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I won't be able to get here later and post my "Recreated Chart" from this week under Irishbear's, so I'll post it here. To organize them, I check out the three charts I was in tune with at this point (Dance, Modern Rock, Hot 100), found the ones I owned, and organized them according to how much I loved (love) them. It's funny, I can still remember when I bought some of these, and my ranking here would be pretty accurate to how I felt about them back then. Come 2005, I'll have an iPod/iTunes keeping track of my plays, and it became MUCH easier to list. May 8, 1993 1. Give it all Away - World Party 2. Pressure (US version) - Sunscreem 3. Chemical - New Order 4. Phorever People - Shamen 5. Come Undone - Duran Duran 6. Regret - New Order 7. The Right Decision - Jesus Jones 8. Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang - Dre feat. Snoop 9. More and More - Captain Hollywood Project 10. Is it Like Today? - World Party 11. Exterminate! - Snap! 12. Feed the Tree - Belly 13. Young Offender - New Order 14. Sweet Harmony - The Beloved 15. Step It Up- Stereo MCs 16. Show Me Love - Robyn 17. Ditty - Paperboy 18. Don’t Walk Away - Jade 19. Hip Hop Hooray - Naughty by Nature 20. What’s Up? - 4 Non Blondes 21. Ordinary World - Duran Duran 22. Zeroes and Ones - Jesus Jones 23. Two Princes - Spin Doctors 25. Bad Boys - Inner Circle A few things about this list: *In my opinion, "Pressure" is the BEST Sunscreem song - "Love U More" is more pop-oriented, and more appealing lyrics, but this jam is FRANTIC. It would be my favorite 90s song, except for 2 things: -"Everlong" exists, and -My favorite Shamen song is rising up the charts right behind Sunscreem, and is my 90s "Vienna Calling". I still play "Forever People" a couple times a month, as I do "Everlong" *I love "Is It Like Today?" - after all, I love history, but World Party's "Give it All Away" hits all the right buttons. *New Order had a couple of nice singles off Republic, but they should've released "Chemical" and "Young Offender" https://youtu.be/fh4zKCV1kd0 https://youtu.be/LHiOb1toqGc
This was an absolute jam.
Tom is covering this one...which is why it remained unmentioned by him!
4-8-9 I've become a member of the Borg.
I can't believe Bobby Ross Avila shows up in the column. I was going to post a series of cassingles I owned from this time ('89-'93) that don't exist on Spotify, but decided it was too much work and too much of an embarrassment...but what the hell. Here's the one I owned. Not sure where it charted, 'cause it wasn't Billboard: https://youtu.be/H4qN5t_bvss
This song is coming up in my recreated chart of this week, as will another World Party song. Bang! might have been Wallinger's best work, Waterboys not withstanding.
Middle School dances? Tom, they were freaky even before Silk, Jodeci et al were providing the music. I was in sixth grade in 1980-81, and our class was the "outcast" one - the other four sixth-grade classes rarely bothered with us. So what did we do at a school dance? PLAYED SPIN THE BOTTLE. In a corner of the cafeteria/dance floor. No teachers around. Also had a classmate, Denise, pin me in the corner and told me things she wanted me to do. Her recent boy-toy had moved, and she needed someone to play with during recess...I kid you not. This...scared me. At eleven, I certainly wasn't ready. I attempted to extricate myself from the aggressively hormonal female...and ran my face into a flagpole. The black eye and fat lip did NOT make me look like a tough guy.
The Washington Federals have joined the chat room. I used to love all things USFL, crushed when The Orange One destroyed that league.
Ozmoe, happy birthday! Groundhog Day is the BEST of our holidays!!!
Wasn't she like 15 or 16?
I just created a Britpop playlist, with the intention of including all the artists TNOCS will cover. Right now it's just all Blur, all the time...and I'm okay with it. (I know The Great Escape front to back better than their other albums, but I do love them all, up to 13)
I was today years old when I realized the entendre, double entendre and triple entendre.
7-4-4-8 I always had a weak spot for Dr. Hook.
Not a big Annie Lennox fan, but Utah Saints could do no wrong.
I was definitely a Ned's fan, even through their next album (track 4 was amazing). Wished more people would remember "Grey Cell Green" and "Happy", though I love their first EP and most of their deep tracks.
1: Snow 2: Dre/Snoop 3: Jade 4: Faith No More 5: Spin Doctors 6: ?? 7: Paperboy (strongest entries!)
Someone did their homework. https://allthatsinteresting.com/it-was-a-good-day-actual-date
It's a shame talc never made the charts.
Good morning all! Monday's entry had the comments on lockdown, so there weren't any to choose from - would've been a great day to post the stereotypical ones...but I wasn't around. I have to admit - beginning with Jody Watley's "Friends", I was a HUGE fan of the rap bridge...until this song. Without it, "Informer" is at least an 8, maybe a 9. With it? I'd have to give it a 6. I've really been waiting to post the "Informer" comments. Snow’s “Informer” top YouTube official music video comments: 1. My wife thought till this day that he was saying "I'm a farmer". Have to laugh so hard every time I hear this song 😅 2. I used to be a fan, but after hearing this masterpiece, I’m a whole air conditioner 3. Whoever can understand this song 100% deserves a linguistic or English PhD from Harvard. 4. His singing sounds like a doctor's handwriting. 5. "The listening portion of the exam is simple, don't worry!" The listening portion of the exam: 6. I can't wait until the English version comes out! 7. Drake: "I'm Canada's best rapper" Snow: "Hold my cocaine" 8. Expectation: A Jamaican gangster Reality: John from accounting 9. When he said "Informer, y'nosidonamistomiagoblame" I felt that. 10. “What’s the password?” “It’s on the back of the router.” Back of the router:
"Do You Remember the First Time" was the LAST CD single I ever bought. From there on out, it was Napster! Disco 2000 was my circle of friends' theme song my first year in Damascus. The big club downtown was called Jackson's Hole (the MOST unfortunate name of a club, EVER - especially there was a statue of The Gloved One in front of the entrance), and we would sing D2000 while acting out the lyrics in the middle of the dance floor. Also, it was the song I was SUPPOSED to sing, onstage, into a microphone and in front of an audience with an expatriate band that was making musical waves. Instead, they kicked into "She's Electric" by Oasis...which has a falsetto. I should never attempt to do falsetto.
I think two things happened that were unrelated to what was going on socially/culturally, and this may have impacted the rise of these behemoths. 1. SoundScan: first the first time, Billboard was actually tracking what was happening on the airwaves and in the record stores, not having people "report" what was going on. So 13-14 week runs MIGHT have been possible before, but if individuals were responsible for what they thought was happening, it would be typical for them to feel fatigue towards songs that had been on top. 2. Consolidation within the record industry - the 1980s were a period in which the "Big 6" were squeezing out other competitors, and in the 90s they would begin cannibalizing themselves. Less competition, easier to stay on top.
February 27, 1993 1 Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang: Dr. Dre 2 Hip Hop Hooray: Naughty by Nature 3 Devil You Know: Jesus Jones 4 Feed the Tree: Belly 5 Start Choppin’: Dinosaur Jr 6 Don’t U Want Me: Felix 7 Ditty: Paperboy 8 Don’t Walk Away: Jade 9 Ordinary World: Duran Duran 10 Push the Feeling On: Nightcrawlers 11 Wembley: Candyskins 12 I Got a Man: Positive K 13 Goodbye: Sundays 14 Rebirth of Slick: Digable Planets 15 Mr Wendal: Arrested Development 16 Love U More: Sunscreem 17 It Was a Good Day: Ice Cube 18 (future #1 redacted) 19 Connected: Stereo MCs 20 Step it Up: Stereo MCs 21 I’m So Into You: SWV 22 Not Sleeping Around: Ned’s Atomic Dustbin 23 Thing Goin’ On: Betty Boo 24 I’m Every Woman: Whitney Houston 25 I Got My Education: Uncanny Alliance **Gangsta Bitch: Apache I'm hoping someone gives time to the last two songs here, as I think their stories are worth telling. "I Got My Education" was a response to Crystal Waters' hit, and "Gangsta Bitch" was a tongue-in-cheek view of life in the projects produced by Q-Tip...or was it? https://youtu.be/muntNTNV_80 https://youtu.be/84DR3VfFO-k
January 9, 1993 1 Ditty: Paperboy 2 Everything’s Gonna Be Alright: Father MC 3 Mr. Wendal: Arrested Development 4 Pussycat Meow: Deee-Lite 5 I Got a Man: Positive K 6 Not Sleeping Around: Ned’s Atomic Dustbin 7 Step it Up: Stereo MCs 8 Ordinary World: Duran Duran 9 Here We Go Again: Portrait 10 Halcyon: Orb 11 Tones of Home: Blind Melon 12 Don’t Walk Away: Jade 13 Don’t U Want Me: Felix 14. Bit Piece: Lemonheads 15 Boss Drum: The Shamen 16 Exterminate!: Snap! 17 7: Prince 18 I Must Increase My Bust: Lords of Acid 19 Temple of Dreams: Messiah 20 Two Princes: Spin Doctors 21 Love U More: Sunscreen 22 Supermodel: RuPaul 23. Digging in the Dirt: Peter Gabriel 24. Dim: Dada I only 24 deep here, because #25 was an upcoming #1...but my #1 was the only Top 100 hit for Paperboy, who released "Ditty" in November '92, and would peak in the Top 20 early in 1993. It samples Zapp's "Doo Wa Ditty", and is a lighter West Coast rap affiliated with Eazy E and G Funk, and with a Grammy nomination under his belt, brighter things seemed in Paperboy's future...but the followup album City to City fell flat. Eight years later his third album did the same, and unfortunately Paperboy's legacy seems to be a one-hit wonder with legal issues these days. https://youtu.be/ROVkXEBeQWE https://youtu.be/Z1It4rNbOCM
Wow! Irish, I felt like I was reading the ESPN SportsTicker running across the bottom of the screen, but you got in a great bit of trivia (and NO errors using the bold, color me impressed). Irrational Love: Jade, Portrait Quick story about "Don't Walk Away": in the early aughts, I was a summer camp administrator for my township. The camp was for 6-12 year olds, and it finished at noon. I was on my way home, sitting at a light, listening the Power 99, the R&B station in Philly, and they were doing their daily "Back in the Day" lunchtime mix - nothing but HITS, no commercial break, DJ blending them together into one hour of powerhouse music. And then "Don't Walk Away" came on. The windows were up, AC was on...and I was BELTING out the song. I briefly looked over at the minivan next to me, and the African-American woman was looking at me laughing her ass off. She had Power 99 on as well. We sang the last minute of the song together, waved goodbye, and appropriate the light turned green as the DJ spun his way into another song.
I went and saw Arcade Fire on their Neon Bible tour, and The National opening at a time when I had no idea who they were (they'd just released Boxer). When Matt broke into "Abel", I just stopped talking and stared in amazement...and bought the Boxer and Alligator the next day.
I will...I swear. I'm listening to a lot of popular music these days, courtesy of my daughter, but I'm still discovering music of my own ilk, AND trying to listen to all the music here... THEN I discovered "The History of English Language" podcast, and I've lost another 150+ hours of time. You have any to spare? (TL;DR - I'll listen to it when it gets into this column)
...and this immediately made me wonder: *if each of us had written a Number One Tom's covered here, which would it be? Rule: it had to have been a Number One at a reasonable for the TNOCer...otherwise, I'd have Link down for Percy Faith. I'll come back to this as I work through our friends...
I wanted to co-sign onto ALL these bands.
"the number one-iest of all number ones" Barnable has joined the conversation
I had no idea this hit the top 10. It was hardly played on the Philly stations I listened to, and it was nominated 3 straight weeks for "Shriek of the Week" on DRE...and lost. Love this damn song.
I don't think I've ever heard "Deeper and Deeper", but I have to say it's a great jam! Funny how I was all in on "Vogue", but quickly forgot about her music after. Come 1998, however, I'll fall in love with Madge again.
I don't even know the song "Blinding Lights", and only know The Weeknd because I believe he performed at the Super Bowl?
People talk about how weird the 90s were for music but Kevin Costner was the biggest movie star in the world lol wut I mean, his work in The Big Chill set him up for stardom, don't you think? (this was mentioned EVERY. DAMN. TIME. Costner had a new movie come out.
3-7-8-10. I absolutely LOVE Eric Carmen's vocals on this song, which is funny because I couldn't stand his later hits.
There will be a bunch of Belly in my recreated charts since WDRE was HUGE into them, and it's led me to my biggest complaint with Sirius XM Lithium, and Jenny Eliscu's "Old School" on XMU. 1. This is the only Belly song she plays; Lithium doesn't play any at all. 2. I think Belly and Ned's are the two most forgotten alt rock bands of the 90s (considering their successes) Can anyone think of any others? (I mean, I occasionally will hear Catherine Wheel, for God's sake)
1: Rembrandts 2: Mary J Blige 3: Saigon Kick 4: U2 5: Spin Doctors 6: Snap! 7: Brand Nubian 8: Toni Braxton 9: AB Logic 10: Toad the Wet Sprocket 11: ????? 12: Father MC 13: Duran Duran 14: Prince