funky's journey through the 90s (again, again) (1 Viewer)

[Ellie]

Refreshing myself now.

Step by Step is quite memorable actually. Good lord at that middle eight though!

I assume I'll Be Loving You (Forever) is one of those boyband ballads that's randomly huge in Asia, as I can't otherwise imagine why it'd be their biggest streaming holdover. Absolute dreck with a seriously unpleasant lead vocal.

That one was massive at school at the time. Jordan was everyone’s fav, although I later moved on to Donnie

 

[jyxz]

That one was massive at school at the time. Jordan was everyone’s fav, although I later moved on to Donnie

And NOBODY ever liked Danny

Jordan was quite the snack when he went solo a few years later

 

[Ellie]

My fav NKOTB later memory was doing Cover Girl in concert. Of course Donnie would always bring up some girl aged about 7 to sing to in 1989. In 2010> it would still be a 7 year old girl. Clearly now a daughter of a fan being dragged on by her mum. The little girls could not look more nonplussed if they tried

 

[Joseph]

And NOBODY ever liked Danny

Jordan was quite the snack when he went solo a few years later

He was still looking good when I saw them last year

 

[Shirley]

No mention of the PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE 'THIS ONE'S FOR THE CHILDREN'?

LOVELY

 

[Ellie]

No mention of the PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE 'THIS ONE'S FOR THE CHILDREN'?

LOVELY

If You Go Away was always my choice ballad of theirs.

 

[Ellie]

Spotify

85m Step by Step
65m I'll Be Loving You (Forever)
54m You Got It (The Right Stuff)
26m Tonight
17m Hangin' Tough

I don’t have Spotify, but surely that can’t be right when their plays on YouTube Music are higher!?

 

[funky]

Apologies for the downtime which was due to illness but this will be back up and running from TODAY!

 

[funky]

As some Moopsters might guess because they saw my living room walls during those lockdown zooms, I have a word to say about this miss Dennis semi-trash How can this song owes anything to Vogue when it was originally released months earlier? As you probably know, she wrote Britney's Toxic, Kylie's Can't get you out of my head and some other classics, so please give her some credit Just another dream is easily one of my favourite songs from the 90s, it's amazing.

It wasn't really shade, as I'll come on to more of Cathy's stuff SHORTLY, but yes I was referring to the US 7" version and I do prefer that version (probably BECAUSE it reminds me of Vogue).

 

[Joseph]

Apologies for the downtime which was due to illness but this will be back up and running from TODAY!

No rush Funkster

 

[Devil]

I don’t have Spotify, but surely that can’t be right when their plays on YouTube Music are higher!?

View attachment 33678

If the total includes the videos then it may be. Britney’s Sometimes as an example has twice as many YouTube plays than it does on Spotify. Toxic only has half as much as it has on Spotify though, so there seems to be quite random differences!

 

[funky]

November 1990

#1s

ICE ICE BABY –•– Vanilla Ice (1 week)
LOVE TAKES TIME –•– Mariah Carey (3 weeks)

Is Vanilla Ice the world's biggest one hit wonder? I mean sure he had some follow ups but can you name them? The separation between this gargantuan song and anything else he did is extraordinary.

I don't mind "Love Takes Time" but it's really not her strongest moment and a tad insulting that it got 3 weeks at number 1 in such a competitive time period, but by the same token a huge achievement for the "difficult follow-up single". Indeed, Sony couldn't have asked for a better debut for Mariah. I actually had no awareness of this song in the 90s for whatever reason, and like most people was not that familiar with Mariah at all until the Music Box album. Let's take a quick dive into the US/UK singles performance of her debut album to prove my point:

Vision Of Love	1​	9​
Love Takes Time	1​	37​
Someday	1​	38​
I Don't Wanna Cry	1​	​
There's Got To Be A Way		54​

It is a reminder that Mariah might never have smashed internationally without "Without You". On another note, sadface that we didn't get "I Don't Wanna Cry" in the UK, which I LOVE, although it would have bombed as well. I do love "Someday" and "TGTBAW" too.

Pebbles having a big hit with "Giving You The Benefit", the lead single from her second album, which owes more than the slightest nod to Bobby Brown's "Don't Be Cruel" (it's basically the same backing track!) as a comeback from her huge 1988 debut album.



She was quite successful in the UK with that self titled album, but the follow up did nothing (the album didn't chart and this song only reached #73). The success of this in the US however pushed her to her second successive platinum album, although she didn't do much beyond that. This peaked at #4 for 2 weeks in November.

Deee-Lite shoot up the chart and climb to #4 by the end of the month.

Power ballads still ruling at this point, with Warrant, Poison and Alias all cracking the Top Ten in November. The Poison track "Something To Believe" actually isn't bad...

"Hippychick" update: still climbing, reaching #14 by the end of the month! Also "Tom's Diner" creeps up to #19.

Over in the UK, I feel it important to mention that Kylie is in the midst of launching her next campaign and a BIG shift in style, sound and brand with "Step Back In Time", which kicks off 90s Kylie in a big way. I'm a huge fan of this album and it's SUCH a strong singles run. Shame it did nothing in the US, especially when they were embracing Deee-Lite and Cathy Dennis at the same time.

November also saw the release of a strange personal phenomenon in which two of my favourite singles were both released at the same time, both died a death in the charts, and both were re-released in early 1991 to considerably more success - the former due to an explosion in the growing rave scene and the latter due to a tasty radio mix:




Both singles are in my Top 10 songs of ALL TIME and it's weird that they both emerged at exactly the same time with a very similar trajectory. The memories and nostalgia attached to these two songs are immense. Zoe had an incredible voice and look and it's odd she didn't have more success, but I think they fumbled the album campaign after an unexpected rebound hit. Most people probably know this now but "Anthem" features the vocals of Saffron from pop indie band Republica, because yes she started her career in the UK club scene as a session singer.

Discoveries:

Johnny Gill makes it 3 for 3 from his self-titled album, because this is a bop:



It's like combining the vocal of Luther Vandross with the funky swing of Bobby Brown, and I feel like I might have to investigate his catalogue more.

One of those semi-discoveries is this gem:



I'm sure I did hear this on the radio and on TV at the time but I was not paying any attention to PSB growing up at all, they did nothing for me. A few spectacular singles in the noughties - and probably moopy expsosure - is what slowly brought be around to them and actually these retrospectives have given me time to explore songs properly, and this has definitely become a favourite of theirs. Also, I knew they were a hit in the US but I didn't realise that the success sustained as well as it did - the first 5 albums except for Behaviour went at least gold (the debut platinum) and they had 12 billboard pop hits. This one didn't chart in the US but reached #20 in the UK.

Denise Lopez is someone I always knew as a house singer, as "Don't You Wanna Be Mine" was a huge club smash at many different times throughout the 90s. Most famous version is what Spotify tells me is the Civilles & Cole (aka C&C Music Factory) mix, although I'm pleased to discover that the original is a pop song that comes from a pretty decent R&B album that I have archived and would like to go back to at some point:



Notable New Entries (US):

November 3

55 — ONE AND ONLY MAN –•– Steve Winwood
64 — SENSITIVITY –•– Ralph Tresvant
70 — NEW POWER GENERATION –•– Prince
79 — NEVER ENOUGH –•– The Cure
92 — DON’T YOU WANNA BE MINE –•– Denise Lopez
93 — DOIN’ THE DO –•– Betty Boo

November 10

69 — HANG IN LONG ENOUGH –•– Phil Collins
73 — I WANNA GET WITH U –•– Guy
82 — NEW YORK MINUTE –•– Don Henley

November 17

46 — JUSTIFY MY LOVE –•– Madonna
61 — I’M NOT IN LOVE –•– Will To Power
74 — GONNA MAKE YOU SWEAT –•– C&C Music Factory
75 — ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE –•– Debbie Gibson
80 — DOES SHE LOVE THAT MAN? –•– Breathe
89 — LOVE WILL NEVER DO (WITHOUT YOU) –•– Janet Jackson
92 — I’M FREE –•– Soup Dragons
95 — ROCKIN’ OVER THE BEAT –•– Technotronic

November 24

71 — WORLD IN MY EYES –•– Depeche Mode
84 — THE SHOOP SHOOP SONG (IT’S IN HIS KISS) –•– Cher
85 — YOU GOTTA LOVE SOMEONE –•– Elton John
89 — DISAPPEAR –•– INXS

It feels like a lot of the new jack swing boys in the US were only ever really known for one song in the UK, and that's certainly true of Ralph Tresvant. Odd that his signature tune would not be a swing song though.

That Don Henley song I am familiar with because of a famous scene from The West Wing, and maybe for that reason I'm quite the fan.

Madonna is back and whenever I see JML in the charts I'm reminded of how jealous I am that I wasn't a little bit older in the late 80s / early 90s to be a Madona fan and appreciate her at her most creative and exciting. The Immaculate Collection is probably the moment that really solidified her for me as that album never left my side throughout 1991, but it was mostly because it was such a great collection of pop songs as opposed to being in admiration of her talent or any fascination of her cultural significance. Still, I got the ROL era to enjoy properly at least.

That C&C Music Factory track is another monumental moment in my musical discovery - I absolutely rinsed that single and it was absolutely massive on the club scene which is odd in hindsight because it's more of a novelty rap song with a house beat than anything else. But it captured something magical for the time and was probably - at least at the maintream level - something that most people had never really heard before, and it landed in a big way on both sides of the Atlantic. It felt fresh and urgent and immediate and crucially, hasn't really dated.

I had no idea that Will To Power covered that song (and had a hit with it, it turns out). We only know them in the UK for "Baby I Love Your Way".

File Soup Dragons under "they charted in the US?" as well. They very much remind me of that Happy Mondays/The Farm retro-psychadelic era in the summer of 1990.

Cher breaking out a rock-motown crossover right in the midst of her big comeback? That'll never work!!!!....

 

[Alla]

Mariah got lucky there, because Ice ice baby got deleted (the single) as soon as it reached #1, to increase the album sales (and it worked, it sold zillions), otherwise she wouldn't have 3 weeks at #1.

Vision Of Love	1​	9​
Love Takes Time	1​	37​
Someday	1​	38​
I Don't Wanna Cry	1​	​
Make It Happen		54​

Instead of Make it happen you meant There's got to be a way, a non US single from her debut album.

 

[Sardonicus]

@funky the Mariah song peaking at #54 in the UK was "There's Got To Be A Way" - "Make It Happen" was from the 2nd album & reached the top 20 here.

Pebbles had a hit outside of "Girlfriend" (covered by The Beautiful South, of all people). Well it wouldn't be long before she'd be robbing TLC of SHEDLOADS of money.

Absolutely AGOG at Soho reaching the US top 20. I love it but who knew??!! Same with The Soup Dragons, clearly a British indie mini invasion at the time along with EMF & Jesus Jones.

Zoe is a classic but I can only listen to the 1991 remix. The 1990 version always sounds WRONG to me.

"Being Boring" obviously one of the most all-time classics in the Pet Shop Boys long career

 

[funky]

Thank you for that ERROR- I did have Wiki open but my brain obviosusly switched it for some reason! Fixed.

 

[funky]

Oh have we not reached Jesus Jones yet or have I missed them? Yes that one was a HEAD SCRATCHER. I always knew about EMF because they hit #1 and you can almost understand that success because there's a bit of a pre-Offspring punk vibe about them, but Jesus Jones? They were fucking massive in America based on the billboard charts I've seen thus far, probably didn't last long but still. If they haven't come up yet I will definitely cover them.

 

[Alla]

Is Vanilla Ice the world's biggest one hit wonder? I mean sure he had some follow ups but can you name them? The separation between this gargantuan song and anything else he did is extraordinary.

I can, a second top 5 hit, but yes, for the rest of the world is a total one hit wonder. He was so hated back then by literally every single r&b artist. Let's not forget Ice ice baby was the first rap song to reach #1 in the US ever, and the fact that a white dude got it, he was over before he even started.
Random trivia: next year, 3rd Bass will have a top 40 hit, their only pop hit in fact, with Pop goes the weasel, a video that got heavy rotation on MTV; a video where they shoot Vanilla ice. He was that hated.

 

[Alla]

Oh have we not reached Jesus Jones yet or have I missed them? Yes that one was a HEAD SCRATCHER. I always knew about EMF because they hit #1 and you can almost understand that success because there's a bit of a pre-Offspring punk vibe about them, but Jesus Jones? They were fucking massive in America based on the billboard charts I've seen thus far, probably didn't last long but still. If they haven't come up yet I will definitely cover them.

You have to wait for the Spring of 91 for Jesus Jones breaking in America. They were big (for 15 minutes, but still).

 

[Alla]

Pebbles had a hit outside of "Girlfriend" (covered by The Beautiful South, of all people). Well it wouldn't be long before she'd be robbing TLC of SHEDLOADS of money.

Pebbles had actually another top 5 hit in the US from her debut album! Mercedes boy I love Giving you the benefit and the follow up, I even have the album (well I have almost every single one that has been named in this thread ). That was it for her, she released another album 4 or 5 years laters with no success. The las thing I know about her is that she went nuts, embracing religion, and was under her new name Sister Perrie or something like that. Bless her.

 

[funky]

I knew Mercedes Boy (a minor hit in U.K.) because it was on one of the NOW albums

 

[Sardonicus]

Oh have we not reached Jesus Jones yet or have I missed them? Yes that one was a HEAD SCRATCHER. I always knew about EMF because they hit #1 and you can almost understand that success because there's a bit of a pre-Offspring punk vibe about them, but Jesus Jones? They were fucking massive in America based on the billboard charts I've seen thus far, probably didn't last long but still. If they haven't come up yet I will definitely cover them.

I think Jesus Jones hit in early 1991 in the USA. I'd totally forgotten about their American success too until the EMF record came up in my own thread.

PERPLEXING but this set of indie bands were much more successful in America than the Britpop lot, Oasis excluded!

 

[Alla]

Pebbles having a big hit with "Giving You The Benefit", the lead single from her second album, which owes more than the slightest nod to Bobby Brown's "Don't Be Cruel" (it's basically the same backing track!) as a comeback from her huge 1988 debut album.

And what do you think of the backing track of this 1988 top 20 hit in USA?

 

[Sardonicus]

Pebbles had actually another top 5 hit in the US from her debut album! Mercedes boy I love Giving you the benefit and the follow up, I even have the album (well I have almost every single one that has been named in this thread ). That was it for her, she released another album 4 or 5 years laters with no success. The las thing I know about her is that she went nuts, embracing religion, and was under her new name Sister Perrie or something like that. Bless her.

Well SISTER PEBBLES has plenty to REPENT FOR after her management SHENANIGANS

 

[Alla]

PERPLEXING but this set of indie bands were much more successful in America than the Britpop lot, Oasis excluded!

Oh yes, I think it was 1991 when most of them made it in the US, I can think of some more, but I won't anticipate it.

 

[Alla]

Power ballads still ruling at this point, with Warrant, Poison and Alias all cracking the Top Ten in November. The Poison track "Something To Believe" actually isn't bad...

All great, More than words can say by Alias is amazing. They were ex-member of Heart and another supergroup (Sheriff?).

Discoveries:

Johnny Gill makes it 3 for 3 from his self-titled album, because this is a bop:



It's like combining the vocal of Luther Vandross with the funky swing of Bobby Brown, and I feel like I might have to investigate his catalogue more.

I agree, what a trio of singles, all fantastic. I always thought it was his solo debut, but it was actually his third solo album, who knew. Unfortunately that was it for hit (except for a brief return of New Editions a few years later). I guess he still had some r&b hits tho.

 

[Joseph]

Pebbles was a fave of mine back in the day.

Girlfriend/Mercedes Boy/Giving You The Benefit were an excellent run here

I don’t recall her next single with Babyface at all then she disappeared from the charts really

 

[Alla]

One of those semi-discoveries is this gem:



I'm sure I did hear this on the radio and on TV at the time but I was not paying any attention to PSB growing up at all, they did nothing for me. A few spectacular singles in the noughties - and probably moopy expsosure - is what slowly brought be around to them and actually these retrospectives have given me time to explore songs properly, and this has definitely become a favourite of theirs. Also, I knew they were a hit in the US but I didn't realise that the success sustained as well as it did - the first 5 albums except for Behaviour went at least gold (the debut platinum) and they had 12 billboard pop hits. This one didn't chart in the US but reached #20 in the UK.

Being Boring is one of their finest moments in the 90s. But even when they were still selling albums, their last proper hit in the US was in the 80s, I'm afraid.

Btw, I love this cover that it's included in the album of an Australian singer that will be a one hit wonder in the US a few years later. I played this album to death, I wonder what happened to her. Moopy's correspondent in OZ @Marilyn to give me some update from the last 30 years please

 

[Alla]

Pebbles was a fave of mine back in the day.

Girlfriend/Mercedes Boy/Giving You The Benefit were an excellent run here

I don’t recall her next single with Babyface at all then she disappeared from the charts really

I never understood that Babyface didn't get any credit and it was released as a solo song by Pebbles, when it's a duet from start to finish Those crazy early 90s...

 

[Joseph]

I never understood that Babyface didn't get any credit and it was released as a solo song by Pebbles, when it's a duet from start to finish Those crazy early 90s...

I just listened and yeah it’s OBVIOUS he should have been credited

 

[funky]

He's not even been retro-actively credited on Spotify, although someone saw fit to credit him on her Wiki discography (maybe Babyface himself in a fit of rage)...

 

[Alla]

I had no idea that Will To Power covered that song (and had a hit with it, it turns out). We only know them in the UK for "Baby I Love Your Way".

I wonder why they never bothered with a video, which was essential in those MTV years. The song went eventually top 10, peaking at #2 in the airplay chart; with a video it would have been a bigger hit. Oh well!

 

[Alla]

He's not even been retro-actively credited on Spotify, although someone saw fit to credit him on her Wiki discography (maybe Babyface himself in a fit of rage)...

That was quite usual back in the day, wasn't it? It was rare to have an artist "featuring" someone else in the credits. Sheena Easton didn't get credit in Prince's U got the look, or Trey Lorenz in Mariah's I'll be there, or Janet in Herb Alpert's Diamonds. Sometimes it was insane, proper duets that were released as solo artists. Here's another one: Dino had a few hits in the late 80s, and a couple more in 1990, the top 10 hit Romeo, and by the end of the year, Gentle, a top 40 hit that even when it's a duet, that poor woman didn't get any credit. I don't even know who she is. This song is not on Spotify, but still played on my ipod.

 

[Joseph]

Same with Prince on Love Song with Madonna. As big as his ego was I’m shocked he didn’t demand a credit

 

[funky]

Prince was actually very conservative about his collabs and never wanted to be credited as a featured guest, for whatever reason. Even beyond the duets, there are so many songs out there featuring his backing vocals, guitar or other instruments, and many we still don't even know about.

 

[Joseph]

Prince was actually very conservative about his collabs and never wanted to be credited as a featured guest, for whatever reason. Even beyond the duets, there are so many songs out there featuring his backing vocals, guitar or other instruments, and many we still don't even know about.

Oh didn’t know that! Well makes sense then

 

[funky]

December 1990

#1s

I’M YOUR BABY TONIGHT –•– Whitney Houston (1 week)
BECAUSE I LOVE YOU (THE POSTMAN SONG) –•– Stevie B (3 weeks - 4 if you include the non existent Christmas week)

Whitney replaced Mariah at the top and you can see why the media instantly set them up as rivals. Whitney wins this one for me with the much superior song although I think Mariah wins in the 1990 album battle. That Stevie B song is DRIVEL to me but you can see why it was so huge in 1990.

Chart activity:

"Impulsive", the 3rd single from Wilson Phillips, is proving to be another smash and has reached #4 by Christmas.

UB40 will never not be an odd phenomenon. As if them being huge in the UK wasn't insufferable enough, but apparently the US loved them too. I knew they were known because I knew they were in the "UK acts with a US #1" hall of fame - in fact they had two ("Red Red Wine" in 1988 and "I Can't Help Falling In Love" in 1993). In between those two however they reached #6 this month, with "The Way You Do The Things You Do". Ironically this flopped in the UK at #49, where they prioritised "Kingston Town" (#4) which was not released in the US. As it goes, I don't mind "Kingston Town", the only song by them I can stomach.

"Hippychick update": sadly peaked at #14, but "Tom's Diner" leapfrogged it and is still climbing by Christmas at a new peak of #5. I'm curious how US radio positioned that song. Such an outlier for them.

George Michael's Freedom 90 climbs into the Top Ten (#8 by Christmas) but that's as far as it would go, which is still a success but might have been a slight disappointment for the label given his godlike status and success from the previous album.

Discoveries:

Londonbeat was a band I was aware of but not particularly well despite 11 Top 75 singles in the UK, although to be fair only four of them went Top 40. They are mostly known for their international hit "I've Been Thinking About You" (US #1 / UK #2). But apart from that they didn't really do much in the US, almost a one hit wonder, if it wasn't for this:



Actually a GREAT pop song, this flopped initially in the UK before having a hit in '91 with a remix. It eventually reached #18 for them in the US.

Over to the UK: Jesus Loves You - Boy George's second project outside of his solo years after Culture Club - are/is an act I've been aware of for a while now, probably just from exploring music, but I'd never really bothered with them for whatever reason. But this is quite marvellous:



I've always been a big admirer of George's soulful voice, I'm just not a fan of cod-reggae, so hearing him apply it to something groovy and trippy like this is quite wonderful. This flopped on release however, and the album didn't gain traction until the release of "Bow Down Mister" the following year (which I do remember).

Mica Paris is someone I grew to love in the R&B explosion of the mid 90s, but she has of course been going a lot longer than I originally realised, preceding the likes of Gabrielle, Des'Ree, Beverley Knight, Carleen Anderson et al in being right at the beginning of the UK soul movement with the release of "My One Temptation" in 1988. I've since found more of her deep cuts, including this gem that charted in the UK at #50 in late 1990:



The second album Contribution is a fantastic album and way ahead of its time.

A special mention to moopy faves Electribe 101, who reached the lofty heights of #77 with this cover of the Odyssey classic:



I definitely did not know this at the time, but it's SPECTACULAR, taking on a life of its own and far removed from any shadow of the brilliant original. The production is exquisite but of course Billie Ray Martin's voice is the key here. The singles on this album should have been MUCH bigger than they were.

And now for this wonderful discovery, a slice of italo-house straight out of the Black Box playbook:



And while we're in early house mode, the UK chart rerun also brought up this forgotten gem:



Notable new entries (US):

December 1

54 — I’LL GIVE ALL MY LOVE TO YOU –•– Keith Sweat
83 — AROUND THE WAY GIRL –•– LL Cool J
91 — LOVE MAKES THINGS HAPPEN –•– Pebbles
92 — CRASH (HAVE SOME FUN) –•– TKA Featuring Michelle Visage
94 — WICKED GAME –•– Chris Isaak

December 8

66 — PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC –•– Vanilla Ice
78 — ROUND AND ROUND –•– Tevin Campbell
80 — WHERE DOES MY HEART BEAT NOW –•– Celine Dion
84 — JUST A LITTLE BIT LONGER –•– Maxi Priest
86 — I DON’T KNOW ANYBODY ELSE –•– Black Box

December 15

86 — USE IT UP AND WEAR IT OUT –•– Pat & Mick
89 — GET HERE –•– Oleta Adams
96 — THE OBVIOUS CHILD –•– Paul Simon

December 22

53 — ALL THE MAN THAT I NEED –•– Whitney Houston
66 — IT NEVER RAINS (IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA) –•– Tony! Toni! Tone!
89 — THIS HOUSE –•– Tracie Spencer
92 — ONE MORE TRY –•– Timmy T

Another great tune from LL Cool J there and he really was WAY ahead of the curve in hip-hop music at the time, ridiculously so.



Again you only really notice it when you start listening to music chronologically, but most of his 80s peers were still releasing the same sort of hip-hop or new acts were coming through with early gangster rap or merging different genres like hip-house, but LL's 4th album Mama Said Knock You Out was experimental, eclectic and a huge step forward from his previous work. This song in particular sounds more like it's from 1996 than 1990.

Another Michelle Visage sighting:



It's a bit basic, but I can imagine 13 year old me bopping to this had known about it.

Is this the OFFICIAL landing of Celine Dion? Actually wiki tells me she hit #35 with "If There Was Any Other Way", but it looks like she was a good year ahead in her US success before "Beauty And The Beast" broke her in the UK, because "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" only reached #72 here, but climbed to #4 in the US by early '91. I didn't really know this at the time and have probably only discovered it in passing from various Celine compilations and live performances, and even though I'm not the BIGGEST Celine stan I've really grown to appreciate her in time and this is definitely one of her BEST in my opinion.

I still haven't unravelled the mystery of why "Ride On Time" wasn't released in the US for Black Box (@Alla any ideas) but "I Don't Know Anybody Else" eventually climbs to #23 there.

And finally:

86 — USE IT UP AND WEAR IT OUT –•– Pat & Mick

 

[Joseph]

83 — AROUND THE WAY GIRL –•– LL Cool J

One of my all time faves in general and my absolute fave LL song

 

[Joseph]

Looking at that list of new entries is mid boggling with how much good music we were getting at once. Theres very few songs mentioned in this December post that I don’t like.

 

[Shirley]

The first two JESUS LOVES YOU singles were SPECTACULAR. The later remixed versions not so much

 

[funky]

Looking at that list of new entries is mid boggling with how much good music we were getting at once. Theres very few songs mentioned in this December post that I don’t like.

They're hitting fast and furious. It does quiet down a little in early 1991, but to be honest this was quite normal in the physical music era - the period between September and December alway threw up the biggest acts with their big hitting songs for the Christmas rush. This would probably continue until the late 00s when digital destroyed the seasonality of commercial music.