8TH FEBRUARY- TWILIGHT ZONE- 2 Unlimited (1 week)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/2_Unlimited_-_twilightzone.gif

 

There's a very good thing about this record- it's the last time I'll have to review this pap. Obligatory "whoo-s" are present, as is the europop synth line, in fact everything about this record is predictable and tired, quite an impressive accolade for what was only their second hit. If you liked "Get Ready For This" then i'm sure you'll like this too, but back in 1992 this kind of thing just glazed over me, in the context of the year then it was very of its time which has resulted in the track sounded particularly dated, more so than GRFT. If a fomula ain't broke then the saying goes don't try to fix it, and it's a maxim that worked here a treat, clearly even with my thoughts on the track it still impressed enough people to see it rise to the runner up spot.

 

 

There was to be a further 2 years of success for the group before the general British Public agreed with me that enough was enough, in the words of a great Pet Shop Boys hit " And someone said: "It's fabulous you're still around today, You've both made such a little go a very long way".....

 

 

Edited October 1, 201113 yr by gezza76

29TH FEBRUARY- MY GIRL- The Temptations (2 weeks)

 

http://www.chartstats.com/images/artwork/12350.jpg

 

It's on this list courtesy of it's use in the film of the same name starring Macaulay Culkin and Anna Chlumsky which was a box office smash in early 92, and was originally a US chart topper in 1965 for the band. It can be seen in a similar light to the likes of "Stand By Me" "Wonderful World" and "When A Man Loves A Woman" as old 60s records which became hits all over again after being used in films/ TV.

 

It's a nice enough piece of 60s Motown soul written by Smokey Robinson and Ronald White but it looks starkly out of place after 2 Unlimited and The Prodigy, but then that's 1992 for you- a hodge podge of genres/ styles, something for everyone but not satisfying on the whole- mmmm wonder if this year is going to get any better???

 

Edited October 1, 201113 yr by gezza76

Hmm, speaking objectively, I think Twilight Zone is QUITE significantly worse than Get Ready For This. Instrumentally, GRFT is actually quite good IMO. In fact, if the instrumental was given to a more talented interesting dance act then it could have been something special (ok, maybe I'm going a bit overboard here :lol:). Twilight Zone is just their usual ear-assaulting clunky, typical noise, sadly. Like you, however, I'm not sorry to see the back of 2 Unlimited in this thread, especially since they were only getting worse from the point of a passable first single. Just listening to their follow-up to this now (Workaholic, a #4 hit) as I didn't recognise it from the title and it's yet again another step down in quality... :wacko:

 

My Girl, on the other hand, is a classic! I could listen to those smooth, pristine vocals all day - perfection! I agree that 1992 is a poor year for #2s in general but with this already being the 2nd perfect pop track to reach the position this year at least it started off better than any other year so far. Again though this seems like a rather default #2. Looking at the chart for this week on Chartstats it seems like 1992 is still struggling to make its mark with a rather worrying amount of re-issues knocking about in the upper reaches (always a clear sign of poor quality IMO) - but at least we now have a clear leader in the form of Shakespear's Sister.

Edited September 30, 201113 yr by superbossanova

14TH MARCH- I LOVE YOUR SMILE- Shanice (2 weeks)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9d/Shaniilys6602468649756650.jpg

 

A Narada Michael Walden production (famous mainly for his work with Whitney/ Mariah/ Ross in the 80s/90s) this is actually a record that I rather like! Whilst it flopped (comparatively) here when it was first released in 1991 (just like the next record), making No 55, it sprung to life when the "Driza Bone" remix resulted in this smash hit- incidentally it was kept of the US No 1 spot by "I'm Too Sexy" so a bit of Karmic justice there. Anyway Shanice's delivery might be too sickly for some but I actually find it rather endearing and a piece of uplifting US pop it is hard to criticize.

 

Certainly it was her sole UK top 40 hit, but in what was a poor year for pop I'm being far more liberal with my praise for things I liked purely because there was so little to give out. Her tale of the drudgery of everyday life spiced up with a bit of romance is something we can probably all relate too, and she's pretty enough in the video for the whole thing to work if you don't think about it too deeply, appreciate it for what it is and it's a hard song to dislike.....

 

Edited October 2, 201113 yr by gezza76

28TH MARCH- FINALLY- Ce Ce Peniston (1 week)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d1/CCP_F_single.jpg

 

Another song that took a re-release to make our thread, "Finally" was originally a No 29 in Nov 91 and was a song that I loved when it was released back then. There is a sense of urgency about the song, a passion that must be satiated immediately, a tale that MUST be told, it's a lovely peice of early 90s dance that hasn't aged badly at all, and it was a breath of fresh air in the rather stolid charts of 1992. I think I remember even buying her debut album (though I must have last played it in about 1994) so I must have been sufficiently impressed with her offerings, but certainly "Finally" is both engaging and arresting.

 

Originally penned in a chemistry lesson whilst Peniston was in school writing poetry would be eventually be turned into hit singles, and at the age of 23 she hit it big making the US top 5 with this track, and a total of 3 top 10 hits in the UK in 1992, she's been rather forgotten about now but for about 6 months in early 92 there was a buzz about Peniston that she could be quite big- it just never happened but regardless of that "Finally" is still a fine example of dance music as it should be done, in a 1992 stylee obviously....

 

Incidentally we are going through the TOTP phase were all acts had to sing "live" which resulted in some coming off worse than others- Peniston thankfully is not one of them...

 

Edited October 2, 201113 yr by gezza76

Was listening to Now 21 last night before bed to get into the early 1992 mood :D Actually it reminded me that this period wasn't so bad in terms of the notable hits, it's just the good'uns seemed to stall lower in the top 10 or outside of it. I might make this a regular thing if I can be bothered as I do actually own all the main series from 1991 onwards. Anyway, as we approach April, 1992 seems to be a bit more swing now.

 

So, CeCe Peniston. I guess it's a rather typical piece of early 90s vocal house - the big diva belter, the spritzy piano to give it that extra bit of pizzazz, etc. Personally speaking it's been kind of killed for me by association. I'm sure I did like it when I first heard it (although god knows when that would have been!) but it seems to have become THE ultimate dance track of the MoR radio stations nowadays, rolled out constantly on Heart FM's Club Classics show for example. Heck, even in the last 30 days Compare My Radio says it's been played a gigantic 362 times which is a huge amount for a track that is 20 years old, with the likes of Touch, Heart and Atlantic FM giving it generous support. So yes, I have to say I'm rather sick of it and would quite happily send it to a metaphorical death. Also I didn't realise CeCe had a top 10 hit before Finally (I assumed it got re-issued after being a hit in the US like was the way with quite a lot of tracks) which came up on Now 21 last night and I prefer it to this actually.

 

The Shanice track is okay but hard to conjure up any strongs feelings on it. For some reason listening to it reminds me strongly of some of Tatyana Ali's (to truly pluck a name out of obscurity!) late 90s hits and I could imagine her having sung this track too if she had been old enough at the time. I liked those a lot back then but of course that was with a more updated production job to fit the late 90s R&B sound which naturally appealed to me more.

Edited October 1, 201113 yr by superbossanova

Was listening to Now 21 last night before bed to get into the early 1992 mood :D Actually it reminded me that this period wasn't so bad in terms of the notable hits, it's just the good'uns seemed to stall lower in the top 10 or outside of it. I might make this a regular thing if I can be bothered as I do actually own all the main series from 1991 onwards. Anyway, as we approach April, 1992 seems to be a bit more swing now.

I'm pleased you're getting into it! It was a dire year in general, if I had to do my top 100 of the decade I doubt much from 92 would feature, that's a shame as it was the year I turned 16, there are NO 2 hits to come in 92 that i LOVE, a few I don't mind but a lot of filler. Oh well time to get on with it I suppose.... :D

4TH APRIL- LET'S GET ROCKED- Def Leppard (1 week)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d8/Def-Leppard-Let-get-rocked-.jpg

 

I'm no "ROCK" aficionado I confess, and on this record I also have to say I was going to write a review about it being hopelessly 80s and antiquated by 1992, and then I listened to it again. Yes there is no doubt some rock cliches here, and the use of words/ phrases like "dude" and "check this out" have more than a cringe- worthy attempt to appeal to "youth" and it may be lyrically a bit clumsy, but by god it's hard not to tap along to. They are of course fine purveyors of stadium rock since the mid 80s so that should come as no surprise but that melody is rather enjoyable, and in decade that granted the success of the likes of Phil Collins, Bon Jovi, and Bryan Adams then perhaps Def Leppard aren't so much of the time as on paper it would suggest.

 

Being the first single from their new album "Adrenalize", the track was accompanied by a (for the time) state of the art CGI video, and featured a lead character based on Bart Simpson, showing that some money was put into the project considering we were in a recession at the time, not sure if one week at No 2 paid it back but it did however become the band's highest charting hit to this point and launched the album to No 1 a matter of weeks later. There's no Ivor Novello awards about to be handed out here but it's certainly better than a lot of what is to come and what has been before in 92....

 

Edited October 3, 201113 yr by gezza76

25TH APRIL- BE QUICK OR BE DEAD- Iron Maiden (1 week)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e8/Single23_bequick_a_small.jpg

 

THIS I have never understood! Iron Maiden, it cannot be disputed, have been enormously successfully in their genre and have had more chart success than any other "hard rock" band I Can think of, yet for all that there isn't a song of theirs I can say I like ("Can I Play With Madness" comes close to being passable) and I never really got all the hell/ devil/ death kind of thing.

 

All lovely I'm sure if you're into this kind of thing but definitely NOT for me. By the time we meet them in this thread they had developed that tendancy (ahead of the times in many respects) of debuting high then dropping like a stone, a pattern the charts as a whole developed from the mid 90s onwards until downloads came in, and had performed a smash and grab on the No 1 spot in Jan 91 with "Bring Your Daughter.....To The Slaughter" of which this was the follow up, we'll never meet them again as far as this rundown goes so a hasty move on is, I think, best....

 

Edited October 3, 201113 yr by gezza76

I'm pleased you're getting into it! It was a dire year in general, if I had to do my top 100 of the decade I doubt much from 92 would feature, that's a shame as it was the year I turned 16, there are NO 2 hits to come in 92 that i LOVE, a few I don't mind but a lot of filler. Oh well time to get on with it I suppose.... :D

There's one more #2 still to come in 1992 that I like rather a lot - not sure if it'd be the one you'd expect but then again I don't think anybody really knows my music taste that well here, not like I have acts I like plastered in my avatar/signature like most people here :lol:

 

1992 seems to get worse as it goes along as far as I can tell (in general, not in terms of the #2 hits!) - Now 23 doesn't look good at all! And the Xmas chart looks truly dire. I know Christmas is the time of ridiculousness but honestly. But getting a bit ahead of myself here; that can be discussed when we get to December.

 

I loved the existence of Iron Maiden in chart terms - they're surely the only act in chart history whose entire career seemed to depend almost completely on the sales climate? Watching their positions drop to lower top 20 at best from their "career peak" in 1991/92 before suddenly going back in the other direction post-2002 as sales decreased again, and reaching a peak almost as good as before in 2005-07 was very amusing.

 

Musically I never "got" them either but I do miss their presence in the charts too. For me they almost encapsulate the chart variety we've lost in the internet age [/oldmangrumbling]

2ND MAY- ON A RAGGA TIP- SL2 (3 Weeks)

 

http://www.chartstats.com/images/artwork/12468.jpg

 

In many ways SL2 is emblamatic and entirely representative of 1992. Though It was harldy a great year you can't doubt its diversity, and from Iron maiden to SL2 is quite some jump, they were Essex Duo Slipmatt & Lime who had teased the charts in 1991 with "DJ's Take Control/ Way In My Brain" before scoring a much bigger hit with this. Much in the Prodigy Vein this is a fine example of early 90s dance, but it's a record i've always been rather ambivalent towards, it seems rather mechanical and cold if you understand that, designed to appeal and crafted as such it leaves a rather impersonal touch.

 

I was thinking about this record today at work, it's so curiously of its time that I was strugling to think how people would dance to it today in a club, darn it I don't even recall it being played at our school disco before we left, perhaps it was too subversive, anyway whilst I'm far from loathing the song it's not something I hold up as a beacon of 90s music, though I re-iterate it's VERY 1992. The sample is, incidentally "Walk and Skank" by Jah Screechie, listening to it again it all sounds quite amateurish, I don't mean that as a criticism, it's actually quite exciting to think the track probably sounded little different when it was first conceived to the finished product, "the public" really were making records thanks in the main to dance music which certainly made the music industry more egalitarian, and whilst I might not have liked much of what was produced, that very fact alone should be applauded!....

 

Edited October 4, 201113 yr by gezza76

23RD MAY- KNOCKIN ON HEAVEN'S DOOR- Guns N Roses (1 week)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b7/GNR_Heaven.jpg

 

I never knew that this Bob Dylan penned hit was originally about a dying deputy police officer!? Anyway by 1992 G N R were probably the biggest rock band in the world, a reputation growing steadily since "Appetite For Destruction" was unleashed in 1987 and the immense "Sweet Child O'Mine" was first a hit. The "Terminator II" theme "You Could Be Mine" had become their first top 3 hit and now few could match the speed with which they could fill a stadium, indeed (clever link coming up) it was just such a stadium filled performance of this track that propelled the song to No 2. It was in fact a fifth release from the "Use Your Illusion" set of albums, but when they performed at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert in April 1992 the demand for this track was guaranteed a big smash upon release.

 

As a band filled with self believe it's hard to fault the delivery of the track and it works in that stadium environment, there is an air of importance and gravitas that only a band at the pinnacle of their power can pull off, and Rose's vocal, which is often like marmite, comes off warmer than normal, and naturally Slash's performance is bang on the money. I think this is another prime example of a song that everyone thinks they know and which has become over burdened with covers as the years have gone by, do G N R bring anything new to the track? Maybe not to the track but they certainly bring some energy to it which subsequent interpretations have lacked and tended to focus on the more maudlin angles. Actually thinking about it and in light of what KOHD was written about that Dunblane version in 96 now seems a little bit out of place now doesn't it? even with altered lyrics.......

 

 

 

Edited October 4, 201113 yr by gezza76

30TH MAY- RAVING I'M RAVING- Shut Up And Dance (1 week)

 

http://www.chartstats.com/images/artwork/12546.jpg

 

If that sample had been cleared pre release then there is no doubt that this song would NOT be in this thread and would have been a Number one hit in the UK. But alas it wasn't, and back in 92 dance duo Shut Up And Dance creating a stink when they turned Marc Cohn's "Walking In Memphis" into a rave track (oddly Cohn seemed to have no trouble in allowing Cher to turn into a load of old tosh just three years later but I digress). As a result only 35,000 copies were released resulting in the track being deleted almost before it hit the stores and rushing into a midweek lead that it couldn't hope to sustain, and as sales were at this point at a record low for the decade, had this been released in any other year it is unlikely that it would be in this thread either!

 

However what "Raving I'm Raving" does illustrate is the growing influence and domination of dance as a movement in popular culture- its spiritual brothers are records such as "God Is A DJ", an attempt to place dance culture as a new religion of sorts, it's no co-incidence that SUAD chose that Cohn track, a song about spiritual awakening and the power of faith, the message is what is important here, and it transforms a rather pedestrian rave track into something else, a call to arms for clubbers almost, it's the point at which the record comes alive, the stadium is turned into a church, and the DJ ascends. It was a curiosity at the time, naughty group release a record that gets banned and they get in trouble (they had to pay royalties to a charity), the group never made the top 20 again (their only other top 30 hit was actually a reworking of Duran Duran's 1982 No 2 hit "Save A Prayer") so listening to it now seems to enforce the SL2 record, boys in bedrooms making records like the ones they would be clubbing to at the weekends and becoming popstars was almost incidental to the affair. I don't think that these 1992 No 2 hits have become "dated" as such it's just that they are so entirely of a scene which was divorced from what came before and what happened after that they seem almost surreal- I only liked this for the Cohn sample- the same remains true today....

 

 

Edited October 5, 201113 yr by gezza76

6TH JUNE- JUMP- Kris Kross (1 week)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a9/Kris_Kross_Jump.jpg

 

Good god I remember this!! Duo Chris Kelly & Chris Smith, they came up with the idea of wearing their clothes backwards and trying to sell it as a street "trend" needless to say that never quite translated to the rest of us, and I'd love to be able to say this is awful, however I can't help but love it, full of colour and joy it compares well to the class of 92, it's also young (they were 12/13 at the time) and vibrant, and there is a determination and delivery to the track that just won't be denied. It spent 8 long weeks at the top of the US chart and was only kept out by the dull KWS version of "Please Don't Go" here, you could put that success down to the samples used in the track, including Jackson 5, or that this is one for the kids, but the truth is that in a lacklustre year beacons of pop profunity like this shine very bright indeed.

 

The gimmick clearly wore thin quickly and time proved that Kris Kross had little mileage in the music Bizz, they never repeated this top 10 appearance, but it's power reminds me of Hanson some 5 years later, kids with a belting single that you'd be humming all day after you heard it. As a 16 yr old Gezza completed his final GCSE exams and pondered that life "would never be the same" (to coin a haddaway hit from 1993) now that school was over, this was probably blasting out of the radio and for that reason I can't be cruel to it, and you can't make me......

 

Edited October 5, 201113 yr by gezza76

Time to do my usual #2 track catch up. :D

 

18TH JANUARY- EVERYBODY IN THE PLACE (E.P)- The Prodigy (1 week)

 

Wow, 1992 really was diverse wasn't it? :o Looking ahead of those that didn't quite make it it's clear to see how 1992 as a whole was shaping. The dominance of dance music and the big fanbase buys of established rock/metal acts. I regard The Prodigy as an excellent dance act but this stems from 'Music For The Jilted Generation', not the early material like this. Having just turned 11 years old, I much preferred the slower more house(y) dance music and of course those heavy hitting Eurobeats. The whole "jungle" movement that peaked in 1994 just didn't appeal to me as a young teenager whatsoever.

 

1ST FEBRUARY- GIVE ME JUST A LITTLE MORE TIME- Kylie Minogue (1 week)

 

At the time, I didn't really mind this. It's far from Kylie's best and certainly one of Kylie's weaker UK #2 singles. It's a song that aged 11 sounded nice and retro but to 30 year old me sounds dreadful. :lol: It was clear that SAW were just trying to end the contract as fast as they could. I also remember 'Celebration' and 'What Kind Of Fool' from later on in 1992 - both terrible songs and makes you wonder what happened to the 'Hand On Your Heart', 'Better The Devil You Know', 'What Do I Have To Do?' pop nuggets. I do remember the Kylie Greatest Hits album that concluded this era. I will always have a soft spot for Kylie circa 88-90 but it did go downhill after then.

 

8TH FEBRUARY- TWILIGHT ZONE- 2 Unlimited (1 week)

 

...and here we have the heavy hitting Eurobeats. :dance: Whilst not to everyones tastes, 2 Unlimited were basically making dance music for kids rather than dance music for those old enough to go clubbing. That's how it seems to me now looking back in retrospect.

 

29TH FEBRUARY- MY GIRL- The Temptations (2 weeks)

 

'My Girl' is no doubt a classic song and it's one I appreciate much more now than I did in 1992. It was a song I liked but never really felt the urge to listen to it.

 

14TH MARCH- I LOVE YOUR SMILE- Shanice (2 weeks)

 

Now this is a song I adore. At the time it made #2 I was hoping it could get to no. 1 the following week but it didn't happen. This is definitely one of my fave #2 hits from 1992.

 

28TH MARCH- FINALLY- Ce Ce Peniston (1 week)

 

I actually vaguely remember this from late 1991. By then I had become a big fan of MTV and remember seeing this video in late 1991 upon its first release. Then it became a bonafide hit a few months later.

4TH APRIL- LET'S GET ROCKED- Def Leppard (1 week)

 

This is a weird one. Back in 1992 this was at one point one of my fave songs in the chart. It was all down to the music video which as you can imagine got plenty of airtime on MTV. The song itself isn't that bad - I guess I have fond memories of this song to be too negative about it 20 years on.

 

25TH APRIL- BE QUICK OR BE DEAD- Iron Maiden (1 week)

 

We come to the first song I genuinely know nothing about. It certainly wasn't a song I remember from the time, and without watching the YouTube video I wouldn't have a clue how this song goes.

 

2ND MAY- ON A RAGGA TIP- SL2 (3 Weeks)

 

On the other hand, this was another big fave of mine in 1992. Sure some people would regard this as nonsense but to me at the time it was the ultimate party song. It's daft and annoyingly catchy but I like it - even now. :lol: Such a shame it couldn't have knocked Right Said Fred off #1 before KWS came along and stormed their way to the top.

 

23RD MAY- KNOCKIN ON HEAVEN'S DOOR- Guns N Roses (1 week)

 

Guns N Roses are a band I started to like more in my later teens when I got more into rock music. I bought their Greatest Hits album in 2004 and it's a gem imo - they did release some cracking tracks. The one thing I remember most about this is the way Axl sings "knocking on heavens doo-ow-wer, hey hey hey-yey yeah!". :D

 

30TH MAY- RAVING I'M RAVING- Shut Up And Dance (1 week)

 

Oh my!!! :o Was this really so close to topping the UK charts. I know I've heard this in the past but I thought I'd give it another listen. It really is tragic - the vocals are painful, and the "club" bits just sound clunky and awkward. I agree the sample is the only good thing about it but you can't blame Cohan for not allowing the sample to be cleared. Would you? :D

 

6TH JUNE- JUMP- Kris Kross (1 week)

 

:lol: I rememeber this one very well. A track I thought was genius back in 1992 - at the time when it was fun and interesting to see young boys making a hit single. It was their only big hit over here but from a one hit wonders point of view, Kriss Kross were brilliant for about 3 months.

20TH JUNE- HEARTBEAT- Nick Berry (2 weeks)

 

http://www.chartstats.com/images/artwork/12577.jpg

 

After confessing to my love for most things S/A/W clearly I'm partial to a bit of manufactured pop, but this is beyond the pale. Taking pot at this song is an easy target, mediocre actor turns his hand to pop and the results are, well, dire to be frank. You would think having taken 6 years to follow up his debut No 1 "Every Loser Wins" he'd have had a chance to come up with something better than this cover of Buddy Holly's 1958 hit, OK from a marketing angle tying it the ITV Sunday prime time drama of the same title was a good move and clearly successful in terms of chart position but it's a failure on every other front. In a way it typifies all that is wrong with Sunday Afternoon TV back in the 90s- full of TV that would send you to sleep if your roast hadn't already have done that job, bland, popularist, stripped of any emotion, and TV designed to pull on the strings of nostalgia ("The Royal" "Lark Rise To Candleford" and any Sarah Lancashire production spring to mind), it's that sense of cosyness, of settling down in front of the fire with a cup of coffee and snuggling up, this record is the aural equivalent.

 

Berry's vocals are paperthin, the production basic, the emotion negligable, and the entire package pitifull, a lesson in lazy pop music which cannot be forgiven, and to be rewarded in such way with a No 2 hit is all that is bad about 1992, I did make a cursory attempt to find some redeeming features about this song but I decided there is one- it's only 2 mins 15 secs long.....

 

Edited October 9, 201113 yr by gezza76

4TH JULY- I'LL BE THERE- Mariah Carey (2 weeks)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e4/IBTS.jpg

 

Whilst she had already established herself as a major star in the states with 6 chart toppers in just 2 years, her rise on this side of the pond was much less spectacular and, prior to this 1970 Jackson 5 cover, only one single "Vision Of Love" had made the Top 10. Carey had recently starred in the New MTV Series of "Unplugged" performances to demonstrate that she actually could sing after receiving many observations that she had yet to undertook a world tour to showcase her voice famous for its five octave range, and her performance was considered a success and led to the "MTV... Unplugged" album which was a big seller in the album charts of 1992.

 

It works mainly because Carey avoided many of the vocal acrobatics of some her more excessive singles, listening to the track again what strikes you is the great shame that, for a performer with such obvious talent and a great voice, she defeats herself often by such tricks and showcasing, much of her output post 1997 highlights an increasing reliance on this "breathy" technique instead of a straight forward delivery of a track. However "I'll Be There" is actually treated quite sensitively by Carey, it's a tender track in its original 1970 form and Carey does little to alter the arrangement, but neither she does attempt to become the star of the track, it is in short "a song sung by Mariah Carey" rather than a "Mariah Carey Song" if that makes sense. Whilst I can't say it is a song I've listened to since its chart days, its placement here next to Nick Berry and the next song makes it seems like a god send, and by the time we meet Carey next in 1994 she'll be a much bigger star over here, in fact in terms of her UK Stardom THIS is where it really begins....

 

Edited October 6, 201113 yr by gezza76

18TH JULY- SESAME'S TREET- Smart E's (1 week)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fa/ST_Smart_E.jpg

 

Only one review for today- thankfully this is a short one- DIRE. Gimmicky, churlish play on words for drugs wrapped up in a children's TV show- creepy- just creepy- oh and very VERY bad.

 

There's an argument that songs like this killed off the rave scene as it made look like a joke, that's hard to argue with really, the presence of Urban Hype in the top 10 similarly showed that ideas were thin on the ground and within 12 months it really had faded from the limelight and "proper" dance took back control......aah....

 

Edited October 8, 201113 yr by gezza76

20TH JUNE- HEARTBEAT- Nick Berry (2 weeks)

 

Back in 1986 I liked 'Every Loser Wins' but I was 5 years old and I was far too easily pleased. :lol: Six years on and things had started changing. I wasn't a big Heartbeat fan - it was just another average TV programme to me, certainly not aimed at people my age. That accolade went to the Aussies soaps Neighbours and Home And Away (when they were great and worth watching :P ). Therefore I wasn't that interested in 'Heartbeat' as a song. Yes, if it was played during the Radio 1 chart show I would've listened to it at the time but that would be it.

 

4TH JULY- I'LL BE THERE- Mariah Carey (2 weeks)

 

On Buzzjack you're in one of two camps; Love Mariah or Hate Mariah...then there's me who is firmly placed in Ok Mariah which is basically my way of saying I like some Mariah songs but I also dislike others too. 'I'll Be There' falls into the former - a vry good cover of the Jacksons track and I think using the MTV Unplugged performance as the main video is probably what helped sell this as a single - a bit like Alicia Keys 'Empire State Of Mind (Part II) Broken Down' in which a live recording was used as the official music video. Obviously the greatest example of this comes courtesy of Adele 'Someone Like You'. Someone a flawless live performance can really enhance a song and people appreciate the singer more because of it. Referring to my Ok Mariah comment, she has been incredibly inconsistant for me over the last 20 years. For every single I like by Mariah, I can guarantee there's another I can't stand.

 

18TH JULY- SESAME'S TREET- Smart E's (1 week)

 

I guess this was kept off the top spot by either Erasure or Jimmy Nail so kudos to whoever it was. Again, like 'Heartbeat' it was no doubt a track I'd quite happily listen to in 1992 on the chart show (the only time I really listened to the radio was Sunday afternoons) but to be honest the last time I heard this was on YouTube watching an old Chart Show Top 10 from 1992 where this was included (but not played). :D Besides, there were some excellent dance tracks on the horizon - easily one of my fave singles of 1992 was by an established German dance act who were on the verge of topping the UK charts this particular week.