'November Rain' is epic the first guitar solo is one of my favourites ever

KLF, epic goodbye - and what a loss, OK it's going out on top and they'd done it all as a laugh, sort of, but another album wouldnt have hurt and ooh 5 singles. I didnt know that Grand Funk hit was that long! That might explain why it sold because I have never once in 55 years ever heard it on the radio, unlike their chart-topping in the USA Loco-Motion which got a few spins. November Rain is a bit sprawling for me.

Stay is such an awesome song.

Switched me on to Shakespears Sister and got her to buy the album, all the singles from it, and their previous album.

Shanice and Opus III being the tracks I have forgotten over time but loved when released.

14TH MARCH




“Stay” remains the nation’s favourite song but it’s now in serious decline- 20% last week to 42,090 in fact, but it isn’t an overly serious situation given that the records below it are mostly in decline too, Shanice rises 3-2 (32,475) but is still 10k adrift and the Temptations drift 2-3 (28,770). Don’t put too much hope in the KLF either as they thrust 9-4 (26,190) or Guns N Roses who lose traction immediately as they drop 4-5 (22,395), both show little sign of overturning “Stay”.

Excluding the 1987 import single “In God’s Country” U2 scored ten straight top 10 singles between 1984 and 1991 then “Mysterious Ways” underperformed making No 13 in December. “Achtung Baby” continues to deliver up hits though as the third single to be lifted from it “One” repairs some damage by launching 23-7 (18,825), picked out by many as one of the album’s highlights, its debut last week at 23 was due to the single not being available on CD, a situation now rectified. With proceeds goings to AIDS research it was apparently written by Bono to reflect the band’s feelings about the reunification of Germany.

Formed in part from the remnants of Split Enz in the mid 80s Crowded House saw some initial success with “Don’t Dream It’s Over (No 27) which was remade into a top 20 single for Paul Young last year , but subsequent singles all failed to make a mark here until a first single from their third album “Woodface” made No 69 last year (“Chocolate Cake”) and they finally made the top 20 with the second single “Fall At Your Feet” (No 17). It’s a tale of improving chart positions for them though as a third release “Weather With You” breezes 11-8 (17,715). It leads on from Tim Finn’s departure from the group leaving them as a threesome, the album is the first to chart here in the UK and peaked at No 34 last July but now charges to a new peak 42-9, you can see the band who are also currently on tour in the UK.

Meanwhile new challengers to the throne Nirvana also return to the top 10 this week with “Come As You Are”. Some have noted the similarity to Killing Joke’s “Eighties” or the Damned’s “Life Goes On” but no doubt about it the current music press darlings are starting to rack up the hits with this single cruising straight into the charts at No 9 (15,345),

Opus III slips 5-6 (20,610) and Madness drop 6-10 (15,060) but do climb to No 1 on the album charts for just a second time in their career!


1- STAY- Shakespears Sister (42,090)
2- I LOVE YOUR SMILE- Shanice (32,475)
3- MY GIRL- The Temptations (28,770)
4- AMERICA: WHAT TIME IS LOVE- The KLF (26,190)
5- NOVEMBER RAIN- Guns N Roses (22,395)
6- IT’S A FINE DAY- Opus III (20,610)
7- ONE- U2 (18,825)
8- WEATHER WITH YOU- Crowded House (17,715)
9- COME AS YOU ARE- Nirvana (15,345)
10- IT MUST BE LOVE- Madness (15,060)

I prefer the Mary J Blige and U2 version of 'One', its a good song though!

'Weather With You' quite good although Crowded House have better songs.

Absolutely love 'Weather With You'

What a quality top 10 - 9 great songs + one from U2.

One is a great song, not surprising it's remembered so well in their back catalogue, U2 being unpredictable in the early 90's. Weather With You is also a good 'un, tuneful as the Finn Bros tend to be - they got back together as Split Enz in recent years for shows in New Zealand/Aus. Nirvana as per usual never quite doing it for me. I can see why they rocked North America for a new generation who hadnt been through Punk and New Wave in the 70's, as an alternative to overblown formula rock, but GnR started that ball rolling and Grunge I never quite got. I have tried (I have the album)! Come As You Are is OK, among their better singles, but Smells Like Teen Spirit is in a class of its own.

21ST MARCH




The top four remain unchanged and are starting to form an impenetrable barrier at the top end of the charts which means that Shakespears Sister’s “Stay” is No 1 for a fifth week with Shanice, The Temptations, and The KLF completing the quartet, the figures behind this fact however show that all are in trouble with sales decreasing to 38,505 (-9%), 26,550 (-18%), 22,620 (-18%), and 19,500 (-24%) respectively with “Stay” increasing its winning margin from 10k to 12k ironically. It is now the longest chart topper of 1992 so far with the lowest tally for a chart topper in 47 weeks- odd thing the charts.

Opening in the US in January, the film “Rush” won’t be in UK cinemas until June but it will now contain a top 10 single in the form of Eric Clapton’s “Tears In Heaven”. It was written specifically for the film however the inspiration clearly comes from personal tragedy, namely the death of Clapton’s son last year. He’s never been in the top 10 as a solo artist before this, nor as part of Cream, in fact only his involvement with Derek and the Dominoes has produced a bigger hit when “Layla” peaked at No 4 ten years ago though of course he’s featured on several top 10 hits uncredited officially.

A No 26 hit last October, and in the wake of the success of “We Got A Love Thang”, Ce Ce Peniston has re-issued “Finally” and finds herself with this week’s highest new entry at No 6 (18,570). Substantially remixed from the album version thanks to David Morales, it now encompasses a sample lifted from Cece Rogers “Someday” and immediately equals the peak of her previous single, the album made No 10 last month and re-floats 69-60 this week.

Toppled from the US No 1 position this week is “To Be With You” by Mr Big, here it accelerates 21-8 (15,795) to launch the band’s career.

Crowded House creep 8-7 (17,730) despite losing sales, U2 drop 7-9 (14,865) and Opus III dives 6-10 (14,775).

1- STAY- Shakespears Sister (38,505)
2- I LOVE YOUR SMILE- Shanice (26,550)
3- MY GIRL- The Temptations (22,620)
4- AMERICA: WHAT TIME IS LOVE?- The KLF (19,500)
5- TEARS IN HEAVEN- Eric Clapton (18,960)
6- FINALLY- Ce Ce Peniston (18,570)
7- WEATHER WITH YOU- Crowded House (17,730)
8- TO BE WITH YOU- Mr Big (15,795)
9- ONE- U2 (14,865)
10- IT’S A FINE DAY- Opus III (14,775)

On 19/01/2026 at 09:47, Popchartfreak said:

Stay, what a video and record, totally deserved chart-topper. I saw Shakespear's Sister and I saw Bananarama minus Shvaughn, the Nana's had the better show, but both were good - and then I caught the original trio tour in the 2010's and they were fab. My Girl a classic Motown, and great to see it finally going top 10 and topping my personal chart. I loved the Shanice original version, that's the one I bought, I was usually hard to convince that House remixes were better than the originals, but the song works on either. For Your Babies is a nice one, and Opus is good too.

Strangely I've never in 34 years got the appeal of Stay and why it stayed at No.1.... To me it's nothing special but hey what do I know....Preferred You're History.

Stars was a great album and best seller in both 91 and 92. Rare that happens.

Edited January 22Jan 22 by dandy*
Removed the spoiler

'Tears in Heaven' understandably an emotive song.

'Finally' is a lovely house song.

Mr Big 'To Be With You' reminds me a lot of Extreme 'More Than Words' in style.

Rarely can there have been as strong a set of additions to the Top 10 as the previous week here, with 'One', Weather With You' and 'Come As You Are' all joining at once *.*

28TH MARCH

Its lead is slashed to just 3,000 but “Stay” makes it 6 weeks at No 1 becoming the second longest chart topper of the 90s so far. It sold a mere 34,095 copies last week which continues its gentle decline, total sales are now 354,510- is that enough to be the year’s best seller so far? Find out next week but it will certainly become Fahey’s biggest seller overtaking “It Ain’t What You Do, It’s The Way That You Do” which sold 399,257 in 1982 over the next few weeks.

The new challenger is CeCe Peniston who scorches 6-2 (31,125) with “Finally” and should be the new chart topper next week failing something unexpected, that something could be Mr Big who surge 8-3 (26,895) and are threatening Shakespears Sister as well.



Or if you don’t fancy either of those then how about the new Right Said Fred single “Deeply Dippy”?, Written off as one hit wonders with a novelty track when “I’m Too Sexy” spent 6 weeks at No 2 last summer behind Bryan Adams, they confounded critics when next release “Don’t Talk Just Kiss” made No 3 in January and now their third single charges 16-4 (21,720). That move is despite the arrival at No 3 in the album charts of their debut album “Up” which houses all their singles, of course they also scored a three week chart topper in the US last month with “I’m Too Sexy”- it seems for now nothing can stop them.

Just 5 weeks ago we had three new entries in the top 10 for only the second time since the chart went top 50 back in the 60s, now we’ve got that situation again. The highest debuts at No 6 (20,205) for a returning Def Leppard, “Let’s Get Rocked” was inspired by Bart Simpson and comes with a state of the art promo directed by Steve Barron who also produced “Money For Nothing” a fact that won’t escape you when you view the CGI video. It’s only the group’s second top tenner (“Animal” made No 6 in 1987) so any climb next week will result in the group’s biggest hit, a new album “Andrenalize” is out in a few weeks.

It’s a real victory for pops survivors this week, Def Leppard first hit the charts back in 1979 and one year The Cure debuted with “A Forest”, since then they’ve scored 20 hits but only two top 10 singles but they now have a third. “High” previews their 9th studio album “Wish” which is out in May and becomes their highest debuting single ever as it enters at No 8 (19,980).

Once place below them is the very first solo single by Annie Lennox, again she’s been knocking around since 1979 firstly in the Tourists then of course in Eurythmics enabling her to score 11 top 10 singles in total from those bands but with Eurythmics on hiatus it appears she’s done a solo album “Diva” which is in shops next month. First single “Why” becomes the first instance that she has debuted in the top 10 (17,940).

Eric Clapton finds progress is interrupted as he holds at No 5 (20,925) but it’s all over for Shanice as she plummets 2-7 (20,190) and Crowded House reverse 7-10 (16,410) but as you can see with less than 2k seperating numbers 4 and 8 things could have ended up in any order!



1- STAY- Shakespears Sister (34,095)
2- FINALLY- Ce Ce Peniston (31,125)
3- TO BE WITH YOU- Mr Big (26,895)
4- DEEPLY DIPPY- Right Said Fred (21,720)
5- TEARS IN HEAVEN- Eric Clapton (20,925)
6- LET’S GET ROCKED- Def Leppard (20,205)
7- I LOVE YOUR SMILE- Shanice (20,190)
8- HIGH- The Cure (19,980)
9- WHY- Annie Lennox (17,940)
10- WEATHER WITH YOU- Crowded House (16,410)

4TH APRIL

Becoming only the 7th track in the last 20 years to spend as long as 7 weeks at No 1 Shakespears Sister’s “Stay” is proving worthy of its title and refusing to budge. The pair sold 34,620 egistering a small increase week on week, as it is a quarter of the way through the year let’s see where that places it on the YTD:

1- STAY- Shakespears Sister 389,130
2- GOODNIGHT GIRL- Wet Wet Wet 317,715
3- BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY/ THESE ARE THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES- Queen
227,100
4- MY GIRL- The Temptations 199,890
5- I LOVE YOUR SMILE (REMIX)- Shanice 194,175
6- TWILIGHT ZONE- 2 Unlimited 183,150
7- I’M DOING FINE NOW- The Pasadenas 174,675
8- I WONDER WHY- Curtis Stigers 153,525
9- EVERYBODY IN THE PLACE EP- The Prodigy 138,660
10- GIVE ME JUST A LITTLE MORE TIME- Kylie Minogue 134,565

Yes a few weeks ago “Stay” did indeed become the biggest seller of 1992 so far and is now 72,000 clear of the field, it’s still at No 1 and will pass the 400,000 mark this week. Shanice also moves 6-5 on the YTD as she dips 7-10 (13,380) on the weekly charts.

CeCe Peniston’s expected coronation never occurred as she backslides 2-5 (28,245) and allows Def Leppard to become new heir apparent’s as they lift 6-2 (31,860) but their album is now out and may scupper the opportunity for that final place rise. Mr Big and Right Said Fred both hold at No’s 3 & 4 and were within a few hundred of each other (180 copies in total), those increases in sales for the two tracks might point to a continue threat to “Stay”’s dominance with the whole top 4 just 3.2k apart!




Erasure’s last single “Am I Right” faltered in the Christmas market only making No 13 but a calmer market means better things for their fourth cut from “Chorus” with “Breath Of Life” moving 12-8 (18,480). It’s the boys 11th top 10 single in just over 5 years.

Also returning to the charts are Soul II Soul who will be hoping for a return to the glory days of 1989/90 with a third album due in 3 weeks. Nelle Hooper has left the outfit but they have a new vocalist in Ritchie Stevens and lead single “Joy” becomes their 5th top 10 single and a third to arrive instantly in the top flight as it enters at No 9 (14,805).

Annie Lennox rises 9-6 (26,205) as Eric Clapton is left sobbing 5-7 (20,145).


1- STAY- Shakespears Sister (34,620)
2- LET’S GET ROCKED- Def Leppard (31,860)
3- TO BE WITH YOU- Mr Big ( 31,665)
4- DEEPLY DIPPY- Right Said Fred (31,485)
5- FINALLY- Ce Ce Peniston (28,245)
6- WHY- Annie Lennox (26,205)
7- TEARS IN HEAVEN- Eric Clapton (20,145)
8- BREATH OF LIFE- Erasure (18,480)
9- JOY- Soul II Soul (14,805)
10- I LOVE YOUR SMILE- Shanice (13,380)

On 22/01/2026 at 20:46, CRAZY CHRIS said:

Strangely I've never in 34 years got the appeal of Stay and why it stayed at No.1.... To me it's nothing special but hey what do I know....Preferred You're History.

Stars was a great album and best seller in both 91 and 92. Rare that happens.

You're History was good, that album was fun too. I think the video of Stay had a lot to do with the appeal....it gave it an edge. :)

I've never been able to listen to Tears In Heaven, partly due to my reaction at the way his son died, horrific, and I dont like being reminded of it. I still turn it off. Finally is fabulous and iconic in Priscilla, the movie and the show. Mr Big was mildly pleasant, but not a patch on the original Mr Big (UK band of the 70's) who had a wonderful track called Romeo, sadly forgotten these days.

Deeply Dippy is Deeply Ditty, catchy but not great. Let's Get Rocked was Def Lep's first and last chart-topper for me, I think they got the sound right on it, though looking back Animal is my fave. High isn't one that springs to my mind when I think of great Cure singles - I tend to go 80's - but it's nice to see them getting top 10's when fab early/mid 80's singles hardly ever did. I can barely recall the tune of this one. And I'm playing it now. Why is nice, but it seemed to signal a more mature/MOR Annie where Eurythmics were ground-breaking.

Breath Of Life not heard that in yonks, sounding good. Soul II Soul sounding upbeat for a slow groove, always pleasant, never bad, not always memorable. Joy is somewhere in between Back To Life quality and not being memorable. Sales for 1992 so low!

I recall much of the loss of sales was explained as people shifting to a new format (cd) coupled with the rise of computer games, the recession, and music by "faceless" dance groups that couldn't/ wouldn't be marketed by magazines and the normal pop music routes. In addition some tracks I suspect sounded a lot better in the clubs when drunk/ on other things than they sounded on radio which limited cross over appeal.

3 hours ago, Popchartfreak said:

You're History was good, that album was fun too. I think the video of Stay had a lot to do with the appeal....it gave it an edge. :)

Yes they say it was the video. Had a huge jump upwards after it was first shown on TOTP.

Edited January 24Jan 24 by CRAZY CHRIS

'Finally' is one of those overplayed tracks is gladly never hear again at this point, but I did once love it.

'High' is absolutely wonderful ❤️

Some good tracks appearing since I last commented, most notably…

High is just a joy, for a band so associated with gloomy gothic styles they really are great at upbeat jangly pop music.

Why is a lovely track from Annie Lennox. At the time I thought it was a little pedestrian but Diva turned out to be a strong album. Love the production on second single Precious, which sadly won’t be appearing in this thread.

Breath of Life completed a fantastic run of singles from Erasure. Chorus was my most listened to album at this point and I was relieved when this made the top 10 after the lovely Am I Right? had missed out. I remember being really shocked as a kid when it stalled as I think I just assumed Erasure were bigger than they were, just because I liked them so much. Breath of Life was ramped up a notch for its single release, a good idea as the middle bit in particular sounded much more dance influenced, however I do wish it still had the lovely intro that the album version has.