Nelson has 3 consecutive cards in Series 1 plus a "different font" promo for a total of 4 MusiCards for us to check out in this post. Above is the only card where the rest of the band is featured in the photo, not just the titular twins. The redhead in the middle looks a bit like Emma Stone, but don't let the long hair fool you; that's a man, baby.
Entering today, I know just a couple Nelson songs: "(I Can't Live Without Your) Love & Affection" (which I could live without) and "After the Rain" (which I do like). They seemed like the last new "big hair" rock band to emerge before that genre went the way of the dodo in the wake of Nevermind.
Nelson - "After the Rain"
I was intrigued by the SNL tidbit on the back of the card. Wikipedia has some more context on that early performance:
During the 1980s, Matthew and Gunnar played as Strange Agents and as The Nelsons, with which they played the Los Angeles club scene. A year after the death of their father in a plane crash, Lorne Michaels agreed to have the Nelsons as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live, at the request of their manager at the time. They became the first unsigned band to play on the show. During this iteration of the band, Matthew was the lead singer and bassist, while Gunnar played the drums. As they returned home from the show, Gunnar claims he had what he called "an epiphany", which he shared with his brother. He told him that they should break up the band as it was and start sharing the front stage together. Gunnar promised to learn to play guitar and did so in a year. (source)
Here's a shot of them holding their guitars.
The band members get name-checked on the back of card 83. If it were me putting the set together, I'd maybe swap backs with the full-band photo of the previous card (that actually shows all those guys), but whatever.
Deja vu. The unnumbered promo version of card 83 can be distinguished by the casual "Pro Set MusiCards" font in the black box. The crop is also slightly different, with that box touching hair here, plus we see the tip of the lower guitar now. And of course the back is different:
The blurb is a little more.. effusive?.. than we're used to with this set. That opening sentence, jeez! "Uniquely 1990s music" was close, but turned out to be uniquely 1990, specifically. Done by '91.
Nelson - "Love & Affection"
Nelson's last card features a tight headshot of the duo split by a beam of flowing blond hair.
The other band members bookend the Nelson cards, showing up again on the back photo of card 84.
I really doubt the other fellas are still in tow, but the Nelson brothers never stopped rocking. I gotta admit I could've sworn I remember hearing about Gunnar Nelson passing a few years back, but I may have conflated him with someone like Jani Lane from Warrant, because yep, at least as of Leap Day 2024, they're both still kicking. Nelson has released new music as recently as the mid 2010s and still perform live on occasion. They also have a separate tribute act for their dad called Ricky Nelson Remembered, and sometimes play in a celebrity all-star rock band called Scrap Metal.
Let me know in the comments if you've got any thoughts or memories connected to Nelson to share.
Got a bunch of Madonna cards to peruse today, as we hit numbers 65 through 69 in the 1991 MusiCards set.
Madonna is the face of MusiCards, mathematically speaking, with Pro Set getting the most out of their hot licensing coup. She appears on 5 cards in series one (the max number given per artist), 2 more in series two (again the max for that series), and her total of 6 cards in the UK edition is bested only by New Kids on the Block (who have 7 cards in that set, but do not appear in the US version.)
Card #65 features an attractive shot and is probably my personal favorite of Madonna's cards. Pretty sure that's her "Like a Prayer" look. I remember watching MTV during the premiere of the video back when they would occasionally make a big deal out of the first time they played a new video. Seems "Like a Prayer" was the pinnacle of that "world premiere video" pageantry. Sponsored by Pepsi and controversial for religious/racial stuff (which probably wouldn't move the needle today), it was a hit and is still among my favorite songs of hers.
There are 3 versions of this card, with the photograph also gracing a promo as well as a card in the UK edition.
That's quite an effusive write-up, but yep, she sure was a big deal at the time. Of course she's still a big deal today, even if not consistently topping the charts as she did in her prime. A big world tour kicks off next month, planned to stretch into 2024, billed as her first "greatest hits" concerts.
As I was saying, she's got 5 consecutive cards here in Series 1, then a couple more later in Series 2, plus 6 cards in the UK edition, and a couple promos (one of which has error/corrected variations). Her 16 total cards in the MusiCards master set is the highest total of anyone (unless you also count the Yo! MTV Raps cards under the MusiCards umbrella, in which case M.C. Hammer overtakes her with 19 combined). Six of the seven US front photos are repeated in the UK set, with the above long-necked #66 being the sole "US-only" Madonna MusiCard.
Crazy that she's been at it for over 40 years now. Her image was no stranger to trading cards by this point. Panini put out several Madonna cards in the 80s, then in 1990, Topps released a Dick Tracy card set featuring her character sprinkled throughout.
I never dove too deeply into Madonna's catalog, but generally liked her 80s hits well enough.
I think this is her "Express Yourself" look. The aforementioned corrected promo card shares the photo with card #67 here. Let's take a quick look at the promo, why not...
The difference is on the back, specifically the first few words in the write-up.
Her last name is Ciccone, not Caccione, and she was born in 1958, not '61. Even on the corrected version they mistakenly stuck a comma in the middle of her name, lol.
Anyways, back to Series 1...
Speaking of distinguishing yourself, I went to elementary school with a husky kid named George who was big into Madonna. It was funny because all us other boys were into playing GI Joes and riding bikes or whatever, and then there's big George consistently rocking the Madonna shirt in 4th grade with no fucks given. (And no, he wasn't overly feminine; if anything he was sort of a bully!) I wish I could track that guy down and catch up with him. Did he love Madonna his whole life, or did the obsession fade as he got older?
Card #68 here would have been better off swapping photos with the back, if you ask me, trading the relatively boring headshot for some black & white voguing... a flipped version of the photo on the back of the promo.
Like a Prayer era Madonna is where it's at for me, syncing up with the height of when I was listening to pop music. If the "Cherish" video came on MTV back in the day, I'm watching it. And "Oh Father" is a favorite of mine that was only a minor hit, also found on that album.
This shot may look familiar, as a similar photo is used on the back of card #66. I'd probably rank this "biker chick" look at the bottom of the fashions displayed on Madonna's MusiCards, honestly.
#69, nice. Pro Set didn't repeat photos in the set too often, but this back shot was also used on card #67 (and seems to be from the same photoshoot as the front of card #66).
She was still in the thick of her peak years in the early 90s. These cards were hitting retail shelves around the time Madonna was filming 1992's A League of Their Own, regarded as probably her best on-screen effort.
The only Madonna album I ever actually owned was a True Blue cassette I probably picked up used for a couple bucks or maybe got cast off from a buddy. Some good tunes on that one, with "Live to Tell" being my favorite. But yeah, I was down with Madonna at the time and still enjoy most of her hits up until getting all over-the-top mega-horny, with "Justify My Love" and 1992's Erotica and her SEX book ironically turning me off. But her first 4 studio albums get a thumbs-up from me. Beyond that, I also really like "Don't Tell Me"... reminds me of walking around campus during my days at SDSU.
That'll wrap up this post. Let me know in the comments if you've got anything to share on the subject. I would guess most of my readers are like me and consider themselves casual fans of 80s Madonna and that's about it, but hey, maybe some of you guys really love (or hate) her.
We'll check back in with the Queen of Pop once we eventually get to cards #275 and 276. Ziggy Marley is up next.
Her name ain't baby; It's Janet... Ms. Jackson, if you're nasty.
I like Janet Jackson's music fine, especially the Control through Rhythm Nation 1814 era, with those hit singles being all over the radio and MTV when I was young.
She's got 8 MusiCards total: the 5 consecutive here in Series 1, plus one in the UK edition, one "alternate design" promo, and one regular design promo. We'll hit most of those in this "speed round" post, trying to get the blog back in the swing of things after it sank into a hiatus the latter half of 2022.
Good variety of photos in the group.
1991 Pro Set MusiCards #56 Janet Jackson
This one features a lot of hair.
1990 sure was a big year for her.
1991 Pro Set MusiCards #57 Janet Jackson
She could almost pass for LaToya from this angle. Heck, squint your eyes and it could be her brother Michael.
It's tough for me to pick a favorite Janet Jackson song, but "Pleasure Principle" would be up there.
Janet Jackson - "Pleasure Principle"
1991 Pro Set MusiCards #58 Janet Jackson
This one's all business. A rare time the awkward MusiCards design actually works well with a photo.
Back picture here, featuring Janet as a blonde with her hair up, is similar to that on card #57, likely from the same photoshoot. Almost look like they could be stills from a video. Actually, yeah, looks like that might be from the "Love Will Never Do (Without You)" video.
Janet Jackson - Love Will Never Do (Without You)
1991 Pro Set MusiCards #59 Janet Jackson
This horse cameo might be the first animal sighting in the set so far unless I'm forgetting something. Wikipedia mentions Janet wanted to be a horse racing jockey when she was little.
I remember getting a little sick of the "Rhythm Nation" video getting played so much on MTV at the time, but it's a good song.
Janet Jackson - "Rhythm Nation"
1991 Pro Set MusiCards #60 Janet Jackson
Looks like this image is from the "Love Will Never Do (Without You)" video shoot, as with the back of cards #57 and #58. A bit grainy, but cute pic.
I watched the big Janet documentary on Hulu (think it was originally on Lifetime) last year and enjoyed it. Learned a lot about her and the Jackson Five. That also inspired me to find and watch Poetic Justice, the 1993 film she starred in with Tupac. That was a decent flick. Talented lady, no doubt.
Now here's the unnumbered promo card-- note the different font in the logo. These "cello pack promos" as TCDB currently lists them, are often early versions of cards that went on to appear in the final 1991 MusiCards set-- that is to say they use the same photograph-- but there's no non-promo doppelganger sharing this straightjacket-pose shot. Promo exclusive, baby! Ms. Jackson!
The back photo didn't get reused either. Probably the earliest photo of the bunch, from the looks of it.
Janet Jackson - "Miss You Much"
The write-up says "Miss You Much" was the most played single of 1989, though fact-checking that claim, looks like the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1989 (Wikipedia entry) has it ranked at #5. But I guess they're talking about radio and/or MTV play, which is likely a somewhat different list.
Notice the colors are flipped on the back of the promo.
Finally, here's Janet's alternate design promo card from 1990. This photo was also not used on any of her retail MusiCards. It looks very close to the back photo of card #56, but nope, different photo.
Seems like the same picture at first glance, but it's like one of those "spot the differences" exercises when you take a closer look.
BTW, I'm not covering her card in the UK edition in this post, but that one features the same "a lot of hair" photo we saw earlier at card #56.
Most of the bio information here is mentioned on her other MusiCards, though this one does share the tidbits that she loves eating Mexican food (me too! so relatable!) and visiting Paris in spring. I dig the "sexy mummy" photo, too.
"Escapade" is another favorite song of mine. Listened to it a lot on a special playlist made for Friday afternoons when I got off work, with its whole vibe of "whew, I'm done working for a while, time to have some fun" helping ring in the weekend.
And so there's a bunch of Janet Jackson cards. Any thoughts or memories coming to mind when you think of her? Favorite song(s)? Feel free to share in the comments.
Ready for an onslaught of Debbie Gibson cards? By my count, there are 6 different Debbie Gibson cards in the 1991 MusiCards master set: 4 consecutive base cards, plus a variation and a promo card. We'll be taking a look at all of them in this post.
MusiCard #42 features a live photograph of Deborah at the piano, likely performing a ballad such as "Lost In Your Eyes", by the looks of it. It's an interesting shot-- Can you think of another instance where you get 2 angles of the subject from the same moment in time on one trading card?-- but feels like it was taken by a fan in the audience, a bit washed-out and far away.
Oh my, I really like that headshot on the back. Attractive young woman, no doubt! As this blurb reminds us, Debbie Gibson actually wrote her own songs and was a skilled musician, unlike most teenage pop princesses you might be tempted to lump her in with. Gotta respect that!
Debbie Gibson - "Only In My Dreams"
Here's card #43. Apparently she's working out a charley horse in her foot, lol. It almost appears as though Debbie is rocking dreadlocks, which isn't really on-brand for her. But I think it's more of a "bedhead" look. A somewhat weird card.
And there are 2 different versions of this weird card.
Yep, for Series II, the project manager assigned to the MusiCards product at Pro Set at the time decided that white-dread Debbie's sexy foot-fondling was TOO HOT for the kids of '91, and called upon a censored version. Nah, I'm just being silly, of course. I'm not sure why they made a variation that just moves the Super Stars logo box from one corner to another (The photo has been moved slightly too-- compare the white space above her name). But the back reveals why an updated variation of this card was called for. Let's flip them over; Take a look for yourself and see if you can spot it....
Did you catch the mistake? It's at the last line of text.
Yes, this isn't a simple case of "alternate" variations, but rather a good old fashioned "Error vs. Corrected" situation. Debbie's history-making #1 single was titled "Foolish Beat", not "Foolish Heart" as the initial version of the card erroneously states.
Debbie Gibson - "Foolish Beat"
Oh yeah. While "Foolish Beat" didn't ring a bell for me at first (nor did "Foolish Heart" for that matter, unless we're talking about Steve Perry-- great song), after listening to it, I now definitely remember hearing it on the radio a lot back then, though it was never one of my favorites. But still, very impressive that the track made the Gibson the youngest female artist to write, produce, and perform a Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, a feat that I don't believe has been matched or bested yet.
Back to the card back above, notice the second pressing also adds a tiny copyright line under the back photo (which, like the prior card, features a gorgeous headshot of the young pop star), crediting it to 1991 Gibson Productions. This is slightly notable because these cards generally don't tell you what year they're from (the retail boxes and packs don't mention a specific year-- this would appear to be planned as a one-and-done product right from the start). Sometimes folks mistakenly put the cards down as being released in 1992 or "1991-92". It's a bit confusing because it seems there isn't a consensus in the hobby world on what exactly to officially call this set. Should "Super Stars" be written as one word or two? Same question for "Pro Set". Hell, even on this blog, I refer to it by several different names, though I mostly keep it simple with just 1991 MusiCards.
TCDB lists it as 1991 Pro Set SuperStars MusiCards
COMC currently calls it 1991-92 ProSet Super Stars MusiCards
Beckett Marketplace calls it 1991-92 Superstars MusiCards
PSA dates it as 1991, though beyond that isn't always consistent.
See? Nobody can agree what exactly to call it. As for the year, the cards were released in 1991 and I think trying to squeeze "-92" on there like this is a basketball or hockey set is just dumb. Maybe Series 2 was released in early 1992, you suggest? Nope. Just check the "Instant Win" game inserts that came in every pack. The Series 1 contest (Grand Prize: a trip to London) ran from March 1, 1991 through December 31, 1991. The Series 2 contest (Grand Prize: a trip to Australia) ran from September 15, 1991 through October 1, 1992. Perhaps Pro Set tried to "rebrand" the cards as being "1991-92" when selling Series 2 boxes to dealers in late 1991 and early 1992, you know, in an effort to make them seem relevant longer, kinda like how comic books and magazines typically come out weeks before the official date printed on them just to try to extend the window to keep them on retail shelves. But yeah, these cards are from 1991 and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Anyways, sorry for that tangent. I do want to try to look into narrowing down timeframes with the set as we continue on. I'm curious, for example, which album or single or event mentioned was the most recent. It'd be interesting to try figuring out the deadline for the write-ups. If Series 1 was on shelves starting in or around March '91, they must have been finalized for the printers around late '90.. but how late are we talking here?
But back to the card at hand, this is the first error card we've come to in the set so far... well, not counting uncorrected errors. The other "move the logo to the other corner" variations we've seen have not featured a similar typo-correction as far as I can tell. I spent a solid minute comparing the #17 Jimmy Page variations, and the backs seem to be exactly the same. But at least with #43 here, Pro Set actually had a good reason for updating the card: fixing a dumb mistake. (I wonder how they caught it. Do you think Debbie herself complained? "Hey guys, my song was called 'Foolish Beat'! And by the way, that photo is copyrighted by Gibson Productions, 1991. Please make these updates at your earliest convenience.")
I need to quickly mention that as of drafting this post, TCDB lists a 3rd variation for #43: with the logo box moved to the bottom but no changes to the back. I'm 98% sure this is just a mix up caused by the person who originally uploaded the back photo to TCDB in 2013 not realizing they were different on the back so he reuploaded his other scan instead of scanning anew. Hey, I'd love if there were another rare MusiCard for me to track down, so please prove me wrong, but I just don't believe it. Similar to the #15 John Lennon fictional 3rd variation that used to be listed on TCDB when I started this blog but has since been correctly removed because it doesn't actually exist.
Next up..
Here's card #44. I'm going to go on record selecting this one as my favorite of Debbie's several MusiCards. You get a nice clear look at her, without a bad hair day to distract you. A little more of a smile would have been nice, but I'm not the type to make the mistake of telling a woman she should smile more. I hear that she's super cool with her fans and is a generous through-the-mail autograph signer, so I've been meaning to send her a copy of this card to sign one of these days. I think it'd look nice with a signature on it. And sure, I might not be able to name more than 3 or 4 Debbie Gibson songs off the top of my head, but I like her just fine.
Debbie Gibson - "Shake Your Love"
"Shake Your Love" is my favorite song of hers. Just a fun, booty-movin' pop song.
Wow, yet again, ProSet puts the more-appealing (IMHO) photo on the back. I wouldn't have minded seeing that fun shot on the front of a card instead of confined to a tiny thumbnail. Way better than the "dreads" photo, right?! Oh well, what's done is done.
The write-up talks about her childhood and is what I imagine is one of the very few trading cards to refer to its subject as "extraordinarily precocious".
Hey, we've now come to the finale of Debbie's run in the checklist. Card #45 here features a heavily makeuped cutie apparently posing with some sort of cycle. Makes me think of Dottie from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. "I'm a loner, Dottie, a rebel." If I hadn't seen this photo before and you asked me to identify the person, I don't think I'd guess it was Debbie Gibson. Cute, though. I probably wouldn't use this card for a TTM autograph attempt due to all the dark area that might hide the ink (in addition to the fact that I don't think it looks much like her).
Haha, ProSet's streak of putting the, um, sultrier photo on the back comes to a screeching halt with this one! Looks like she's on her way to equestrian class or someshit. Say hi to Butterscotch for us, Debbie. What's with that hat? Dude, is she wearing her grampa's jacket? And that crouch doesn't look very comfortable.
The text opts for lists of her releases rather than a narrative blurb. Her days lingering near the top of the charts were starting to wane by the time this set was on shelves ["1991-92"], but she's kept on with her music career over the years. Here's the link to her Wikipedia entry if you wanna read more. Thanks to writing this post, I had a thought I didn't expect I'd ever have: "I want to listen to the new Debbie Gibson album." Yeah, her 10th album The Body Remembers came out just a month ago and I'm checking it out right now. It's some finely-crafted pop! Too bad it seems like she's gotten pigeonholed as a 80s teen star and couldn't quite remain relevant in the pop music scene. It's hard to do, I suppose. Not a lot of Beyonce-type careers for young singers. She went by Deborah for a while, but is back to Debbie now.
"Lost In Your Eyes" stands as her biggest song, so I'd better throw that into the post before we wrap up here. Personally, I'd be fine never hearing that song again.. not that it's bad, just a bit sappy and way overplayed by this point. It's gotten stuck in my head several times over the weekend I've been working on this post.
And back to the card, this one also has a promo version. Here they are side by side...
The difference here is the text in the logo box. The promo version (right) has a more Comic Sans type of font, but they decided on a no-nonsense font for the finished product.
Flipping them over...
The back of the promo is different, as we can see above. The write up was not repeated on a base card, but calls to mind card #42, mentioning her debut single, while the back photo would appear on that dreaded card #43 (see what I did there?). Note the solid colors in the design were swapped. I think they should have kept it the way it was on the promo. The name is easier to read in lime green than hot pink.
There are 11 of these "no-number" promos: 10 artists and 1 header card (which is hard to find-- I'm still looking for the header, but I've got the others). This is the second such promo we've come to so far, the first being #24 Led Zeppelin back in the opening Legends subset. These unnumbered promos should be distinguished from the other promos that are numbered and feature an alternate design, but we'll take a look at those down the line.
She was not featured in the UK edition of the set despite 1989's Electric Youth reaching #8 on the UK charts, so this is a wrap on Debbie for the blog.... unless I end up with a TTM success to show off at some point.
WS1988 Gm1: Debbie Gibson performs national anthem
One fun fact to mention about her, here on this blog whose readers are mostly baseball card collectors, Debbie sang the national anthem for Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. Seriously?! Yep, the Gibson magic was in full effect on October 15, 1988, with Debbie's strong performance surely setting the stage for Kirk (no relation) to eventually come off the bench and hit his improbable home run off Dennis Eckersley.
Another choice fun fact about Debbie Gibson is that she made her film debut (uncredited) as a little kid playing the "birthday girl" in Ghostbusters in the scene where Rick Moranis' character is overtaken by the demon dog and gets possessed by Vinz Clortho.
Ok, that's enough for this long post. Thanks for reading and please consider yourself invited to comment below with any relevant thoughts to share. The next card on-deck is a "who?" situation for me, so I'm looking forward to digging into an unfamiliar group. Chances are that'll be short, but we'll also hit September's "This Month in 1991" segment, so that'll help fill up the post. Stay tuned.
