Songs That Have Shaped My Love Life
Joey Lawrence, “Nothin’ My Love Can’t Fix”
I am a little embarrassed to write about this song. Actually, this has got to be the absolute, all-time most embarrassing song that I have ever un-ironically loved, because it is so damn wholesome and sincere and I have clearly been a jaded hipster since time immemorial. But since it’s one of the tunes that has clearly shaped my views of love — all the way back from silly girlhood crushes to full-blown adult love — I will expose myself now for the greater good.
In junior high, I loved Joey Lawrence.
Joey Lawrence was one of the first celebrities I ever had a crush on (despite playing the idiotic brother, also named Joey, on Blossom), so when he put out his first album in 1993 (cleverly titled Joey Lawrence), of course I had to have it.
I remember going into a record store in Washington, DC during a class trip with my three best friends and agreeing to buy a copy of the cassette tape, split four ways. I can’t remember who ultimately got the joy of keeping the original tape (it might have actually been me, as I’m fairly certain I was the instigator of this purchase), but the rest of the group each got copies made from the original, and for my part I must have played the single “Nothin’ My Love Can’t Fix” at least once a day until my Blossom love was finally replaced by total devotion to My So-Called Life in 1994.
I wonder whatever happened to that tape?
At the time of our four-way purchase, we were at the Gallery Place Mall (which, if memory serves, may have been called the Galleria?) after visiting the National Mall. I’m sure some teacher found that juxtaposition of two very different types of “malls” to be hilarious in the same way I do now, looking back on my extremely nerdy youth some 26 years later.
The nation’s capital + capitalism = America at its finest.
Thanks to the magic of the internet, the music video of “Nothin’ My Love Can’t Fix” is available on YouTube for your enjoyment! Please, prepare yourself for shockingly wholesome imagery as well as incredibly cheesy dance moves performed by white people who are clearly ripping off hip hop culture.
Items of note in this video:
- Oddly wholesome playground with colorful graffiti
- Gaggle of girls just enjoying life, dancing and skating and performing random acrobatic feats on said playground
- “Fashion” in 1993 = wide-leg jeans with the knees cut out + plaid shirt tied around the waist + shirtless or “wife beater” tank top
- Bizarre reference to the Philly Zoo
- Two girls, clad head to toe in denim, doing double cartwheels
- So much shirtless Joey dancing! (but no grinding on the girls, because this is a tasteful, family-friendly tune!)
- Joey’s glorious hair!
I’m still pretty sure Joey’s hair was the biggest draw for me, circa 1993. But he can sing, right? He’s cute, in that nonthreatening boy way. And the lyrics are pretty interesting, as far as pop songs go, because he is making quite a big promise. He’s literally telling his girl there’s nothing my love can’t fix.
What teenage girl doesn’t want to hear that?
It’s not true, of course, but it’s a nice sentiment. The idea of a guy who wants to hear about the things that are making you sad, and who promises to make everything better somehow, is the shimmery hope from which teenage girls’ dreams are made.
Look, I know Joey Lawrence isn’t a cure for depression or anything, but that is pretty wholesome. Unless you think he is just trying to convince a girl to sleep with him, in which case I say how dare you, sir or madam, this is a playground!
“Nothin’ My Love Can’t Fix” is a great song if you have a crush on a boy that seems like he might be wrong for you, but you can’t quite put your finger on why.
Maybe it’s because your crush is 17 and you’re only 14.
Maybe it’s because there are a lot of things that love can’t, actually, fix.
Maybe it’s because that is basically the pop songmaker’s bread and butter: convincing young girls that love is all you need, when in reality there are a ton of things you’re going to need a lot more than that later in life, like a steady job, a place to live, food on the table, and a feeling that things are at least somewhat under control.
Joey Lawrence’s love can’t fix institutionalized racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, or oppression. It can’t destroy the patriarchy or make sure the best human always wins. And, not to be a jerk, but apparently it couldn’t even fix his first marriage. (Are celebrity marriages even about love? That is a whole different blog post…)
So why do pop songs perpetually try to sell us this impossible dream that love can “fix” us or that love is all you need?
I guess because it gives us hope. The hope that The One is really out there, just waiting to make your life amazing. The hope that things will get better, no matter how dark they may seem. The hope that someday your prince (or princess) will come.
The hope that love really conquers all.
This song is, ultimately, not something that you should examine too closely for depth or hold too tightly in terms of your definition of love. But it’s a song about having a crush, and sometimes a good crush can give you new motivation in life. After all, crushes make us want to be our best selves, right?
Having a crush is a little embarrassing, because it’s about exposing some of that soft side you keep armored within. This song is a little embarrassing because it reminds me of being young, having crushes on boys, and not quite knowing how to proceed. So I listened to this song instead, and fantasized about a boy who would get me, the way this boy wants to get his girl, and always make her feel special and loved.
What the critics say
If you think this song just flat-out sucks, I feel vindicated in my crush by AllMusic reviewer Bil Carpenter, who wrote: “Not your usual teeny bop fodder, Lawrence can actually sing and has gone to great lengths to make a solid pop-soul album directed at top-40 formats […] tunes are catchy without using gimmicks.”
Where are they now?
Joey Lawrence has recorded more albums since his debut. His song “Rolled” from 2011 is a bit more adult, if you’re in the mood for that. And if you’d prefer something a little more in the wholesome vein, there’s “Give It To Ya.”
Want more pop song love?
Check out Songs That Have Shaped My Love Life: Pearl Jam, “Better Man,” to learn about my first bad boy crush and why I needed Pearl Jam’s unromantic song about a relationship gone wrong to show me the error of my ways.
