US #1s of 1989

chuck i'm only saying all those tracks use the same basic beat/break - no other meaningful connection. it's fair to say Soul II Soul were picking up brit-soul ethos baton from Linx and whoever tho sure. I don't remember anyone else around the time joining in tho (without veering into Acid Jazz territory).

1989, the year Rhythm Nation came out. so great! i've been listening to a ton of new jack swing lately. voted for "my prerogative" just over "miss you much" though i love both about equally.

so many awesome songs in 1989.

I don't give a single crap about anything here but Janet Jackson. And I hate the Bangles, I really really hate the Bangles. Everything by the Bangles, anything to do with the Bangles. End of sermon.

Obviously you've never heard "If She Knew What She Wants," "Hazy Shade of Winter," "Following..."

The Bangles - All Over the Place album is great. I would have thought Bimble would like "Going Down to Liverpool"

Staying slightly off topic, I wish Roxette's "Must Have Been Love" was on here because that is the kind of sappy ballad that gets to me.

"Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)" still sounds great to me; and "Dangerous" is their best popper.

Did we already do 1990? I want to vote for Maxi Priest "Close to You."

man that Bangles "Hazy Shade" is for me a huge example of a band covering a song and just blowing the original right out of the water.

yep. and "in my room" is flawless sexy mod-pop.

man that Bangles "Hazy Shade" is for me a huge example of a band covering a song and just blowing the original right out of the water.

No -- it's the TEXTBOOK example.

(admittedly "The Living Years" is not awesome)

I have to give it my vote for being a shamelessly manipulative "Cats in the Cradle" update that somehow transcends its by-numbers writing to effectively sell a schlocky message complete with a gospel choir knockout punch.

i'm a total sucker for songs about parents and children, but even i don't like that one.

Chuck and Scott should read this about the "Ashley's Roachclip" break (which Soul II Soul reconfigured): http://fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/2008/05/this-is-the-sou.html.

thanks, that mix and writeup is excellent, though Rich's experience/definition is obviously somewhat different than my own, i.e., this strikes me as a little bizarre: "I was so strict with this that I didn't include stuff like Soul II Soul's Club Mix of 'Keep on Movin''..." To me, at the time, Soul II Soul -- regardless of the actual genesis of the beat -- were the outfit most associated with the beat. But maybe that's just how it hit me at the time.

man that Bangles "Hazy Shade" is for me a huge example of a band covering a song and just blowing the original right out of the water.

TRUER THAN TRUE.

But "Eternal Flame" remains a misstep. In this poll, "Straight Up" and "The Look" both demand my vote and are so incomparable to each other that I can't choose, so no vote.

a Bangles singles poll would be great!

eternal flame ownes

Obviously you've never heard "If She Knew What She Wants," "Hazy Shade of Winter," "Following..."

ARRRGH don't remind me of those first two! Shut up! yuck yuck yuck yuck..."Following" I had not heard before, though, and hearing it on You Tube just now, I admit it's a nice tune, a decent, earnest Indigo Girls-y effort. But everything, I mean everything I'm liable to hear of the Bangles on the radio or in public that was in any way a hit makes me want to puke all over the floor. If someone plays "Manic Monday", for example, I am walking out of that place so fast! And it's not because of some associative connection in my personal life at the time of their hits something, I don't know what it is. I just don't like it. There's a gimmicky cheese factor in there or something and I don't like Susanna Hoffs' voice very much.

BUT that said, when Bangles first appeared on the scene with this video in 1984, I actually liked them. I didn't buy the record, but I remember enjoying this song/video. It didn't do much of a dent in the charts, of course, that would come later:

The Bangles - All Over the Place album is great. I would have thought Bimble would like "Going Down to Liverpool"

But that's the thing! It's not THEIR SONG! Kimberly Rew wrote that song! Soft Boys! Katrina & The Waves! All much better artists/bands than the Bangles. Of course I love that song, it's wonderful. But not the Bangles' version.

"Miss You Much" is great, but you know, I don't really love anything here. Record production was in a very weird place this year.

But that's the thing! It's not THEIR SONG!

whatever, Geir

^^^haha--exactly what i was thinking!

Yeah, Michaelangelo, that "Ashley's Roachclip" blog entry was real interesting. I especially liked this:

Lloyd has now interpolated the two major components of PM Dawn's "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" - obviously, "Ashley's Roachclip" on "Girls," but there was also his use of the melody of Spandu Ballet's "True" in his 2006 single, "You." Do you think Lloyd and Prince Be are actually the same person?

And I shouldn't complain about people categorizing songs by certain beats, when I've obviously done the same thing with, say, the "Children of the Grave"/"Call Me" beat in my books. (More likely I'm just jealous when I don't notice them first!)

LOL at someone called me "Geir"...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Why do I always think of Roxette, "The Look" being a year or two later?

Totally satisfying results.

Yeah, I can live with this.

yo!

It's excruciating how pop radio wouldn't have allowed "Bust a Move" to top the chart (even though it's by "Wild Thing" co-writer Young MC), but it knocks most of these out of the water.

Anyway, I rank the year.

i love reading the old hot 100 chatter columns from around that time, when pop radio was starting to splinter severely and the old chart-tabulation methods were seeming increasingly ill-equipped to deal with that new reality. this one, from the week "bust a move" peaked, devotes a whole paragraph to explaining its bizarre (for the time) chart performance. and here another seems to suggest that "wild thing" failing to go #1 despite having been certified double-platinum (when none of the other singles in the top 30 were even gold) was something of a minor scandal that got press coverage in other outlets.

on the bright side, the us did (barely) manage to be one of the few countries where the jive bunny single was did not go top 10.

1. Shake It Off
2. Blank Space
3. Bad Blood (Remix)...
...er, what? oh, sorry

lol :D

I largely agree with your rankings this time, but I do have a very soft spot for Richard Marx’s “Right Here Waiting”.

Oh my god, that Jive Bunny horror... it was EVERYWHERE at the time in France...

I never really liked "Like A Prayer" although I reckon it's a very good/effective pop song.
The only songs in there I still like are "My Prerogative" and... "Eternal Flame" (and maybe "Batdance" although it's far from my favourite track on that album)!

on the bright side, the us did (barely) manage to be one of the few countries where the jive bunny single was did not go top 10.

― dyl, Monday, March 11, 2019

my abuela loved it #GlennMiller

My critical faculties break down (even more than usual) when it comes to this era, but it's hard to disagree with many of your Hague-bound picks (notable exceptions: Animotion, Surface). Glad to see Donna in good-to-great because where else could that song have possibly shown up.

Thank you for prodding me towards my 255-song '89 pop hit playlist. My workday just became a shade less painful.

the number of Facebook commenters who've liked that dinky Animotion song astounds me.

That's all they need
That's all they ask for
To see you peeved

I'm not like in love with it but it's dece.

that's the one recorded for the movie where Kim Basinger plays an alien with a talking magic purse

Huh, I guess I never picked up on those aspects of her Batman character.