Next in Queue

AI in 80’s films was often scary. WOPR in WarGames. Skynet in The Terminator. Master Control Program in Tron. But 1985’s Weird Science made AI sexy, that is, if you can call Kelly LeBrock’s Lisa character AI. But she was created on a computer and trained on all the data Gary and Wyatt could feed it. How “human” she was exceeded all their expectations. But when Lisa became part of their reality, Ga...

Many rock musicians have been honored as inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But John Fogerty’s 1985 hit, Centerfield, got him honored by the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Today, it’s a fixture at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and just about every ballpark across the country. Baseball and its heroes have been mythologized as a deeply American tradition. But like anything else, it has evo...

One of the most enduring basslines of all time was the lead into one of the greatest rock collaborations of all time – Queen and David Bowie. 1981’s Under Pressure became a #1 hit in the UK. Under Pressure explored how navigating the labyrinth of normal life could bring people to a breaking point. 9 years later, that same (slightly altered) bassline would spawn another hit, Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby. Not long a...

Employing a stark departure from the bland, clinical approach previous manuals had taken, Alex Comfort’s 1972 book, The Joy of Sex, took the world by storm. The illustrated manual spent over a year in the top five of the New York Times Best Seller list. It was an entirely different and liberating approach to the intimate relationships that are part of the human experience. The following year, Motown soul legend, Marvin Gaye,...

If I asked you to think of a hit TV show set in Miami during the late 80’s, Miami Vice would likely be the first thing that pops into your head. But lasting longer, bringing in far more awards, and featuring American treasure, Betty White, I would argue the Golden Girls had an even more lasting impact on the world. A sitcom featuring 4 single, older women living together and navigating their “golden years” togethe...

Nate Gibson may not be a household name, but his rockabilly novelty, Duck Butt, released in 2017, reminds us that there’s something silly about our favorite feathered waterfowl. Ducks may seem elegant, but when they need to eat, they put their beak in the water, and their tail goes up and that’s when you see those legs churning in the water. Chaos.

You’re on stage. There are 100 people in the audience. You’re...

During the 90’s and early 2000s, Thursday nights were, for roughly 25 million Americans, Must See TV night. NBC’s lineup of hit shows like Friends, Seinfeld, and ER, were a cultural phenomenon that lives on in memes and catch phrases like Ross’s “Pivot!” from season 5. Ross’s detailed plan for success didn’t turn out the way he planned.

Software founders often have detailed plans for success...

John Travolta’s turn as Vincent Vega in 1994’s Pulp Fiction revitalized his career. His character has returned to the US after a 3-year stay in Europe, mostly in Amsterdam. In this memorable scene, he colorfully explains to Jules, played by Samuel L. Jackson, how Europe is similar, yet different. While Vincent’s amusing explanation gave us one of the great movie quotes of all time, it digs into the very real diffe...

The 1999 Dance hit, “Praise You” by Fatboy Slim uses NINE samples, including vocals by Camille Yarbrough from the opening of her song, “Take Yo’ Praise.” It was incredibly successful, reaching #1 in the UK charts and #36 in the US, simply by using building blocks already established by others. Fatboy Slim recognized bits that worked in other compositions, from the Steve Miller Band to Isaac Hayes. He t...

Ask 20 people to define customer loyalty and you’ll likely get 20 different answers. Some might give you an academic treatise on different types of loyalty. Some might quote CX experts or companies specializing in measuring customer experience. Others might break out “4 C’s” or “3 R’s” to help define loyalty. When Tara Paton joined Next in Queue – she reached for perhaps the most succ...

The Goonies were kids who lived in the “Goon Docks” – a blue-collar neighborhood whose existence is threatened by the development of a country club. Sean Astin, playing Mikey, has led them on an adventure in search of One-Eyed Willy’s rich stuff – a treasure everyone else had dismissed as mythical.

For decades, contact centers have been like the Goon Docks – a place where good people do good work...

Disillusionment and discontent was alive and well before the rise of smartphones and AI. The 2003 Sofia Coppola film, Lost in Translation, is an exploration of experience. The unexpected friendship between Bill Murray’s Bob and Scarlett Johansson’s Charlotte is accidental, but it’s rooted in shared experiences that will only ever happen once.

The demand for analog, human experiences may rise again, says Kento Mor...

The 1948 Ford Deluxe that Kenickie worked all summer for was a car in the academic sense – it had 4 wheels and an engine. But with a little imagination, effort, and teamwork, it could become something special – a car so fast it could be compared to greased lightnin’. In the 1978 film adaptation of Grease, this car wouldn’t just get fixed, it would become something magical.

The typical model of customer se...

Unless you’re a huge fan, you’ve probably never heard of Prince Rakeem. As a solo artist, despite his enormous talent, he flamed out. But when Robert Diggs, aka Prince Rakeem, aka Bobby Digital, aka the Scientist, aka RZA assembled a team in 1992, it would be the beginning of an empire. The now-iconic C.R.E.A.M. was the second single from Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), released in January 1994. It was RZA who realized...

The last hit single by the English ska revival band, The Specials, also known as the Special AKA, came in 1984 just before the band dissolved. Free Nelson Mandela became an anti-apartheid anthem and even reentered the UK Singles Chart in 2013 following the news of Mandela’s death. While the lyrics mention 21 years in captivity, it would still be another 6 years before Mandela was set free in 1990. 4 years later, he would win...

When the “Prince of Darkness” aka Ozzy Osbourne was kicked out of Black Sabbath, he formed his own band with Randy Rhoads and Bob Daisley. Their first album, Blizzard of Ozz, spawned one of the greatest guitar riffs in Heavy Metal history. Crazy Train hit the Mainstream Rock Top 10 on Billboard after its 1980 release. The 1987 live version hit the top 100 in the UK. And this 2002 re-issue peaked at #1 in the US Digital ...

You probably don’t know the singer/songwriter of the 1982 song “Where Everybody Knows Your Name.” But since it’s considered perhaps the best TV theme song of all time, you likely already have the bar from Cheers in your mind’s eye. Gary Portnoy wrote or co-wrote songs (including themes) for many other shows in the 80s, including Fame, Mr. Belvedere, and Punky Brewster but this one still resonates today...

In 2001, after having been dropped from their label, Jimmy Eat World released their 4th album, Bleed American. Because they were financing the recording themselves, they decided to keep things simple. “The Middle” reflects how the band was feeling – “left out or looked down on” – but it was also a song about encouragement. As the song says, sometimes “it just takes some time” to find...

The Ohio band, The McCoys, scored this #1 hit in 1965. While the narrator of the song loves Sloopy, it seems the rest of the world feels very differently – “everybody tries to put my Sloopy down.” The song is a signature at The Ohio State University football games and it also played prominently during games of the Cleveland Guardians, Cleveland Browns, and Cleveland Cavaliers. In 1985, it was designated the state...