Mickey by Toni Basil

About

“Mickey” is the lead single off of Word of Mouth. The song is a reworked cover of “Kitty” by the British pop group Racey in 1979. However, Basil added the “you’re so fine you blow my mind” chant herself. Its popular music video features her and several other women dressed as cheerleaders doing several typical cheerleading sequences. It was choreographed by Basil who was not only already an experienced choreographer, but was the head of her high school cheerleading squad. Renown music critic Robert Christgou famously wrote in his review of the song that “Mickey” made Basil “the only woman ever to offer to take it up the ass on Top 40 radio,” based on the lyric “So come on and give it to me any way you can, any way you want to do it; I’ll take it like a man.” In 2012, Basil told Vulture: People also think ‘Mickey’ is about butt-fucking! … NO! That’s ridiculous. Everyone reads shit into everything. It’s not about anything dirty. You change the name from boy to girl and they read anything they want into it! When it’s a guy singing about a girl, it’s a sweet line. But when a girl sings it, it must mean butt-fucking!" “Mickey” was first a hit overseas, reaching number one in the Australia, and almost accomplishing the same in Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK. Eventually the song became popular in Los Angeles, and more than a year after its original release, topped the US and Canadian pop charts at the end of 1982. After the success of “Mickey”, Basil had two more songs appear on the Hot 100, but neither came close to the top 40, thereby earning her the label of one-hit wonder. Basil stated in 2012 that even though the song was has made millions and was certified double platinum by the RIAA, she’d “barely made $3000” from it over the past 30 years.