Here’s another chapter in my personal Top 50 book, looking back this week 33 years ago. And just as in the Fall of 1990, I’m still heavily into R&B, so much so that I’ve included ballads on here as well by Guy, Whitney, Bell Biv Devoe, and Pebbles [and I’m not a slow song kind of guy]. I do love that Hi-5 tune; it’s so sweet, innocent, and catchy.
Where was I getting my soul suggestions from? The local pop station skewed towards rock, as did the record stores, so my guess is that I found these tracks through Billboard and took a chance on them as cassette singles. Probably also got some tips from Donnie Simpson on Video Soul.
I feel like I was listening to a lot of hip-hop at that time, but this chart betrays that notion, as only seven songs represent that genre. [Where’s A Tribe Called Quest, for example?] George Michael has three songs here, so I was still into it almost half a year after Listen Without Prejudice was released. A little bit of college rock was rearing its head with Living Colour, Pet Shop Boys, Susanna Hoffs, and my newfound early 90s love, Jellyfish. Even a new A-ha single breaks through, but I had to play it again to remember the tune.
Pop made its appearance via Roxette, Londonbeat, and Sara Hickman. I must have included that Bad Company song because I had seen them in concert a few weeks before this. Damn Yankees opened up for them, so I unwittingly saw the Nuge in concert. Because we were in the midst of Desert Storm, you bet Ted some inappropriate and racist stuff against the Muslims, which most folks agreed with cheers and fist pumps.
Sitting at the top was Sting with one of his oddest Top 40 hits inspired by his father’s death – dark lyrics, bright melody – a Sting trademark. That year, I finally got to see him in concert with Squeeze opening up, so I was all in on The Soul Cages, which was a heavy album.
All told I have twenty songs on this chart that made the Billboard Top 40, with eight missing the Hot 100 entirely.
And what was Bubbling Under my brain at the time?
Here comes the wave of alt-rock. But still no hip-hop? And more BBD? My God. I think that Wilson Philips tune is here because Pop radio was shoving that trio down everyone’s throat for the past year. That Will To Power track is abysmal. In fact, all of their stuff is. It just made me realize that I needed to seek out the original by Heatwave.
I’m unsure what these self-created lists said about me in early 1991. I am surprised by the entries and absence of songs from that time that I enjoy to this day. If anything here tickles a nostalgia bone or makes you chuckle, feel free to drop me a line.
Music In The Key Of E 