The "Plenty of Sunscreen" Speech from a Few Years Back?

A few years ago (1997ish???) there was a bit of glurge going around. It was a series of random statements that seemed silly at first but somehow it all amounted to sage advice. At first no one knew who wrote it or for what reason. Eventually, a song came out with someone reading the words over a synth-pop musical score.

I think that at some point the real author was tracked down, and she had written the speech for a commencement address that she had given.

All I really remember about it is that the speech began with the advice to always use plenty of sunscreen.

Anyone remember this? Can I have a link? Some googling brought plenty of hits with genuine skin-care advice.

Mary Schimch from the Chicago Tribune wrote the “Sunscreen Speech” you can find a copy of the speech here

Specifically, Mary Schmich wrote it as a column printed June 1, 1997 (free registration required), prefaced with the statement

It then took on a life of its own, as detailed (at least in part) on the Snopes site.

I’ve posted the snopes link to the article in response to emails that had been sent to my friends and family. A common response by the people who blindly forward this type of glurge was:

“I don’t care WHO wrote it. I just like the sentiment.”
Pisses me off.

Wow, thanks everybody. From Ignorance to Ignorance Fought in Six Minutes.

But trust me on the Sunscreen…
IIRC I thought it was more towards 1999. Interestingly enough, I was talking to my mom about it one day, and we then walked into a card store. There was a book that had the entire column (Line a page), and an Intro with the entire scandal explained in it.

My mp3 of it is Baz Luhrmann-Everybody’s free (to wear sunscreen), if you’re looking for the recording someplace…

Wasn’t there an actual song of this at some point? Well, more like spoken word but put to sort of a funky beat?

Yes, it’s as Garfeild226 mentioned. It’s on the Baz Luhrman album “Something For Everybody”. It also has songs from other Baz Lurman films like Romeo and Juliet and Strictly Ballroom. I think the song is called “Everyone is free to wear sunscreen”.