Compilation Album Review: "Smash Hits '91"

Compilation: Smash Hits '91
Released: 1991 – Columbia
Number of tracks: 18
Number one singles: 3 — "Jukebox In Siberia" by Skyhooks, "The Horses" by Daryl Braithwaite, "Sucker DJ" by Dimples D
Other top ten singles: 9
Best track: "Jukebox In Siberia" by Skyhooks
Hidden gem: None, because I've heard all these songs before. Been there, done that, man!

The hot streak continues! I must admit this was one of the last compilations I'd expected to find, and in an op shop where their CD shelf consisted mainly of Gina G singles, at that. But those have been tossed into the trashcan where they belong, and up popped this little gem. It seems like they couldn't decide on the title; it's called Smash Hits '91 on the inside cover of the booklet, the back cover, spines, and the CD itself, and Smash Hits 1991 on the front cover only.

There's a fair bit of overlap with Video Smash Hits Dance Mix, another compilation Columbia released (and only one of two which I got when it came out!) which was a genre compilation rather than a chart one (although all the songs on it charted). Five songs on it appear on both albums: "Step Back In Time", "Wiggle It", "3 a.m. Eternal", "Games" and "Sucker DJ" (which incidentally all appear sequentially on Smash Hits '91). Both albums also start with a C+C Music Factory track, although not the same song. The catalogue number for the Video Smash Hits Dance Mix CD is lower than Smash Hits '91, so I assume that came out first.

Right, that's the dorky details out of the way! This is a pretty solid lineup, with 12 songs that made the top 10, most of the others making the top 20, and 10 Australian artists. To avoid teenage girls hurling Molotov cocktails at the Smash Hits offices, there's a New Kids On The Block song on here — towards the end you'll find the try-hard rap single "Games [The Kids Get Hard Mix]" (yeah, I bet they do, snigger snigger). No less than Donnie Wahlberg was voted best rapper in the pages of Smash Hits, despite some stiff competition (Betty Boo, Vanilla Ice, Turbo B). Make of that what you will but his opening monologue of "'Positivity is not about bein' sawft, it's about bein' smart — yew suckehhhhhhhr" makes me laugh every time. The dude's a comedy genius. It's almost as if he wanted to take the piss out of all this "we suddenly have street cred" baloney.

If you like rap, there actually is a real rap song here in Sound Unlimited Posse's "Unity", which is the final song. It is also the lowest-charting song on here, having reached number 40 (just behind "Games", number 33), but it deserved much higher — this is from the year that "Pump It" by Icy Blu reached the top 10. Shudder. The compilers wisely did not go anywhere near that dreck.

Oh, and there's more rap with De La Soul's "Ring Ring Ring" as well, and it's the 'Radio Decision' version which is the one used for the music video. The differences are slight, but they are there. The other version appears on another compilation, so that's all bases covered.

What else is on here...let's see, there's Barnesy wailing his way through a 'tender' ballad, Roxus and their stalker/nice guy hit, the Skyhooks comeback single which is the highlight of this disc, Warrant with some good ol' cock-rock and Hoodoo Gurus with hippie action. Then there's Daryl Braithwaite and "The Horses" — a song which I had totally forgotten reached number 1 until recently. I'm yet to understand Australia's weird fascination with this Rickie Lee Jones cover. Only five days ago it was performed to massive crowd response at the Concert for National Bushfire Relief in Sydney. They loved it!

The final song I have to make mention of is "Hot Chilli Woman" by Noiseworks. It's a pretty good song, but it was released a full 13 months after the lead single from their album, "Freedom", a song which I liked a lot more (actually it's my favourite Noiseworks song). But while "Freedom" reached number 30, "Hot Chili Woman" got to number 7 — showing that the massive time lag between Noiseworks singles meant that their fans vastly preferred party tunes about bonkin' in the bedroom to psychedelic meditations on freedom and faith.

Thus endeth the lesson.

Rating: 7/10