Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 30 years ago. The plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.
Here is the Top 40 in full.Obviously some of the records will be the same as last week so therefore the review will be the same for these. I've indicated which ones are new so you can skip the others if you read last weeks post.
Once again my opinions are inevitably going to differ from other people, but I'm not trying to convince anyone something is good or rubbish, I'm simply giving my opinion.
So this is the top 30 from this week in 1993 with my verdict on each record:
The first of 2 Top 40 hits for Sugar who were an American alternative rock band who possibly benefited from grunge becoming mainstream. Despite this and lots of people I knew now being into grunge, I don't ever recall anybody mentioning Sugar and I have no recollection myself of them existing. To be fair though it's a pretty forgettable song.
Verdict - Rubbish
The first new Top 30 hit of 1993 is the solo debut for Apache Indian. It's basically Asian influence reggae music which makes it interesting. That said, it doesn't make me think wow what a tune. Despite being a bit different it does sound a bit generic.
Verdict - OK
I did like this record at the time. So much so that when we voted for what charity to support at school I picked "Heal The World" on the basis of this song. These days though I can't tolerate songs like this.
Verdict - Rubbish
Literally everyone I knew at the time loved this record. Some even went as far as saying Charles & Eddie were their favourite band based on this record alone. I was no exception, I loved this record too.
Verdict - Good
What makes no sense to me is Alexander O'Neal still having hits in 1993. To me he's one of those R&B singers who's popularity faded with the emergence of new jack swing. He started doing new jack swing himself though which worked on his previous hit "All True Man". It doesn't work on this one though I'm afraid.
Verdict - Rubbish
SOUL SYSTEM was another alias of Robert Clivilles and David Cole. The chorus is from "Lovely Day" by Bill Withers and the verses have some pretty dreadful rapping on them. An absolutely terrible record.
Verdict - Rubbish
Rapination were The Rapino Brothers who were enjoying success as producers of "Could It Be Magic" by Take That. I associate this record with school discos and being an example of why modern music as it was at the time was the best.
Verdict - Good
23. Leila K - Open Sesame (New)
Leila K had made her Top 40 debut in 1989 on "Got To Get" with Rob n Raz. This was her 2nd and final Top 40 hit to date. It was also the 2nd Top 40 hit to be written by Denniz Pop, the man who got the ball rolling for the Swedes taking over the songwriting world. I find this one rather irritating.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 2nd Top 40 hit for Naughty By Nature, who's debut "OPP" is their best known record but only made number 35. Like it's predecessor it has a catchy sing along chorus. Take that out of the equation though and you still have a decent hip hop record.
Verdict - Good
This was the 40th Top 40 hit for Paul McCartney. Generally speaking when someone is this far into their career and they have a song where they play the acoustic guitar it's a complete bore fest. I can't say that for this record though. Despite the acoustic guitar its quite uplifting. Doesn't have enough about it for me to truly like it though.
Verdict - OK
The Top 40 debut for Dinosaur Jr who formed in 1984 and were onto their 5th album by this point. I remember somebody introducing me to the band around this time. I thought the music was a bit different, but in a good way.
Verdict - Good
19. Def Leppard - Heaven Is (New)
Grunge was supposed to have killed off music like this, but here is further proof that it didn't. That said Def Leppard were never a cool band to like amongst my peers. The main reason I never really like Def Leppard though were generic songs like this.
Verdict - Rubbish
The Shamen could do no wrong in 1992 it would seem. I would say this is the best of their 1992 hits, possibly helped by the fact it hasn't fallen victim to anthem bashing. At the time I misheard the lyrics to the chorus as being "we are the burger people".
Verdict - Good
We were now in the 4th year of the 90s, yet Go West were still managing to have hits. This was a cover of a Bobby Caldwell song which is being done 80s style in the 90s. There's nothing wrong with 80s music, but there are some 80s acts who have always irritated me and Go West is one of those.
Verdict - Rubbish
Despite the fact this record came out at a time when I was very much following the charts and "Sledgehammer" came out just before my music memories begin I still find myself getting the 2 records mixed up. According to one of the video comments Peter Gabriel wrote this as a reaction to the critics saying all his songs sound the same. It's not a bad sound for all your songs though.
Verdict - OK
The Cult were finished in terms of new Top 40 hits by this point, but they were in the Top 40 once again with a remix of their debut hit "She Sells Sanctuary". They were one of the 80s bands seen as acceptable by the grunge community and the remix was done by Nirvana producer Butch Vig you'd expect it to have more of a grunge sound. It has more of a dance sound though and doesn't really work.
Verdict - Rubbish
14. Lulu - Independence (New)
When Lulu collaborated with Take That later on in the year my perception was that it was the first time she'd been in the charts since the 60s. Turns out her comeback came at the beginning of the year with this record which passed me by. If you didn't know this was Lulu then you wouldn't know it's by a 60s singer, it sounds very much like a 90s record. Nothing special but it's alright.
Verdict - OK
One thing I remember about this record at the time was some people thinking this was Guns N Roses. I sort of get why having the word "roses" in the title may cause this confusion, but it really sounds nothing like Guns N Roses. I think Bon Jovi were my 3rd favourite band at the time, behind Guns N Roses funnily enough and INXS. It's a ballad, but one you can scream your lungs out to which is a good thing in my book.
Verdict - Good
12. East 17 - Deep (New)
It had already been established that boys weren't supposed to like Take That, but nobody had said anything about East 17 yet. Therefore I would make no secret at the time that I liked this record. It was their first Top 5 hit.
Verdict - Good
If ever there was proof that everyone's got one good song in them, then this is it. I'm not a fan of Duran Duran, I've always found their music irritating generally speaking. But this record is excellent. It's easy to point the finger at the guitaring for making this record so good and it certainly contributes to that, but everything about it is good.
Verdict - Good
It was around the time this record came out that it was established that if you were a boy you weren't supposed to like Take That. At the same time, this was the first Take That record I actually liked. I wouldn't admit it at the time but I admit it now.
Verdict - Good
I would say "Mr. Wendal" is one of those records that's got better with age. I liked it at the time, but later on in life I'm realising what a strange record it is, but in a good way. "Revolution" was one I don't ever remember hearing at the time, but I do know it now. It was looking like it wasn't on YouTube when I searched for it, so I went to Google to search and a YouTube video was the first result. Again a decent record.
Verdict - Good / Good
This record is best remembered for it's video full of naked people rather than the actual tune. Reading through the video comments I came across one that sums it up perfectly for me "It sounds great and the message is still something to aspire to. It's a shame the years have made me cynical.".
Verdict - Good
This one reminds me of school discos where someone was getting pissed off with me copying their dance moves. I wasn't aware of the Simple Minds tune this sampled at the time, but now I'm very familiar with it I realise there's not really that much difference between the two records.
Verdict - Good
The highest charting Top 40 hit for Faith No More which is a cover of the Commodores record. It did find it somewhat questionable initially but hearing the guitar solo in it convinced me. "Be Aggressive" has aggressive vocals but the music not so much, but decent tune nonetheless.
Verdict - Good / Good
This was 3rd time this record made the Top 40 having previously charted in 1979 and 1984. It was also the highest charting release. I gather this was released this time due to being featured in the TV show "The Gladiators" at the time. I got into an argument with someone else about what the best song from the show was, they liked this and I liked "The Boys Are Back In Town".
Verdict - Rubbish
4. 2 Unlimited - No Limit (New)
The tune which knocked Whitney Houston off number one which everybody sang "there's no lyrics" to. I'm terrible at making out lyrics in songs and I remember being criticised for not knowing the words to the other bit she sings and remember other people telling me what the words were. My thoughts were they would have been better of genuinely having no lyrics.
Verdict - Rubbish
We're into the final year of Stock and Waterman having hits which begins with this. It sounds like Stock and Waterman had little to do with it though, it's a cover and production was done by West End aka Eddie Gordon amongst others who were uncredited. That would explain why this record is actually quite good.
Verdict - Good
I did like this record at the time but haven't heard it since. I was expecting not to like it now though as I've become much less tolerant of eurodance in general, but I was pleasantly surprised to find I still like it. The fact it's breakbeat rather than the kick drum probably helps, but it sounds like a proper dance record.
Verdict - Good
You couldn't escape this record at the time, it was everywhere. I recall "The Bodyguard" film which this was taken from being massive as well. Let's just say the film was much better than the song.
Verdict - Rubbish
If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 17/30, or 57%. Quite a drop from last week, but still above 50%.
No comments:
Post a Comment