written by Colleen Fitzpatrick and Josh Deutsch

produced by Josh Deutsch and Garry Hughes

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I’m making this page July 21st, 2021, the day after the 49th birthday

(geez, really?...) of Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick, better known to the

dance and electro-pop world as Vitamin C. Happy Birthday, VC!!

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Colleen was born in New Jersey’s Middlesex County, and graduated from high school... at 15?? Wow. She then graduated from New York University with an English degree... at 19. Gads. While there, she shared a dorm with Sarah Silverman and played Sonny Bono and Debbie Harry’s daughter in Hairspray. The same year she graduated (from college)... we seem to be fortuitously mentioning graduation a lot in this paragraph, in congruence with the song we’re covering on this page...

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So yes, the year she graduated from college, she teamed up with twin brothers Ben and Mike Kotch and put together the band Eve’s Plum (yep, named after Eve “Jan Brady” Plumb). They recorded and released for 550 Music, a ’90s division of Epic Records (also responsible back then for much of Céline Dion’s success). They couldn’t perform commercially to the label’s satisfaction, and were cut loose from them around 1996. Two years later, they broke up, and Colleen went solo.

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She switched over from the Sony corporation to WEA, nabbing a new deal with the ‘E’ (Elektra). She became as famous as Sunny D the next couple of years, starting by popping out a single called “Smile,” containing a rap by Lady Saw, in June ’99. It pre-dated the self-titled summer debut album and peaked at #18. Post-album release, single number two, “Me, Myself And I” got to #36 US Pop... and then we turned over the calendar year to the new decade (but not yet the official next century or millennium, as everyone thought (that would be 2001, my friends, not 2000)). Fortunately, the world did not end, and so in March double-oh, we graduated to the Vitamin C record’s third and final single.

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“Graduation” (sub-titled “Friends Forever”) originally closed the album. On the album version, Colleen’s verses and choruses alternate with instrumental “pomp and circumstance”-y segments musically based on Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D. When the single came out the next spring, the instrumental segments were filled out with utterances and reminiscences from the voices of various students about to graduate—affectionately dubbed the “student interview mix.” It was included as a hidden bonus track when the Vitamin C album was re-released.

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Fall 2000 popped out a single and sneak peek at the second (and last) Vitamin C album More, which dropped in January ’01. That single was “The Itch.” The More album had a second single, and also a cover of The Waitresses’ ’80s tune “I Know What Boys Like,” which was used (Colleen’s version) some years later in the sugary-sweet Anna Faris movie The House Bunny. Actually, she’s done quite a few covers of classic older songs, turning them into 21st century-bordering electro-dance tracks. Colleen sang and turned out a couple more singles and soundtrack contributions up to the mid-’00s.

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There was a third Vitamin C album in the works, which never happened, though one song recorded for it escaped as a single, “Last Nite” (Strokes cover), with samples of “Heart Of Glass” by Blondie. Colleen’s in fact done a lot of sampling as well. She’s spent the years since writing material for other artists and performing here and there with more recent acts. Today she’s vice president of music programming for Nickelodeon. (At least she was... I believe she still is.)

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“Graduation” seems a little idealized to me, as if we all had a happy school experience and were feeling sad or sappy about moving on... how lucky if so. For many of us, high school were the absolute worst years of our lives, but I appreciate the positive message and upbeat sentiment in the song. But whether your feelings about graduating are bittersweet, ecstatic or somewhere in between, you’re moving on, so... do yourself a favor. “Put a Smile on your face, make the world a better place.”

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I can hardly find the student interview mix on YT for the life of me... I did find it, in full... though for whatever reason, it has 3½ minutes of silence afterwards. Oh well, long as it’s there, yes?

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I pretty much knew I was going to include all the student interviews in the lyrics, an extra chore though it would be, but worth it... not to mention the... freaking background vocals... (LOTSA dang parentheses down there) yes, this is going to be another massive body and undertaking of lyrics... the whole 5:40 student version, everything in it included. I always give it my all on the lyrics. (I like to make it seem like the lyrics are a pain in the tush, but it’s just good-natured sarcasm for comedic effect; I really do enjoy it.) If you’re listening to the original album or music video version, just focus on the green and red. Final note: I never do this, but—well, as you’ll notice, like usual, chorus #1 is in bold because it’s unaffected and repeated, exactly the same as chorus #2. But there is so much going on in chorus #3, I felt the need to make the main (non-background) part stand out, just to keep it distinct, so I bold-faced it as well.

 

...Yeah, I am now completely sick of this song. Thanks, Colleen. Happy Mother-Friggin’ Birthday.

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(Just kidding.)

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Have notes to add? Let me know!

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YT:

full original version

full student interview mix

music video