June 1990
#1s
VOGUE –•– Madonna (3 weeks from May)
HOLD ON –•– Wilson Phillips (1 week)
IT MUST HAVE BEEN LOVE –•– Roxette (2 weeks)
STEP BY STEP –•– New Kids On The Block (3 weeks into June)
So
Wilson Phillips finally did it, with "Hold On" hitting #1 in early June with their debut single. Interesting that they only held on for 1 week, although
Roxette were a runaway train at this point and had the fuel from the
Pretty Woman movie behind them here as well. Another bit of quirky trivia is that we were only a month removed from the potential glitch of the top 2 positions having the same song title, which I'm sure would have been the first and only time, as
En Vogue were about to peak at #2 in early July with THEIR debut single. 2 girl groups, debuting with the same song title at the same time at the top of the charts? What are the chances?
WP actually hold many records and distinctions from that debut album, including THREE number one singles (personally everything else from that album apart from "Hold On" is bland as fuck, apologies if others don't agree) which is some sort of record or joint record I believe, and - in something that is becoming a bit of a trend for the period - don't really sustain their success for very long. Wiki tells me that the first album went 4xP and the follow up only went 1xP, no further album was certified. Also after the first album and 4 Top 10 singles, they didn't hit the Top 10 again. I wonder if they were also victims of
@Alla's theory on US chart methodology? The PLOT THICKENS!
Janet Jackson has a wobble this month as "Alright" ONLY peaks at #4. FLOP ERA!
One thing I prefer about the US charts is that they don't have as much of a stomach for novelty songs. Didn't the
Ninja Turtles song go to #1 in the UK or am I imagining that? Anyway they peak at #13 in June as Turtle-mania sweeps the globe.
Discoveries:
Taylor Dane hits the Top 10 again with "I'll Be Your Shelter".
This is a great song. And she's so pre-Anastacia isn't she? To the point where
Anastacia is basically cosplaying her 10 years later.
Taylor Dane always felt like one of those acts that was made for the US market but doesn't translate as well for the UK for whatever reason. See also:
Amy Grant.
I don't recall paying much attention to this follow up to "Got To Have Your Love" at the time, but this is great from
Mantronix!
More
Soul II Soul offshoot loveliness!
This is from 1989 but I assume it's the
Morales remix that put it into the charts in 1990
Babyface goes 2 for 2 on his breakout second album with another bouncy bop:
You really can hear his fingerprints all over the slew of R&B boybands that were about to emerge in the coming months.
Notable chart entries:
June 2
73 — VISION OF LOVE –•– Mariah Carey
91 — MAKE YOU SWEAT –•– Keith Sweat
June 9
88 — COULD THIS BE LOVE –•– Seduction
June 16
71 — MY KINDA GIRL –•– Babyface
91 — DON’T YOU LOVE ME –•– 49ers
June 23
67 — I DIDN’T WANT TO NEED YOU –•– Heart
71 — EPIC –•– Faith No More
86 — TALK TO ME –•– Anita Baker
94 — THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES –•– Sinead O’Connor
June 30
40 — HANKY PANKY –•– Madonna
63 — HAVE YOU SEEN HER –•– M.C. Hammer
76 — RELEASE ME –•– Wilson Phillips
83 — CUTS BOTH WAYS –•– Gloria Estefan
87 — CLOSE TO YOU –•– Maxi Priest
92 — DO ME! –•– Bell Biv Devoe
93 — COME BACK TO ME –•– Janet Jackson
95 — A DREAMS A DREAM –•– Soul II Soul
So we're all in with debuts at the moment as Miss
Mariah Carey has a go at this popstar lark. I wonder how she'll do?
A follow up to the smash "Touch Me" , I don't really remember this being released to be honest, but it's great.
The 49ers have a 'greatest hits' on Spotify and it's worth a listen!
Sadly,
Sinead didn't really have the right material to corner the US market effectively and her follow up single "The Emperor's New Clothes", despite the huge momentum, stalled at #60 (alternatively she had a further 11 Top 75 hits in the UK up to 2002, where this song went to #31).
I'm not a fan of reggae at all, but that
Maxi Priest track (which to be fair is not really that reggae compared to the rest of his output) is fucking AMAZING. I love it so much.
That's an unusually low entry for
Janet Jackson here; don't know whether it was on limited or part release until the following week. No matter it still eventually went to #2!
Their success was immediate, The Look debuted so high in the Hot 100 (#50 I think), it was unheard of from a new artist (forget about Swedish), it even got an article or a mention on Billboard, can't exactly remember (I was recently reading old Billboard magazines to make a very intrincate pop quiz, that's why I know, I'm human). Their chart run, with 5 top 2 songs in a row, is quite something. Everything went downhill with the change of the methodology compiling the Billboard charts in late november 1991. You can tell how the new system affected to a few more pop artists, as helped some others (many r&b artists).
just pure noise, except for the follow up that didn't even had a video an flopped.
