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Dinosaurs
It took a while, but Dinosaurs is finally streaming on Disney+. The show disappeared from Hulu a while back, and we’ve been living without the Sinclair family and their deeply silly yet politically aware humor even since. And now that it’s streaming on Disney+ (alongside an expanding library of classic Jim Henson content), millennial parts can finally revisit this bizarrely charming series and subject their kids to it. Of course, revisiting Dinosaurs means revisiting the kooky, inexplicable single “I’m the Baby (Gotta Love Me).”
If you journey back in time to pop culture prehistory, you’ll find the fossils of so many tie-in singles. CDs were relatively new and finally affordable, so every TV show wanted in! The Simpsons released an album with the single “Do the Bartman” (featuring Michael Jackson), the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles went on Oprah to promote their concert tour and promotional Pizza Hut album “Coming Out of their Shells,” and The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer both dropped soundtracks “inspired” by the shows. That’s not even taking into account all the CDs compiling TV theme songs (or muzak, knock-off versions) from 40 years of TV history. So yeah, when you put it that way, of course this catchphrase-stuffed sitcom about a family of generic dinosaur puppets had to have a tie-in album!
That album was “Big Songs,” released in October 1992 and tied to the Season 3 Halloween-inspired episode “Little Boy Boo.” When the main plot of “Little Boy Boo” concludes (Robbie tells a story about a dino-teen turning into a were-man), that’s when the party starts. And that’s when Baby Sinclair cashes in on all that fame he’d accrued over the past year and a half.
“I’m the Baby (Gotta Love Me)” is completely ridiculous, even by ’90s commercial tie-in standards. Instead of going full new jack swing like “Do the Bartman” or doing hard rock for kindergartners like the Ninja Turtles, the Jim Henson crew decided to drop their immensely popular rascal and give him an anthem that’s a straight-up, aw sucks showtune. It’s like the upbeat, banjo-driven B-side of Kermit’s “Rainbow Connection.” It’s so out of place with what was going on in music at the moment. For example, hit songs of fall 1992 include “End of the Road” by Boyz II Men, “Erotica” by Madonna, and “Free Your Mind” by En Vogue. Do you hear any of that in this? There is an obligatory rap breakdown in “I’m the Baby” but it’s pint-sized and includes the line “I take every chance to make a poop in my pants.”
Is “I’m the Baby (Gotta Love Me)” a bop? Depends on how wide your definition of “bop” is. I mean, if I’m using the term “bop,” I figure it’s gotta be pretty wide by now—wide enough to include a little ditty about a baby dinosaur puppet who knows how to manipulate his family by pushing the limits society has set for a parent’s unconditional love. He’s the baby and you literally have to love him! It’s a peculiar tie-in to an even more peculiar show, and it’s even more peculiar-ier when you look at the pop culture that surrounded it. We know why “I’m the Baby (Gotta Love Me)” happened ($$$), but we may never know why it happened like this.
Once you’re done listening to “I’m the Baby,” you can always check out the rest of Dinosaurs‘ “Big Songs” on YouTube. Who knows—one of these could be your song of the summer.
