This week, it's September 1990. In the news, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was a month old, and the events that would lead to Operation Desert Storm were being set in motion. Myself, I was beginning my first year of university, which didn't work out so well, ahem. Anyway, these are the way the popular songs of the time ranked.
40 - "Giving You the Benefit," Pebbles
39 - "Rub You the Right Way," Johnny Gill
38 - "Crazy," The Boys
37 - "Unchained Melody," The Righteous Brothers
36 - "I Don't Have the Heart," James Ingram
35 - "This is the Right Time," Lisa Stansfield
34 - "Tell Me Something," Indecent Obsession
33 - "Dirty Cash," The Adventures of Stevie V
32 - "Could This Be Love," Seduction
31 - "Banned in the U.S.A.," Luke featuring 2 Live Crew
Okay, let's begin with female solo singers. Perri "Pebbles" Reid scored her third and final Top 5 with this dance strut about letting a lover have one more chance to prove his fidelity capabilites. I like the attitude she displays on this. And Englishwoman Lisa Stansfield picked up her third American hit with this okay dance track. Far, far below the classic that was her debut smash "All Around the World," but still, girl can sing.
Now to the solo men. Johnny Gill's debut album came out in 1983, but he had only minor success on his own. Four years later, however, he replaced Bobby Brown in New Edition, and that gave him a platform to relaunch his solo career. His first pop hit was ths snappy bit of New Jack Swing on which he boasts about his massage skills. I don't know if he actually does have "magic hands," but he sell this song well. And after only managing to chart on collaborations and duets, James Ingram finally had a solo hit with this ballad about how he's not good enough for a woman, even though she thinks he is. It's above-average for its kind, and it deserved to sneak its way up to #1.
Four American groups in this bunch. The boys of The Boys were the four Abdulsamad brothers of Carson, California, who ranged in age from 11 to 17 at the time of this, their second and last pop Top 40. It's okay pop/R&B about a girl who all of the brothers seem to have feelings for. Nothing much to say about it one way or the other. Pop duo The Righteous Brothers returned to the charts with their then-25-year-old recording of a song that had originally been a hit for Al Hibbler in 1955. It's unlikely comeback was driven by its use in the pottery wheel scene in the blockbuster movie Ghost. If you haven't seen it, you've probably at least seen it parodied. Anyway, it's a great vocal performance by Bobby Hatfield, and I like it a lot more now that I'm not hearing it constantly. The ladies of Seduction had their final pop hit with a ballad about a relationship that's too good to be true, blah blah blah. Playlist filler. And controversial Miami raunch-rappers 2 Live Crew had their second and last Top 40 hit with this response to their battles with would-be censors such as career scold Jack Thompson, conducted to the tune of Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." In addition to rapping, it includes clips of news broadcasts about the controversy, and ends with a spoken defence of free speech by Luther "Luke" Campbell. Not all that great as a song, but a fascinating artifact of its time, and the winner of this week's Uneasy Rider.
We close this section with groups from outside the U.S.A. Aussie popsters Indecent Obsession had their only American hit with this flavorless dance track. And their name sounds like the title of a bad late-night "erotic thriller." Nothing to hear here, folks. And the British dance collective led by producer Stevie Vincent scored their one U.S. Top 40 with this gritty house track about the lengths people will go to get money to buy drugs. It's actually aged pretty well. Solid song.
30 - "Policy of Truth," Depeche Mode
29 - "Everybody Everybody," Black Box
28 - "The Power," Snap!
27 - "King of Wishful Thinking," Go West
26 - "Romeo," Dino
25 - "Cradle of Love," Billy Idol
24 - "Can't Stop," After 7
23 - "Praying for Time," George Michael
22 - "Make You Sweat," Keith Sweat
21 - "Heart of Stone," Taylor Dayne
Our look at the next ten begins with British groups. Depeche Mode are here with the third hit from their American breakthrough Violator, a gothy dance tune about how honesty isn't always the best policy. I think it's my favorite song of theirs. Menacingly catchy. And the duo Go West had their biggest Stateside hit with this poppy tale of denial from the monster hit soundtrack from the monster hit movie Pretty Woman. Didn't care for the song, and I've never seen the movie. In fact, I haven't seen many Julia Roberts movies. She just grates on me.
Two European dance acts are in this batch. Italy's Black Box had their first U.S. Top Ten with this house whirlwind sung by ex-Weather Girl Martha Wash. However, because she was, shall we say, of a certain size, the group didn't credit her on the record, and a model lip-synched her in performances and videos. But later, Wash would successfully sue for credit and royalties on six Black Box tracks, as well as songs by C+C Music Factory (including the #1 "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now),). Good to see that justice was done. And Germany's Snap! had the first of their two U.S. Top Fives with this good groover over which baritone rapper Turbo B boasts "I'm the lyrical Jesse James!" I'm not sure if he was, but this was one of my favorites from that summer, and it still holds up.
Then we have four American acts. A year after Dino scored hit first Top Ten, he scored his second, and last, with a silly, uninspired bit of hip-hop pop. Cliched and soulless, and the man's rapping makes Marky Mark sound like Chuck D. After 7, an R&B vocal group featuring two brothers of star producer Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, had their biggest hit with a nice midtempo love jam. I'm diggin' on it. It was probably inevitable that Keith Sweat would use his last name in a song title, and it happened on his second pop hit, a suitably lascivious sex jam. Persperriffic. And Taylor Dayne's string of seven straight Top Tens ended when her entry here, a midtempo ballad about how she doesn't buy her ex's stoic reaction to their breakup, stalled at #12. It was time for that run to end, in my opinion. She got about as much out of her career as she could.
I'll end the first half with two British guys. Billy Idol had his last major hit with this this lusty rocker that for some reason references Jerry Lee Lewis' marriage to his teenage cousin ("It burned like a ball on fire/When the rebel took a little child bride." This appeared on the soundtrack to the movie The Adventures of Ford Fairlane. Remember that? It was the movie that tried to launch comedian Andrew Dice Clay as a movie star. Didn't quite work out, did it? However, the same formula (a detective with an unusual specialty in a movie costarring Tone Loc) would make Jim Carrey a superstar four years later. I think that was the right result in both cases. And George Michael had his fifth American #1 with this earnest, heavily orchestrated rumination on injustice and greed. It's very much a downer, but the lyrics are genuinely affecting, and his performance is so passionate that you can't help but listen. Definitely his best song.
Within the next 24-48 hours: the X's and O's of male-female relations explained, the world's first introduction to a megadiva...and twins!
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