Chaka Demus & Pliers tease us 7-10 (17,000) in its tenth week in the top 10, the last song to spend so long in the top flight without making the top 2?- well that was The Bee Gees back in 1978 with “How Deep Is Your Love”.

That's a great stat, and in its only week at #3 its sales to the nearest 1k were the same as the #4, so it barely made the Top 3. Of course there have been more recent songs which spent longer in the Top 10 and peaked lower, but most of those were in the digital era.

 

The arrival of Culture Beat in the Top 10 completes the trinity of quintessential 1993 dance alongside Freddie Mercury and Urban Cookie Collective. When I did my first ever EOY chart at the end of 1993, I had those songs at #1, #3 & #4 respectively. What was #2? If only I could make you understand :D

catching up with the last 2 updates, some decent song but no all-time favourites

really liked Rain, the Freddy song and the Billy Joel song, also Roxette

but not crazy about all those dance tracks, all a bit of 2nd league category

The Key, The Secret is anything but second league!

haha didn't put you the Urban Cookie Collective #1 fan ;)

I'd have What is Love? In the quintessential 1993 dance tracks.

'Living On My Own' is definitely my favourite #1 of 1993 so far, what a fab remix *.* also liking the dance from Urban Cookie Collective and Culture Beat.

 

Way outside of the top 10, in fact peaking at #40, I was reminded of the great 'Cannonball' by The Breeders on TOTP this week :heart:

Living On My Own is my favourite from the latest weeks updates as well, with shoutouts to The Key, The Secret and Mr Vain.

 

I think Pray is pretty mid-table for Take That, a decent song but not one of their best.

haha didn't put you the Urban Cookie Collective #1 fan ;)

I’m a huge fan of mid-90s dance!

28TH AUGUST

 

 

 

It was a tight race for the top this week with records by Freddie Mercury and Culture Beat going head to head until the end with a challenge by Bitty McLean easing as the week progressed. In the end Culture Beat’s “Mr Vain” was crowned as the 11th chart topper of 1993 and the 6th No 1 from a German Act following Kraftwerk, Goombay Dance Band, Nena, Nicole, and Snap!, the single sold 50,000 compared to Mercury’s 48,000, that 2,000 gap being the smallest since Take That’s defeat to 2 Unlimited in February which they lost by 500 copies. More importantly than that it goes into the history books as the first chart topper not available on 7” since 1959, a format which now lingers in 4th position in terms of sales behind even the fabled cassingle.

 

 

The rest of the top 5 consists of Bitty McLean who holds at No 3 (41,000), just above a falling Urban Cookie Collective 2-4 (41,000) and Billy Joel reverses 4-5 (39,000).

 

 

US trio Sisters With Voices (known as SWV) are currently experiencing a big hit stateside with “I’m So Into You”, a song which was their first hit here back in May making No 17 but a previous US release “Right Here” has been remixed by Teddy Riley with a sample of Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature” and it’s a hit on this side of the Atlantic debuting at No 7 (26,000). Famously of course that track didn’t become one of the UK singles lifted from “Thriller” though it made the top 10 in the US, and even more connections with Jackson comes from the fact that this features in the film “Free Willy” along with Jackson’s “Will You Be There”.

 

 

 

Next month sees the release of the third Mariah Carey studio album “Music Box” and therefore we get treated to the lead single “Dreamlover”. Lifting the hook from the Emotions track “Blind Alley” the single has wasted little time in returning Carey to the top 10 here moving 14-10 (15,000) in just its second week and provides her with a third hit in the top echelon. In the US the single lifts 9-3 and she has already scored six chart toppers there but her No 2 hit from last year “I’ll Be There” remains her biggest hit here.

 

 

Apache Indian drops 5-6 (35,000) and 4 Non Blondes head out 7-9 (17,000). UB40 hold at No 8 (24,000) with a small increase and they remain No 1 in the US and in the albums charts here.

 

 

1- MR VAIN- Culture Beat (50,000)

2- LIVING ON MY OWN- Freddie Mercury (48,000)

3- IT KEEPS RAININ (TEARS FROM MY EYES)- Bitty McLean (41,000)

4- THE KEY: THE SECRET- Urban Cookie Collective (41,000)

5- THE RIVER OF DREAMS- Billy Joel (39,000)

6- NUFF VIBES EP- Apache Indian (35,000)

7- RIGHT HERE- SWV (26,000)

8- HIGHER GROUND- UB40 (24,000)

9- WHAT’S UP- 4 Non Blondes (17,000)

10- DREAMLOVER- Mariah Carey (15,000)

 

4TH SEPTEMBER

 

 

After last week’s big fight it’s rather plainer sailing for Culture Beat this week “Mr Vain” expanding at retail to a cool 77,000 and picking up major airplay boosts. Nearest challenger Bitty McLean may move 3-2 to reach a new peak but his sales were actually off 13% to 35,000 a few hundred ahead of re-peaking Billy Joel (5-3) who himself is off 10% at 35,000. It’s Joel’s second biggest hit now with only the 5 week chart topper “Uptown Girl” performing better.

 

 

 

The sole new song to cover is a new 2 Unlimited single, the group debut in the top 10 for a fourth time in seven releases with “Faces” which follows the usual trend of an amended UK version without the European version with rap by Slijngaard. It is the third single from their second album “No Limits” which hit the top in the Spring and remains in the top 40 sixteen weeks after release, far better than their debut release so whichever way you cut it this has been by far their best year. It arrives at No 10 (18,000).

 

 

 

 

Those getting good news this week are SWV who rise 7-5 (31,000) and Mariah Carey who nudges 10-9 (23,000) as she gets her 7th chart topper with “Dreamlover” and UB40 hold at No 8 for a third week with sales of 23,000 but they score an impressive 7th week at the No 1 spot on the album charts with “Promises And Lies”. Freddie Mercury slides 2-4 (32,000), former rivals Urban Cookie Collective are also on the way down 4-6 (27,000) whilst the gradual decline of Apache Indian continues 6-7 (27,000). Next week we’ll be doubtless be discussing a new Nirvana single tipped by some to arrive at No 1- could it?

 

 

1- MR VAIN- Culture Beat (77,000)

2- IT KEEPS RAININ (TEARS FROM MY EYES)- Bitty McLean (35,000)

3- THE RIVER OF DREAMS- Billy Joel (35,000)

4- LIVING ON MY OWN- Freddie Mercury (32,000)

5- RIGHT HERE- SWV (31,000)

6- THE KEY: THE SECRET- Urban Cookie Collective (27,000)

7- NUFF VIBES EP- Apache Indian (27,000)

8- HIGHER GROUND- UB40 (23,000)

9- DREAMLOVER- Mariah Carey (23,000)

10- FACES- 2 Unlimited (18,000)

 

crazy that Mariah wasn't bigger in the UK in her early days, Dreamlover sounds like a total #1 and I'm not even a Mariah fan

Mr Vain and Right Here <3

 

The latter is totally reliant on the sample, which transforms it compared to the original version.

I love Right Here, one of my favourite singles of 1993. Agree that the sample is key but I think it’s a brilliant use and I prefer it even to the MJ original

Right Here is also the uncredited chart debut of one Pharrell Williams, as that's him saying "S-W-V" (I may have mentioned that before). I also prefer it to Human Nature.

 

I watched the two episodes, great to see Culture Beat having their moment at #1. Not sure about the Cilla Black song though - seems both that and the album ended up missing the Top 40 oops. RIP

11TH SEPTEMBER

 

 

“Mr Vain” dominates for a third week but it’s finally in decline saleswise slipping 16% to 64,000 bringing its total to 237,000 and is shaping up to be one of 93’s biggest hits. Though well of its peak at retail Bitty McLean actually climbs 3-2 (31,000) despite a 9% loss on top of his 13% decrease the week before, sometimes chart positions don’t tell the whole story, similarly SWV’s sales are off 5% to 29,000 yet they move 5-3, neither will be troubling Culture Beat.

 

 

There’s only one song in the top 10 which improve in sales, 2 Unlimited’s “Faces”, which moves 10-8 (20,000). Other movers in the wrong direction are Billy Joel 3-4 (26,000), Freddie Mercury 4-6 (23,000), Urban Cookie Collective 6-7 (20,000), Apache Indian 7-9 (20,000) and Mariah Carey 9-10 (18,000), she sees her album “Music Box” end UB40’s seven week reign at the top and becomes her first UK chart topper.

 

 

So that leaves just the No 5 position to discuss and yes it’s that new entry. Nirvana return with the lead single from their eagerly anticipated third album “In Utero”, entitled “Heart Shaped Box”. It started the week of brightly showing up as high as No 2 but it faded as the week progressed ending up selling 24,000, that’s still the best start to any Nirvana single and is already their highest charter. Doubtless the album will be a chart topper on release.

 

 

 

1- MR VAIN- Culture Beat (64,000)

2- IT KEEPS RAININ (TEARS FROM MY EYES)- Bitty McLean (31,000)

3- RIGHT HERE- SWV (29,000)

4- THE RIVER OF DREAMS- Billy Joel (26,000)

5- HEART SHAPED BOX- Nirvana (24,000)

6- LIVING ON MY OWN- Freddie Mercury (23,000)

7- THE KEY: THE SECRET- Urban Cookie Collective (20,000)

8- FACES- 2 Unlimited (20,000)

9- NUFF VIBES EP- Apache Indian (20,000)

10- DREAMLOVER- Mariah Carey (18,000)

 

18TH SEPTEMBER

 

 

It suffers another 15% sales decrease but Culture Beat’s “Mr Vain” easily retains the top spot after shifting 54,000 copies and will sell its 300,000th copy this week.

 

 

 

 

Whether or not it can make it a fifth week or not depends largely on the progress of the songs that make up the top three. With a title thought to have derived from Horace Greeley in the nineteenth century describing the acquiring of land by white colonialists, “Go West” is a song recorded by Village People in 1979 and became a No 15 hit for them as well as a gay anthem with San Francisco being seen as the mecca that homosexuals should be heading towards. Skip forward 13 years and David Jarman was holding an AIDS benefit concert last year and invited the Pet Shop Boys to play, they agreed and chose this song to do as a cover. It clearly went down well as the boys have done a version and teamed it with a Soviet themed video, the package arrives as a new entry at No 2 (38,000) becoming the boys 14th top 10 single and biggest since “Heart” topped the charts 5 years ago.

 

 

 

Will Smith is of course best known for his part in “The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air” but even before that show he was a rapper and along with DJ Jazzy Jeff scoring a hit in 1986 with “Girls Ain’t Nothin But Trouble” and more notably the No 8 UK hit “Summertime” in 1991. The pair are back with a fifth album and a song “Boom! Shake The Room” which debuted at No 12 last week and now soars 12-3 (35,000), it features a sample of the Ohio Players “Funky Worm” which didn’t chart here though it went top 20 Stateside.

 

 

 

With more than a passing resemblance to The Hollies “The Air That I Breathe” Radiohead’s “Creep” was initially a No 78 hit in late 1992 but has since gone on to become a US top 40 hit. In the interim the band have cracked the top 40 here with “Anyone Can Play Guitar” making No 32 in February and that’s all prompted a re-issue of their debut hit which comes along with altered lyrics which removes the odd swear word! It debuts at No 7 (21,000) and tells the tale of an inebriated man who essentially stalks a woman, the album “Pablo Honey” departed from the charts after three weeks making No 25, perhaps it can have a resurgence now?

 

 

Those new arrivals mean there’s little room for Bitty Mclean and SWV who both drop 2-4 (28,000) and 3-5 (27,000) respectively. Billy Joel is also on the way out 4-6 (23,000), 2 Unlimited hold at No 8 (17,000) and Mariah holds at No 10 (16,000) with Nirvana surprisingly dropping 5-9 (16,000) as fans must be waiting for the album.

 

 

1- MR VAIN- Culture Beat (54,000)

2- GO WEST- Pet Shop Boys (38,000)

3- BOOM SHAKE THE ROOM- DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince (35,000)

4- IT KEEPS RAININ (TEARS FROM MY EYES)- Bitty McLean (28,000)

5- RIGHT HERE- SWV (27,000)

6- THE RIVER OF DREAMS- Billy Joel (23,000)

7- CREEP- Radiohead (21,000)

8- FACES- 2 Unlimited (17,000)

9- HEART SHAPED BOX- Nirvana (16,000)

10- DREAMLOVER- Mariah Carey (16,000)

 

I was obsessed with Go West.

Creep :wub: one of the highlights of 1993 chart wise.

Didn’t realise Billy Joel was still getting top 5 hits into 1993!

It would be years until I truly appreciated either song, but Creep and Heart Shaped Box in the same Top 10 :wub: