'Behind the Music' - My 10 Favorite Episodes

Since college, I've been a fan of biographical shows. Even though I've enjoyed episodes of Biography on A&E and the various specials on the History Channel, my favorite has always been VH1's Behind the Music. The range of artists and events in rock history featured kept things from getting stale, and the writing and narration by Jim Forbes made the stories of even maligned acts like Milli Vanilli fascinating.

Yet, despite just about everything that ever found a TV audience getting put up on various streaming apps, Behind the Music has never gotten that treatment. Sure, some people have uploaded select episodes to YouTube and Vimeo, but VH1 has never made the whole series available for streaming, not even on their app or website. C'mon, VH1! This deserves more attention than reality shows with Hulk Hogan or Danny Bonaduce! As part of my call for VH1 to make the entire show available somewhere, I'm going to name my ten favorite episodes. Just so we're clear, the picks are not about what I think of the artists in question or their musical output. This is about how interesting VH1 made their stories.

Aerosmith

America's greatest rock band was the only artist to get a two-hour episode of the show. The episode juxtaposed the band's turbulent and drug-fueled history with a behind the scenes look at their preparations for the "Just Push Play" tour that was about to begin at that point. Even if Aerosmith wasn't my favorite band of all-time, I'd still rank their episode as one of my favorites.

The Day the Music Died

This was probably the most important episode of the show as it first premiered on the 40th anniversary of the most infamous plane crash in rock history. VH1 gives the moment all the care possible, from the start of the careers of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper to the aftermath of the tragedy. It's amazing they fit so much into 90 minutes.

Def Leppard

"Rock music's most blessed and cursed band", as VH1 described them, was a hypnotic hour. Every major moment was covered, including Pete Willis drinking himself out of the band, the Corvette crash that took Rick Allen's left arm, and the depression and drugs that claimed Steve Clark. The Remastered episode went even further, detailing the band's attempts to change with the times.

Garbage

Not every episode had to be overloaded with tragedy. The story of the band Garbage was intriguing even though it primarily focused on two things: Butch Vig's attempts to escape Nirvana's long shadow after Kurt Cobain's death and Shirley Manson's lifelong struggle with her low self-esteem. Those were enough to make a great story.

The Goo Goo Dolls

How could an episode be interesting with an almost complete lack of tragedy? The Goo Goo Dolls found the struggle for success to be interesting enough. Johnny Rzeznik and Robby Takac detail the struggle to break out of the punk underground, the fights with their first record label, the surprise success with an acoustic ballad, and the case of writer's block that threatened the band's career just as it was taking off.

The Monkees

Four guys who were hired to pretend to be a band on TV wanted to become a real band. Michael Nesmith's fights with Don Kirshner over the music, the failure of the movie Head, and the career slump after the cancellation of the TV show got the lion's share of the episode. However, time was also given to the MTV-powered resurgence of the group. Great stuff.

Oasis

This episode came in very handy when I was researching my Britpop article. Amazingly, the episode didn't spend the whole time talking about Liam and Noel Gallagher's constant fighting. It did give time to the band's meth abuse which led to them being convinced they could do no wrong. You may need subtitles on; I struggled to understand Liam through his thick accent.

TLC

The 90s R&B trio had a career so crazy, sexy, and cool that they got two episodes. T-Boz's struggles with sickle-cell anemia, Left Eye's drunken rage that led to arson, the most shocking case of bankruptcy imaginable, and the attempts to go on after the death of Left Eye got a lot of weight in the story. They even gave time to Chilli's search for her long-lost father. Two fascinating and often funny hours here.

Vanilla Ice

I'm not a fan of Vanilla Ice. Never was; never will be. However, his story is one of the most interesting ever featured on the show. From his sudden success to his selling out. From his hard fall to his attempts to rebuild his life after a suicide attempt. Rob Van Winkle's story could be the archetype for the show itself.

"Weird Al" Yankovic

I mentioned before that "Weird Al" is one of my favorite artists of all time. His episode is every bit as unpredictable and funny as he is. Though his story primarily dealt with his struggle to be taken seriously in the music industry, it was laced with his special brand of insanity. I just love this episode!

What do you think? Any more episodes that deserve to be spotlighted? Let me know, and join me in requesting that VH1 release the show somewhere. The show is awesome, and people want to see it again.