #MondayMemories 15

For this “Things That Bring Back Memories” post, I am going to pick something pertaining to the topic of “Music“.  There are so many songs that I can remember from years ago, and since music is a huge part of our family, the memories come streaming back when you hear a certain song.

Do you ever have that tune that comes on the radio, and you can just automatically remember where you were, who you were with and what you were doing?  It amazes me, how as I get older, I can’t remember things from last week – but have that certain song come on the radio on a “Flashback” day, and “BOOM”, I am back in the place I was when I heard it.  Don’t know if it’s the side effects of my brain surgery, which they said might affect certain memory, but I’m so glad that I can remember some things of the “good old days.”

So to get on with this “Things That Brings Back Memories” blog post for this week, I’m going to pick “I Remember You” by Skid Row, which was released in 1989.  If you don’t know about the song that I’m talking about, here it is:

More Info on the “I Remember You” Song:

“I Remember You” is a song by American heavy metal band Skid Row. It was released in November 1989 as the third single from their eponymous debut album. The power ballad was written by Rachel Bolan, and Dave “the Snake” Sabo. It reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and number twenty-three on the Mainstream Rock Tracks in early 1990.  The song also charted at number 36 on the UK Singles chart.

In 2003, Skid Row, this time featuring new lead singer Johnny Solinger, recorded a second version of the song entitled “I Remember You Two.” The song appears in the album Thickskin.

In a 2007 interview, vocalist Sebastian Bach commented, “‘I Remember You’ was the #1 prom song in the United States of America in the year 1990….you talk about making memories! Literally the whole country of America did their prom dance to ‘I Remember You’ one year, and that’s a real heavy memory to beat.”

More Info on the Band:

Skid Row is an American heavy metal band, formed in 1986 in Toms River, New Jersey. They were very successful in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with their first two albums certified multi-platinum. During this period, the band consisted of Rachel Bolan (bass), Dave “The Snake” Sabo (guitar), Scotti Hill (guitar), Rob Affuso (drums), and Sebastian Bach (vocals). As of 2015, the band consists of Bolan, Sabo, Hill, Rob Hammersmith (drums), and Tony Harnell (vocals). The band has sold 20 million albums worldwide.

To date, Skid Row has released five full-length albums, 3 EPs, a compilation album, and a live album. They became popular with their first two albums, Skid Row (1989) and Slave to the Grind (1991). Their 1995 follow-up, Subhuman Race was also critically acclaimed. Skid Row’s two albums with Solinger as lead vocalist, Thickskin (2003) and Revolutions Per Minute (2006), garnered mixed to negative reception.

On April 6, 2015, Skid Row announced via their website that the band and vocalist Solinger have parted ways. The same day, Rachel Bolan and Dave “The Snake” Sabo took to the airwaves of Eddie Trunk Live (Trunk Nation) on Sirius/XM to announce that Tony Harnell, formerly of TNT, was their new vocalist.

Park Avenue may lead to Skid Row, but Sebastian Bach’s got bigger plans. The former Skid Row frontman has been pursuing a successful solo career for several years, and has now made his phenomenal Broadway debut performing the dual lead in “Jekyll & Hyde” at the Plymouth Theater in New York’s theater district. Only weeks into his four-month run, he is receiving rave reviews and standing ovations for his near sold-out performances. He has earned guest appearances on shows like “Late Night” with Conan O’Brien (NBC) and “Live” with Regis and Kathy Lee (ABC), a 40-foot billboard in the heart of Times Square, and a two-page article in the July 24th issue of People magazine for starters.

Bach may be the new Broadway leading man, but according to Bach, the production, based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is “metal,” and he will always stay true to himself. In fact, when he was first approached to fill the slot by Atlantic Records, he says he had to see the play first before he could decide.

Some Other Interesting Facts:

• “I Remember You” is also the obligatory slow power ballad that every metal band seemed to crank out in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Skid Row bass player Rachel Bolan and guitarist Dave Sabo share writing credits, as they do on many Skid Row songs. But really, what sells the song is Sebastian Bach’s iron tonsils delivering a blistering vocal performance.
• The song has since been a part of soundtracks for the TV series South Park, October Road, and Friday Night Lights, among others.
• In 2003, Skid Row, sporting new vocalist Johnny Solinger, re-recorded this song and re-released it as “I Remember You Two” on their album Thickskin. It was a far faster tempo, redone for Solinger’s condensed vocal range. To say that this was not well-received would be putting it mildly. Fans practically had an album burning.
• This was covered by contestant Amber Carrington on the reality singing competition The Voice on June 3, 2013. Carrington reportedly admitted to coach Adam Levine during rehearsal that she had never heard the song before and during her performance she was forced to make up some of the lyrics on the spot. “People, they don’t know that song and so they were like, ‘No, I didn’t notice it, but I totally forgot the freaking words, and I made up something,” Amber told Access Hollywood’s Laura Saltman backstage. “I don’t know how that happened. But the words spilled out of me and I think they rhymed.”  She added: “I was like, ‘This is a live show and I’m about to like stand here and not know the words.'”
• The album Skid Row is Skid Row’s most successful, selling four million copies in the US alone.

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