Sheryl Crow “All I Wanna Do”

Seminal Moments . . .

There’s a fun, subtle moment in the movie “The Incredibles” really rang true for me.

Dash, the son in the family, is just discovering his superpowers as he is being chased by bad guys in flying vehicles. He’s running at superspeed when he suddenly looks down, and realizes that he’s not on hard land anymore. His superspeed is allowing him to run across water, skimming the surface of the ocean, without falling in.

With the realization, he smiles with delight, and runs even faster, accelerating beyond his pursuers.

In the Spring of 1994, I found myself suddenly working in radio. It wasn’t something I’d planned. I just kind of fell into it.

I’d always been a music lover, and had had a hobbyists interest in music programming. But I’d never really thought I’d be doing it as a career.

Sheryl Crow was this new, unknown artist, who had this cool, singer-songwriter tune out, called “Leaving Las Vegas,” and we played it. I liked it. It was interesting enough to make me go check out the album.

One listen to “All I Wanna Do” made me think, “Why is this not the single?” It was so catchy, accessible, breezy but deep and unlike anything else on the Top 40 Chart.

I played it for all my friends and became a champion of the song.

And when it became her second single, I said, “This is going to be a crossover, number one hit.”

But I have to tell you, that there was a part of me that was surprised, when it did, in fact, become a crossover, number one hit.

And it made me think that maybe I had stumbled into the right career. It propelled me forward, to start listening to more records, to try to find that breakthrough song and share it with people who love music.

I found my superpower, smiled, and accelerated.





This post is one in a series of Seminal Moments---stories of songs that truly changed the course of my life. For more posts in this series, click on the Seminal Moments link under "Labels."

This post is one in a series of Seminal Moments---stories of songs that truly changed the course of my life. For more posts in this series, click on the Seminal Moments link under "Labels."