I'm sorry, but I'm just thinking of the right words to say

March 8, 2019 1:16 PM

US Olympian Adam Rippon's sultry figure skating routine is showcased in this recently released cover of '80s hit "The Promise." A New Wave hit in 1988, When in Rome's original song receives new life with this cover, a collaboration between Rippon and musical duo Superfruit (Pentatonix's Mitch Grassi and Scott Hoying).
posted by hurdy gurdy girl (28 comments total)

Name anyone who lays a greater claim to being “America’s Sweetheart” than Adam Rippon. Go on, I’m waiting. He’s a treasure.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 1:34 PM on March 8, 2019 [9 favorites]

What an interesting port de bras.
posted by clew at 1:45 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

US Olympian Adam Rippon's sultry figure

*drool*
posted by Melismata at 1:46 PM on March 8, 2019 [5 favorites]

Not enough Adam Rippon.
posted by reductiondesign at 1:58 PM on March 8, 2019 [9 favorites]

Oh good, now I can spend the weekend trying to figure out whether the kids are doing puffy shirts again. I needed a project.
posted by thivaia at 2:12 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]

The cover is good. The artistic decision to feature the two singers in the way they did, and in those outfits (?), eh...not so much. But yes, Rippon was superb.

I’m not that much of a figure skating fan. I’ve never been attracted to the glam and the sparkles that seem to go hand in hand with it, particularly in televised competitions I’ve seen.

But this video...wow. That was some hella artistic skating. Powerful. Sexy. Supernaturally fluid, making the best of the medium, as it were.

Count me as another in the “not enough Adam Rippon” camp.
posted by darkstar at 2:18 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

Hahahaha that's the rink where I spend all of my free time, and I remember the day it was closed to "shoot a music video" recently. If I'd known Adam Rippon was there I'd have hid under the bleachers to watch!
posted by BlahLaLa at 2:20 PM on March 8, 2019 [15 favorites]

Cool, although I sometimes think this song needs a response song about respecting the friendzoning decision.
posted by BrotherCaine at 2:20 PM on March 8, 2019 [5 favorites]

The original song cropped up in Russian Doll, too. It's a weirdly creepy little gem. Interesting that it's having a moment.
posted by phooky at 2:47 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

I was a fan of Rippim before the Olympics, and was always posting about him on Facebook. When he became America’s Sweetheart, several friends told me they felt kind of smug about having heard of him before, thanks to me. Our version of the “I knew the band before it got big” kids.

It’s good to see him skating.
posted by Orlop at 3:37 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

Also, I love this song. I cane out in 1985 and definitely remember dancing to the original.
posted by Orlop at 3:40 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]

I remember in the mid 90s when The Wall finally got a ginormous kiosk where you could search for a song by lyric and I FINALLY figured out what this song was called. It was on every mix tape and CD I made for the next five years.

How I missed the narrative line of "i'm a monster, no i'm not don't talking yet, i _will_ make you love me" is a mystery to me.

I promise you
I promise you
i willl
I will
I WILL
posted by ovenmitt at 3:49 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]

I'm a fan of the stripped down Sturgill Simpson version.
posted by madajb at 4:13 PM on March 8, 2019 [7 favorites]

I always used to get OMD, Simple Minds, and When In Rome mixed up in my head. To me, they were a single chimeric supergroup. I have since learned to differentiate between them and my life is better for it.
posted by prize bull octorok at 4:14 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

Also, I agree 100% that there is not nearly enough Adam Rippon in this.
posted by Orlop at 4:44 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

I love everything about this.

But I would also take more Adam Rippon.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 5:01 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

More Adam Rippon. With the original version of the song. Because I’m an Old, and I love the overwhelming sensory flashback to dancing at Firestone in Orlando, when my body was vibrant and I moved without consequence, just emotion.
posted by Nancy_LockIsLit_Palmer at 5:10 PM on March 8, 2019 [5 favorites]

My most recent experience with watching figure skating was Yuri on Ice. I loved the move and feel of the routines, way better than I remember from when I watched as a kid (the era of the duelling Brians). Adam Rippon's routine here brought me the same joy as Yuri on Ice.
posted by mephisjo at 6:45 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

Speaking of covers, this Vitalic version for Supertramp's "Don't leave me now" is also something to hear...
posted by Roverlaw at 7:11 PM on March 8, 2019

I like the quick cutaways to Grassi and Hoying, as if they are skating. I don't care what they are wearing, but I do like the understated look on Rippon. I am not much for sparkles. And, yes... more Rippon, more skating please. Just lovely.
posted by alwayson_slightlyoff at 8:26 PM on March 8, 2019

Oh hi, I graduated prep school in 1988 and I’m going through a personal crisis where everyone I know has abandoned me and I just finished having dinner with my last and only friend in the world who told me unironically that she loved me and I love her and I appear to have swallowed a small boulder that’s lodged itself in my throat somewhere and I’m just so sick of how awful people are to each other when it is so easy to love and Adam Rippon is so much the hero we deserve right now and I’m probably going to need sedatives again to sleep tonight and ...and ...shit.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:30 PM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]

I don't have nostalgia for this song and don't love the cover and found the video kinda cringey but yeah, more Adam Rippon please.
posted by desuetude at 10:00 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

I agree the lyrics to this sing are very yikes (and no, I didn't notice that when I was young), but I could watch Adam Rippon skate all day. I now know what that British saying "he is sex on legs" means.

Also, fun fact: Today I learned he is the first openly gay male athlete to win a medal in the Winter Olympics.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:04 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

I love Superfruit. My favorite song/video combo though is Imaginary Parties.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 1:42 AM on March 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

Love the song, love Adam Rippon -- but is that one guy wearing a mullet? Come on, folks, there are some things worth reviving from the 80s but mullets are not one of them.
posted by litlnemo at 3:01 AM on March 9, 2019 [4 favorites]

I'm ready for mullets to come back! We're on the verge of the 2020's here, people. We could all use a little party in the back.
posted by phooky at 5:51 AM on March 9, 2019 [5 favorites]

When I hear this song, I always think of Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon. He's always there when needed, then disappears. Kind of the ideal boyfriend.
posted by SPrintF at 9:02 AM on March 10, 2019

Also an old that prefers the original version of the song. I like covers to do something different than the original, like a different arrangement or tempo. This cover is basically the same arrangement with over-the-top hoopla.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:56 PM on March 10, 2019