"Jump," by a considerable distance. "Save The Best For Last" is one of the sweetest songs ever sung. It's like a Christine McVie ballad: the character is a decent woman who's found her chance at happiness, and it's embodied in Williams' perfectly respectable, normal-person's voice.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 25 October 2008 22:40 (fifteen years ago) link
i have a soft spot for 'this used to be my playground'
― metametadata (n/a), Saturday, 25 October 2008 22:43 (fifteen years ago) link
― metametadata (n/a), Saturday, 25 October 2008 23:43 (14 minutes ago) Bookmark
Mrs Hassel Schmuck does too. I have no idea why.
― Sven Hassel Schmuck, Saturday, 25 October 2008 23:00 (fifteen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, October 25, 2008 3:40 PM (20 minutes ago)
rep
― remy bean, Saturday, 25 October 2008 23:02 (fifteen years ago) link
"This Used To Be My Playground" was probably Madonna's best song of the 90s until 1998. So, that one, in an otherwise rather boring selection of songs (the two best ones otherwise were both live cover versions)
― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 25 October 2008 23:17 (fifteen years ago) link
Is that because it has no drums?
― Sven Hassel Schmuck, Saturday, 25 October 2008 23:34 (fifteen years ago) link
Wow, there's nothing I abjectly dislike, but nothing I really like. I was kinda disengaged from chart music at this time. I went with Madonna in her best adult-contemporary guise.
― Joseph McCombs, Sunday, 26 October 2008 01:05 (fifteen years ago) link
"This Used To Be My Playground" is one of her more obscure singles, isn't it, even though it hit #1? Anyway, "I'll Remember" is better, methinks.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 26 October 2008 01:06 (fifteen years ago) link
I just youtubed it and I don't remember it at all. Which you can pretty much not say for any other Madonna single.
― what U cry 4 (jim), Sunday, 26 October 2008 01:07 (fifteen years ago) link
It did have drums. But it had a tune too.
― Geir Hongro, Sunday, 26 October 2008 01:58 (fifteen years ago) link
"Baby Got Back" is great, no apologies needed. For me second is Whitney; though the original is better, this is still a great record, but I could listen to Whitney sings The Knack and I'd love it.
― Euler, Sunday, 26 October 2008 02:02 (fifteen years ago) link
VANESSA
― lex pretend, Sunday, 26 October 2008 02:21 (fifteen years ago) link
WILLIAMS
aaah hang on a sec no, it's 'end of the road'!!!
― lex pretend, Sunday, 26 October 2008 02:23 (fifteen years ago) link
Best for Last or Used to Be My Playground. The latter is probably my favourite Madonna ballad behind Live to Tell.
― Gukbe, Sunday, 26 October 2008 02:57 (fifteen years ago) link
oh god, End of the ROad
kriss kross all day
― jordan s (J0rdan S.), Sunday, 26 October 2008 02:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Fuck off.
End of the road 'til the end of the road.
― what U cry 4 (jim), Sunday, 26 October 2008 03:02 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm willing to wear matching shit to the regatta with my compadres.
I was gonna be all "How Could Baby Got Back lose this really" but then remembered how amazing "End Of The Road" is and voted for that.
― jigglepanda.gif (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, 26 October 2008 03:53 (fifteen years ago) link
see, i just don't REMEMBER that about end of the road, and i'm not willing to double check.
― ian, Sunday, 26 October 2008 03:55 (fifteen years ago) link
It's hilar how much I HATED HATED HATED Boyz II Men when I was 12 cuz all the other kids liked em and I grew my hair long and listened to Ministry and The Misfits and shit. But now I get all sensitive when I hear them in the Chinese restaurant or whatever and wonder to myself if they have a decent Best Of...
― jigglepanda.gif (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, 26 October 2008 03:56 (fifteen years ago) link
Big lols at this hitting number one at the height of the grunge era.
Rev, you're a young'n right? Don't believe the rose-colored glasses that people see the grunge era through. Guns N Roses was still the biggest band on the planet even if Vedder had more talking points for Newsweek articles.
― jigglepanda.gif (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, 26 October 2008 03:57 (fifteen years ago) link
People forget about all the residual post-hair-metal shit that still thrived like crazy in the early '90s. There's probably a thread in there somewhere:
Mr. Big, Saigon Kick, Ugly Kid Joe, Damn Yankees, Jackyl, cheesy Aerosmith ballads, Tesla, Alice Cooper's Hey Stoopid...
― jigglepanda.gif (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, 26 October 2008 04:02 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, I get all that. I was directing those lols at the wearers of the rose-colored glasses.
― R$ (The Reverend), Sunday, 26 October 2008 04:15 (fifteen years ago) link
the daddy mack'll make you vote
― i fire doughnuts from a HOOSteen to paralyse my enemies (sic), Sunday, 26 October 2008 04:35 (fifteen years ago) link
big hoos better start suing some of these motherfuckers
― R$ (The Reverend), Sunday, 26 October 2008 04:36 (fifteen years ago) link
Greil Marcus on "Save the Best for Last":http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_/ai_20363526
― jaymc, Sunday, 26 October 2008 05:10 (fifteen years ago) link
Easily Baby Got Back for me, although I feel its 1991 release date should omit it.
1992 was the year Al Bell of Stax fame hit with Duice's Dazzey Duks, followed closely with Tag Team's Whoomp in 1993.
This brand of Miami Bass wasn't even from Florida, which seemed understandable after Baby Got Back (from Seattle) shot up the top 40 charts in a way no Florida Miami Bass act did (not even L'trimm, who was M&D'd by Atlantic, nor 2 Live Crew, who had broken up in 1990/1991).
1992 is oddly more notable for LaFace Records (based in Atlanta and backed by Arista) hitting with Boomerang Soundtrack, paving the way for TLC, which paved the way for Organized Noize, who signed Outkast, and redefined Southern Hip-Hop, getting us to where we've been since Cash Money's Universal deal in 1998.
Before this, Atlanta was mostly Jermaine Dupri and Dallas Austin working their angles to varying degrees of success, mostly in the New Jack Swing field outside of rappers (ala MC Shy D and Raheem the Dream) coming to Florida. The reversal happened here.
Oh, yeah, and "Alternative", of course...
― LIL HOOSANE (PappaWheelie V), Sunday, 26 October 2008 06:17 (fifteen years ago) link
1. vanessa williams2. boyz ii men2. kriss kross2. madonna5. i'll be there 6. all 4 lovethe others are terrible
― claudia schefter (daria-g), Sunday, 26 October 2008 06:52 (fifteen years ago) link
Saying "Baby Got Back" is terrible means you are not human.
― jigglepanda.gif (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, 26 October 2008 06:53 (fifteen years ago) link
Or really skinny.
― jigglepanda.gif (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, 26 October 2008 06:54 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah this is a pretty bad selection.whitney houston, why not?
― Kevin Keller, Sunday, 26 October 2008 07:04 (fifteen years ago) link
Jump
― Cittaslow Mazza (blueski), Sunday, 26 October 2008 12:24 (fifteen years ago) link
"This Used to Be My Playground" has me wondering: what was the first music video to feature clips of the movie it was cross-promoting?
― abanana, Sunday, 26 October 2008 13:24 (fifteen years ago) link
Queen 'Flash'?
― Cittaslow Mazza (blueski), Sunday, 26 October 2008 13:27 (fifteen years ago) link
PW, it ain't about when it came out, it's about when it hit #1
― R$ (The Reverend), Sunday, 26 October 2008 20:52 (fifteen years ago) link
Also, don't forget that Jermaine Dupri was behind Kriss Kross.
― R$ (The Reverend), Sunday, 26 October 2008 20:53 (fifteen years ago) link
"Flash" does sound like a good answer. I would also submit "Another Brick In the Wall".
― ☑ (Pleasant Plains), Sunday, 26 October 2008 21:05 (fifteen years ago) link
lol at the heights
― Sir, are you calling 911 to complain about traffic? (G00blar), Sunday, 26 October 2008 21:15 (fifteen years ago) link
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/123/356631176_23bc2c0f33.jpg?v=0
Point tooken.
Kinda what I'm pointing to.
I'm always surprised to be reminded that no clips of Saturday Night Fever showed up in those Bee Gees videos.
― LIL HOOSANE (PappaWheelie V), Sunday, 26 October 2008 21:16 (fifteen years ago) link
Running The Heights website and collecting all the content takes a lot of time and money. This site has been up since 2001 and all costs have been out-of-pocket. Please consider a monetary donation through Paypal so that I may continue sharing The Heights with the world. Thank You for your support.
― Sir, are you calling 911 to complain about traffic? (G00blar), Sunday, 26 October 2008 21:17 (fifteen years ago) link
I voted Whitney.
― Sir, are you calling 911 to complain about traffic? (G00blar), Sunday, 26 October 2008 21:18 (fifteen years ago) link
jump jump jump jump!
― THE TOWER OF HUMANOID ANTIBODIES!!! (Ioannis), Sunday, 26 October 2008 22:20 (fifteen years ago) link
"Jump" edging "Last." Leafing through my Billboard Top 40 book, I see a few other Top Fives that I liked as much as the chart-toppers: "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover," "If You Asked Me To," "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "My Loving (Never Gonna Get It)."
― Fitzcarraldo, Monday, 27 October 2008 01:16 (fifteen years ago) link
Baby Got Back just ahead of Jump - the only two songs i could really sit through now on this list, and only because they make me smile.
in primary school i tortured people with long and repeated off key renditions of End of the Road
― fantasimundo, Monday, 27 October 2008 02:16 (fifteen years ago) link
"Jump" is fucking dope! That beat is unstoppable and there are so many great little vocal moments where once you know them you can't wait for them to come around so you can sing along. Does this count as G-Funk, with that weird squiggly thing under the chorus?
― Doctor Casino, Monday, 27 October 2008 02:22 (fifteen years ago) link
"Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover," >>>> most of the number 1 list
― fantasimundo, Monday, 27 October 2008 02:27 (fifteen years ago) link
Yes.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 27 October 2008 02:45 (fifteen years ago) link
Wow, blockbuster year for R&B power ballads and hip-hop novelty songs. My mind is kind of blown that all those songs actually came out in the same year, the year of my bar mitzvah, no less.
― Tyrone Quattlebaum (Hurting 2), Monday, 27 October 2008 02:46 (fifteen years ago) link
― abanana, Sunday, October 26, 2008 9:24 AM (13 hours ago) Bookmark
I Will Always Love You also did that.
― Tyrone Quattlebaum (Hurting 2), Monday, 27 October 2008 02:47 (fifteen years ago) link
I know it was waaaaay before those two, because the Ghostbusters theme song video did that.
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Monday, 27 October 2008 02:50 (fifteen years ago) link
Haha, it would be really weird if Ray Parker Jr. did a totally non-movie-based video for that.
― Tyrone Quattlebaum (Hurting 2), Monday, 27 October 2008 02:52 (fifteen years ago) link
am i seriously the only person voting for Right Said Fred?
― some dude, Monday, 27 October 2008 02:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Sir Mix-a-Lot has no competition whatsoever.
― moley, Monday, 27 October 2008 04:03 (fifteen years ago) link
I like the RSF song still. I used to only like the beat sans elmer fudd, but the whole thing has grown on me since.
Does this count as G-Funk, with that weird squiggly thing under the chorus?
Ohio Players "The Worm" was the sample. Dre used it first in Dopeman back in 1987, kinda making the sample a semi-standard, but you know, Jump was more in the vein of Naughty By Nature overall...
Yeah, G-Funk did grow out of Dre's use of the Worm though (maybe building from Appetite For Destruction from EFIL4ZAGGIN in 1991, shortly before he was commisioned to contribute to the Deep Cover sdtk in 1992).
― LIL HOOSANE (PappaWheelie V), Monday, 27 October 2008 04:12 (fifteen years ago) link
Too Sexy was fine but it ain't no Jump for real.
― ian, Monday, 27 October 2008 04:14 (fifteen years ago) link
Lol @ Mr. Big trying to be Extreme. And sort of succeeding I guess, considering they had a #1.
"Just to be the next to be with you" is kind of a gross lyric, when you think about it.
― Tyrone Quattlebaum (Hurting 2), Monday, 27 October 2008 04:23 (fifteen years ago) link
Sheela na gig - P.J. HarveySummer babe - Pavement
― nicky lo-fi, Monday, 27 October 2008 05:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Wednesday, 29 October 2008 00:01 (fifteen years ago) link
System otm
― (unregistered) (PappaWheelie V), Wednesday, 29 October 2008 05:11 (fifteen years ago) link
bunch of shit
"I'm Too Sexy"
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 29 October 2008 14:09 (fifteen years ago) link
i LOVE i'll be there
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 29 October 2008 14:12 (fifteen years ago) link
her voice on it, it's the perfect example of how mariah used her falsetto early on. not just a manifestation of her age.
i used to love that mtv unplugged.
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 29 October 2008 14:16 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Thursday, 30 October 2008 00:01 (fifteen years ago) link
great results!
― 4 Out of 5 Dentists (The Reverend), Thursday, 30 October 2008 00:20 (fifteen years ago) link
Well knock me down with a feather.
― moley, Thursday, 30 October 2008 00:20 (fifteen years ago) link
it was a great year. can't remember what i voted for in the end but it could've been any of at least 5 of those and i'd be happy. 'this used to be my playground' is one of my favourite madonna ballads, i loved her "white sade" phase.
― lex pretend, Thursday, 30 October 2008 00:23 (fifteen years ago) link
also i remember having an argument w/this girl in primary school about the spelling of kris kross, which i won by bringing in a copy of smash hits the next day. unfortch, rev, you got it wrong too :(
― lex pretend, Thursday, 30 October 2008 00:24 (fifteen years ago) link
I noticed that after I posted and didn't care enough to correct myself because I mistakenly assumed no one would be pedantic enough to bring it up.
― 4 Out of 5 Dentists (The Reverend), Thursday, 30 October 2008 00:35 (fifteen years ago) link
But this is ILX, and so I digress.
― 4 Out of 5 Dentists (The Reverend), Thursday, 30 October 2008 00:36 (fifteen years ago) link
I mistakenly assumed no one would be pedantic enough to bring it up.
shit should be an option in prefernces
― dude, ALLLLL lighthouses are haunted. (PappaWheelie V), Thursday, 30 October 2008 02:54 (fifteen years ago) link
prefernces
damn, i haven't had that much to drink tonight...
― dude, ALLLLL lighthouses are haunted. (PappaWheelie V), Thursday, 30 October 2008 02:56 (fifteen years ago) link
i loooved 'save the best for last' at the time. 10-year-old me would have picked the ballads, which all sound pretty good in my head atm. somehow i never really heard 'jump' or any of that hippity hop. i don't remember the heights at all.
― Matt P, Thursday, 30 October 2008 03:43 (fifteen years ago) link
I think it was on after 90210.
― jaymc, Thursday, 30 October 2008 03:55 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah, good results--top two def rock! (tho i can't remember a damn thing about the Vanessa Williams single).
― Ioannis, Thursday, 30 October 2008 10:34 (fifteen years ago) link
x-post - i pretty much wasn't allowed to watch pop tv but that didn't keep me from tuning in to kasey kasem! i'm pretty sure i made a tape w/ mr. big, vanessa, boyz ii men, madonna, whitney at some point. maybe with m.j. remeber the time and that bryan adams song from the robin hood movie whatever that was, the song was 'all for love'. i was out on the roof of a bad-ass plywood fort with my cousin listening to the radio when i put my finger on 'all for love' and now it's all of 'america' by john fahey as the thing that will save all of us. 'all for love' sounds ok now, but i remember a guitar solo that lasted forever. no solo in that song now.
― Matt P, Thursday, 30 October 2008 11:03 (fifteen years ago) link
cool reverb though. and all for love.
― Matt P, Thursday, 30 October 2008 11:05 (fifteen years ago) link
Comparing these to the 1981 poll makes one wonder at which point exactly American top 40 radio started to suck. Clearly it was at some point between 1981 and 1992.
― o. nate, Thursday, 30 October 2008 16:10 (fifteen years ago) link
I'd study the 1985 list closely.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 30 October 2008 16:14 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, I think it was around then.
― o. nate, Thursday, 30 October 2008 16:15 (fifteen years ago) link
I, personally, blame hair-metal. I used to love everything on the radio until Poison showed up (although in fairness, had it not been for the hair-metal explosion, I wouldn't have been driven towards discovering The Cure, New Order, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Sisters of Mercy, Skinny Puppy, Ministry or My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult).
― Black Seinfeld (HI DERE), Thursday, 30 October 2008 16:17 (fifteen years ago) link
The top tens of 1992!
― Let's have sensible centrist armageddon (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 15 March 2019 00:41 (five years ago) link
Are we sure the switch to Soundscan was a game changer? This list sounds very similar to last year’s.
― Mr. Snrub, Friday, 15 March 2019 14:30 (five years ago) link
Fewer #1s. You'll see the true effects next year -- the number of top tens steeply drops.
― Let's have sensible centrist armageddon (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 15 March 2019 14:35 (five years ago) link
The #1s, and I love Vanessa Williams + Kriss Kross.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 01:25 (three years ago) link
^ That links to "The malignancy of George W. Bush" - should we read that first?
― Josefa, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 01:58 (three years ago) link
#DubyaBushInterzone
― blue whales on ambient (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 02:07 (three years ago) link
lol
here.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 02:07 (three years ago) link
This list might as well be called "The malignancy of George H.W. Bush."
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 02:46 (three years ago) link
Read my lips: I like big butts
― Filibuster Poindexter (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 02:50 (three years ago) link
It's telling that a good seven or eight of Alfred's picks teeter on the brink between one-hit wonder and outright novelty song. More, if you include high-concept one-offs like "How Do You Talk to an Angel."
Did Boyz II Men release nothing but ballads after "Motown Philly"?
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 12:17 (three years ago) link
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 29 October 2008 14:09
:)
― nashwan, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 13:17 (three years ago) link