Liner Notes · No. 013
"Just a Friend" by Biz Markie: the B-side
Quick hall pass: the off-key heartbreak song from 1989 has since sold beer, closed out a del Toro movie, recruited Jeff Goldblum and opened the Emmys. Here's the B-side.
📰 FAST FACTS
- "Biz's Beat of the Day" on Yo Gabba Gabba! was made up on the spot for the pilot, because his back was too sore to do the dance segment. Improvised, then a kids' TV staple for years. Very Biz. (Rolling Stone)
- In December 2009, Biz did a RadioShack commercial repeating his line "Oh snap! Guess what I saw!" The same year as the Heineken spot. 2009 was a good year for Biz and a bad year for anyone trying to get that chorus out of their head. (Wikipedia)
- Before all the cameos, he did guest spots on In Living Color. (Wikipedia)
On this record
TRACK 1 · The cameo
A beer ad, a cartoon and a Comic-Con ambush
A 2009 beer ad brought it back, then TV, movies and a del Toro cartoon. At Comic-Con, Biz showed up and played it himself.
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The setup: "Just a Friend" never really left. It just kept waiting by the phone until somebody called it back. In 2009, somebody did: a Heineken commercial, which the Houston Press describes as a take-a-cab-home spot, put the song in front of a whole new generation. A whole generation that missed the Mozart wig got the chorus anyway. Lucky them. Nobody had to explain the wig.
The licensing run: After that, it got around. Listings credit it in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and the films The Wackness (2008) and The Sitter (2011). If a scene needs a guy realizing he's been played, this is the song on speed dial.
The big screen: In 2014, The Book of Life, the animated film produced by Guillermo del Toro and directed by Jorge Gutierrez, used the song, and the ending includes a shorter version. A del Toro cartoon signing off with a Mozart-wig breakup song. Taste recognizes taste.
The ambush: At the film's San Diego Comic-Con panel in July 2014, Biz walked on during the Q&A and performed it. Channing Tatum sang along, Christina Applegate and Ron Perlman were up there with him, and the panel ended up on its feet. People camp out at Comic-Con for a trailer. These people got Biz Markie.
One more surprise guest, and this one's a famous actor at a piano. If you stayed up for late-night TV in 2010, free points.
In 2010, which actor sat at the piano and took the first verse of "Just a Friend" with Biz on Late Night?
No Googling. We'll know.
That's Side A. Flip the tape.
Side B is where it gets weird:
- Jeff Goldblum on piano, Biz on the mic, The Roots behind them: the 2010 Late Night duet fans begged for.
- Mario's 2002 remake beat the original on the charts, the Emmys opened with it, and Axl Rose sang it to a stadium in 2021.
- A street in his hometown, a 2023 documentary, and a 2026 New York exhibit of his personal archive.
Free, every Tuesday. One song, the story you never heard, and a 10-minute hall pass from the doomscroll. Already subscribed? Enter your email to unlock.
▶ SIDE B
TRACK 2 · The live one
Goldblum on piano, Arsenio, Radio City
Jeff Goldblum took the first verse on Fallon, and 30 years on, all of Radio City sang the off-key chorus with him.
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Late Night, 2010: You got the quiz, so here's the full picture. On November 11, 2010, fans asked for it, Jimmy Fallon and The Roots set it up, and Jeff Goldblum sat down at the piano and took the first verse before Biz joined in. Goldblum singing about a girl who lies to him is somehow the most believable casting in late-night history.
Arsenio, 2014: In January 2014, Biz brought it to The Arsenio Hall Show with a live band. The 90s were back on TV, and so was the man who sang their most famous wrong notes.
Radio City, 2019: Thirty years after it came out, Biz played it at Radio City Music Hall. Rolling Stone wrote that you can hear every voice in the room join in. That's the trick of this chorus: it's so off-key that nobody is embarrassed to sing it. The most democratic song in hip-hop.
TRACK 3 · Cover watch
Mario, a cartoon band, the Emmys and Axl
Mario out-charted the original, a cartoon band hit 14 million views, and both the Emmys and Axl Rose led singalongs in 2021.
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- 2002 · Mario, "Just a Friend 2002." The Baltimore teenager's debut single, a loose cover, peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 2002, higher than the original ever got. Biz later rapped and sang the hook on a remix. Getting out-charted by a teenager with your own song, then hopping on the remix anyway: that's a man with nothing to prove.
- 2012 · Your Favorite Martian. Ray William Johnson's cartoon band covered it in May 2012 and passed 14 million YouTube views. A cartoon band covering a song about being played. The 2012 internet was a lot.
- 2021 · The Emmys. In September 2021, the Emmys opened with a TV-themed rewrite of the song as a tribute to Biz, with Cedric the Entertainer, LL Cool J, Lil Dicky and the whole room in on it. Lil Dicky reworked the second verse around nominees like Ted Lasso.
- 2021 · Axl Rose and Guns N' Roses. In August 2021, at the band's MetLife Stadium show in New Jersey, Axl led the crowd in a "Just a Friend" singalong, folded into the intro of "November Rain."
▶ WATCH THE CONTENDERS
Battle of the versions: which "Just a Friend" wins?
Cast your vote. Results in the next issue. Choose carefully: we're judging you.
TRACK 4 · Where are they now
How Biz Markie's legacy lives on
Biz Markie died in July 2021, at 57. His hometown named a street for him, and his estate supports kids in foster care.
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Biz Markie died on July 16, 2021, in Baltimore, at 57. His representative said he died peacefully, with his wife, Tara, at his side.
Home: In September 2021, his hometown of Patchogue, Long Island renamed South Street "Biz Markie Way."
On screen: In 2023, All Up in the Biz, Sacha Jenkins's documentary about him, premiered at the Tribeca Festival, then on Showtime on August 11, 2023, hip-hop's 50th birthday. That June, the BET Awards opened with a "Just a Friend" tribute.
The archive: On April 8, 2026, The Biz Markie Experience, an estate-sanctioned exhibit and living archive with more than 50 artifacts from his personal collection, opened in New York, alongside "Select Cuts," a limited print series of George DuBose's 1986 photos of him.
The catalog: In May 2026, Downtown Music Publishing signed on to represent his catalog, including sync licensing and his name-and-likeness rights. Tara Hall runs the estate, and part of the proceeds goes to the Just a Friend Foundation, which supports kids in foster care and families facing food insecurity. A song about being let down, now helping people who need someone to show up.
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