#103 Jody Watley (+ Chappell Roan bonus)

Between this and the previous low-resolution UB40 photo, I needed to check my cards to make sure my new all-in-one printer didn't do a poor job scanning the images. But no, it's just a slightly blurry photo used for the MusiCard.

When I think "Jody Watley", I think of the no-nonsense sassy gal from the "I'm Looking For a New Love" video, so it's kinda weird to see her with such a big smile here.

And here she is on the back with a less jovial facial expression from the same "black turtleneck, white background" photoshoot.

I remember liking "Looking For A New Love" back when it was getting airplay. I thought Jody Watley was a new artist at the time-- she won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1988, after all-- but as the card back implies, she already had many years of experience under her belt by that point.

Checking out more of her stuff now, there are a few other tunes that are familiar to me from my days listening to pop radio in the late 80s, such as (Want Me,) "Don't You Want Me" and (You Were My) "Everything", that I hadn't realized (or forgot) were Jody Watley tracks. I also dig "The Second Time Around" by Shalamar, and wasn't aware Jody Watley was in that group before going solo.

Turning to her Wikipedia entry to dig in a little more, she's put out 9 studio albums, most recently 2006's The Makeover. Since then, she's also put together a new incarnation of Shalamar, first called "Shalamar Reloaded", then "SRL", before morphing into "Jody Watley & SRL".

CUSTOM CORNER

To go with 1988's Best New Artist winner, I thought I'd whip up a custom for the most recent winner of that particular Grammy Award.

 

I watched Chappell Roan perform a couple tracks on Saturday Night Live last year, and while I'm certainly not in her target demographic, I could dig it.

Chappell Roan - "After Midnight"

She sort of strikes me as like a more bawdy version of Taylor Swift, but I'm a middle-aged dude, so what do I know? (Don't want any young fans who stumble upon this post to be upset with me! lol)

But yeah, Chappell Roan originally debuted with a folky EP in 2017 that didn't see much success, but then she took a few years and returned with The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (2023). That album was a big hit and lead to her being nominated for all the "Big Four" awards at the 2025 Grammies, ultimately winning Best New Artist.

That's it for this time. As always, let's hear it in the comments if you've got anything to add or just wanna give your 2¢ on either artist.

#102 UB40 (+ Neil Diamond bonus)

Seven guys from UB40 pose for a photo that would go on to be used on 1991 MusiCards #102. The two guys in the back seem to be standing in front of engraved text; perhaps a memorial or something? The band's Wikipedia page has one of those handy "band member timeline" charts, and according to that, there were 8 people in the band at the time, though I'm not sure who got left out here. I gotta wonder if the omitted guy was there sitting on the side and just got cropt out of the card (but then wouldn't it have made more sense to orient this card horizontally? And seeing how this particular photo is so low-resolution, you'd think there must've been a better option!). As the Trading Card Database shows, UB40 has several cards (if stickers or playing cards) from the 80s, many of which manage to squeeze in all 8 musicians just fine.

Another thing to mention here-- you probably have to be a big MusiCardork like myself to notice, but the band name text appears to be bold on this card compared to the rest of the set.

In the above pic, you can tell the "U" in UB40 is thicker than the "U" in U2 or Tina tUrner. Just another of the set's quirks thanks to a lax QC department at Pro Set, I suppose. Not sure if there are other emboldened cards in the set, but I'll keep an eye out as the blog advances. And by the way, the same UB40 card (front) is repeated in the UK edition, but with the Super Stars logo moved to the opposite corner, and the band name isn't bold on that one.

I wasn't aware of the Russian love or the name origin, so that's cool. Crazy how "Red Red Wine" was recorded by UB40 back in 1982, released to little attention in 1983, and then eventually became a #1 hit in 1988, ignited by a televised performance.

UB40 - "Red Red Wine" (live 1988)

Another funny thing about the UB40 track is they were actually covering a different reggae cover of the song (by Tony Tribe), and didn't realize Neil Diamond originally wrote it until after their version was released.

Another cover song, the Elvis standard "(I Can't Help) Falling in Love with You", got them back to #1 in 1993, but things settled down for them after that. UB40 is still technically around since forming in 1978, though they've lost some original members over the years and haven't done a whole lot this decade.

I consider myself a casual UB40 fan and have put together a playlist of my favorite songs of theirs that I remember hearing on the radio back in the early 90s:

Red Red Wine (LP)
The Way You Do The Thing You Do
Here I Am (Come and Take Me)
One In Ten
Cherry Oh Baby
(I Can’t Help) Falling in Love With You
Where Did I Go Wrong
If It Happens Again
Rat In Mi Kitchen (LP)

Notating "LP" a couple times here because you have to go with the long versions over the single edits that cut out the best stuff.

UB40 - "Rat in Mi Kitchen"

Oh wow, love this song and didn't realize until just now that it's the great Herb Alpert on trumpet. I learn a lot doing this blog! ha

He got name-checked on the back on the UB40 card, but Neil Diamond probably deserves his own MusiCard, eh?

Mixing things up with a Legends subset custom. He seems to be strumming a D chord here, I think.

I heard a lot of Neil Diamond as a kid thanks to him being one of my mom's favorite artists at the time. His schmaltzy ballads never did much for me, but stuff like (They're Coming to) "America" (Today!), "Cracklin' Rosie", and "Forever in Blue Jeans" are fun songs. And of course there's "Sweet Caroline" that everyone loves singing along to (or maybe hates by this point?), a familiar song at sporting events, perhaps most notably for baseball fans, at Red Sox home games.

Mr. Diamond is still with us at age 84, though he has retired from touring and unfortunately has Parkinson's disease slowing him down now. For further reading on his impressive career, here's the link to his Wikipedia entry.

Thanks as always for taking a moment to stop by. If you've got any thoughts to share regarding UB40 or Neil Diamond, I'd love to hear it in the comments below.

#101 U2

U2 makes their first appearance in the 1991 MusiCards set huddled together outdoors on card #101. Checklist shenanigans are afoot here, as U2 gets another card at #106, with four unrelated acts between them.

Spoiler alert, but this part of the checklist (again, more or less alphabetical) looks like this:

#99 Tina Turner
#100 Tina Turner
#101 U2
#102 UB40
#103 Jody Watley
#104 Karyn White
#105 Paul Young
#106 U2   <--- End of "pop" section
#107 Al B. Sure   <--- Start of "R&B/rap" section
#108 Al B. Sure

Perhaps there was another artist down at the end of the alphabet meant to have card #106 that had to be swapped out for some reason and so U2 filled in? (I'd like to believe Frank Zappa was penciled in there, LOL.) More likely is the guy at Pro Set in charge of correlating the set screwed up when assigning numbers again, like with the whole "Card #90" debacle. The janky order isn't really a big deal, of course; just something slightly interesting to point out as we make our way through the set.

Partially since I've again procrastinated until the last day of the month for the blog's monthly post, I think I'm going to keep the second U2 card in sequence and save it for later.

After a very slanted front photo, looks like The Edge got cropped out of the back shot. The second card, #106, doesn't even have a back photo, but rather just a big text "U2" in that space, so perhaps Pro Set was working with a limited number of band photos to choose from here, or simply had trouble fitting the four guys into the design. The blurb jumps right into lauding Joshua Tree, then lists the fellas, divulging the oh-so-secret real names of Bono and The Edge in the process.

U2 - "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"

The Joshua Tree has in fact endured as the band's peak, as far as critical and commercial success, though they've put together an incredible body of work. It's amazing that they're still together with all the original members to this day. There can't be many other rock bands out there who've remained active for decades with no major lineup changes. It's my understanding that the guys split the money evenly, which must help with the longevity.

I was a little too young to be fully present for the Joshua Tree era, but Achtung Baby (1991) and Zooropa (1993) were right in my wheelhouse. I owned those CDs and loved them. I even had an Achtung Baby t-shirt that I rocked in high school, though I never saw them live. 

When I was first getting into the band, circa 1990, I made dubbed cassettes of their early albums I borrowed on tape from my cousin. Copies of copies, I didn't even have song titles and had to make up tracklistings based on my best guesses from the lyrics. LOL 

U2 - "A Day Without Me" (--not actually "Landslide in my Ego", as I first knew it as.)

Eventually I built up a better U2 library in my collection and learned the real names to their older songs. I loved all that stuff, though when 1997's Pop came out-- or more specifically the lead single "Discothèque"-- it didn't jive with me at all, and I never really picked up my fandom back to the level it was at before that. 

But yeah, what a run to begin their career:

Boy (1980)
October (1981)
War (1983)
The Unforgettable Fire (1984)
The Joshua Tree (1987)
Rattle and Hum (1988)
Achtung Baby (1991)
Zooropa (1993)

Those all get a thumbs up from me. Bono can get on your nerves sometimes, sure, but you gotta admit U2 had something special going there.

Welp, I gotta run, but for more U2 info, here's the link to their main Wikipedia page. And we'll circle back to them again soon at card #106.

Are you a U2 fan? Favorite songs of theirs? Let me know in the comments. Thanks!