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Post by raliverpool on Sept 6, 2014 16:05:22 GMT 1
22 Alison Moyet - It Won't Be Long 91After a break of over 3 years the former Yazoo vocalist returned with this song which was the lead single from her 3rd solo album Hoodoo. A radical musical departure which her record label Columbia hated, this proto-Britpop record features pre-Ocean Colour Scene's Simon Fowler & Steve Cradock; former Haircut 100 drummer turned top in demand session/touring drummer Blair Cunningham; and Elysian Chorus (aka Kirsty MacColl) responsible for the backing vocal harmony arrangements on this lyrically and emotionally raw Alison Moyet & Pete Glenister co-penned track. 21 Queen - Innuendo 91Back from their earliest beginning the seminal British Rock band were uncomplimentary compared to an act they were clearly inspired by, Led Zeppelin. In 1975 the top NME journalist Charles Shaar Murray reviewing a Queen concert to promote their latest album "A Night At The Opera" described them as a "Panto Led Zeppelin". Whilst Led Zeppelin were as uncomplimentary about Queen as Madonna has been about Lady Gaga. By the 1980s Led Zeppelin were no more, and the musical magpies of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon had really hit their stride as consistent hit makers, and one of the best (and definitely in the case of Live Aid the best) live act in the world. This was the title track of Queen's 14th studio album (the final one made whilst Freddie Mercury was alive), and this track is nothing short of a total triumph. Roger Taylor & Brian May have freely admitted this was their attempt at writing their "Kashmir" www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQH3LtNePgIThe lyrics had an air of defiance about them: "You can be anything you want to be / Just turn yourself into anything you think that you could ever be / Be free with your tempo be free be free / Surrender your ego be free be free to yourself"; and the very fact they finally pulled off a Led Zeppelin type track with the help of Yes' Chris Howe on flamenco guitar) without it being reductive, is the reason why when it came out Robert Plant & Jimmy Page were full of praise for the track. Indeed Jimmy Page has gone on record to describe "Innuendo" as "the best Led Zeppelin track we never made". The track made UK #1, and was a top 10 hit across Europe.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Sept 6, 2014 17:24:16 GMT 1
^ Best Alison Moyet single and best Queen single.
It was that video though that either sparked, or fuelled, rumours that all was not well with Freddy Mercury. Because of course it's all animation rather than a band performance like all their previous.
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Post by raliverpool on Sept 6, 2014 18:27:08 GMT 1
20 Elliott Smith - Waltz #2 (XO) 98
The cult American singer/songwriter scored a UK #52 hit (5 years before he died in 2003 of stab wounds to the chest. To this day (unlike with the myth of Kurt Cobain) it is unclear whether it was self inflicted (he was Bi-polar and suffered from depression and was a former Heroin addict) or from an unknown assailant) with this autobiographical song written as a love letter to his dead mother who was married to his step father who sexually abused him. This staccato 3/4 beat waltz has a roadhouse, Wild West, player-piano feel to it, as he was brought up in Texas.
19 Red Hot Chili Peppers - Under The Bridge 92
The song that took the Californian funk rockers into the mainstream was based on singer Anthony Kiedis alienation from the band and split from his then girlfriend due to his battles with addiction to Heroin. In retrospect this song deserved to become a huge hit because whilst it is influenced by Jimi Hendrix's Little Wing; T-Rex's Rip Off; and Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven is it some how very original. Released as the second single off Blood Sugar Sex Magik (after Give It Away) it went on to peak at USA #2 behind the hideous Kris Kross "Jump" (Ironically Chris Kelly of Kris Kross died aged 34 of a heroin overdose in 2013). It peaked at #1 in Australia & Canada; but initially only made UK #26 (All Saints horrific cover later made #1), before peaking at UK #13 upon reissue in 1994.
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Post by raliverpool on Sept 6, 2014 18:53:57 GMT 1
18 REM - Losing My Religion 91R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck wrote the main riff and chorus to the song on a mandolin while watching television just one day after he bought the instrument whilst learning to play it. Michael Stipe's lyrics for the song were inspired by one of his favourite songs "Every Breath You Take" by The Police. Its tile is a Southern American phrase means losing one's temper or civility, or being at the end of one's rope. It became their biggest international hit peaking at USA #4, UK #19, went Top 20 in Australia & Canada & New Zealand; and was a top 5 hit across Europe including topping the charts in the Netherlands and Belgium. 17 Suede - Stay Together 94This UK #3 hit was the last single released while guitarist Bernard Butler was in the band, though subsequent singles from Dog Man Star feature his music. Oddly enough, although lead singer Brett Anderson considers the single the worst thing the band done. However, that is probably due to his memory of Anderson's relationship with the guitarist rapidly deteriorating die to the singer's Heroin addiction, and Butler becoming more distant to the rest of the band, due in some part to the death of his mother, and the fact on their US tour he travelled on the main act (The Cranberries) tour bus rather than Suede's. In 2012 "Stay Together" was placed at number 3 on NME's 100 Best Tracks of the Nineties. The CD's "b-sides" My Dark Star www.youtube.com/watch?v=swfaGGS-3Bg and The Living Dead www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXNMHjckAoM are great tracks too.
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Post by raliverpool on Sept 6, 2014 19:10:50 GMT 1
16 Blur - Popscene 92
The song that arguably represents the start of the Britpop movement (6 weeks before the other seminal Britpop starting track which is higher up my countdown). It was released on 30 March 1992 as a stand alone single (then planned to be included on their second album Modern Life Is Rubbish), yet its awful chart performance (UK #32) shocked the band so much they refused to include it on the subsequent album, or on their Blur: The Best Of album (despite by then the retrospective appreciatement of the song, which saw it belatedly released in Australia in 1997 peaking at #19). As for its video ... when Blur released their US chart breakthrough "Song 2" in 1997 they deliberately reworked this video in tribute to this neglected masterpiece.
15 No Doubt - Don't Speak 97
Vocalist Gwen Stefani wrote the song about her bandmate and ex-boyfriend Tony Kanal shortly after he ended their seven-year relationship. It did not chart on the USA Billboard Hot 100 (as rules of the times required commercial singles for charting and one was not issued for the song), but it did reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay for 16 weeks. The single also reached the top spot in 37 countries including the UK. Taken from the album Tragic Kingdom produced by Matthew "Break My Stride" Wilder.
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Sept 6, 2014 19:22:03 GMT 1
two of our top 20 the same so far, with REM at almost identical positions 18 and I had No Doubt slightly higher at 7, you went for 'Under The Bridge' rather than 'Give It Away'
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Post by raliverpool on Sept 6, 2014 21:01:28 GMT 1
14 New Radicals - You Get What You Give 99
The American alternative rock was the vehicle for producer, singer/songwriter Gregg Alexander. This glorious power pop one hit wonder which insulted celebrities reached USA #36, UK #5, and was a major worldwide hit including topping the charts in Canada & New Zealand with arguably the best coda lyrics of the decade:
"Health insurance, rip-off lying FDA, big bankers buying Fake computer crashes dining Cloning while they're multiplying Fashion shoots with Beck and Hanson, Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson You're all fakes, run to your mansions Come around, we'll kick your ass in."
Since retiring the New Radicals Gregg Alexander has written and produced the likes of Ronan Keating, Rod Stewart, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Enrique Iglesias, Texas, Geri Halliwell, Melanie C, Santana, and Michelle Branch.
13 The KLF ft Tammy Wynette - Justified & Ancient (Stand By The JAMs) 91
Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty remake of the White Room album version featured the US country legend after Dolly Parton had turned them down. This version was a massive international dance hit topping the national charts of 18 countries, as well as peaking at UK #2 (only denied the top spot by the death of Freddie Mercury and the "Bohemian Rhapsody" reissue coupled with "These Are The Days Of Our Lives") & USA #11. It was also the first single ever bought by the future Lady Gaga, which she referenced on her "Yoü And I" single & corresponding video.
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Sept 7, 2014 18:43:08 GMT 1
very high placing for New Radicals, it was a #1 in my chart and was pretty much a perfect pop/rock song but I couldn't make it that high. As for KLF its not my favourite of theirs and I even prefer the album version to the Tammy version, it was just a bit much I guess but that's what they thrived on.
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Post by raliverpool on Sept 8, 2014 15:01:02 GMT 1
I'm planning on posting #12 - #4 today; and the top 3 tomorrow:
12 Manic Street Preachers - A Design For Life 96
This song which explored the themes of class conflict and working class identity and solidarity, was the first to be written and released by the Welsh indie rock band following the mysterious disappearance of figurehead Richey Edwards the previous year. It was the first single taken from the Everything Must Go album and peaked at UK #2 (denied the top spot by the hideous Mark Morrison - Return Of The Mack). Its CD "b-sides" "Mr Carbohydrate", "Dead Passive" and "Dead Trees and Traffic Islands" are all great too and worth checking out.
11 Oasis - Live Forever 94
Written by Noel Gallagher, the song was released as the third single from their debut album Definitely Maybe Becoming their maiden UK top 10 hit at #10. It was apparently written in December 1991 as a f*** you to the Grunge philosophy of "I Hate Myself And I Want To Die" after he read an NME interview with Kurt Cobain, and was musically inspired by the Rolling Stones' Exile On Main Street track "Shine A Light", who later (Jagger & Richards) tried and failed to sue Noel Gallagher for a share of the publishing. In 2007, "Live Forever" placed number one in the NME and XFM poll of the 50 "Greatest Indie Anthems Ever". I've included the much better and rarely seen 1995 US video of the track directed by Nick Egan (whom the band drafted in after all being impressed by another of his videos which is much higher in my countdown!).
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Post by raliverpool on Sept 8, 2014 15:55:35 GMT 1
10 Deee-Lite - Groove Is In The Heart 90
The New York retro house dance band featured vocals from Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest as well as bass guitar and vocals by Bootsy Collins on this track based on the musical bed of Herbie Hancock's "Bring Down the Birds"; Vernon Burch's "Get Up", which provided the drum track and also formed the basis for the famous breakdown featuring a slide whistle; and the horn riff from Eddie Jefferson's "Psychedelic Sally". This dance anthem was a sizeable international hit, topping the charts in Australia, as well as reaching USA #4 & famously denied the UK #1 spot on tied sample record sales due to a rule instituted in the UK Singles Chart in the 1980s, which settled any "ties" over chart positions due to equal sales: the single with sales that had increased most from the previous week would reside above the other so resulting in the Levi's TV advertisement related reissue of a 1974 USA #1 hit Steve Miller's Band "The Joker" winning because it was one place lower than Deee-Lite the previous week.
9 Madonna - Oh Father 90
Released as the 4th single late in 1989 from the Queen Of Pop's 4th and best album Like A Prayer in all the territories which did not go with "Dear Jessie" this string laden country ballad produced by the tunesmith Patrick Leonard featured arguably Madonna's best ever lyrics, and definitely her best ever vocal performance the singer wanted to revisit the pain and confusion that characterized her relationship with her father post the death of her mother aged 30 of breast cancer (when Madonna was 5 years old), and her anger of him marrying the families housekeeper two years later. Chart wise by her then high standards it was a failure: The song became Madonna's first single since "Holiday" in 1984 to fail to make the USA Top 10, peaking at USA #20 ending her streak of 16 consecutive top five singles and 17 consecutive top ten singles. In Canada it brought to an end a comparable top 10 streak peaking at #14. The song became Madonna's lowest charting single in Australia, where it peaked at a lowly #59, breaking a run of 20 consecutive top 40 singles. Whether that was due to the "Citizen Kane" wintry themed David Fincher directed video; or the far too personal nature of the lyrics is not clear. It similarly underperformed when it was belatedly released in Europe and other territories late in December 1995 after it appeared on Madonna's 1995 compilation ballads album Something to Remember, such as UK #16. Yet it won her a Grammy nomination, and ASCAP songwriting nomination, and critically is regarded as one of her best ever records. And its co-writer and producer Patrick Leonard who as well as his many collaborations with Madonna, has worked with Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Bon Jovi, Bryan Ferry, Rufus Wainwright, Leonard Cohen, Natalie Imbruglia, Jewel, Jody Watley, Peter Cetera, Julian Lennon .... regards it is the single best composition he has ever worked on and is most proud of.
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Post by raliverpool on Sept 8, 2014 16:32:28 GMT 1
8 Tori Amos - Silent All These Years 91
Initially a B-side of the USA singer/songwriter's first single, "Me and a Gun". The decision to release "Silent All These Years" came after British DJ Johnny Walker returned to Radio 1 after a 15 year absence (he initially got sacked in 1976 for on air describing the Bay City Rollers as "musical garbage" and refused to issue a public apology, and instead escalated the incident by going to the newspapers to justify why the BCR were rubbish) taking over from Richard Skinner on the 3PM to 6PM 'Saturday Sequence' and played the flipside of her debut single, so resulting in public demand for the track to be released (it resulted in the original single peaking at UK #51, but the chart compilers rightly counted the B-side as the A-side; then months later after the success of the Little Earthquakes album it was properly released and peaked at UK #26. This Joni Mitchell meets Kate Bush piano laden autobiographical tale was not a hit in the USA until 1997 after it had become a staple live favourite peaking at USA #65.
7 Radiohead - Paranoid Android 97
The lyrics of the darkly humorous song were written primarily by singer Thom Yorke, following an unpleasant experience in a Los Angeles bar. It takes its name from Marvin the Paranoid Android of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Released as the lead single from OK Computer it reached UK #3, this complex track with four separate sections was rated by Pitchfork as the 4th best track of the 90s.
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Sept 8, 2014 17:04:21 GMT 1
Awesome top 10 so far although only vaguely remember the Madonna track as you said it was an Import single. Again just personal preferences I prefer 'Crucify' and 'The Bends' era Radiohead but can't knock these at all.
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Post by raliverpool on Sept 8, 2014 17:28:08 GMT 1
Six of the best, one at a time, all male vocals, all groups:
6 Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence 90
This Martin Gore penned Dance synthpop track co-produced by the band with Flood was the second taken from their 7th studio and best album Violator. Released in February 1990 it reached UK #6 (yet a year later won the BRIT Award for Best British single), and became their biggest international hit single topping the charts in Spain & Denmark; #2 in Germany, Switzerland, Finland, etc and peaked at USA #8. It was complimented by a great visual, yet odd Anton Corbijn-directed music video of Dave Gahan, a crown & a kings robe, shot on location in Portugal, the Swiss Alps and the Scottish Highlands.
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Post by raliverpool on Sept 8, 2014 18:00:09 GMT 1
5 Pulp - Common People 95
The Sheffield alternative rock band's signature song had its lyrics inspired by Jarvis Cocker's experience from a Greek art student whom Pulp singer/songwriter Jarvis Cocker met while he was studying at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design who was slumming it by staying in student digs in Hackney. This Chris Thomas produced track was the lead single from Different Class (which also features the B-side Underwear, and it was infamously denied the UK top spot by the truly hideous Robson & Jerome wretched cover of Unchained Melody (thanks to Simon Cowell). It also achieved the runners up spot in Pitchfork's Top 200 tracks of the 1990s. Its famous music video features actress Sadie Frost.
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Post by raliverpool on Sept 8, 2014 18:30:51 GMT 1
4 Suede - The Drowners 92
The debut single from the London based Britpop alternative outfit showcased the band's The Smiths meets Davie Bowie distinctive liquid glam sexy yet seedy anthemic style. Written by Bernard Butler and Brett Anderson this UK #49 help to significantly promote the beginning of a tidal change in the British music scene. The other two tracks on the CD single "To The Birds" and especially "My Insatiable One" are also well worth checking out.
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Sept 8, 2014 20:12:19 GMT 1
Yep brilliant all three not much more to say
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vya
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Post by vya on Sept 8, 2014 21:51:12 GMT 1
Really enjoying this list. While there are loads of tracks here I also rate highly, I'm very pleased indeed to see "Oh Father" so high here - it really is Madonna close to her very best, very moving stuff, and far too little-known compared with other parts of her catalogue. I suppose had it been released in 1989 as a single, instead of (the rather more frivolous and minor) "Dear Jessie" it wouldn't have been eligible for this list...
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Post by raliverpool on Sept 9, 2014 15:23:57 GMT 1
3 REM - Everybody Hurts 93
Largely written by drummer Bill Berry as a country rock waltz before the rest of the band gave it a Otis Redding/Stax Records vibe, this anthem largely aimed at teenagers to not feel isolated and do something stupid like committing suicide was deliberately very direct by Michael Stipe's lyric standards. Little wonder it was used in a UK TV advertising campaign by the Samaritans in 1995. The string arrangement was written by Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. The Automatic For The People album track went on to peak at USA #29, UK #7, Australia #6, Germany #4, France #3, Ireland #6, Canada #8, etc. The less said about the abhorrent The Sun Newspaper/Syco records Helping Haiti 2010 cover version the better.
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Post by raliverpool on Sept 9, 2014 15:53:30 GMT 1
2 Blur - For Tomorrow 93
Sometimes in hindsight the best place to be is ahead of the curve. After the commercial failure of their stand alone single Popscene, the four piece band from Colchester formerly known as Seymour recorded an Anglophile album completely out of step with the current grunge scene with XTC's Andy Partridge in the producer's chair. Their record company Food rejected it, and The Smiths producer Stephen Street was drafted in to make it more current and indie/alternative sounding, whilst requesting the band come up with something single friendly. The result was this act of defiance by the band coming up with this late 1960s Village Green Preservation Society era The Kinks meets Hunky Dory era David Bowie track (which later in the decade both Ray Davies & David Bowie separately selected to be played on MTV countdowns of their favourite tracks) nostalgic pop gem which was too catchy not to be released as the lead single. For good measure they drafted in Julien Temple to direct the black and white video, and the single cover featured two WWII Spitfire fighter planes on it. The result was the single only made UK #28 in April 1993, and the corresponding album Modern Life Is Rubbish only made UK #15, but it was critically received much better, as Suede were gradually starting to implode, the public and music writers were beginning to get tired of the whole "I Hate Myself And I Want To Die" Grunge scene. A year later Kurt Cobain was dead, and Blur's follow up album was #1 in the UK album chart. In July 2012 BBC Radio 6Music celebrated the release of Blur's back catalogue on deluxe 2CD sets by carrying out a poll of the Top 40 Blur tracks. This finished 3rd (just beating 4th Song 2, and behind 2nd Girls & Boys and 1st This Is A Low).
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Sept 9, 2014 19:14:46 GMT 1
Probably two of favourite bands if the.90s but I probably underrated both songs in my list but I lost the magic of 'everybody hurts' just too overfamiliar now, now your number one is from an act that didn't make my top 1000, wonder who it is?
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