Amy

    Here is my Tiffany story:
It was about September 1987 and school had started up and I was in the 5th grade and I invited my best friend Heather over, who had been my friend since kindergarten (since I had just moved 30 miles away from where we used to live, we didn't go to the same school anymore). Heather was always up-to-date on the hottest music and I'd told her on the phone to bring her Madonna and Cyndi Lauper tapes, so she did. She brought a whole case of tapes.
  "Do you like Tiffany?" she asked, holding up a cassette with a picture of a girl with the reddest hair I'd ever seen.
  I had never heard of TIffany but didn't want to be embarrassed so I said, "Oh, yes!" We began to play the tape and sing along. We loved "I THink WE're Alone Now".
    I was sort of a bookworm, and usually spent my allowance on books. I know that if I'd asked my dad for money to buy Tiffany he would have given me money, but I didn't want to ask. I kept up with Tiff by listening to her heavily played hits on the radio. Anyway pretty soon my friend from school, Amber had Tiffany and she brought her baby boombox to school and we'd play it and sing along. My friend Jack had the tape, too and he thought she was cute. By spring 1988, I guess I had forgotten about it. Occasionally I'd be reminded by an article in 'Teen, mine and Heather's fave magazine of all time. But I was preoccupied. Occasionally I'd hear her on the radio. In summer '88 I had an awakening when KUBE 93 fm (a local Seattle radio station) had a girl on the phone by the name of Tiffany. The deejay played the first part of a song and had this girl Tiffany name the song. (She named it right away; it was "Somewhere Out There") To this day I don't know if that was Tiffany the pop star or some other girl Tiffany. ANyway it got me     That next school year I was looking at one of those cassette order forms in a magazine and one of them said "Tiffany: Hold An Old Friend's Hand" and I thought about her some more. SO she was still around!
    That spring I really got into Debbie GIbson and collected all of her singles. That summer my brother brought up the subject of TIffany and then I decided I wanted her tapes so next time I went to the mall I looked in the singles section cause I never had enough money to buy the album. They were loaded with Tiffany singles! I could not find "I THink We're Alone Now" so I bought "I Saw Him Standing There".
    Took it home. It had a cool picture on the inside and two bonus trax. At first I didn't care for her as much as Debbie Gibson but by September 1989 I was hungry for more Tiffany! I loved playing that single full blast as I'd get dolled up for school in the mornings! I wanted her album bad! I saved up my money for two weeks and Dad said he'd take me to the mall after church Sunday. I was PUMPED! As I sat in the pew in my Sunday best, I could hardly pay attention to the sermon. Tiffany songs pounded in my head! I had to stop jerking my head to the music in my head. Dad got me to the mall just before opening time so we went inside and I parked myself outside of Musicland and waited until the cage opened and rushed in and bought it. Came back out and sat down and opened it up and looked at it. One of the songs on it was Danny! I gasped. DANNY! Could this be a message from my maker? I thought. The guy I had a mAAAAAJor crush on was a Danny--actully preferrably Dan. But you get the idea.
    I almost played that tape to death. Every morning, I'd get up, play Tiffany, get a bowl of cereal and hole up in my room and play Tiffany while I ate. Mom had to almost drag me to school. I'd sit in class and think of Tiffany and her music. One day I could not concentrate on my studies and could not wait to get home to TIffany so I told the teacher I was ill and called Mom to come get me. She wasn't too happy about having to come get me but she came and I went home and played Danny over and over. By January 1990 I had accquired her second tape, "HOld An Old Friend's Hand". By springtime I had the single "All This TIme" and I loved the bonus track "Can't Stop A Heartbeat"> KILLER SONG!!! My love obsession at age 13. I felt like all Tiffany's songs were based on my crush on Dan, my brother's friend.
    I was really disappointed to find that there were no more Tiffany singles in the music stores. Either they sold out or didn't reorder. At school the kids were into Bop, Big Bopper, Teen Beat, etc and I'd see Tiffany in there but New Kids, which I never cared for, was the rage and everyone seemed to put Tiffany down. I started buying the magazines for TIffany. I wanted to learn all about her, and always felt like I was denied. They'd tell a little, but not enough. A lot of magazines mocked her and had cutting things to say about her. How could anyone hate Tiffany?? My friends who were once Tiffany fans seemed to have lost interest. Tiffany sort of dissolved from the headlines of the teenie mags. The next year I began to hear about a third TIffany album and was elated. I went to the grocery store with Mom and I looked at the magazines and found two with TIffany in them and Mom bought them for me. Then I kept going back to Musicland to see if her album was out yet. When it was I was overjoyed. However I was disappointed in that It was so different from the George Tobin style. I didn't care for R&B. But it was Tiffany!!! I guess after that year 1991, Tiffany faded and my desire sort of went dormant. In 1993 my brother's girlfriend said that Tiffany got married and had a baby and I was surprised. I was kind of sad that I'd missed that article but had become exhausted checking the magazines every month or so.
    Anyway It wasn't until 1997 that i was fooling around on the internet and decided to check for Tiffany and boy was I surprised. I felt like everyone had deserted her. I would like to thank all of you wonderful people for your love and support and for helping me to see that I'm not alone in my appreciation to this lovely lady and #1 star!
God bless you!!!

   Amy Flink (October 18th, 1999)