Retro Spins: Michael Bolton - Soul Provider

 

For better or worse, Michael Bolton would ditch his hard rock persona from previous records, instead adopting the more softer crooner side which had started to show itself during his 1987 released The Hunger. Between 1987 and 1988, the artist was in a dire financial situation and facing a potential career end with label Columbia. Facing foreclosure on his home, during nights you could find him loading trucks until 4:00 AM in Bridgeport Connecticut, then driving straight to the studio to cut tracks.

Though Columbia considered shelving the album, and dropping him, they ultimately decided to release, How Am I Supposed To Live Without You, as a single in January 1989. The track would shoot up the charts to number one, with royalties providing the financial relief Bolton needed to get his home back. This was followed by the full album in June.

Soul Provider produced five top forty hits and spent almost four years on the Billboard 200. Selling over six million copies, it would become his biggest seller to date, being certified 6X platinum in the USA alone. It would also go multiplatinum in Canada, Australia, and the UK, while reaching Gold in New Zealand. By 1990, his peak annual income reached between ten and twelve million dollars, definitely putting to rest his financial difficulties...for the time being.

The album certainly has its hits, and I appreciate it for that. Though most of them aren't my cup of tea. It does, however, also contains my all-time favorite from him; How Can We Be Lovers If We Can't Be Friends.

While I know a lot of the "hit" tracks, mainly the songs, Georgia On My Mind, How Am I Supposed To Live Without You, and When I'm Back On My Feet Again, I was hoping that there would be other hidden gems among them. I found this in, You Wouldn't Know Love, a tune noted as one of the singles, but which I don't recall ever hearing before.

Michael Bolton entered the 1990's with his even bigger success, Time, Love & Tenderness (1991), which sold even more copies than Soul Provider. Unfortunately, this would begin a long legal battle, when the Isley Brothers filed suit in 1992 over copyright infringement and plagiarism of their 1966 song, Love Is A Wonderful Thing. The suit wouldn't be settled until April of 1994. Not only was it in favor of the Isley's, granting them a 5.4-million-dollar judgement, but the longevity racked up massive legal fees for both parties, which Bolton and his label were ultimately responsible for.

Rather than accept the verdict, Bolton continued to pursue appeals, racking up even more legal fees through 2000, when all of this was ultimately denied in federal appeals, and the verdict upheld. Though his label would pay all cost associated with the suit, they would then sue Bolton and co-writer Andrew Goldmark to recoup those damages, as they argued the infringement was their fault.

While all of this didn't serve to impact his overall wealth, what did happen was that his album sales started to drop, and his popularity waned. The once 8 and 6X platinum seller dropped to 4x in 1992, 3X by 1993, and just platinum in 1996. Things only got worse from there with his 1997 album that only went gold and would serve to be his last for Columbia Records. All future albums to date (2023) would see him label hopping and not selling enough units to reach any sales certifications.

Bolton took another blow when in 1999 he was the brunt of the joke in MTV's film, Office Space. The once respected adult contemporary artist was now the punchline across America.

Regardless, the story does have a happy ending. In 2011, Bolton would lean into the joke himself, joining The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone) on their album Turtleneck & Chain for the track, Jack Sparrow. It's debut on SNL would take the internet by storm, making it one of the hottest trending searches and songs for weeks. As of 2025, it has over 247 million views, and that number just keeps growing, sustaining long term popularity. I dare say it's what he'll be remembered for most when it's all said and done.

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Disclaimer: They Toy Box does not endorse or contribute to piracy. Retro Spins posts are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. None of the music discussed here is available for sale, downloading or distribution.

Battlestar Galactica (Wonder Bread)

Battlestar Galactica
Wonder Bread
1978

George over at G.I. Jigsaw is the person who hipped me to the existence of these cards. In doing so, I not only learned about this particular set, but also several others which Wonder Bread ran as a promotion in their bread bags throughout the 1970's. As such, there's definitely more to come in this regard here at The Toy Box. For now though, let me focus in on these 1978 Battlestar Galacatic trading cards.

Much like the 1977 Star Wars set, the concept was simple. Buy a loaf of bread, and inside specially marked packages find a single trading card. However, unlike that aforementioned set, which included sixteen cards, this all new series consisted of thirty-six cards in total! If you thought you were making a lot of sandwiches before to make a complete set, try going for this one!

Let's do the math!

A single twenty ounce bag of Wonder Bread houses twenty-two slices of bread. Considering most people don't eat the lackluster thinly sliced end pieces, we'll drop that down to twenty. So ten sandwiches per bag, times thirty-six cards, giving a high luck roll on your D20 that you're going to get each card in just one attempt, that's three hundred sixty sandwiches. If you eat one sandwich a day, that's just shy of one year it's going to take you to get a full set. Again, that's considering you're lucky and don't get any duplicates.

Or...You could just fill out the form and submit for a full set in one fell swoop to Wonder Bread via their mail in offer. But who wants to do that? That would defeat the purpose of "collecting" a set.

Anyway, regardless of how one would have gone about obtaining this series, below is what you would eventually end up with as a full set.

Much like the prior Star Wars set, it's relatively easy to obtain a complete for very cheap. Ten dollars was the last price I saw these hovering around. If you're a true fanatic, you can also try your luck at obtaining a full graded set. However, doing so will set you back between $10.00 and $25.00 per card.

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Star Wars (Wonder Bread)

Before I start, there was a little weekend activity here at The Toy Box. Scroll down past today's post to see my review of Funko's Married With Children figure set, as well as, an offer for some free CD's.

Star Wars
Wonder Bread
1977

Though the images may look familiar to fans of the original blue border Topps cards, make no mistake, these Wonder Bread premiums were not from Topps.

In 1977, Wonder Bread struck a deal which would allow them to produce a small batch of cards to be packed in with their bread at local grocers. One of sixteen cards could be found inside each loaf, making this set challenging (to say the least) for your average consumer to complete if doing so based on buying bread. Fortunately, Wonder Bread offered an easier solution, where customers could send in for a complete set. As such, while these cards are highly desirable to may Star Wars fans, they're rather in abundance.

Each card showcased either a character or ship on the front, and featured a beautiful (if I do say so myself) blue border Star Wars logo running down the side (or bottom if the card was horizontal). The outer black border helps not only this, but the yellow banner at the bottom "pop". In short, these cards are beautifully designed. Well, the fronts anyway.

The backs of the cards are rather bland with their all white color and plain black text. Sure, it provides a bit of insight to the character or ship on the front, but at the same time, it's yawn inducing.

Like I said above, these cards are fairly common. A full mint condition set can easily be purchased for as little as $20.00 to $25.00. However, it is because of this that several dealers have taken to getting these cards graded. Though the majority of the cards garner an 8 to 9 grade, those few which have gotten 10's can go for $2,000.00 each! I'm not personally a fan of professional grading systems, but dang! That's a heck of a price jump!

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