BLack & White is one of his better 90's songs. Regarding th relaive weak field of #1's in 1991 this is #5 for me, only beaten by Chesney from the reveals.

Black Or White is a great video and decent upbeat pop song. I like the intent too, but it's not in the same league as the best stuff off the previous 3 albums, and not near the top 5 of 1991 chart-toppers for me.

"Dizzy" would be near the top for me. I wouldn't even think it was a novelty record if I didn't know Vic Reeves was a comedian.

George Michael/Elton John is decent enough but wouldn't trouble the top of the table.

Can't say I've ever thought much of "The One And Only" but over the years it's become a so bad it's enjoyable sort of record.

Can't stand the Cher record, would be near the bottom. It didn't help that her previous Top 40 hit was "Just Like Jesse James" which I liked and was completely different.

"Black Or White" is a decent song, my only issue was the over the top Michael Jackson videos where you had to sit through 5 minutes of rubbish to get to the actual song.

I think “Black Or White” would be 6th for me, not that close to the 5 I love but comfortably beating everything else. It’s a well thought out and produced song and a bit different from everything else he did.

7 Queen - These Are The Days Of Our Lives

5 weeks in December 1991 / January 1992: {1}-1-1-1-1-2-4-10-16-13-21-36-53-55->14

Kept off #1: Diana Ross - When You Tell Me That You Love Me; The KLF feat. Tammy Wynette - Justified And Ancient (2 weeks [1 in 1992]); The Prodigy - Everybody In The Place EP [in 1992]

#2 in EOY 1991 [#15 in EOY 1992]

Weekly sales at #1: 330k; 263k; 123k; [46k; 44k]

On 24 November 1991 Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen, passed away at the age of 45. The previous day he had released a statement confirming that he had AIDS, an illness from which he had suffered through much of the previous decade. Following his passing and many tributes which brought much of their music back into prominence, the band re-released their seminal masterpiece 'Bohemian Rhapsody' which had been their first UK #1 for 9 weeks spanning 1975 and 1976, as a double A-side with a track from their last studio album Innuendo which had been released earlier in 1991, and of which the title track had become their only other UK #1 in Freddie's lifetime credited just to Queen (there had also been 'Under Pressure' alongside David Bowie in 1981). The new single gathered the highest weekly sale of 1991 to enter the chart as the band's fourth UK #1, and stayed there into the early weeks of 1992. It made 'Bohemian Rhapsody' the first song to become Christmas #1 for the same act twice, and its total of 14 weeks at UK #1 have only been exceeded five times in chart history (including one earlier in 1991, and another this year).

I've explained in the opening post that I haven't included 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in these ratings, as it would prefer to count it only once or twice in the 70s rather than four times in total. It also means that instead of an unsatisfactory average rating between two songs, one of which I would rate considerably higher than the other, I can rate the song from the double A-side that was new to 1991 on its own. Therefore #7 in the countdown is where I have placed 'These Are The Days Of Our Lives'.

The song was written by Queen drummer Roger Taylor, reminiscing on the past, and acutely aware of Freddie's illness - he had met his future bandmate when they were teenagers. The first chorus is a wistful "those were the days", but then in the second chorus they're in the present, as per the song title, albeit still mourning "the swiftness of time". If it had been sung by anyone else, it may have come across a little schlocky - however from the vocals of Freddie, especially in the knowledge of his declining health, and particularly by the time of the single's posthumous release, the gravitas is unavoidable. The video was filmed six months before his death and is endearing, although his frail condition makes it a tough watch, as he nevertheless embellishes his performance with flamboyant arm movements. It's hard to dissociate the song from the sadness in the loss of such a talented musical icon, but when I really try: it's a nice song with Freddie very much the showman, a lovely lyrical sentiment and an emotive guitar solo, though nonetheless a shadow of some of Queen's former glories. For me their previous single, 'The Show Must Go On', which re-entered the Top 40 following Freddie's passing, has more of a lasting vitality, with the powerful vocals and defiance of starting one's own mortality in the face. We could also extend the discussion to the aforementioned UK #1 from earlier in 1991, but that of course will be covered in time.

Diana returned to #2 on its second week at the top which was also the Christmas chart. It was followed by another KLF single, this time an unlikely pairing with country legend Tammy Wynette on board. Kudos to Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty for persuading her to sing about them driving an ice cream van, and "they said 'Tammy, stand by the JAMMs'!" in reference to their Ancients of Mu Mu folklore, although I still prefer their three earlier singles from The White Room album - one of which is still to be revealed here. The final song the Queen double A-side held off from The Prodigy may be covered when we come to 1992, but suffice to say it's an electronic riot to the senses.

Not a fan of this Queen song - pretty boring to me + it denied two great songs the #1 - both "Justified & Ancients" and "Everybody In the Place" are brilliant. The Queen song is in the lower midfield for me.

I like These Are The Days Of Our Lives, it’s pretty, wistful and nostalgic, and one of my dad’s favourite songs. I’d have it a little higher I think.

The KLF and Prodigy number twos are fantastic though

Edited September 17Sep 17 by Jaz13music

I’ve shared this before but my mum bought the double A side on cassette at the time and it had a stylish plain black sleeve, and I was fascinated and played it over and over. I grew to love “These Are The Days Of Our Lives” and perhaps find it hard to appraise it objectively now, but to me it’s incredibly sincere and moving. It would be in my top 5.

I'm not too crazy on 'Shoop Shoop Song' either. It's fun but not really a Cher highlight for me. Would find her 1998-2001 stuff to be my fave era of hers!

'Black Or White' is great though and would rank decently amongst MJ's discography for me and the video is enjoyable also.

'These Are The Days Of Our Lives' I've always liked too. An delicate track to say the least but also leaves me feeling pretty warm too.

Two good songs, I think I'd have Black and White higher, it has quite the funky bassline and I remember it very well from the time. The face shift video technique still looks quite good to say how far tech has moved on in 35 years. The Queen song is very stirring indeed.

'Black Or White' is solid and I appreciate the message but there are more interesting moments in that crazily long Dangerous singles run for me, especially 'Who Is It' which is so underrated. I was only aware of the abridged version of the video for a long time, so didn't see the controversial crotch grabbing, window smashing scenes for years. I can see his intention, embodying the instincts of the panther, but also understand why people were turned off by the self indulgence. The morphing scenes stand up well though!

'Justified & Ancient' and 'Everybody In The Place' are two more fantastic #2s! So a shame they were blocked, but I do like 'These Are The Days Of Our Lives', so at least they weren't prevented by something awful. I agree with you that the context of Freddie's illness gives extra weight to the song.

Not a fan

The Queen song is very sad still, I didnt like seeing the video at the time, but it's more mid-table here for me, and if I were going to pick one song to single out for their last album in Freddie's lifetime I would go for Innuendo, that's a mini-masterpiece, very under-rated for a number one. Am I getting ahead of myself here I wonder....

Plus, KLF and Tammy should have grabbed a week on top, classic that one.

6 Bryan Adams - (Everything I Do) I Do It For You

16 weeks in July - October 1991: 8-2-{1}-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-4-4-6-12-36-63-73R(3)->25

Kept off #1: [deep breath...] Heavy D And The Boyz - Now That We Found Love; Extreme - More Than Words (2 weeks); Right Said Fred - I'm Too Sexy (6 weeks); Salt-N-Pepa - Let's Talk About Sex (2 weeks); Scorpions - Wind Of Change (2 weeks); 2 Unlimited - Get Ready For This

#1 in EOY 1991

Weekly sales at #1: [another deep breath...] 64k; 97k; 104k; 113k; 106k; 104k; 96k; 94k; 85k; 81k; 79k; 74k; 68k; 58k; 50k; 45k

Oh yes, we were all anticipating this! From Canada, rock musician and singer Bryan Adams had racked up 11 UK chart hits in the second half of the 80s, the highest charting of these being 'Run To You' which stalled at #11 for 4 weeks, and other hits included 'Heaven' (a UK #38 but a US #1) and one you may have heard of called 'Summer Of '69' which didn't even make the UK Top 40 - those three songs were lifted from his album Reckless which spent 96 weeks in the UK Top 100 in the 80s. Therefore he had some pedigree, but nothing had prepared the world for the song he recorded for the film soundtrack of Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves. Co-written and produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange whose other production credits included AC/DC and Def Leppard, the power ballad instantly gave Bryan his first UK Top 10 hit. A fortnight later it commenced a run which still stands as the most consecutive weeks any song has had in UK chart history - in fact even by its 12th week it had broken the previous record of Slim Whitman's 'Rose Marie' which had stood since 1955 - while it also reached #1 in numerous other territories around the world.

We've moved very quickly from songs I don't mind so far in the top 10, to this one which I really like. In the past I'd have rated this higher - in 2021 I had this rated 4th among 1991 #1s, and once upon a time it would have been top. It's a really gorgeous melody with a true sincerity in the lyrics that you hear in Bryan's vocals. The instruments are used to great effect as the song sweeps movie-like from the piano-led intro to the guitar heroics of the final bridge - call it cheesy or clichéd, but this was power balladry writ large that could be universally heard and felt. The final 2:30 where it reprises the piano interlude middle eight with extended guitar soloing and ad libbed bits of vocal lines are a little too long, but the 4 minutes of the song before that are virtually spotless as everything it sets out to do, it does (for you!) As mega-long running #1s go, I certainly prefer it to the 1994 one from Wet Wet Wet as its closest successor in this field - there are various more recent hits I could bring into this conversation, but I think it beats most of them too.

As for the #2s, and there are a lot of them - we've already covered 2 Unlimited from the final week, and I think I prefer the Third World version of 'Now That We Found Love' to the Heavy D version here. Half of the 16 weeks housed a song with "Sex" in the title - Salt-N-Pepa added to their 1988 #2 'Push It' with plenty more attitude, although most of the talking glides over the subject, while Right Said Fred had the year's 4th bestseller topping out with 6 weeks in second place as the brothers Fairbrass gave the world the rapped refrain which would be interpolated in many hits for decades to come. However the other two #2s are songs I love, and both rock ballads - 'More Than Words' sonically unusual for Extreme, but the words and harmonies are quite a beauty, while 'Wind Of Change' I voted as my favourite #2 of the whole decade in a 2022 poll, as it's a huge anthem full of hope and possibilities.

Yeah I pretty much agree on (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, the (very) long spell at number one has forever clouded what it is essentially a great rock ballad.

I actually really quite like it, although maybe that's helped by the fact I didn't experience it in real-time and have never felt like it's been overplayed in my life. I dare say it probably would've done my head in over the course of those 16 weeks.

I bought it at the time (you're welcome) well into it's run on top when it was clearly going to be a record-breaker. I do still like it but not as much as Run To You or later bangers like When You're Gone, due to OD overplaying. That said I've seen Bryan in concert at least twice, always a good night out (or afternoon, in the case of one stadium gig, Net Aid 1999, a Live Aid follow-up that nobody who wasnt there remembers - not even Robbie, George Michael, Bowie, Eurythmics, Corrs, Bryan and others have saved it from mass memory deletion, mostly cos it was streamed not on live prime time TV).

If Bryan Adams' version isn't so much to your taste, there's a cover version by Fatima Mansions which made UK #7 the following year as the lesser known half of the double A-side with Manic Street Preachers - Theme From M*A*S*H, since both songs had been recorded for a compilation CD of covers of UK #1s, Ruby Trax, to mark the 40 years of the UK charts, with proceeds going to charity. Their version has a rather unhinged lounge vibe, slightly disturbing but an entertaining listen:

As he also appears in this countdown, the same CD includes Vic Reeves with his version of 'Vienna' by Ultravox (yes, I know it sadly wasn't a UK #1), which soon goes off-piste

I'll reveal the first of the top 5 in this countdown tomorrow!

'Now That We Found Love' by Heavy D and the Boyz is a proper tune one of the few big hip-house hits in America by an American artist. Would have liked it to be #1. 'Get Ready For This' by 2Unlimited is good fun too.

'Wind of Change' by The Scorpions is a good song about the fall of the Berlin Wall even if it sounds more 80s than 90s though.

I get that the Bryan Adams song is very emotive especially the first half so I can see why it was so big.

Right Said Fred used to be a guilty pleasure for me musically.

Edited September 19Sep 19 by TheSnake

Overall I can’t stand Bryan‘s voice much - he is really a No-artist for me. Everything I do might be his best song and I quite liked it a bit in the beginning but 16 weeks on top and denying 2 Unlimited the #1 made me hate this song in 1991. Nowadays I am more relaxed with it and would put it somewhere in the middle.