Top Ten Flashback: February 17, 1990

It is time once again to revisit the Australian top ten chart of 25 years ago today! This chart for the week ending Saturday, February 17, 1990 was a memorable one for me, because the first two songs I really liked in the '90s (and still do) both reached their highest chart positions this week, and only this week. I was 11 at the time and just getting into watching the charts on Rage every week. So, what was the nation's preferred listening a quarter century ago?

10.  Deborah Harry – "I Want That Man"
For some reason Rage always used to put her name as 'Debbie' Harry in their titles. The sleeve art clearly says 'Deborah' though. When I first started watching Rage weekly this song was at number 2, so it had already had its shot at the big time and was on its way down. I don't think 'Debbie' Harry ever showed up in the Australian charts after this.







9.  Lisa Stansfield – "All Around The World"
Check out that sadfish muzak maestro on the cover image. One of those cases where the look didn't fit the voice, so to speak, but watch the video and yes, that voice really is coming out of that face. This song didn't have much of an impact on me, but I can still remember the chorus. How strange.







 
8.  Bad English – "When I See You Smile"
You know how I feel about power ballads, so let's move on. The only thing I really liked about this was the band's name.









7.  Milli Vanilli – "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You"
Of course, the world was yet to learn of the lip-syncing scandal, so I thought these identical looking guys were actually the vocalists. My friend's kid sister had their album on cassette, and I could never find out why this song was listed on there with the word 'girl' missing from its title. Although, truth to tell, I didn't exactly break my neck trying to find out. It wasn't what you'd call a highly-sought nugget of information for me. Rob and Fab weren't actually singing, but the songs still deserve a listen now and then. Not necessarily this track for me though – I prefer "All Or Nothing". "Blame It On The Rain" is pretty good too.
 

6.  Alannah Myles – "Black Velvet"
Pretty snoozeworthy blues-stuff to my 11 year old ears. Not much excitement to be found here. Not surprising when the song cripples along at snail's pace and the lyrics are suitably banal. They can keep their 'slow Southern style', but I'll pass, thanks.







5.  Black Box – "Ride On Time"
I liked this song 25 years ago and I probably like it even more now; this Italo-house classic, and rest assured I'm not throwing that term around lightly, still sounds great today. In fact I played it loud on my stereo only yesterday, so there. I thought this genre of house would last a lot longer than it did. Australian viewers of Rage got an el-cheapo locally produced music video for this song – there's even a brief shot of the colour-bar test screen in it – and for some reason I like it better than the 'official' video with Katrin Quinol lip-syncing.




4.  Technotronic featuring Felly – "Pump Up The Jam"
This was my mate Jonathan's favourite song in 1990. He told me it got to number 1, but was fiddling slightly with the truth. It did, as you can see, peak at number 4. This song also sounds ace 25 years later, although I wish it had been mastered so that you didn't have to turn your speakers up full bore to get a decent degree of loudness. The icing on the cake, of course, is Ya Kid K's rap vocal. She was only 17 at the time!




3.  Peter Blakeley – "Crying In The Chapel"
Not a bad tune, but I can't say I've had the urge to go back and listen to it again over the last 25 years. He did a nice cover of "Heartbeat" later on.









2.  The B-52s – "Love Shack"
This is one of those songs that irritates me with every listen, especially since I must be the only person alive who doesn't like it. It's the vocals that really grind away at my sanity. Even in 1990 I'd rather not punish myself to hear the atonal squawkings of "You're what?!", "Knock a little louder, sugar!", "Tiiiiiin roof rusted", "Bang bang on the door!" and othersuch puerile nonsense. Get this song out of my earshot, permanently!






1.  Aerosmith – "Janie's Got A Gun"
Here it is! My fave song for the whole of 1990 (up until I heard "Epic", that is) having its one brief, shining week at number 1. Compelling lyrics and a dark and foreboding music video combined to make this one of the most exciting musical experiences of my childhood. Aerosmith's album Pump was the first album I got, on cassette as a 12th birthday present. (Jonathan got me Pump Up The Jam as well – two pump-related albums in one day.)




I should also add that back in early 1990 my sister and I asked our parents if we could have a compilation album. I can't remember how many were available, but we chose Let's Do It 2 on cassette. Of its 16 tracks, a whopping eight of them are in this week's top ten: numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. It also contains "Don't Know Much" by Linda Ronstadt & Aaron Neville (which was at number 11 this week), "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You" by Michael Bolton (number 15), "I Feel The Earth Move" by Martika (number 17), "Lambada" by Kaoma (number 20), "Just Like Jesse James" by Cher (number 27), "Another Day In Paradise" by Phil Collins (number 29), "The Love We Make" by Girl Overboard (number 39) and "Kickstart My Heart" by Motley Crue (number 42). What a compilation! All killer, no filler.

Cheer Up, Charlie

Hi everyone! No, I haven't given up on this blog. I'll continue updating it with the same posts as on the Tumblr page. Here's my tribute to the January 14, 2015 issue of Charlie Hebdo's cover art, the first following the attacks on their staff. Cartoonists forever, and all that!

For those who don't know, "Cheer Up, Charlie" is the name of a song from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. What?

Airbury Academy Volume I

How exciting, it's the proof copy of my second self-published book, Airbury Academy Volume I. Why was the first volume second to be published, and the fourth volume first? There's a good reason, but I can't be bothered explaining it here. Anyway, it looks good!

Dripping Tree

It's been raining today, and the rain has made green patterns on the pale limbs of the eucalyptus tree next door. I've never seen this effect before!

Top Ten Flashback: November 5, 1994

Welcome to the Australian singles charts from 20 years ago today. This is a particularly memorable top 10 for me, as a particular single by my favourite band made its debut appearance. It would only remain in the charts for one week, but it gave that band their highest-charting single in Australia. What else was charting at the time? Let's find out.

10.  The Offspring – "Come Out And Play"
I actually didn't like this song when I first heard it, but it quickly grew on me. The Middle-Eastern sounding bass riff was an element I liked, and its low-budget music video "made it stand out from the usual bilge", according to one of the band members in an interview at the time. The single had a very long chart run despite never getting higher than number 8 – which it peaked at on two separate occasions in December 1994 and February 1995 – an impressive 29 weeks in our top 50.


 
9.  Kylie Minogue – "Confide In Me"
So, this was her 'comeback' single. Can't say I was a fan of it, although the video was quite interestingly done. For me, the most notable thing about this song was that it jumped 30 positions to hit number 1, the third-highest chart jump for 1994 behind "Swamp Thing" by The Grid (34 places, 43 to 9) and "The Sign" by Ace Of Base (32 places, 41 to 9).




 
8.  Luther Vandross & Mariah Carey – "Endless Love"
What's the bet this inane ballad was recorded separately by the two performers? You should know my feelings on ballads by now. Drivel. They should have deleted the "Luther Van...& Mariah Carey" off the cover, as well as the song title, so that it just read "dross", which'd be quite apt, I reckon.




 
7.  Tina Arena – "Chains"
"Meh!" That was my reaction upon hearing this sleep-inducing tedium. It sure wasn't "I Need Your Body", that's for sure. And it'd all started out so promisingly as well.





 

6.  Nine Inch Nails – "Closer"
Or "Closer To God", as it says on the cover artwork. I could never work out why. I could only hear this song on Take 40 Australia, as Rage never aired the video. And with good reason, you might add. When I first heard the song, I thought "I thought Nine Inch Nails were a heavy metal band?".



 
5.  Madonna – "Secret"
This was the first single from Madonna's album Bedtime Stories, which I bought dirt-cheap on cassette in India in 1997, and as the title implies it was enough to send you to sleep. I honestly don't recall anything notable about it. But then I was in India for a month and had to listen to something besides Bollywood bhangra.






4.  Nirvana – "About A Girl" ºº
This was what I had been keeping my beady eyes out for while watching Rage 20 years ago today! Almost exactly seven months after the untimely death of Kurt Cobain, this single from their MTV Unplugged appearance was due to chart, and when I watched the chart countdown, there it was at number 4. Being a limited-edition single of 5000 copies, they all sold out, which was enough to get it into the chart for one glorious week. (Actually, it apparently charted for a second week having dropped back to number 76, but the full top 100 information was well beyond my grasp, especially in 1994.)



3.  Boyz II Men – "I'll Make Love To You"
No thanks.










 
2.  Bon Jovi – "Always"
Here comes the single which holds the dubious record of spending the most weeks at number 2 (seven) without getting to number 1, for the entire six year period from 1990 to 1995. And as someone who couldn't stand this power-ballad claptrap, I can't say I was disappointed about this.






1.  Silverchair – "Tomorrow"
Hey, remember when Australian musicians used to get into the Australian singles charts? No? Well they did 20 years ago. Remember when 15 year old boys used to get to number 1 with their debut single? No? Good, because this is the first time it happened, to my knowledge. I actually prefer the 'single' version of this song to the album version that followed. Although Silverchair were lumbered with the dreaded 'grunge' tag, this sounds like blues-rock to me, with more of a frayed edge to it. And that ain't bad, mister.