Fact: Pop-Up Video Pops Up Online

We were excited to discover today that one of our favorite shows of pre-Rock of Love-era VH1, Pop-Up Video, had resurfaced online, allowing us to watch the storied series while we're at work. (Editor's note: Well, we would never watch it at work, but other people might find it an enjoyable way to kill time.) Pop-Up Video bubbled with so much in-depth, unnecessary trivia, it made our Almost-Impossible Rock & Roll Quiz seem like a third-grade math test. Now, we can revisit all the stories behind a-ha's "Take On Me" (the single only sold 300 copies when it was first released!) and Janet Jackson's "Runaway" (she never traveled anywhere, it was all blue screen!) -- and enjoy that satisfying pre-TiVo pop sound effect. While we were a little bummed by VH1's failure to post any videos recorded after Bill Clinton was in the White House thus far (we did, however, enjoy the Billy Joel, Culture Club and Toni Braxton clips that are among the forty-seven currently available) and some slow buffering time, we're happy to welcome Pop-Up Video back into our lives.

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Song Stories

“Push It”

Salt-N-Pepa | 1987

Originating as a B side to their cover of the Stax classic “Tramp,” Cheryl “Salt” James, Sandi “Pepa” Denton and Dee Dee “DJ Spinderella” Roper came up with the goods on this career-making, Grammy-nominated platinum single about working it on the dancefloor. “Push It” has been sampled and spliced to death since it debuted in 1987, yet the original track is as fresh and fly as when SNP — among the few original women of hip-hop — debuted it. “Most men will never believe ‘Push It’ was never about sex,” said James. “And that’s why the record went to Number One,” said Denton. “Everybody thought it was about sex.”

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