borneoman
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love is tough, when enough is not enough
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Post by borneoman on Oct 21, 2011 13:48:09 GMT 1
both were denied the #1 by Doop? Travesty!!!!!!!
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Post by andrew07 on Oct 21, 2011 14:36:24 GMT 1
Poop, more like.
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Post by evansabove on Oct 21, 2011 14:46:00 GMT 1
Now I didn't mind Doop but those 2 were much more deserving #1s
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Oct 21, 2011 17:00:54 GMT 1
30TH APRIL- MMMM MMMM MMMM- Crash Test Dummies (1 week)The theme of the outsider has always been a fertile one in pop, certain acts have based their whole back catalogue on this notion, Morrissey for instance, whilst it may be fertile creatively it doesn't always result in good sales, it's nice to see that trend bucked with this track. With a start which is not unlike a nursery rhyme, appropriately, before launching into 4 tales of various societal "outsiders", it's a charming little record in actual fact, rather understated, it ain't gonna change the world and after Springteen it seems like a small little tale, but important nonetheless and considerably better than the next record. The vocal is odd, almost baritone in places, lead singer Roberts sings in a tone which isn't exactly varied, and whilst it adds gravity to the message, it doesn't really make it a "feel good" one.
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Oct 21, 2011 17:01:35 GMT 1
11TH JUNE- BABY I LOVE YOUR WAY- Big Mountain (3 weeks)You know by now this kinda thing isn't my thing so it's not gonna get a fantastic write up. Originally a Peter Frampton 1975 track, this is given a cod reggae makover in a 1994 stylee, I mean it's upbeat enough, cheery in a summer way, but it just leaves me cold, it is however very representative of that summer, a time of Aswad, Ace of Base covering Aswad, Dawn Penn & Red Dragon. In fact it looked like it was gonna be another summer of reggae until Blur and Oasis started to steal the show, but Big Mountain, like the next four tracks in this thread, ran into the Wet Wet Wet juggernaught, and now are just another one hit wonder act from the 90s. On the plus side they didn't out stay their welcome, and despite me being thoroughly cheesed off with this song by the end of summer of 94 I don't hate this song now, just don't ask me to listen to it again soon!
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Post by evansabove on Oct 21, 2011 17:18:03 GMT 1
I don't know the Peter Frampton version but i do remember the subsequently more successful cover version by Will To Power. I won't go on about reggae again but there did seem to be a lot of it around this year
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Post by andrew07 on Oct 21, 2011 17:40:56 GMT 1
"Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm", ridiculed a lot over the years and possibly the only song I know to have a chorus of just one word (or one letter) repeated through it (unless you count "Oily Water" by Blur?)
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borneoman
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love is tough, when enough is not enough
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Post by borneoman on Oct 21, 2011 17:45:23 GMT 1
always hated the Mmmm song still amazed it went to #2... silly song imho I love the Will to Power version of Baby I Love Your Way, this reggae version not so much...
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vastar iner
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I am the poster on your wall
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Post by vastar iner on Oct 21, 2011 22:39:52 GMT 1
"Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm", ridiculed a lot over the years and possibly the only song I know to have a chorus of just one word (or one letter) repeated through it (unless you count "Oily Water" by Blur?) Er, how about the aforementioned "Doop"? Bryan Adams, Sting and Rod Stewart is also the answer to the question "which three pop stars would you like to see join Robbie Williams in a Smart Forfour as it drives off Beachy Head?"
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Oct 22, 2011 13:54:12 GMT 1
2ND JULY- I SWEAR- All-4-One (7 weeks)Until this week this was the song that spent the longest time at No 2 without going higher since the 1960's, it's a dubious claim to fame to be honest, what I fail to understand is how it actually managed it. It's a fairly bog standard ballad by a male harmony vocal group (as Boyz II Men would call the genre) and with the likes of China Black, Warren G & even the mighty Take That about at the same time, it's hard to fathom exactly how this managed to outsell them all. Perhaps there's an element of residual sales from Wet Wet Wet here, people were just more in tune with ballads at this time, and week after week this wa the main opposition to "love Is All Around" so maybe people thought this was their chance to unseat it. "I swear" was actually a country hit first for John Michael Montgomery in early 94 before making the transition to pop and becoming the bands only top 30 UK hit, the question remains when the likes of Take That, East 17, and Bad Boys Inc were hitting the top 10 with the release of almost every hit why did we need this lot? The answer of course lies in credibility- "Cool Britannia" hadn't quite taken of yet, when the UK was confident enough in it's own abilities to be certain to be able to pull everything off, it would be a very different proposition a few years later when the likes of N*Sync, and even the massive Backstreet Boys, would struggle to establish themselves, in short America still equalled cool.
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Oct 22, 2011 13:54:54 GMT 1
20TH AUGUST- CRAZY FOR YOU- Let Loose (2 weeks)I'm filing this one under "Guilty pleasure". Yes from when I first heard this song I really liked it, there's something quite 80s about it, I'm unsure if that keyboard riff in the chorus, or the vocal style but i'm taken back to 1985 for some reason. First and foremost it's a cracking tune, toe tappingly great and addictive, with an infectiousness that you may need tablets for, a great summer song and indeed I'm taking right back there. For my sins I was a silver service waiter that year in my first job to drum up spending money for Uni, but not just any old waiter, my mates and I were agency workers going from event to event round the country, Birmingham NEC, Blenheim Palace, Reading ( ) yes it was a great summer nicking bottles of booze for the drive back home sometimes very early in the morning when the sun was rising- it was a blast. I even served the greats of comedy- Ronnie Corbitt, Rory Bremner, and Tom O'Connor The memories of that time may therefore cloud my thoughts on this record but listening to it now I still think it's a top tune worthy of its place on this thread. The greatness they had to begin with didn't extend to everything they touched, only "One Night Stand" and "Best In Me" are really much cop outside of this but "Crazy For You" always reminds me of a great summer when you're young- we all got those songs right?
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Oct 22, 2011 15:21:17 GMT 1
"I Swear" was also my reaction whenever that load of tripe came on the radio. Truly, truly dreadful record.
Let Loose IMO should have been entered for Eurovision, "Crazy For You" would have been perfect for it. Also seemed to be one of the few records to have a natural chart run, with a slow build. Just for that it deserved a run at the top and it was a fairly decent record. Certainly a lot better than the one ahead of it.
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Post by evansabove on Oct 22, 2011 15:31:38 GMT 1
All-4-One were just a rip off of Boyz II Men and equally as bad
Not much of a career for Let Loose but Crazy For You was a highlight whilst that dreadful Wet Wet Wet was at #1 forever
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borneoman
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love is tough, when enough is not enough
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Post by borneoman on Oct 22, 2011 15:56:46 GMT 1
surprised at all the hate for I Swear, think it's a kinda inoffensive song... I like it more than I hate it
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Oct 22, 2011 16:22:30 GMT 1
surprised at all the hate for I Swear, think it's a kinda inoffensive song... I like it more than I hate it The very definition of damning with faint praise
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Post by Earl Purple on Oct 22, 2011 20:07:20 GMT 1
Big Mountain have a new single out called "Leap Of Faith". It appears to be a brand new song too. (There are a lot of songs with that title but it doesn't appear to be a cover of any of them).
I never think of Streets of Philadelphia as Bruce's most defining song - that would be one of Born To Run, Dancing In The Dark or Born In The USA.
"Crazy For You" reached #1 in my chart, perhaps wrongly keeping out "Seven Seconds" by Youssou N'Dour & Neneh Cherry.
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Oct 23, 2011 11:35:39 GMT 1
3RD SEPTEMBER- COMPLIMENTS ON YOUR KISS- Red Dragon Featuring Tony & Brian Gold (1 week)
Right, are you sitting down? Here's the surprise- it's a reggae song I actually like! Probably as it includes just enough pop to break through my filter but this is actually a very endearing record, a mixture of innocence, cockiness, and charm make it a cheeky little number that it seems cruel to hate. I think it's that little steel drum section in the background that makes this track just pure fun to listen to it, and I KNOW this isn't a million miles away from Chaka Demus & Pliers (who I hate with a passion) but where as that seems firmly entrenched in the dancehall culture that I know little about, this seems like a much more commericialised production and that probably explains it.
The vocals are equally playful "I wish that you could be my girl/ I Wanna take you round the world/ Everytime I think of you I wish"- it's just good clean fun (OK i'm starting to sound like my mother now) but the point is when this kind of thing isn't steeped in machismo it can be quite poppy and inoffensive, this one just stays on the side of good.
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Oct 23, 2011 11:36:45 GMT 1
10TH SEPTEMBER- CONFIDE IN ME- Kylie Minogue (1 week)Everything about this song screams freedom. Look at that record cover- not a hint of what the song is called just a close up of her face and the words "Kylie Minogue"- almost as if that name should be enough to sell this record alone, as it was back in 88-90, it's a confidence that never oversteps into arrogance. She was free of that contract with S/A/W and branching out into the music she wanted to do, indeed "Confide In Me" has more than a hint of Indie music to it, buried beneath that middle eastern sound which permeates throughout, and after she signed with deconstruction records (famous for its dance musci output) I recall how surprised I was by this. In a good way I mean. I heard this on her "Showgirl" tour in 2005 and recall how it was the only song that seemed to fill the whole auditorium, the strings in the chorus rousing and euphoric, a tour de force of a popstar operating at the height of her ability. It's a song she could never have made with S/A/W, it's too quirky, too fragmented, too unconforming, to fit their formula, but by god it's a great song, a kind of "Justify My Love" in terms of her career, of course it's Kylie so it would never have such a video to accompany it as Madonna had dreamt up, the image change couldn't have been THAT dramatic without alienating the existing audience for Kylie. The violin adds a melancholy tone to the track which seems ever evolving within its four minutes, and Kylie's voice appears stronger and better than on any of her previous hits or certainly less manufactured, and even air of malignance in the air "Confide In Me" she sings but you aren't sure that any secret you tell is going to be kept, there is in short a lot going on here. But it all comes together into something of a classic, it's almost like seeing a star reborn with palpable relief, this WAS a risk, even if now it seems like it was always going to be a smash. Concise, moody, and emotional, Kylie was back with a bang.
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borneoman
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love is tough, when enough is not enough
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Post by borneoman on Oct 23, 2011 12:14:46 GMT 1
love Confide in Me. I always thought the video didn't fit the song... it really needed a more provocative Erotica-esque video imho that would have totally worked... I particularly like the Nerina Pallot version of the song <3 the Compliments song is so-so for me... hate that all these #2s kept the far better Seven Seconds off the top 2... talk about a lost classic... Seven Seconds should have been one for 16 weeks or whatever, not Wet Wet Wet
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Post by andrew07 on Oct 23, 2011 12:17:41 GMT 1
I'm not the biggest fan of Kylie, but I like Confide In Me. Nerina Pallot does a great version of that too
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