This song is so bad it’s good. Here’s the formula for its success.

Take one-part Paula Abdul phrasing (think about “Straight Up” as you listen to “Whole Wide World”).

Insert New Jack Swing and synthpop sounds (the kind of sound heard on “Friends” by Jody Watley and Eric B. and Rakim).

Add a dash of a Debbie Gibson girl-next-door vibe (think about “Out of the Blue” or “Only in My Dreams”).

Then add a heaping stack of pre-Britney Spears cuteness with a singer who looks an awful lot like the young Britney Spears circa “Hit Me Baby One More Time” and “Sometimes.”

Credit the song by the completely forgotten A’me Lorain and you have a Top 10 Billboard hit on your hands.

Best of all, no one remembers this song, or A’me Lorain who now goes by the name of Amy Trujillo.

Confused? Or does it all make perfect sense?

Listen now and watch the video. Am I wrong? Does this song out-Britney Britney Spears a full 8 years before …Baby One More Time was released.

A’me Lorain sounds a bit like Britney. And she looks a lot like 1998-2000 Britney Spears before all the craziness began and she was still America’s sweetheart (or something like that).

“Whole Wide World” was featured in an equally forgotten movie titled True Love . That helped propel “Whole Wide World” by A’me Lorain to #9 on the Billboard Top 40 in 1990, making Lorain a one-hit wonder.

Is it one of the worst one hit wonders ever? Or possibly the greatest?

While the song is awesomely late 1980s and early 1990s bad with its punchy synth and big electronic drum sound, the title of the album from A’me Lorain & The Family Affair is even more awesome: Starring In…Standing in a Monkey Sea.

Man I love the silliness of pop music.

Listen to Whole Wide World by A’me Lorain