66 Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

I am not the biggest grunge fan, but this song is absolutely iconic. Chartwise, this was not there biggest hit in the UK charts peaking only at #7 in autumn 1991.

65 Metallica - Enter Sandman

I am also not the biggest metal fan, but The Black Album is my favourite album of this genre. "Enter Sandman" was the first single from it and peaked at #5 in late summer 1991. One more to come from Metallica later on.

64 EMF - I Believe

The Epton Mad Funkers had a great start start with "Unbelieveable", which reached the top 10 in 1990. However, their debut album "Schubert Dip" offered a lot more guitar rave bangers. "I Believe" was released as follow-up single of "Unbelievable" in January 1991 and peaked at #6 giving them their second and last top 10 hit.

63 A Tribe Called Quest - Can I Kick It

I am a big fan of conscious hip-hop of the late 80's and early 90's. "A Tribe Called Quest" were together with "De La Soul" my favourite groups of it. "Can I Kick It" is a masterpiece and one of their best songs reaching #15 in early 91 giving them their only Top 20 hit in the UK.

62 Guns N Roses - You Could Me Mine

The "Use You Illusion" double LP was a big phenomenon in 1991. One of my favourite songs from it is "You Could Be Mine", a great piece of rock with crossover potential. The video is absolutely ace too with loads of sequencies from the "Terminator 2" movie, which is one of my favourite movies of all time. "You Could Be Mine" peaked at #3 in July 1991.

Cathy Dennis is my tops of that batch, but also Nirvana and Can I Kick It. The others are decent enough, though. 👍

Great to see 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and 'Enter Sandman' here even if not to your usual taste - classics of their respective genres for sure.

'Can I Kick It?' is a good'un too and makes sense as their highest charting song. Love that Lou Reed sample.

61 Young Disciples - Apparently Nothing

Young Disciples were the spearhead of the Acid Jazz movement, which came apparent in 1991. Comin' on the profilic Talkin' Lous label, it reached #13 in early 1991. This is one of my favourite Acid Jazz cuts together with Cantaloop.

60 PM Dawn - Set Adrift On Memory Bliss

Taking the instrumental of True by Spandau Ballet this was one of the biggest summer hits of 1991. Such a chilled song best enjoyed with a Cuba Libre.

Young Disciples is a good track and PM Dawn's remains fabulous and way better than True. They took everything that was good about Spandau's radio staple, added loads of Daisy Age loveliness, and dropped all the bits about True that annoy me (the rest of it) 😇

59 East-Side Beat - Ride Like The Wind

East-Side Beat were an italien dance project including mastermind Gianfranco Bortolotti, who was also involved in other big dance combos from Italy including 49ers, Cappella and Club House. "Ride Like The Wind" was originally released on the italien "Whole Recordings" label, which was part of the famous Media Records complex. The original mix was organ-driven and included no piano - it is a cover version of Christopher Cross' smash from 1979 under the same name. FFRR licensed the song for the UK and anew version - the Factory Mix - was recorded. This new version had summer written all over with a great piano riff. It was a late summer hit in 1991. Released in November 1991, it peaked at #3.

Oh I love this but only the UK Factory Mix version with the euphoric female vocal at the start and end 'oh I'll set you freee'

Edited June 8Jun 8 by TheSnake

The original version snuggles nicely in my singles collection under "1980" 🙂 I liked this cover too.👍

58 Shades Of Rhythm - Extacy EP

As 808 State, Shades Of Rhythm were signed to ZTT. "Extacy" was their only top 20 hit peaking at #16 in december 1991. Before the Ectacy EP they had released several great records, which are all summarised in their brilliant album "Shades". Their stand-out tracks for me are "Sweet Sensation", a brilliant proto rave tune which was played regularly at MTV's Party Zone, and "The Sound Of Eden", which is a brilliant mellow rave banger giving you goosebumps. "Extacy" is a brilliant piano-rave banger and giving them the success they deserved. The following vocals were sampled in the track:

D-Train - Keep On, Kym Mazelle - Useless, Tongue 'n' Cheek - Tomorrow, and Nitelite Cityrama - Runnin' So Hard. A fun fact is the wrong spelling of Ecstasy on the release - one of the producers commented recently: "and yes… we know.. it's spelt wrong, we didn't have a dictionary to hand at the time and unbelievably none of the staff at Warner Brother spotted the mistake??"

Good tune! ZTT Records had some interesting electronic stuff in the 80s especially Propaganda - Dr Mabuse and The Art of Noise.

Edited June 9Jun 9 by TheSnake

57 Stevie B - Because I Loved You

Stevie B became famous as freestyle artist in the Miami dance scene having some top 40 hits in 1988/89 in the US billboard charts but nada in the UK. This changed with the ballad "Because I Loved You", which gave him a #1 hit in the US and at least a #6 hit in the UK in March 1991. In the UK he was a classic one hit wonder as he had no more top 100 singles there - in the US he had at least 6 more top 40 hits. Eventhough this song is a bit cheesy, I always had a weak spot for it. I remember well that I used it quite a lot for mash-up's with instrumental dance tunes when playing online radio around 2008-2010. The vocals are great - it is a soft banger!

56 Marc Almond - Jacky

After his big success with Soft Cell, Marc went solo from 1984 on. I like much of his solo stuff, as most of it is rather theatralic and some kind of dark. His phase in the early 1990's was fantastic. In '92 he scored one of his three top 10 hits with the great cover of "The Days Of Pearly Spencer" peaking at #4 (the other two Top 10 hits were also cover versions: #3 I Feel Love Medley in '85 and #1 "Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart" [with gene Pitney]). Like "The Days Of Pearly Spencer" "Jacky" was taken from the brilliant "Tenement Symphony" album. It is a bit disappointing that "Jacky" only peaked at #17 in October 1991 - it is a beautiful art-pop song and his vocals are really strong here. No one take so much emotion in his voice like Marc. Interestingly, there was also a brilliant remix of his greatest song "Say Hello Wave Goodbye" (of course as part of Soft Cell) released in '91, which only peaked at #38.

great version of an even more classic original from Scott Walker, topped my chart for a hat-trick of Marc Almond number ones in 1991/92 for me❤️

55 OMD - Sailing On The Seven Seas

I am a huge Orchestral Manouevres In The Dark fan. Their early studd was so important for the rise of Synth-Pop. "Enola Gay" is one of my favourite songs of all time. In 1991 they returned after an absence of 5 years with their album "Sugar Tax", which spent 29 weeks in the charts and peaked at #3. Single-wise it gave them two top 10 hits, of which "Sailing On the Seven Seas" was the more succesful one peaking at #3 in April 1991. Unfortunately, they never had a #1 hit. "Sailing On the Seven Seas" is a beautiful emotional piece of synth-pop with a fantastic effort of Andy McCluskey on vocals.

54 Heavy D & The Boyz - Now That We Found Love

Dwight Errington Myers (Heavy D) was a Jamaican-American rapper, singer, producer, actor, and record executive, best known as the frontman of Heavy D & the Boyz. Born in Jamaica in 1967, he grew up in Mount Vernon, New York, and became one of hip-hop's most recognizable and charismatic figures during the late 1980s and 1990s. Heavy D was often called "The Overweight Lover" because of his larger-than-life personality, smooth delivery, and positive image. His blend of rap, R&B, and dance music helped bring hip-hop into mainstream pop culture. Unfortunately he died way to early aged 44 in 2011.

"Now That We Found Love" was by far thw biggest hit for Heavy D & his boyz. In the US it slightly missed the top 10. In Europe it was much more succesful thanks to the popularity of hip-house at that time (e.g. #4 in Germany). In summer 1991 it peaked at #2 in the UK only beaten by the everlasting Bryan Adams. It was one of the biggest summer anthems of the year and I played it a lot. If you would have asked me in January 1992, this would have been Top 20 in this ranking. I still like this song, but it sounds a bit dated nowadays.