Ladies and Gentlemen of the Imploding Planet Earth, Wear Sunscreen

In 1999, alongside Y2K hysteria, an unlikely chart-topper was also sweeping the globe: a five-minute-long spoken-word pop hymn that earnestly dispensed life advice of the "Live, Laugh, Love" ilk. Something about the song's message -- guised as a commencement address delivered by what could have been your crazy, old uncle -- resonated with humanity in a way that no one could have predicted. "Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen" charted alongside songs like LEN's "Steal My Sunshine," Backstreet Boys' "I Want it That Way," Vengaboys' "We Like to Party," and Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca." But who wrote it? Was it Baz Luhrmann, who the song is credited to? Or was it based off a commencement address given in 1997 by Slaugherhouse-Five author Kurt Vonnegut as the freshly oiled Internet machine would suggest? This week, we've got the full story, as we take an honest look at an unlikely earworm still echoing through the hearts and minds of those who came of age in the new millennium.

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