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Deborah Gibson doesn't forget the past. She still has her collection of hats stored away in her Manhattan apartment, and has even kept a bottle of Electric Youth perfume. All she has to do to be reminded of her Debbie years is open the Guinness
Book of World Records. Thirteen years on from the No. 1 "Foolish Beat," Gibson still holds the record as the youngest person to write, record, and produce a chart-topper.
"I would never disown what I've done," she told Celebrity Style magazine in 1999. "I'm not embarrassed by it. I'm exactly who I was, but older. There's no mystery."
In fact, her nine top 40 singles, beginning with 1987's "Only in My Dreams," and two top 10 albums - Out of the Blue and Electric Youth - seem something like a blip in her impressive career as a star of musical theater. Gibson was performing with the Metropolitan Opera children's chorus when she was only 8 years old, and by 11 she was wowing the Bellmore Jewish Center, on New York's Long Island, in Gypsy as Baby June.
"I always treated my pop career like a theater career, which is what people don't really realize," she told Florida's Weekly News. "When I was at the labels, they were always amazed that I would show up on time, and they were amazed that I studied voice. They were amazed that they didn't have to provide a vocal coach for me on the road - it's like, no, no, no, that's part of my craft."
Since "Anything Is Possible" slipped off the charts in 1990, Gibson has gone back to the stage. In 1992 she appeared as Eponine in Les Miserables on Broadway. She had actually won the part of the female lead back in 1985, but the producers had to turn her down after they discovered she was only 15. Gibson turned to pop music and the rest is a story of white socks, black hats, and oversized shirts.
In 1993 Gibson also tackled Grease, playing the virginal Sandy in a London revival, then touring with the show across America, only this time in the role of the sassy Pink Lady Rizzo. She's also played Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, the Narrator in Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and returned to Gypsy - only this time playing the stripper Gypsy Rose Lee opposite Broadway star Betty Buckley. Currently she's touring as the lead in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella.
She's also become more serious about movie work. While few saw her appearance in the 1999 indie film Wedding Band, Gibson's next big project is producing and starring in Teen Queens, a VH1 Movie That Rocks. The fictional story plays on the rivalry she enjoyed with shopping mall diva Tiffany during her top 40 heyday while recalling Gypsy's story of pushy stage mothers.
Gibson hasn't stopped making music of her own, either, taking inspiration from her own label Golden Egg Records and her enduring popularity in the Far East. Her albums Body Mind Soul (1993) and Deborah (1997) saw her become a more mature songwriter, she made headlines again in 1995 with a goofy cover of the Soft Boys' "I Wanna Destroy You," recorded with Los Angeles punks the Circle Jerks.
New album M.Y.O.B. (Mind Your Own Business) sees her duetting with Tony Orlando on his '70s chestnut "Knock Three Times," but Gibson will continue to write songs. One pet project is Skirts, a self-penned musical about two girls taking part in a dance competition at the St. Louis World Fair.
"When you're a writer, you're a writer every day of your life," she said. "People will say, 'Oh, are you writing the next album?' and I'll say, 'What do you mean? I've been gathering material since I was 12!' The one consistent thing that I always come back to is my music."
One song in particular will continue to follow her around. "'Electric Youth' [is] the cheesiest and it's the one I think I'm most associated with," she told Music Choice magazine in 1999. "I met a casting director the other day who said, 'You don't understand, I am an electric youth.' And I was like, 'Get over it. You're in your 30s. My God!'"
Sounds like older and wiser to us.
For more information about Deborah Gibson, visit her Web site Deborah-Gibson.com.
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