Throwback Thursday ‘Just A Friend 2002′ by Mario

I had a Mass Communications professor tell me to be wary of any singer, band, or performer that gets famous off of a cover because it means they probably didn't have enough talent to do something original.

In some cases it is true, but not for Mario. He was only 15 when this song came out, which means I was around 15 as well. (Gosh, how did that happen.)

Anyway, Mario went on to star in movies and have a pretty good music career, but it all started with a cover of Biz Markie's "Just A Friend."

Markie's version is about finding out your significant other is cheating on you, but for young Mario's version the storyline is changed to unrequited love.

The video was filmed in Mario's hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. And many of the sports jerseys are Baltimore teams. And about those jerseys, remember when that was cool to wear clothes 10x too big? What were we thinking?

Markie makes a couple cameos in the video. And if you look real close, singer Cassie is in the video as well.

The song did better on the charts than the original. According to Wikipedia:

It outperformed Markie's 1989 version on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at #4, while Markie's peaked at #9.

 

The song was also covered on Kidz Bop 3.

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