August 1990
#1s
VISION OF LOVE –•– Mariah Carey (4 weeks)
Mariah holds the top spot for the entire month, holding off Billy Idol ("Cradle Of Love"), Snap! ("The Power") and Janet ("Come Back To Me") from the coveted position.
There's a slew of R&B-pop songs around at the moment that I have NO memory of and I've covered a handful of already beause they're all a bit CRAP, I mean probably not for the time but they just sound so unfinished... maybe they all just need to be remastered or something... anyway this month it's this 'beauty'
It's so basic it might have some fans on here but it definitely sounds like it needs another couple of days in the studio... but it peaked at #6 in August.
More soft rock but I actually really like this... pretty sure this is also from the Pretty Woman OST -
This was one is somewhat interesting. The Time were a funk band heavily associated with Prince as pioneers in the "Minnesota Sound", and had some mild success in the early / mid 80s and also appeared the Purple Rain movie. They are best known (and I thought only known) for the hits "Jungle Love" and "The Bird", but actually it turns out their biggest hit is from 1990 and their 4th album Pandemonium:
I have no memory of this song, but this peaked at #9 whereas the other mentioned singles only managed #20 and #36 respectively. "Jerk Out" also hit #1 on the R&B chart. It did turn out to be their end of their commercial success though.
We never really experienced it in full effect in the UK but the US really embraced the Hip-Hop / House hybrid during this time and you can hear how the two movements were pretty much intertwined (having grown together out of the block parties of America in the early 80s) until gangster rap came and splintered the genres forever. This is one of the many hits during the summer:
I'm not really a fan of this style, and my only exception would probably be C&C Music Factory who will be emerging in a few months. There's very little difference here between house songs that use rap and hip-hop songs with a dance beat. I don't think it was AS popular in Europe where house music had already been overtaken by European dance music and was more distinctly electronic, but you could definitely hear the remnants of this throughout the early 90s with many dance tracks having a rap cameo - something that has endured to this day.
Discoveries:
This has been on heavy rotation this year thanks to this project:
edit- I got my songs mixed up, anyway this is a great R&B track that has really grown on me since I found it in the US charts.
Here's a deep cut for everyone, an early trip-hop cut of a Deniece Williams cover:
This is gorgeous. There's very little online about her, other than she emerged from the Bristol scene about a year before it exploded, and she had this song and album and none of it is on Spotify sadly. Incredible voice and very ahead of its time. The original is also a GREAT song, but this is the definition of making a song your own.
The Pointer Sisters were past their peak at this point so I have no memory of this song but I think it's great!
The album Right Rhythm didn't even reach the Billboard 200, their first album to miss and their only album with Motown. They moved to an indie and released their final album in 1993.
I mentioned earlier about En Vogue limping back out after the smash "Hold On" with 2 more singles and failing to recapture the magic to the point of feeling like one hit wonders for a couple of years. "Lies" was the follow up single and despite all the momentum, only managed #38 in the US and #44 in the UK. It's not a bad song at all, but just lacks any of the magic and drama that makes En Vogue... En Vogue. This is all to say that when that song popped up on the chart I discovered a remix on Spotify, and it blows the original out of the water:
That's more like it!
Notable new entries (US):
August 4
37 — TONIGHT –•– New Kids On The Block
55 — THIEVES IN THE TEMPLE –•– Prince
56 — MY, MY, MY –•– Johnny Gill
64 — HEART OF STONE –•– Taylor Dayne
77 — EVERYBODY EVERYBODY –•– Black Box
86 — I DON’T HAVE THE HEART –•– James Ingram
91 — INNOCENT –•– The Whispers
August 11
77 — POLICY OF TRUTH –•– Depeche Mode
August 18
69 — THIS IS THE RIGHT TIME –•– Lisa Stansfield
76 — GIVING YOU THE BENEFIT –•– Pebbles
August 25
82 — LIES –•– En Vogue
96 — I’D RATHER GO BLIND –•– Sydney Youngblood
James Ingram is an odd one. I really like a lot of his 80s funk stuff, although he did a lot of pop and soft rock as well, perhaps best known for his Michael McDonald collaboration "Yah Mo Be There" (tune!) and Patti Austin duet "Baby Come To Me". He barely dented the album charts with his 4 studio albums, the highest (his debut) reached #46 and went gold. But despite that, he's had 11 Top 100 hits, including TWO #1s, one of which is the above track. It seemed to be a huge comeback for him, but it did nothing for his chart career. Just a bit odd. Also the song isn't great - a very overblown ballad.
On the flipside, The Whispers releasing a New Jack Swing song in 1990 (and a very good one in fact!) reminded me of my pandemic project and discovering the amount of 60s/Motown acts that had successful comebacks in the 80s with pop/R&B music that sounds nothing like Motown or 60s soul - The Temptations, Gladys Knight & The Pips, The Four Tops, there's actually some great 80s R&B from those comebacks. And here are 70s soul crooners The Whispers sounding like Bobby Brown:
fabulous
