Throwback Thursday - Winona Forever

Happy 49th birthday to Winona Ryder!

Now you may ask yourself, "Dave, what does Winona's birthday have to do with your Throwback Thursday tune?"

Ryder has many musical connections, many of which we'll detail in today's post. Let's start with the obvious - the soundtrack to Reality Bites.

One of her most well known films, Reality Bites was about a group of friends and the challenges they face that exemplified some of the career and lifestyle choices faced by Generation X.

The soundtrack featured artists that fit the bill for a Gen X audience. From The Juliana Hatfield 3 to Lenny Kravitz, Me Phi Me and Crowded House. It introduced us to Lisa Loeb and her song "Stay (I Missed You)" and made us pine for the 1970s with the classic track "My Sharona" by The Knack.

Let's move on to music videos.

Ryder has appeared in six music videos to date ranging from her first in 1989 ("Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child" by Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper) to a 2012 appearance in The Killer's "Here With Me".

Other fun Winona/music ties:

- In the movie Heathers, the school that Veronica Sawyer and all the Heathers attend is Westerburg High School. Named after Paul Westerburg, lead singer of the band The Replacements (Ryder's favorite band of all time).

- She also mentioned in an interview once that the song "Sixteen Blue" by The Replacements inspired her performance in the movie Mermaids.

Finally, this post wouldn't be complete without today's Throwback Thursday tune, "Winona" by Matthew Sweet.

Fellow musician Lloyd Cole suggested the title, Sweet explained. "I didn't have a title for a long time and he knew that I liked the movie Heathers. He thought that we should call it `Winona' because I wanted a kind of a country title and at the time she was still a lot more obscure." (notice that Winona is never uttered in the lyrics)