The Gigolo Aunts – “Where I Find My Heaven” (1993)

This song is probably forever associated with the really stupid 1994 Jim Carrey/Jeff Daniels “comedy” (and I use that term very loosely) Dumb and Dumber since it appears on the soundtrack. But thinking about “Where I Find My Heaven” in context to that film, or even as merely just a one-hit wonder in a field of alterna-‘90s one-hit wonders, is to do it no justice. It’s a brazenly good, sing-a-long-able pop song with hooks so big and powerful, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it wasn’t written by the late Alex Chilton. “Where I Find My Heaven” is a sheer (power) pop masterpiece. What’s more, the proper album that it comes from, the Gigolo Aunts’ Flippin’ Out – released in 1993 in the UK by Fire Records, then rereleased with a slightly different track listing in the US the following year by RCA – is full of songs that are equally as good as “Where I Find My Heaven”.

From the gun-control lobby message song “Gun” to the swooning “Lullaby” to the rocking one-two punch of “Cope” and “Bloom”, it’s hard to see why this Boston-based group wasn’t firmly embraced by the American public, just like their city peers the Cavedogs. Thankfully, the album is available on iTunes – I live in Canada, so I get the Fire Records version, meaning that I’m missing out on some great songs such as “Ride On, Baby, Ride On” and “Lemon Peeler” that didn’t make the UK release, alas – and is worthy of discovering or, as in my case, rediscovering. In any event, “Where I Find My Heaven” is the showstopper on an album thick with showstoppers, and should be remembered for what it is: an incredibly smart, not dumb and dumber, pop song.