US #1s of 1991

"Miss You Much" also rules

Honestly, the only thing "Love Will Never Do" has going for it is the video

I had an argument with a friend yesterday about "Black Cat." I've realized I can argue both sides ("It's leaden, it sucks!" vs "It rocks, it's awesome!").

the album version has Herb Alpert playing and more leisure for the keyboard pattern

(Every Janet Jackson video from "What Have You Done For Me Lately?" on is good; fight me)

I won't fight what's right.

"Love Will Never Do" and "Alright" are the two on the album that most sound to me like what it felt like to live in Minneapolis circa 1990.

it's weird that i remember hearing a lot of these
number ones really clearly on the radio in the
car. i have no idea why i remember 1991 so
vividly.

they're all so cringey

Madonna PM Dawn and C&C. Oh and Mariah. The rest is shite. Granted I obsessed over the Prince record but I was oblivious to his better recs.

I will vote for any Prince over anybody else.

it's a tough pick between "justify my love" and "set adrift on memory bliss" for me. "black or white" is also great and i enjoy a number of others on the list.

"the first time" seems like one of those songs that was at the time the act's biggest hit but is now not remembered nearly as much as some of the lesser hits scored by the same act. i have a feeling "happy", which peaked at #20, is probably just as remembered. i have to assume that "the first time" is among the songs some of y'all are thinking of when you speak of shite/cringey aural excrement but fuck it, it's a perfectly serviceable middle school slow dance number. (also a friendly reminder that "save the best for last" is (correctly) acknowledged as canon on this forum!)

goddamn that's a lot of #1s. true democracy.

turnover at #1 would slow enormously for years after this one for one simple reason -- from the week "set adrift" went #1 going forward, the charts were now computed using actual sales/airplay data instead of survey responses from radio programmers and retailers

I'm putting together 1993's top tens and uh wow -- the faucet closed

PM Dawn vs EMF

goddamn that's a lot of #1s. true democracy.

turnover at #1 would slow enormously for years after this one for one simple reason -- from the week "set adrift" went #1 going forward, the charts were now computed using actual sales/airplay data instead of survey responses from radio programmers and retailers

so basically this was the result of fake democracy! but i like it better this way. i like turnover. i like clutter. maybe democracy sucks after all. wonder if actual pop listeners/voters would have elevated my beloved "promise of a new day" to #1. on the other hand, if the first #1 actual listeners elected was "set adrift," that's a good result too. maybe democracy works. i'm torn.

has to be Justify My Love

‘or Set Adrift on a Memory Bliss

this list kind of sucks. voting for "rush, rush" even though objectively it is a mess

C&C Music Factory

OK I guess this would be the first “The pop charts are not as good as they used to be, mannn” kinda year. Nothing here’s really out-and-out _bad_, just mediocre. “You’re in Love” is not as good as “Hold On”. “Black or White” started MJ’s descent into New Jersey-land. “When a Man Loves a Woman” is predictably terrible (though it did inspire a side-splittingly hilarious skit on In Living Color). There are about seven or eight better songs on Rhythm Nation than “LWNDWY”. So yeah this should’ve been a warning sign to all of us that the 90s wasn’t gonna hold a candle to the previous decade. By the way, I think people have forgotten how massive the Rhythm Nation album was. I remember Janet Jackson won so many Grammy Awards for that album she couldn’t carry them all and had to get someone else over to help. Anyway, as much as want to give a little love to “Everything I Do I Do It for You” (which will get a big fat goose egg on this poll, mark my words), I gotta go with Londonbeat.

I saw Bryan Adams play several years back, in a pretty small theatre. He was fine. But when he played “Everything I Do I Do It for You” all these couples starting dancing and it really struck me what a wedding song it became, and who am I to deride even the biggest pile of soggy ballad if it makes so many people happy?

Were any of these hits delivered by listeners under the age of 30? I remember most of these, but I remember few of them being played on purpose by anyway I knew. Maybe they didn't need to because they were ubiquitous?

Anyway, that's the "corporate" vibe at work. These were going to be hits, dammit, no matter how few people wanted them!

I think Chris Molanthy has talked about this as the era of the professional songwriter

I really like the majority of these. Possibly the last time that could be said about a roundup of any given year's #1s.

This has to be Janet, I think. Karyn White, though, man. Why didn't she take off like she should've?

The ones I dislike, though, are pretty awful. Eff a Bryan Adams, for example.

I honestly think it was cool that Extreme went with an Everly Bros pastiche for their hit ballad instead of going the power ballad route.

I also really like the applied dominants under "all you have to do to make it real".

OK I guess this would be the first “The pop charts are not as good as they used to be, mannn” kinda year

Maybe it's age, but that moment happened a good two or three years later for me.

Gonna Make You Sweat

I think maybe '92 was the last year I was actively invested in pop radio as a thing (as opposed to enjoying discrete singles from a broader field of stuff that no longer piqued my interest much).

I honestly think it was cool that Extreme went with an Everly Bros pastiche for their hit ballad instead of going the power ballad route.

― All along there is the sound of feedback (Sund4r), Friday, March 15, 2019 6:03 AM (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm. i think "more than words" is a v good song tbh

PM Dawn by a country mile. Best of rest: C&C Music Factory, Janet Jackson and Prince (though hardly one of his best).

Never liked Justify My Love, something hollow and contrived about it.

Awful list in general.

also led to Justify My Thug

Like I've said, 1991 was the best year for pop since 1984, not necessarily reflected in these #1s.

I liked 1991 a lot when it happened because I was young. I like 1991 a lot now because I am old.

This should've been #1 instead of "Joyride"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fGLiIvKKys

Hard to believe "Summertime" was never a number 1. Has a lot more staying power than most of these.

or "3 A.M. Eternal."

or jean leloup's '1990'

The #2s of 1991:

Cathy Dennis, "Touch Me (All Night Long)"
Color Me Badd, "I Wanna Sex You Up"
Jesus Jones, "Right Here, Right Now"
Rythm Syndicate, "P.A.S.S.I.O.N."
Amy Grant, "Every Heartbeat"
Lenny Kravitz, "It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over"
Roxette, "Fading Like a Flower (Everytime You Leave)"
Natural Selection feat. Niki Haris, "Do Anything"
Bryan Adams, "Can't Stop This Thing We Started"
Boyz II Men, "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday"

I'm consistently disappointed that Rythm Syndicate didn't title their song 'P.A.S.I.O.N.'.

Cathy Dennis, "Touch Me (All Night Long)"
Color Me Badd, "I Wanna Sex You Up"
Jesus Jones, "Right Here, Right Now"
Rythm Syndicate, "P.A.S.S.I.O.N."
Amy Grant, "Every Heartbeat"
Lenny Kravitz, "It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over"
Roxette, "Fading Like a Flower (Everytime You Leave)"
Natural Selection feat. Niki Haris, "Do Anything"
Bryan Adams, "Can't Stop This Thing We Started"
Boyz II Men, "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday"

a marvelous sequence; not one sucks

I see very little wrong with this year in pop music.

I saw Bryan Adams play several years back, in a pretty small theatre. He was fine. But when he played “Everything I Do I Do It for You” all these couples starting dancing and it really struck me what a wedding song it became, and who am I to deride even the biggest pile of soggy ballad if it makes so many people happy?

I fucking hate it with a passion. Did America have to suffer through it being number one for FOUR FUCKING MONTHS?

PM Dawn ftw

xp: I was grounded for one of those 4 months and had little to occupy myself with except sitting in my room listening to the radio. That song was my worst enemy.

xpost Don't get me wrong, I can't stand the song. I just won't begrudge those happy couples dancing to their terrible song. Though tbf it's not even the worst Bryan Adams movie song.

but I always begrudge happy couples

Polarizing reactions. my thoughts:
- There were a lot more songs on the radio then. vs today, I'm pretty sure the iHeart station down the street still has "Thank You Next" in their Top 10 at 10. In 1991 there was a new "Thank You Next" every 4-5 weeks. (By that, I mean a song you could tell would be remembered for decades as an artifact of the era, event-type songs widely associated with personal moments -- these songs obv still exist but I don't think receive excessive airplay as often and are thus not treasured as widely)
- "Bad songs" were shitty but at least fun to laugh at. I've sung "I've Been Thinking About You" at karaoke 3 or 4 times in my life because I think it's bad but also funny enough that it no longer sounds quite as bad.
- Many 12-year-olds in 1991 thought "Everything I Do" was a cool song, which I guess is sort of helping me understand how many 12-year-olds in 2019 don't hear Imagine Dragons as vicious eardrum stabbing
- I'm not old; YOURE old.

Voted for PM Dawn

It's hart to call the Londonbeat "bad" when it's got that amazing high life-drenched guitar part.

I didn't know it was good until like 2004

Fun fact re Londonbeat: they were hired to do backing vocals for the track United Colours on Microdisney's final album, and they indignantly stopped the recording session halfway through because they found Cathal Coughlan's lyrics highly offensive.

P.M. Dawn

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

great results

Whatta year!

Just skimming, but compared to your last few of these I could do without most of these songs.

Man, every time I see lists of songs from the Interzone it wigs me out. From the end of 7th grade (summer of '90) to the beginning of my freshman year (fall of '91), we lived in four different cities, so it's like I'm seeing a mish mash of music from totally different eras. It doesn't help that I kicked off '91 bopping around to Amy Grant and wrapped it up moping out to Soundgarden. On the plus side, I can usually pinpoint pretty much exactly when a song was big based on where I was when it made the rounds.

I will say, despite not listening to the radio a bit the bulk of 1991, I know all of these songs but 11.

Looks like '91 was maybe the first year in which many of the number ones were sample-based. I would assume that has been the norm ever since.

I kicked off '91 bopping around to Amy Grant and wrapped it up moping out to Soundgarden

sounds like a Saturday to me

Just skimming, but compared to your last few of these I could do without most of these songs.

OTM

On the other hand, I just saw Alfred's ranking of *favorite* 1991 songs, and that list is much more appealing.

I'd mostly stopped listening to top-40 radio by 1991, so most of these songs I didn't pick up on until years later when I heard them on adult-contemporary stations. As such, they weirdly feel like they're from the 2000s to me rather than 1991.

On the other hand, I just saw Alfred's ranking of *favorite* 1991 songs, and that list is much more appealing.

― Josh in Chicago

it's magnificent