Tom got it100%. It felt retro-nuevo throwback-contemporary. Best of all it works in a mix and on the dance floor. My favorite thing was to put the a cappella version of Nu Nu over the extended instrumental section. Great stuff.
9/10.
The gales of November remember.
On this date in 1975 the Edmund Fitzgerald met its fate due to the gales of November.
Superior it is said never gives up its dead
29 crew members can attest to that.
As someone who lived near Lake Superior the tragedy of the Edmund Fitzgerald and the song Gordon Lightfoot wrote about it were inescapable. It’s one of the most unlikely Number Twos ever one that still amazes me.
The Hot 100 has had room for The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald as well as Someday, and that’s one of its strengths.
I wonder if I’m related to Helena. Last night I wondered if I was related to a certain Scottish king and Wikitree told me he was my 22nd grandfather. The next #1 that I can verify a relationship to the act is one where I’m 10th cousins to their famous dad.
Disco was filled with powerhouse vocalists like Martha, Loleatta Holloway, Jocelyn Brown, Luther and others who often were uncredited yet unmistakable. It was also made by talented musicians in interchangeable bands fulfilling the vision of a producer. People critical of Disco often pointed to the repetitive beat and histrionic, anonymous vocals and said it wasn’t “real”. However great Disco songs emerged, some from the underground, and great DJs mixed them to give them new life and meaning.
“Disco didn’t die; it just went (back) underground.”
Tom is right. The underground is what fed and nurtured Disco for the decade after it “died” and it kept reinventing the sound. In 2021 NuDisco is a trend and DJs continue to reimagine the sound and songs from four decades ago. I’ve been toiling away on mixes from the 70s and it’s pure joy to hear the musicianship while trying to connect songs and tell a story.
The songs often transcend their time. One thing often said in TNOCS is that a song sounds dated. You might even say it about Gonna Make You Sweat however part of the reason it sounds like 90/91 is it helped define the sound of 90/91.
8/10 is correct.
It is officially the First Time I have no recollection of a Number One. I have no boring assed story, I have no historical fact. I knew it hit Number One I’m sure but it’s like an employee you work for two weeks and they suddenly disappear. For a few weeks you wonder where they went, then you forget them entirely.
100% Brigit. How you interact with a song is as important as any factor. Dancing joyfully to a Janet song can add a point or two. I’ll accept your 11/10.
Tom is right, but under grades this 10/10 by a point. Janet can sing and I put her in the Diana Ross school of singers that may lack the vocal range etc,, but they bring emotional range and become different characters for each song.
Oh, and she has a smile, and laugh that could power a major city.
And if you are in need of Halloween music this weekend here you go.
https://m.mixcloud.com/BixMeister/do-you-wanna-get-scary-with-me-vol-2/
https://m.mixcloud.com/BixMeister/do-you-wanna-get-scary-with-me-vol-1/
1. I’m heading to El Paso
2 I’m with my Baby Tonight. ( it was his bday yesterday)
3. For Marvin I Got to Give it Up
4. For Halloween Pour Some Sugar on Me
5. Looks like Barry barely Makes It
6. Groove is in My Dreams. (Tie)
7. We’ll that’s a New Sensation.
8. UB40 IBMuchOlder
9. Tom’s Diner (AKA Duluth Grill) appeals to locavores
10. Madonna doesn’t have to Justify My Love.
100%. Radio stations were shying away from a true Top 40 Pop format and pushing more Adult Contemporary. Also, the single format was in flux so sales of a sappy ballad that hit the audience that was still buying singles, could have a big impact. The next Number One sold a lot of CD singles.
My Top 10 for 1990
1. “Freedom! ‘90” – George Michael, “Groove is in the Heart” – Dee-Lite (Tie)
3. “Nothing Compares 2 U” Sinead O’Connor
4. “The Humpty Dance” – Digital Underground
5. “All Around the World” – Lisa Stansfield
6. “Roam” – B-52’s
7. “Feels Good” – Tony! Toni! Toné!
8. “Hold On” – En Vogue
9. “Being Boring” – Pet Shop Boys
10. “Escapade” – Janet Jackson
Honorable mentions
Vogue and Tom’s Diner.
First of all, everyone should find Spring Love by Stevie B. and listen to that instead of this, because I love it (The Bixman's Song)
Peaking at #8 behind “Because I Love You (The Postman Song)” for two weeks, “Freedom! ‘90” by George Michael.
I tried to write about “Freedom! ‘90” dozens of times, each time I hit a roadblock. I think that’s a metaphor. A few years back I was in a long line at a Hot Wheels convention, talking to a younger friend from Iowa. He was a birder with passionate love for certain songs. It wasn’t unusual for a song on his iTunes to have 2-3,000 plays. “Freedom! ‘90” had just joined the thousand play mark, which he proved by pulling out his phone and playing it.
Later, when we were in a hotel room talking, I googled the lyrics for “Freedom!” and realized I had misheard lyrics all these years. The funny thing, it didn’t change the song’s meaning to me.
“All we have to do is take these lies and make them true somehow” is not all that different from what I heard, “All we have to do is take these eyes and make them blue somehow.” I still swear he changes it up once or twice during the song.
Over the years I came to realize that listening to “Freedom! ‘90” is like hearing the inner monologue of someone who realized there are costs in living a lie. George is having a conversation with himself, about himself. There are costs in not being who you are. Changing lies to truths or changing eyes to blue are analogous.
Coming out for me was a conversation with myself, an inner monologue that carried on over decades. I wish I could say that it was tied to a song, especially a song like “Freedom! ’90.” However, no song soundtracked my initial coming out, just tears, silence and a cold wind.
I was vising a friend and former coworker in Minneapolis. We were downtown on a Sunday, and she was quiet. I tried to get it out of her, why I was getting the silent treatment and she put it back to me. “What’s wrong with me? Why do I love you when you obviously don’t love me?”
This is the cost of living a lie, not a truth. By not being honest about who I was, I had led someone on, someone I really cared about. I opened up to her by coming out, but that didn’t ease her pain, the tears were hard to erase.
However, from that moment on, my inner monologue became an outer one. “Freedom! ‘90” is a cumulative song, starting with spare percussion and adding and building while George talks amongst himself about being himself instead of what everyone else expected him to be. That was me coming out. A quiet, tearful conversation started the process, and with each conversation my closet doors would inch open. I frequently state that I am more honest than out; the lies became truth, somehow.
For Pride weekend, in 2020 Radio Andy on Sirius radio had various celebrities share their Pride playlists. Invariably there would be a point in each show where the host would say “And here’s “Freedom!” by George Michael.” There’s no coincidence that a song about being yourself despite the pressures to be someone else has resonated with the LGTBQIA community. It has become a universal rallying song about personal identity for all sort of people, including a birding, Hot Wheel collecting, “Freedom!” loving friend from Iowa.
Listening to "I'm Your Baby Tonight" the thing that hits me is not that Whitney can sing, or can SANG, because we already know that. It is that Whitney can sing rhythmic songs. The hundreds of Whitney wannabees that populate the various singing competitions can belt out the ballads and do superfluous vocal runs, usually not as well as Whitney, but when they are faced with a Disco night, they sound out of place. On a dancefloor worthy song the vocal is often another part of the percussion that moves your feet, and on I'm Your Baby Tonight, Whitney achieves complicated percussion with her vocals. Most American Idol/Voice contestants would be tripped up singing this song. Well done Whitney
Yay for the official 10/10 for "Groove is in the Heart." "Groove" reminds me of when I visited my brother in Philly and during the weekend I put the Poke in Poconos.
It was a late summer visit and we had planned a visit to the Poconos with my brother, his partner, his parents, and two of their friends. My brother was late getting home from work, much to his partner's chagrin. So we headed off for our weekend in the dark. My brother's partner tuned the radio to a pop station that was in the middle of a Friday night mix show. It was mainly current hits, but when" Groove is in the Heart" came on all hell broke loose. During "Groove" the DJ mixed in bits of "Sherry" by the Four Seasons and "Bad Girls" by Donna Summer. The "toot toot Ahh beep Beep"s and the "Sher err ry SherryBaby"s from one to almost three decades earlier, kept the manic energy of 1990's biggest party hit going. "Groove" became part of my music DNA that night, and erased all the anxiety my brother's partner felt earlier.
Our late arrival to the Poconos meant we only saw the "in laws" briefly before they went to bed. To say the cabin was primitive was an understatement. The thin mattress I would be sleeping on wasn't inviting, so I avoided bedtime as long as I could. So did one of my bros frends. We talked well into the night and as the night went on we got closer. There was little privacy in the cabin, but the outdoors was a different matter. The moon delivered slivers of light through the tall pine trees as we fumbled in the near darkness.
The rest of the night is far less memorable and enjoyable than "Groove" but life in general is far less memorable and enjoyable than "Groove."
As a Hot Wheel collector I’ve heard dozens of stories about being beaten by the Orange Hot Wheel track. I can’t imagine something I love being connected with brutal punishment. It’s the same with parents destroying music. Luckily I never had that.
It’s a release valve for the album. I saw Bruce during the tour for this album and in a sea of ponderous music, it lifted the crowd. Plus, it was the radio hit that helped fill the St Paul Civic Center, something that didn’t happen during the Darkness tour. In addition, Bruce always acknowledged this type of rock/pop/soul music as an influence.
It sounds fresh yo my ears 40 years later.
Yeah, the whole sampling of Queen/Bowie thing is a non-issue for me. I mean Queen stole the bassline, guitar and even the backwards tape piano chord detail from Good Times. And, James Brown felt that Fame was Bowie trying to get a JB vibe so James recorded the Fame knock off “Hot (I Need To Be Loved)”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=6Vn--qcqxXI
I see a lot of comments about Black Cat being all but forgotten and there is one very sad reason for this. After the Superb Owl costume malfunction Janet and Janet alone was black listed and in essence banned from the airwaves due to the clout, misogyny, and rank abuse of power by Les Moonves. Do not discount this when it comes to Janet, do not downplay it.
Her music was pulled from the airwaves, and she was erased. The person with the most clout used it to silence her for one fricking exposed boob, while the boob that exposed it suffered no consequences.
But Janet is a Queen, a Queen whose talents are being appreciated more with each passing year. We’ll be discussing her talent many more times in the coming virtual years. I’ll get many more chances to talk about her talent as I will have opportunities to say what a steaming pile of $#!+ Les is.
As far as the other boob involved is concerned Janet’s next single brought sexy back long before his attempt.
I found this tidbit in Wikipedia
Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead intended to record a version of "Black Cat" with Jackson, but was prohibited. Lemmy stated, "I wanted to do a version of 'Black Cat' with her, but Sony wouldn't let me. You could tell from the video that she was having a good time, that this loud rock music is what she really wanted to be doing. I love that fuckin' song.. Great fuckin' song that but the record company wouldn't let it be possible."[15] Lemmy later revealed Jackson as his most desired collaboration and planned to record a new version with her for his unreleased solo album Lemmy & Friends, saying "I want to get Janet Jackson to do this great lost single called 'Black Cat'."
Lemmy loved Black Cat. Think about that.
On another topic, I hinted that I might have a mix featuring Black Cat and Head Like a Hole. Well I thought I did, but it must have been deleted or something. So, I started one tonight, and realized it would be a good Halloween Mix. But it needs a cover, and a bit more thrills and chills for me to upload it, but maybe by the end of the week.
Sometimes I think about the culture shock I experienced moving from Minneapolis to Bismarck ND in the late 80s. On huge difference was moving from a place with multiple record stores that catered to people like me, to a place with, well, a record store/video rental placerecord store/video rental place. In Minneapolis I might be talking to the guy who managed The Replacements, or even the future Jimmy Jam who worked at a record store downtown before he became a member of The Time. In Minneapolis they knew my taste and I’d often be greeted with “Bix, I’ve got a record you just have to hear.”
In Bismarck the record store/video rental place was a cavernous store in the strip mall across from the main mall in town. Half of it was a record store, the other half video rental. Due to the laws at the time, retail places needed to be closed on Sunday (except grocery stores) but services could be open, so on Sunday the record selling side of the store was roped off, but you could go rent a movie. Yay backwards North Dakota.
It took a while, but the people who worked at the record store grew to know my taste in music as I did theirs. One guy was more into folk rock, while the other guy was heavily into hair bands, metal, and guitar heavy ANYTHING. He looked like Garth from Wayne’s World, without the parody. His blond shoulder length hair was parted in the middle. His wardrobe consisted of black and white and bleached blue jeans with t-shirts from anything that prominently featured GUITAR.
I didn’t cross over to his side of the musical aisle, but there were a few times he crossed over to me. Mr. LoveEVERYTHINGguitarheavy, loved Black Cat. “That guitar is sick,” He’d say. He’d play it and groove to the guitar solo, his shoulder length blond hair whipping from shoulder to shoulder as he imagined himself playing the guitar solo.
I might be imagining that last part. But I assured him there was a lot of great guitar playing hidden in the Minneapolis sound. It wasn’t long before Mr. LoveEVERYTHINGguitarheavy reported back to me on a few other songs he liked from Prince, and oddly enough Roxette.
I wonder if I’d recognize him today, if his hair was still there, shoulder length, brushing against a Motorhead T-shirt. All I know is I can’t think of Black Cat without thinking of him.
There are numerous ways to manipulate the current chart. Shorter songs can be streamed more often. Multiple Remixes can extend the chart life. Fan bases can and do drive up the streaming numbers. There are more, I am sure, but in the pre-Soundscan era it was just as prevalent.
I'm a big fan of her double sided 1980 #1 Disco hit Dynamite!/Jump to the Beat.
Which brings me to the observation that songs that contain the word Jump are often of high caliber.
Jump
Jump (For My Love)
Jump Around (Imagine mixing this song with Pop Muzik)
Jump To It
Jump Back (Set Me Free)
I’m skeptical of Number Ones in this pre-Soundscan period because there was still a lot of manipulation going on.
I’m still skeptical of Number Ones because the current manipulation is out in the open.
Still, someone will point out a song that peaked much lower and we will all agree that it made a bigger dent in our lives.
Bing changed how music was made, and how we hear music. He understood that with a microphone you didn’t have to go full out, you could introduce nuance and warmth. Before vocalists projected to the cheap seats in order to be heard. Bing let the amplification do that for him, and connected with the audience in other ways.
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