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Boy Band Magnate Lou Pearlman Gets Twenty-Five Years in Prison

May 21, 2008 12:50 PM ET

Lou Pearlman, the boy band Svengali who helped guide the Backstreet Boys and 'NSYNC to chart-topping success, was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison today for charges that he bilked investors and banks out of over $300 million dollars. Over two decades, Pearlman convinced investors to dump money into two companies that only existed on paper. Among Pearlman's victims were "his family, his close friends and people in their 70s and 80s who have lost their life savings." The sentencing brings to a close the story of Pearlman who, upon learning that federal charges were coming, escaped to Bali, only to be caught last June by Indonesian police.

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

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