16 ( 10 ) JUST ANOTHER DREAM Cathy Dennis 1 21

 

Cathy's biggest song for me as an artist, she co-wrote it with Dancing Danny D of D Mob, who also produced it, and grabbed her a US top 10 and set up her future career as pop dance songwriter. It's a great dance track, great production, play loud and boogie in your bedroom. In retrospect, I may well prefer her biggest UK hit (see number 28) but it's a close thing, both are fabulous dance tracks, and both deserve to be year-end top 20.

 

15 ( 9 ) GENERATIONS OF LOVE Jesus Loves You 1 22

 

Another fairly obscure one here, the remixed follow-up to Boy George's hit as Jesus Loves You, Bow Down Mister (see 81), and it's definitely not as upbeat, 60's retro and commercial as that one, but as a low-key dance shuffle, complete with uncredited rap from MC Kinky and an odd choice of hand-accordion riffing throughout, it's pretty good. It had been out in 1990 in an earlier mix but this one (La La Gone Gaga) peaked higher at 35, which was the one I bought on CD. Over-rated here? Yes I over-rated it, and although it seemed to get critical positive attention in dance circles on the whole I prefer Bow Down Mister now, I think, so that should be higher and this lower.

 

14 ( 8 ) PANDORA’S BOX Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark 1 22

 

Sailing On The Seven Seas was the big comeback hit (see 87 and also 49 for the next single after this one) but this was The Big One for me off the album. Pandora's Box is fabulous, but not that well-remembered these days, which is a great shame as it's their best or second-best track of the 90's I think. OMD hit the top spot with Messages in 1980, Souvenir 1981, Maid Of Orleans (1982 but as an oldie in later years), So In Love 1985, and they would have at least another 3 in later years into the 21st century as an ongoing still-fab working band with Paul Humphries (and the original line-up) back on board. Anyway, not the first time they made year-end top 20, not the last - I say "they" but I mean Andy McClusky in this case, he of future Atomic Kitten mastermind. He's from the Wirral though, so forgiven, I go there regularly.

 

13 ( 7 ) WINTER IN JULY Bomb The Bass 1 34

 

This one came as a surprise after the Beat Dis dance romps, positively mellow and trip-hop shuffle crossed with Soul II Soul shuffle and New Age bits here and there. Mostly it's the soulful vocal from Loretta Haywood and moody melody that sells it though, and I still like the record a lot. Sadly it's not one that ever gets radio play as an oldie, and seems to have been forgotten these days, with even Beat Dis not really grabbing oldie plays much. A shame, though I would re-assess this downwards a bit on the list, myself. Other tracks from 1991 just grab one more in 2024.

 

12 ( 13 ) LAST TRAIN TO TRANCENTRAL (LIVE FROM THE LOST CONTINENT) The KLF featuring Ricardo Da Force 1 23

 

OK, who's been waiting for the singles act of the year to appear? Here they are then, The KLF had an essential 5 singles in a row showing the two artists/musicians/piss-takers knew exactly what they were doing. Follow the plan, make epic pop singles that don't really mean anything other than "let's club it!". don't sound like anything else much, bar maybe Pump Up The Volume as a template sound, throw in noisy bits, get some fab guest vocalists and rappers, in this case as usual Ricardo Da Force, and sit back and let the cash roll in. Job done, burn the cash, make a noise at the Brits, and retire from pop music (essentially bar some Mu Mu's) never to return, and leave the music unavailable on any new-fangled streaming or downloading for almost 30 years. The KLF were easily my fave act of 1991, and they still sound timeless. One thing I notice going through these is how "very 1990-1992" a lot of the tracks sound, which is not always a good thing in the ever-changing world of pop music if you want to sound good way down the line. Trancentral was the 3rd in the 5, had some railway-based sounds and rhythms, and is the least-good of the 5, probably, but it's still fab, still love it. It charted again for me, when they became available the other year again, so it actually goes up on the list from 13 of the time to 12th overall now. That's probably about right as the 2 or 3 tracks above it that should rate lower than this one, are balanced by 2 or 3 lower-down that should be top 10.

 

So, enjoy, lie down on the floor and keep calm for the first of 3 masterpiece Bill & Jimmy singles. The Last Train reference may or may not be a twist on the manufactured pop music band of The Monkees, but if so, Last Train To Clarksville was anything but manufactured as a song - it was about being drafted for the Viet-Nam war, but it wasn't overtly obvious thanks to crafty songwriters/popstars Boyce & Hart. More than it seemed to be then, just like The KLF.

 

Pandora's Box was one of my favourite songs of the year too. I'd liked Sailing on the Seven Seas but this was the first song of theirs I loved, I must have pretty much worn out my 7" of it as I played it so often.

 

KLF also made #1 for me so good to see they did for you too... Bomb the Bass didn't but I think it would stand a chance if I was to revisit the era as it's a great song. Crazy was a great single from Seal, another #1 for me.

Cathy Dennis - Touch Me (All Night Long) (13-13-14-18-18) was a minor top 15 hit.

 

"Walking Down Madison" is possibly my least favourite Kirsty's single.

Edited August 22, 2024Aug 22 by Last Dreamer

Pandora's Box was one of my favourite songs of the year too. I'd liked Sailing on the Seven Seas but this was the first song of theirs I loved, I must have pretty much worn out my 7" of it as I played it so often.

 

KLF also made #1 for me so good to see they did for you too... Bomb the Bass didn't but I think it would stand a chance if I was to revisit the era as it's a great song. Crazy was a great single from Seal, another #1 for me.

 

I remember you rated Pandora's Box, and quite right too :lol: 7" too! I bought the album on CD as the poor vinyl quality of 99p singles was starting to annoy me, I'm sure they were trying to budget it until it died out and CD's brought in more cash. All of your picks there are classics of 1991, I think, and interesting to see you rate Bomb The Base in retrospect as I wasnt sure if it had lasted as well as those other tracks, but I still love it in the right mood.

 

Time for me to get on with this again! :D

Cathy Dennis - Touch Me (All Night Long) (13-13-14-18-18) was a minor top 15 hit.

 

"Walking Down Madison" is possibly my least favourite Kirsty's single.

 

A minor hit is still a hit to me, glad you like Cathy Dennis :dance: :lol: I'm not surprised Walking Down Madison didnt grab you, it's quite a change of style into dance-rock territory, but that's what I liked about Kirsty, happy to try different things :)

11 ( 12 ) 3 a.m ETERNAL (LIVE AT THE S.S.L.) The KLF featuring The Children of The Revolution, Ricardo Da Force & P.P.Arnold 1 26

 

Just missing the top 10 and also up 1 place from the year-end chart of the time thanks to the recent youtube video avaliability, it's The KLF's UK chart-topper, and the one that converted me to the new KLF sound starting with that burst of gunfire and straight into P.P. Arnold's 3 am refrain - I'd already gone mad on the SAW-aping Kylie Said To Jason in 1989-ish, but I was very much alone on that one, though it did make my year-end 100 and I bought it on vinyl. It's still a great record, and video, and as exciting and fresh-sounding as it was at the time. It had 6 months in total on my charts, helped by a boost again later in 1991 on a (yes of course) Florida holiday when US radio was getting into it. Previous 1990 single What Time Is Love had gone top 20 for me, but didn't hit the big time till the 1992 remake (America) and like this one I was unaware P.P. Arnold was on it, or else it would def have gone top 10 and maybe even number one. Have I mentioned I'm off to see the 60's US soul legend in October? Thought so. The Children Of The Revolution is a T.Rex throwback to the Glam Rock era, which of course they'd already pilfered for Doctorin' The Tardis and the Glitter riff and tune. It's almost as if they were targeting us 70's teens! The live sounds were dubbed on of course, as The S.S.L. was an artful reference to a mixing desk, but they upped the excitement levels on the record. Genius. :lol:

 

10 ( 6 ) RESCUE ME Madonna 1 31

 

The first top 10 track comes from Madonna, and I bought the CD single, having already dipped my toes into Madonna on CD for the Like A Prayer album, Keep It Together (US release maxi single), Justify My Love and Vogue. It falls 400 "sales" short of one million chart sales, so from here-on all are million "sellers". If I was really matching contemporary chart sales I suppose they should be halved really, but my charts are independent of the ebbs and flows of sales according to what is cheap, in vogue or the format of the day, so it's a level-playing field. Rescue Me is an under-rated Madonna single, largely I guess as it was the second new promo single for The Immaculate Collection hits remix album, which sold in bucket-loads to everyone but me, and got her 2 more runs for Crazy For You and Holiday. I didn't buy the album cos it said "remixed" and True Blue was missing, and I'm a purist - I want the hit single versions and I don't want any big hits missing, and I refuse to pay out for any Hits Collections that aren't that at all. I wait till they end up in the bargain bin! Shep Pettibone was back in "vogue" on this one doing the co-producer/writer role, and did a pretty good job, and just to annoy me it included a sample from True Blue, to rub it in. More bizarrely there was no music video, so maybe that's why it tends to get forgotten these days, cos it's a dancefloor gospel-tinged banger which like KLF stuff doesn't sound dated, it's still clean, spacious and pulsing. Or maybe it's that Madonna speaks the verses rather than sings them that stops it being a singalong classic. It's better than Justify My Love, the first single though, which was good but not exactly a dancefloor banger.

 

9 ( 29 ) UNFINISHED SYMPATHY Massive Attack featuring Shara Nelson 2 34

 

Second of 2 for Massive Attack and the highest-placed record to never top my chart from 1991, it had 2 runs and just missed both times, annoyingly, cos it's a classic. The video is striking (and later sorta parodied by The Verve) and the cool-beats, ominous chords and passionate vocal from Shara Nelson make it a classic - she had a good, quality solo career, but seems to have been forgotten apart from this one track in the 21st century. Massive Attack had later tracks that remain popular with other singers, but not Shara, even her hits don't get played, ever, except on oldies chart rundowns where they don't skip them. Possibly because they are "soul" in the 60's sense rather than the bland, bloated, big ballad "80's & 90's" sense. Shara's voice is emotional in a way the likes of Mariah, Toni & Whitney could only dream of. Simpering or showing off your range is fine for some tastes of course, and they all made great records here or there, but I grew up in the 60's and that's how I like my singers to sound. Bristol's Massive Attack were more trip-hop beyond the 2 Shara Nelson tracks, though, and were happy to fuse other genres in with the mix, not least Liz Fraser, Horace Andy, Tracey Thorn, and others vocalists for some Indie Cocteau Twins, EBTG, reggae vibes. This is their greatest moment, though, and it's still critically-rated, as it should be!

 

Of the top 50 my main faves are 'Crazy', 'Crucified', 'Hey Stoopid', 'Winds Of Change', 'Sit Down' and 'Unfinished Sympathy'!

Of the top 50 my main faves are 'Crazy', 'Crucified', 'Hey Stoopid', 'Winds Of Change', 'Sit Down' and 'Unfinished Sympathy'!

 

good picks there I think! :dance: :) Crucified I'm fond of as one of my ex-BJSC oldie entries that made the final :cheer: The next one I'm not so sure as it's a lot older :lol:

8 ( 53 ) THIS IS YOUR LIFE Banderas 1 29

 

Talking of BJSC entries, this one didn't make the final which was a big shame as I consider it one of the best tracks of 1991. I initially rated it 53rd but as the years passed it became of my go-to obscure forgotten faves. I actually bought the album it came from, on cassette (It was cheap, I never bought cassettes, but I couldn't resist a bargain) but This Is Your Life is the standout by quite some distance. I love the song, the arrangement (sampling Grace Jones' Crack Attack, Johnny Marr & Bernard Sumner on their album Ripe), the video was fab and it was great seeing British female duos doing the biz in 1991 in the worlds of synths and songwriting, given the shot at the music biz by Jimmy Somerville as backing musicians and singers for The Communards. As I finally got the opportunity to have an excuse to re-chart it and reach my number one, and boost it's chart "sales" it ends up at 8th of the year. It's a shame it didn't catch on enough in the contest, but it really is a grower and rewards repeat listens, a subtle little gem that deserves better. Banderas sadly only had minor success after this hit and then both vanished without trace bar a charity record in 2021 with Jimmy Somerville, a great shame.

 

 

 

7 ( 5 ) MERCY MERCY ME/ I WANT YOU Robert Palmer 1 35

 

It takes a bold man to cover 2 Marvin Gaye soul classics and come out of a mash-up version smelling of roses, but that's what Robert Palmer did. I love the What's Going On album, one of the greatest albums of all-time and game-changing for Motown, soul and Gaye in 1971. Not a single top 40 hit in the UK though, so some love for the songs (Mercy Mercy Me in this case) was well overdue. As I wasn't always that sold on Robert Palmer singles (Addicted To Love a particular case in point, I much preferred the Jam & Lewis song cover follow-up I Didn't Mean To Turn You On) Robert was on a bit of roll in 1991 with this one topping my chart, I love the sax and retro vibes with 90's polish, but it's Robert's vocals that sell it really, and by then I was full-on nostalgia for the 70's when he started having solo success with the also-great Every Kinda People, not a UK top 40 at the time but bigger on re-issue in 1992 when it also topped my charts (but would appear in the 1978 all-time run-down as per my rules). Johnny & Mary is another minor Palmer track that deserves a re-evaluation, as sadly Robert Palmer died of a heart attack in Paris in 2003 at only 54 so there's been no-one championing his back catalogue since and he remains mostly known for the Addicted To Love video, which really isn't the way it should be in an ideal world.

 

well here's an annoyance - Black & White came on the radio today, and I went "hang on, I dont recall reviewing that!". So a bit of tedious checking found 3 of the tracks still charting into 1992 had been slotted into 1992 incorrectly, so They will appear next at their correct year-end chart positions, so that will mean 3 extra reviews and all tracks below them drop down 1, 2 or 3 places. I won't bother changing the reviewed positions, I will just post the whole 200 at the end with the correct positions.

 

I should thank Greatest Hits Radio for doing 1991 today.....! :o

36 (17) THESE ARE THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES Queen 1 14

 

So the first chart correction is arguably one that probably shouldnt be in the top 100 at all, given that the posthumous Freddie Mercury sales were largely for Bohemian Rhapsody (and these sales got added to that track’s 1975 sales) and indeed most of the chart run was really for Bo Rap in the days before I got sick of hearing it. That said, I’ve no way of quantifying what the sales would have been as it was a double-A side, so it benefits anyway. As a goodbye from Freddie, it’s about as poignant as it gets, Freddie really having his heart on his sleeve as he tried to keep busy making music as he slowly faded away with the help of the rest of the band. All very tragic, but do I prefer it to Innuendo? No, not even close, yet here we are, the sprawling majesty of that track peaked outside the top 200 for 1991, and this one is the top-listed final Queen record to make the year-end top 100 list, which they managed for a lot of years from 1974 onwards.

 

 

34 (29) I LOVE YOUR SMILE Shanice 5 21

 

Two places higher than Queen, Shanice had a big hit with this gloriously upbeat and optimistic pop track, which had a couple of shots at the chart before clicking in the UK properly. Pretty much a one-hit-wonder so there’s not a lot to say about Shanice, other than it’s still a fun, positive track with a great tune and a nice performance, with a polished Narada Michael Walden production 11 years after he was having his own hits. Both Shanice & Narada had a hand in writing the song, and that laughing at the end of the record? Yes, it’s Janet Jackson! That’ll be her only appearance on this chart after dominating from 1986 to 1990 and 1993 onwards to 2001. Bit of a quiet year for her this one. No doubt if this was 2024 she’d get a featuring credit for her appearance...

 

 

22 (18) BLACK OR WHITE Michael Jackson 2 20

 

Talking of Janet Jackson, here’s her older brother dropping the lead single from his new album - Black Or White had a great morphing faces video (Godly & Creme must have been pissed, their idea getting nicked so blatantly!), a catchy tune, an upbeat message, and some great guitar riffing. And it continued the theme of the first single not making my number one - the only exception was Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough in 1979. That said, it looked fairly positive as an early poster for the forthcoming big drop of Dangerous, coming off the back of 2 mega-monster-sellers in the UK (Bad had even outsold Thriller, though that’s now changed since streaming/downloading). I still rate this, but it’s a tad flattered here due to the pent-up demand and anticipation for the track, and the video. That featured then-huge child-star Macauley Culkin, and George Wendt. Having never seen Home Alone, I was much more impressed with Norm from Cheers being in it. Now there’s a classic sit-com! Still good.