7th place - Gabrielle - Dreams

 

4.9

 

 

A fine verse but ultimately the chorus really grates. She went on to do great stuff - Should I Go and Out of Reach are the peak for me. I always thought she should have done a retro album in the years after Duffy and Amy had hit big.

6th place - Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You

 

5.1

 

 

It's Whitney, b*tch. See 1992 for details.

5th place - 2 Unlimited - No Limit

 

5.5

 

 

There's quite a batch of songs scoring similar marks in 1993. There's times when I don't mind listening to this and there's times when I do. It hits the mark in a club, a lot of the time.

4th place - Ace of Base - All That She Wants

 

6.4

 

 

All that She Wants didn't sound like all the other reggae songs in 1993 - it has sultry European cool vocals. It's kinda hypnotic, in a way.

Edited September 21, 20204 yr by Colm

I should defend Mr Blobby and say it's aimed at 5-year-olds. Not going to though, in the 60's tons of records were aimed at 5-year-olds and they managed to have charm and wit that adults could also enjoy. Probably the worst-ever chart-topper.

 

Sorry, I love reggae and related genres :D Shaggy is great fun, and UB40 took an old dull standard from Elvis and carried on the tradition of getting a hit doing it in a completely different style - 1970 Andy Williams, 1976 Stylistics, Lick The Tins in the 80's - and it was a song that hit in different generations of music lovers, so it wasnt really a huge surprise that the best version would top the charts, UB40 had at that time already had 2 number ones with reggae updates for oldies and been getting hits non-stop for 14 consecutive years.

Whitney. Ugh! 2 years!

 

Dreams was nice but her later stuff was better, esp Rise. 8th for me.

 

No Limit is fun, 6th just behind Shaggy depending on mood.

 

Ace Of Base top so far I think, still great pop and their sound was their own, the new Ava Max single borrows it quite nicely :)

 

 

3rd place - Meat Loaf - I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)

 

6.5

 

 

I really don't know how this happened. It looks like Mr Loaf ends up in the Top 3. Over the years, I have really come to enjoy over the top, epic, overblown, multi-part songs a lot more than I did when I was a teenager. Power ballads are wonderful, communal experiences when sung really loudly by me and my mates at 3 o'clock in the morning.

 

This is far from the best example of the genre but it has all the necessary parts. Perhaps one reason that this has arrived in the top 3 is that it hasn't been overplayed since the year of its release.

 

I remember when I heard the song as it entered at number 8 in early October, I said it would still be number 1 at Christmas (12 weeks later) . While I wasn't quite right it was still in the top 6.

2nd place - Culture Beat - Mr. Vain

 

7.0

 

 

A full 2 points less than the 2nd place scored in 1992 (Snap!'s Rhythm is a Dancer), it obviously owes a debt to that song. The similarity has never blunted my enjoyment of Mr. Vain. I do prefer the rap in this song to the rap in RIAD.

 

 

1st place - Haddaway - What Is Love?

 

7.4

 

 

 

The lowest scoring 1st place yet. That's likely to change as the decade proceeds. What is Love? is a classic of early 90s Eurodance with that riff. The final verse is great, in dance song terms. Quite an emotive vocal, especially for a male vocal.

 

According to Wikipedia it got to number 1 in 13 countries.

Edited September 21, 20204 yr by Colm

1994 is very uneven. 4 very terrible songs at the bottom of the pile.

Do love a bit of “Mr. Vain” and its consumerism mantra of ‘I know what I want and I want it now’ - as you say heavily influenced by RIAD and a similar chart trajectory, climbing the chart as Brits came back from the continent and cementing its place at number 1 near the end of summer.

 

“What Is Love?” is a deserving #1, never fails to fill a dancefloor, and it probably one of the most profound and biggest questions asked in a pop song since “Is there life on Mars?”.

 

It spent 12 weeks in the Top 20 which at the time was massive, especially consdering it didn't make the number 1.

good #1, for me it would be probably All that She Wants as #1 and What is Love at #2 but both are great

10th place - Whigfield - Saturday Night

 

2.1

 

 

 

I mean - really? A person went out and purchased this? (a million+ of them). It's right down there with Mr Blobby and The Smurfs. I'm giving it 2.1 on account of the bizarre artwork for the single that it had in some territories.

 

 

9th place - D:Ream - Things Can Only Get Better

 

2.5

 

 

 

Some song titles are unintentionally self referential.

 

Things did get better. But only marginally better - looking at all the number 1s that happened in 1994 there are very few essential songs that would be used to represent the year that Britpop blew up.

8th place - Pato Banton featuring Ali and Robin Campbell - Baby Come Back

 

3.5

 

 

 

As you can probably tell by now, I have a low tolerance for reggae. The actual spoken parts are fine. The chorus just irritates me.

7th place - Wet Wet Wet - Love Is All Around

 

4.3

 

 

 

A tiny bit less dreary than Goodnight Girl. Faint praise.

Whigfield was really terrible

Haven't heard the D:Ream song in ages but I don't recall it as being so bad

I did like Goodnight Girl but Love is all Around was terrible and didn't even deserve 1 single week at #1

1994 is a lot worse than I remember it for number 1s.

 

No great losses there, “Love Is All Around” I find pleasant enough but at the time became unlistenable (also hah at their marketing ploy failing and not quite beating the Bryan Adams record) - “Baby Come Back” I can remember being the first track a DJ played at some corporate event I was at, and immediately it took on prescience as everyone vacated the dancefloor. :lol:

 

I should say, minus 1 point to WWW for stopping Kylie's “Confide In Me” getting to number 1... : (

Wet Wet Wet stopped Kylie from getting to number 1 with each of their number 1s.

6th place - Bon Jovi - Always

 

4.5

 

 

A year so bad that Bon Jovi manage to make it this far. It wouldn't leave the top 10 either.

 

5-3-2-3-4-3-2-2-4-9-10 :o

Edited September 22, 20204 yr by Colm