4th place - Michael Jackson - Heal The World

 

6.6

 

 

I'm not going to defend this. :wub:

3rd place - Erasure - ABBA-Esque EP

 

 

In the vast chasm between Heal the World and whatever song is in 2nd place (I haven't decided yet) there exists the ABBA-Esque EP. All 4 tracks of it. At this stage, Erasure were my favourite band. The instant hit for me was Take a Chance On Me but the comparative simplicity of it failed to keep my interest. Voulez Vous and SOS became my favourites very quickly and that hasn't really changed in the intervening 28 years.

 

If anything SOS has improved. This was Vince at his most mesmerising. He truly can summons melody from nothing. The verses are some of his best work.

 

Voulez Vous, also, has stood up well. Late in the song he twists the main synth riff away from its pop foundation and warps it like the master of sound he is.

 

This was their commercial peak too - at that point it was very rare for a song to enter at number 1 and to still be there 5 weeks later. Only The Beatles, Elvis, Cliff and Frankie Goes to Hollywood had done so before.

 

Lay All Your Love On Me 7.0

SOS 8.8

Take A Chance On Me 6.8

Voulez Vous 8.2

Edited September 18, 20204 yr by Colm

Lay All Your Love On Me was my favourite and still is. At the time this was my favourite single of 1992 :wub:

I got it on 7" a few years ago. It appears to have gone missing. :(

BoyzIIMen topped my chart at the time. Gone off it's OTT-ness a bit since then, but it's OK.

 

KWS. Saw them on the radio roadshow at Bournemouth. I still thought it was a mess. :lol:

 

Erasure best track lay All Your Love On Me, but, y'know Abba. ABBA! The videos sold it. The best thing was Bjorn Again doing an Erasuresque pisstake of one of theirs in the style of Abba.

 

 

Bjorn Again were huge fun, saw them live.

 

 

funnily I think I prefer your bottom 4 than your top 4 so far

always had a soft spot for Goodnight Girl

I also always like the Charles & Eddie one, I guess they were one hit wonders cos I cannot recall anything else from them

and the Whitney song sure is overplayed but I think she sings it amazingly

 

I much prefer the Whitney ballad than the snoozefest of End of the Road and Heal the World

the Erasure cover never did much for me, not an ABBA fan, I much preferred any other Erasure original

I expected Whitney to do well but when I played all the songs back I could not abide the chorus and I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed End of the Road and Heal the World.

Edited September 19, 20204 yr by Colm

2nd place - Snap! - Rhythm is a Dancer

 

9.0

 

 

Snap! had gone off the boil. Their comeback had flopped in late 1991. Turbo B had objected to release RIAD as the lead single. It only got released in Summer 1992 because of demands by the rest of the band.

Turbo B is an idiot. Rhythm is a Dancer went on to shape dance music with many imitators attempting to replicate the song - Mr Vain and Maxx's Get Away being the most obvious.

 

I remember the day this enter the chart. I hadn't heard it before and I was seriously impressed with the symphonic nature of the music.

Edited September 21, 20204 yr by Colm

1st place - Shakespears Sister - Stay

 

9.3

 

 

And that leaves us with Stay. The most frequently used song title ever - none of the others match this one. When Marcella Detroit played this to her friend and former collaborator, Eric Clapton, he said instantly that is was a number 1 single. He was right.

 

Stay is all about the second half for me. The gothic undertones of Siobhan's drawl, the three note cycling refrain and that piercing vocal from Marcella.

 

A classic of the 90s.

Edited September 20, 20204 yr by Colm

I can’t think what will come in the other years but it wouldn’t surprise me if Stay was my favourite of this thread, it’s just wonderful and incredibly distinctive and unconventional. I loved all the singles from Hormonally Yours :wub:

Both cracking singles, classics. I know I'm repeating myself here but I did a lot of concerts in the 90's, and saw the original line-up of Snap! just before they got sacked, and Shakespear's Sister on their first tour. Let that be a warning to pop stars - if I turn up your career is prob ending within a year or two :lol:

I can’t think what will come in the other years but it wouldn’t surprise me if Stay was my favourite of this thread, it’s just wonderful and incredibly distinctive and unconventional. I loved all the singles from Hormonally Yours :wub:

 

 

I dont think anything will beat my score of 9.3 from here on.

1993 will not be a vintage year. There's 2 songs slugging it out for 1st place.

 

10th place - Mr Blobby - Mr Blobby

 

2.0

 

 

 

The video is the best thing about this. Dire.

Edited September 20, 20204 yr by Colm

9th place - Shaggy - Oh Carolina

 

3.0

 

 

Oh, dear. A re-listening of this has dragged it down even further than I remembered it being.

Edited September 20, 20204 yr by Colm

Fully agreed at your Top 2 for 1992, both are great and rightly had enduring runs at No.1 during the year and both followed-up flops (“Goodbye Cruel World” got to #59 for Shakespears Sister in October 1991 and the aforementioned “The Colour of Love” made #54 for Snap! in December '91), that in today's era would have meant that these singles wouldn't have ever been released - I believe “Stay” still holds the record for most weeks at number 1 for a female duo ever. A truly different chart era where great, powerful and innovative records could have strong performances.

 

I just wanted to post this wonderful live performance of “Stay” from Top of the Pops in January 1992, it's a brilliant live performance of an incredible record that plays to each of Siobhan and Marcella's vocal strengths!

 

Wow. That is a great performance. Marcella wins. :heart:

Stay is a masterpiece

 

not that crazy about Snap, hated how they rhymed dancer with cancer :/

Edited September 20, 20204 yr by Bjork

They didn't invent that. It had been used in hip hop before. They did, of course, have the option of not using it.

I think it's unfair to zoom in on that lyric and dismiss everything else about the song.

 

“Love U More” by Sunscreem has some bloody awful lyrics in it, but it doesn't diminish my enjoyment of the track.

8th place - UB40 - (I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You

 

4.8

 

 

This pleasant enough but never blew me away. I can only assume that the "year of reggae" and the soundtrack appearance on Sliver amounted to this one selling so much.

Edited September 21, 20204 yr by Colm