My Personal Chart Blog, 1991

February 23, 1991

See the chart here

The companion Spotify playlist has all the songs discussed in the blog.

I’ve Got Australia On My Mind, Part 2-Don’t Crowd the Icehouse, Best Sellers and U2 Bookends.

My favorite Australian act of the era was Crowded House. Their debut album from 1986 is my #1 album of the ‘80s. In 1987 they placed 6 songs in my top 100 of the year. One of my favorites was the moody deep cut “Hole In The River” which employs a great dissonant change bridge of piano and horns. I’ve charted all 11 songs from that album. That same year U2 came out with my #2 album of the decade. “Joshua Tree” had 5 songs in my top 100 and my #1 song of the year “Red Hill Mining Town”, one of the most gorgeous songs I’ve ever heard. It still gets me and brings a tear to my eye. Originally it was slated to be the follow-up to “With Or Without You”. It was shelved because Bono could not hit the high notes during rehearsals for the tour. A video was filmed for the song as well, but the band was unhappy with it. Of course, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” became the choice and a classic was born.


Crowded House was born out of the ashes of the seminal New Wave band Split Enz. Hailing from New Zealand, the band’s biggest song was 1980’s “I Got You” but they had 9 studio albums from 1975-1984 and 5 top 10 singles in New Zealand and Australia including “History Never Repeats” and “Six Month In A Leaky Boat”. The band was originally formed in 1972 by Tim Finn and Phil Judd as an acoustic band called Split Ends. By 1974 they had changed the name to Split Enz and had their first charted single, the #93 “Late Last Night”. That song owed more to their acoustic beginnings albeit with some quirkiness, but the next charter, the #15 “My Mistake”, more explicitly showed the direction the band was moving towards.

Tim’s brother Neil joined in 1977 and became a major focal point of the band, and drummer Paul Hester was a member is their waning years. After the Enz split (get it), these two formed Crowded House with bassist Nick Seymour. In the short term they became a bigger international band because of the song “Don’t Dream It’s Over”, reaching #2 on the Hot 100. In 2001 the APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association) for its 75th anniversary had a panel pick the 30 best New Zealand and Australian songs of the previous years. ‘Over’ made both lists, #2 for New Zealand and #7 for Australia. The New Zealand list included 4 Split Enz songs (‘Leaky Boat’ #15, “I Got You” #11, “I Hope I Never” #25, and “I See Red” #28) and 2 from Crowded House (“Weather With You” #16).

By 1991 Crowded House was on their third album, “Woodface” and rose to #1 on my chart for the eighth time with the lead single “Chocolate Cake”. All 8 of those songs made my top 30 of the year in their respective years with the best showing #3 in 1987 with the effervescent “Mean To Me”, their first single in Australia. It managed minor airplay in the States (kind of a shame), but it was one of 5 songs that made the top 100 at my 1988 music party. ‘Over’ clocked in at #3 at that party and their other major hit that year, “Something So Strong” was #17. “Now We’re Getting’ Somewhere” at #71 and “World Where You Live” at #80 rounded out those 5.


On “Woodface” the other Finn brother, Tim, joined the group. The brothers had been working on songs for their own album but when Neil Finn submitted songs to the record company for a new Crowded House album, they were rejected. Neil asked Tim if they could use the songs from their work and Tim asked to be part of the group. This resulted in their biggest UK hit (‘Weather’) and Alternative hits “It’s Only Natural” and “Fall At Your Feet”. The album reached #2 in Australia and in a 2010 book “100 Best Australian Albums” it ranked as #3, behind Midnight Oil’s “Diesel And Dust” (which includes my favorite Oil song “Sometimes”) and AC/DC’s “Back In Black”. Pretty great company. The final single “Four Seasons In One Day” is a common phrase used in Melbourne to describe it’s changeable weather.

Another song that used a phrase to describe Australian weather is “Cool Change” by Little River Band. I only learned this relatively recently from a rider when driving Uber. While the band was hugely popular in their homeland with 5 top 10 albums and 2 more in the top 20, as a singles artist they were more successful in the States. Only 2 of their singles made the Australian top 10, “Help Is On Its Way”, a #1 and 1982’s “Down On the Border”, a song that did not chart stateside. In the U.S. LRB reached the Pop top 20 10 times, reaching #1 with “Lonesome Loser” and #2 with “Reminiscing”. The band has been in my top 10 of the year 5 times. ‘Help’ and ‘Change’ are joined by “Lady”, “Man On Your Mind” and “The Night Owls”. Strangely, “Cool Change” was never released In Australia but did make the APRA top 30 list in 2001.

During the later years of LRB, between 1982-85, the original lead vocalist Glenn Shorrock was replaced by John Farnham, who had been a teen idol during the late ‘60s and ‘70s. After his stint in the band, he went back to his solo career and had a defining song with “You’re The Voice” and the accompanying album “Whispering Jack” became the second biggest selling album in Australian history. The song was my #2 song of 1987 and is his only Hot 100 entry in the States, reaching #82 in early 1990. Even without real success here, the song was an international hit. In 1991, Heart released a live version of the song that made it to #20 on the Rock chart but it failed to reach the Hot 100. In 1995 the Alan Parsons Project included it on a live album, with vocal from Chris Thompson, one of the actual songwriters. He is best known as the vocalist for Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and “Blinded By The Light” as well as for the 1979 song “If You Remember Me” from the movie “The Champ”. Thompson initially did not want Farnham to record ‘Voice’ because of his teen idol image from the ‘70s.


To exemplify Farnham’s importance in his homeland, he has had a #1 record in 5 consecutive decades. One of those was 1988’s “Age Of Reason” a #1 single and the best-selling album in Australia that year. This song also made my top 10 of the year, #4 of 1990. This spiritual song has lyrics that are appropriate for our time:

“So why can’t we be still, why can’t we love each other

Is kindness an ancient skill buried by our blindness

And if we look behind us there’s a wind blowing in

To create the age of reason”

In 1989-90 he also reached my top 20 with “Two Strong Hearts”, a song that made the Adult Contemporary chart in the U.S. and led to the re-release of “You’re The Voice”, and “Beyond The Call”. ‘Voice’ is one of only a handful of pop songs that feature bagpipes. It was actually written as a protest song about nuclear disarmament. It has been used at rallies against COVID-19 lockdowns in Australia over the last year.

“How long can we look at each other

Down the barrel of a gun?

You’re the voice, try and understand it

Make a noise and make it clear

We’re not gonna sit in silence

We’re not gonna live with fear”

A funny side note, Farnham passed on the song “We Built This City” for his “Whispering Jack” album and we all know how that played out. Another co-writer of ‘”You’re The Voice” was Andy Qunta, who also co-wrote the song “Crazy” from his band Icehouse. This is one of my favorite songs of all-time, it was my #1 song of 1987 (this blog so much more about 1987 than 1991) and my #3 of the entire decade of the ‘80s. The atmospheric quality of this song just sends me for some reason. Sometimes it doesn’t take much to be powerful. The album it comes from, “Man Of Colours” was another massive album in Australia, their best-selling overall and Australian’s #1 album of 1988. It was also the first album to have 5 songs reach the top 30 in Australia. “Electric Blue”, their biggest song in the States (Hot 100 #7, “Crazy” #14 and both Rock chart top 10’s), was co-written by John Oates from Hall & Oates.

The band was originally called Flowers and had an early song called “Icehouse”. The word is an Australian term for an insane asylum and became the band’s name after conflict with a Scottish band Flowers. That song and “We Can Get Together” got the band stateside Alternative airplay in 1981. The early band in essence then split up. Frontman Iva Davies recorded a solo album and released it under the Icehouse name. It spawned 2 hits, “Hey Little Girl” and “Great Southern Land”, and to promote it brought a band together with a mix of old and new members.

Their highest charting song on the Rock chart in the U.S. was “No Promises” in 1986. “Man Of Colours” generated 3 more top 10 songs on my chart in 1988 with “My Obsession” (#1), “Heartbreak Kid” (#2) and “Nothing Too Serious” (#9). In late 1989 they returned to #2 with “Touch The Fire” and in1991 this week they had 2 songs on my chart “Jimmy Dean” (63) and “Miss Devine” (92). In February 2020, right before COVID lockdown, the band played the St. Kilda Festival in Melbourne, 40 years after Flowers played at the first festival.

There are 2 other male artists who fronted earlier bands that were enjoying solo success during the late ‘80s-early ‘90s era. Daryl Braithwaite had been the lead singer of arguably the most successful Australian pop band of the ‘70s, Sherbet. They were relative unknowns in the States, save for a minor hit in 1976, “Howzat”. That song and the 1975 song “Summer Love” both reached #1 in Australia. I remember “Howzat” and I’m just listening to “Summer Love” now. I would have enjoyed that one as a teenager. The band moved from Little River Band style music in the ‘70s to a more New Wave approach in the early ‘80s and that came with a name change to the Sherbs. It did not gel in their homeland but in the States, they managed 2 moderate Alt hits with “I Have The Skill” and “We Ride Tonight”.

Braithwaite re-surfaced in 1988 with a solo album and scored a string of hits including the top 10 “One Summer”. In 1991, like Icehouse and John Farnham, he earned the best-selling album of the year in Australia with the 1991 album “Rise”. That was fueled by the #1 hit “The Horses” (78). That song was written by Rickie Lee Jones of “Chuck E’s in Love” fame, along with Walter Becker of Steely Dan. Jones released the song on her 1989 album “Flying Cowboys” and though it was not released as a single people may remember it from the 1996 movie “Jerry Maguire”.

James Reyne rose to fame as the leader of Australian Crawl who enjoyed success during the first half of the ‘80s with 4 albums, 2 of which reached #1. The band name is derived from a swimming technique that was developed by a swimmer in the 1890’s. Though their music is not patterned after the Beach Boys, they earned a reputation as the Melbourne version of that band because of their beach culture vibe. I own their 1982 album “Sons Of Beaches” but I do not recall any of the songs from it. The lead single from it was “Shut Down” but listening to it I got nothing. They did not receive much airplay in the U.S, and definitely didn’t reach any national charts here. I bought so much stuff from used record stores back in college for like $1 or $2 and probably listened to some of those once, if at all.

I did not discover Reyne as a solo artist until 1993 when his 1991 album “Electric Digger Dandy” was re-packaged in the States as “Any Day Above Ground”. It yielded 2 #1’s on my chart, “Slave” and “Some People” and 2 other appearances with the title track and “Reckless”, a reworking of Australian Crawl’s biggest hit from 1983. The first 2 songs ended up as my #8 and #5 of 1993. He also had a song on the album “Company of Strangers” that would become the name of a one album Australian supergroup featuring Reyne, Braithwaite and Simon Hussey. Hussey had also been in Australian Crawl and was married to Reyne’s sister Elisabeth at the time. In addition, he was the producer of both solo artists. As a band they did not have the same impact as their solo careers, managing 3 top 40 singles including the chugging “Motor City (I Got Lost)” but none reaching past #21.


In 1990 the best-selling album in Australia belonged to Johnny Diesel and the Injectors. It was straightforward pub Rock as evidenced by the top 10 hits “Cry In Shame” and “Don’t Need Love”. Diesel (real name Mark Lizotte) was born in Fall River, Massachusetts and his family moved to Perth when he was 5. He was sort of discovered by the wife of Jimmy Barnes (who I wrote about in the last post), Jane. Diesel eventually married her sister. My exposure to Diesel (he dropped Johnny for his moniker as a solo artist) came with the next album, the #1 “Hepfidelity”, a nice mix of Rock, Blues and Funk that brought the song “Man Alive” to #1 on my chart in 1992. “Tip Of My Tongue” was the bigger hit in Australia, reaching #4. In 1993 he won Album of the Year and Best Male Artist at the ARIA Music Awards. He would also nab Best Male Artist the following 2 years. He did not make an impact stateside though (strange aside) there was a band from the Netherlands with the same name that scored a U.S. hit in 1981 with “Sausalito Summer Night”.


Another Aussie band that could not translate their homegrown success to the States was 1927. Their debut album “…ish” was huge in Australia, going 5 times platinum and generating 4 top 20 singles. 2 of those made my top 5, “You’ll Never Know” and their first single “That’s When I Think Of You”. That song was their only Billboard Hot 100 entry, barely making it at #100. Their brand of solid Pop Rock veered between the post new Wave vibe of INXS/Icehouse and the Pop sheen of Little River Band. They had 3 songs from their second album on my chart this week, “Don’t Forget Me” (31), “The Other Side” (58) and “Tell Me A Story” (38) that had just peaked in my top 10. I’ve been groovin’ on ‘Story’ lately and it is back in my current top 10. By the third album things had fallen apart.


Going back to a band that is closer to the pulse of Crowded House, we land on Hunters and Collectors. Interestingly, that band’s frontman Mark Seymour is the brother of Crowded House member Nick Seymour. Their biggest songs on my chart were the same 2 that made the U.S. Alternative Top 10 in 1998 and 1990, “Back on The Breadline” and “When The River Runs Dry”. These songs brimmed with the Jangle Rock sound of the time, but their early music was more influenced by bands like Kraftwerk. The song “Judas Sheep”, from the second album “The Fireman’s Curse” in 1983, is pretty raw comparatively. In a way it reminds me of how some of the early Split Enz music was, adventurous and off-kilter. “42 Wheels” the lead track from their third album, “The Jaws Of Life”, is decidedly Talking Heads.


The 1984 song “Throw Your Arms Around Me” alluded to the musical direction they would move towards and become a signature song for them. I would equate their evolution through the ‘80s to that of R.E.M. Though in hindsight R.E.M. was less experimental, to me when I saw them on Landsdowne St. across from Fenway Park in 1982, I felt I was experiencing something completely new. Songs like “Wolves, Lower” and “1,000.000” we’re really exciting to me at the time. Hunters and Collectors would become one of the best live acts in Australia and I can imagine if I saw them early on, I would have had a similar experience. This was also true when I saw U2 at CBGB’s in New York City in 1980. “I Will Follow, “The Electric Co.”, and ”A Day Without Me”; the energy was unbelievable. I feel extremely fortunate to have seen both of these iconic bands at the beginning of their careers.



I’ve Got Australia On My Mind, Part 1-The World Around INXS, a Music Party, and Pub Rock

INXS/Bitter Tears (18)

The era of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s was infiltrated by a good number of Australian bands and male artists. INXS was one of the bigger bands on my chart throughout the previous decade, starting in 1983 with “The One Thing”, their first American hit reaching #30 on the Hot 100 and #2 on the Rock chart. It also was their first to make the top 100 of the year at my annual music party, #92 at the inaugural party in January 1984. After 37 years, this year we took a gap year from the party because of COVID but I look forward to having a great one this summer to coincide with my 60th birthday.

At The 15th anniversary of the music party, I tabulated the top 200 artists of the first 15 years based on the songs that made the top 500 each year (my obsessive music nature on display). INXS was the #4 artist with 33 songs that made the top 500 throughout the years, 6 of those reaching the top 20; the 4 big hits from 1987’s album “Kick”, “What You Need”, and “Suicide Blonde”. “Need You Tonight” was the #1 song at the 1989 party, their best year with 4 songs in the top 11 (“Devil Inside” #6, “New Sensation” #7 and “Never Tear Us Apart” #11). There are 4 podcast episodes dedicated to the music party and one of those features what I call the “INXS Party” extensively (Castlist 002. Ep 4 released Dec. 28, 2018). The biggest artist during the first 15 years was U2 with 58 songs overall and 3 #1’s of the year, “Bad” in 1986, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” in 1988 and “One” in 1992. 3 others (“Mysterious Ways”, “Without Or Without You” and “Pride (In The Name Of Love”) placed at #2 in their respective years.


“Bitter Tears” was #29 at the 1992 party and was my favorite song from the album “X” as it would reach my top 5. “Suicide Blonde” (#3 at the 1991 party) and “Disappear” (62) both made my weekly top 15, and both reached the top 10 on the Hot 100. The band got its start in 1977 while 3 members were still in high school, Michael Hutchence and 2 of the 3 Farriss brothers (that was the band’s name at the time). It was Midnight Oil’s manager who ended up bringing the boys on as an opening act and one of that band’s members suggested the name change to INXS, party inspired by the band name XTC. The band was born out of the Pub Rock scene but certainly evolved throughout their career, first with New Wave edges, then Dance Rock beats but it was ultimately the stage and video presence of frontman Hutchence that secured them superstar status.

It’s always difficult to follow-up a career defining album like “Kick”, and this is true of INXS and “X”, though the album still managed to go double platinum in the States. After the first 2 top 10 singles, “Bitter Tears” only reached #46 (but top 10 at Rock and Alternative). The ballad “By My Side” had moderate success in Australia and the UK but failed to chart in the States. The final single “The Stairs” did not make any major charts. I, however, found this one as compelling as any of their previous releases, ironically more U2-esque in my opinion. It followed ‘Tears’ into my top 10.

Also, on my chart this week was “Good Times” (39), their collaboration with Jimmy Barnes, that was featured in the 1987 film “The Lost Boys”. It had originally peaked at #48 on my chart that year and saw a new life when it was released in the UK in 1991. Barnes had been the lead singer of the Pub Rock band Cold Chisel from the mid-70s until the early ‘80s when he went solo. That is when I discovered the rough voiced belter. Between the band and his solo career, he has amassed more top 40 albums than any artist in Australia, homegrown or international. 10 of his solo albums went to #1.

To me, Australian Pub Rock is akin to the style of Bruce Springsteen (the music party’s #6 artist), Bob Seger and John Mellencamp (party #55). This is evidenced in Barnes 1985 song “Working Class Man”, one of several songs by him that reached #1 on my chart in the mid-80s including “I’d Die To Be With You Tonight”, his first top 10 single in Australia with an assist from Kim Carnes (his female counterpart?). In 1986 he got some exposure on U.S. Rock radio with ‘Man’ (written by Journey’s Jonathan Cain) and “No Second Prize”. “Good Times” brought him to #3 on that chart and he repeated at that number in 1988 with “Too Much Ain’t Enough Love”, but it was “Waitin’ The Heartache” that brought him back to #1 on my chart.  The album those are from, “Freight Train Heart”, features Cain. Neal Schon (also of Journey), Huey Lewis, Randy Jackson, and Jon Farriss of INXS. In 1991 his songs “Lay Down Your Guns”, “Let’s Make It Last All Night” (co-written by hit-makers Diane Warren and Desmond Child) and “Little Darling” all had marginal success on my chart.

Midnight Oil (party artist #61) got their start in the early ‘70s, like INXS, as Farm, a high school endeavor. By 1978 they released their debut album as Midnight Oil and in 1982 saw their first international success with “Power And The Passion”. The band was always more politically and socially charged then others around them, their biggest hit “Beds Are Burning” (#2 at the 1989 music party) criticizes the handling of the Aboriginal population in Australia and ‘Power’ mentions the dismissal of a former prime minister.

In 2001 both of these songs ranked in the top 30 Australian songs of all-time according to the Australasian Performing Rights Association. ‘Beds’ was #3, just behind the Easybeats “Friday On My Mind”. That band did the original version of “Good Times” in 1968. One of the fun things I’ve learned over the last year is that 2 members of the Easybeats, Harry Vanda and George Young, went on to become the late ‘70s, early ‘80s New Wave band Flash and the Pan. In addition, George Young is the older brother of Malcolm and Angus Young of AC/DC, who are on this week’s chart with “Moneytalks” (32). Vanda and Young also produced the early AC/DC albums and wrote the late ‘70s hit “Love Is in The Air” by John Paul Young (no relation). Talk about a hodgepodge of styles. Flash and the Pan have had a number of big songs on my chart including “Hey St. Peter”, Welcome To The Universe” and the #1 “Midnight Man”.




In 1991, Midnight Oil landed a a string of victories at the ARIA awards ceremony (Australia’s Grammys) winning Best Group, Best Video, and Best Album (among others) for “Blue Sky Mining”. 3 songs from that album were big Alternative and Rock hits in 1990. “Blue Sky Mine”, “Forgotten Years” and, “King Of The Mountain” also all made my weekly top 25. The next album stirred controversy with the song “Truganini” which supposedly supported a ‘white’ myth about the extinction of Tasmanian Aborigines. The album “Earth and Sun and Moon” was produced by Nick Launay, who had helmed earlier albums of theirs and also produced the album “The Swing” by INXS.

In 1992 their album “Welcome To Wherever You Are” was said to be more experimental and contains my second favorite INXS tune and Alternative #2 “Not Enough Time”, a slow burn single with a big ending that owes some thanks to the Simple Minds song “Alive And Kicking”. My favorite INXS track is “Mystify” from “Kick”. The album managed to produce 3 more top 10 Alternative hits with “Heaven Sent”, “Taste it” and “Beautiful Girl” plus the anthemic “Baby Don’t Cry, replete with orchestra.


After Hutchence’ tragic death in 1997 (officially reported as a suicide though many believe it was accidental due to autoerotic asphyxiation), the first new lead singer of the band was Jon Stevens, formerly of the Aussie band Noiseworks. In 1988 that band had a monster hit on my chart with the very INXS “No Lies”, my #3 song of the year. They followed that with a #2 on my weekly chart, “River Of Tears”, late in the year. Surprisingly, I did not chart the Australian top 10 single “Take Me Back”. This week in 1991 they were inching up my chart with “Freedom” (80). The songs “Miles And Miles” and “Hot Chilli Woman” would follow. ‘Chilli’ was their hardest rocking song and became their second, and last, top 10 in their homeland before splitting up. They also got an assist from Hutchence on the remake of Sly & The Family Stone’s “Take You Higher”, their final single. In 2009 there was a black comedy called “World’s Greatest Dad”, starring Robin Williams as the dad of a teenager who accidentally died from autoerotic asphyxiation. Yeah, that’s pretty black.


To be continued…

 

For this month’s blog, I thought I’d start with a comparison between by 1991 chart and my current week’s chart.

February 23, 1991

See the chart here

The companion Spotify playlist has all the songs discussed in the blog.

LW/TW/ARTIST/SONG/PEAK/WEEKS

2 1 JELLYFISH That Is Why 1 10

The last time I was writing about this era in September I wrote a lot about Power Pop and Jellyfish specifically. This song was the first of theirs to reach #1 on my chart. It was their second top 20 on the Modern Rock radio chart, peaking at #11. This was preceded on my chart by 3 top 12 songs, “The King Is Half Undressed #8, “Now She Knows I’m Wrong” #12, and “The Man I Used To Be” #8. In the end, most of their debut album “Bellybutton” would hit my chart including “I Wanna Stay Home” (55), “Calling Sarah” (131-debut), and their biggest Pop hit “Baby’s Coming Back”, which would make my top 10 in the spring.

1 2 EMF Unbelievable 1(2) 13

An across-the-board international success, many would consider the band a one-hit-wonder though they had a number of songs do well in the UK and the follow-up single, “I Believe” (25) reached #1 on the Modern Rock chart. Andrew Dice Clay’s voice was sampled, the “Oh” at the beginning and in front of the chorus is him. This was a great time for Alt-Dance music and my chart this week reflects that with roughly 20-25 songs falling under that umbrella.

3 3 SEAL Crazy 3(3) 13

This song fits into that mold with its pulsating rhythm and its ebbing and flowing keyboard line. It also adds a Funk and Soul vibe to the mix, just a really intoxicating song. It was also a huge international success, #1 in numerous countries, #2 in the UK, and #7 on the Hot 100. The debut album was certainly more cutting edge than the rest of his ‘90s output with songs like “Killer”

5 4 BREATHE Does She Love That Man? 4 15

This ballad was the last single by the UK band and was aided by its bluesy guitar. Not a big hit here, only reaching #34 on the Hot 100. It didn’t even chart in the UK. The band actually did better in the States overall with 3 top 10 singles in 1988 and 1989 (“Hands To Heaven”, “How Can I Fall?” and “Don’t Tell Me Lies”), all of which did well for me. In the fall of 1990, they also made my top 10 with the horn-laden shuffler “Say A Prayer”.

8 5 THE FARM All Together Now 5 13

This Brit band’s debut album “Spartacus” was a #1 album in the UK after this song and “Groovy Train” (48) both went top 6 the previous year. This also made the Modern Rock top 10 in April ‘91. The band was also part of the Alt-Dance movement at the time.

9 6 INDIGO GIRLS Welcome Me 6 8

The harmonies of Emily Saliers and Amy Ray were favorites of mine from the release of “Closer To Fine” through the mid-90s. Their collaboration with Michael Stipe, “Kid Fears”, was my #1 song of the year in 1989. This one was my favorite from their album “Nomads, Indians, Saints”. “World Falls” (104) was falling from its #25 peak and the lead single “Hammer And A Nail” just missed my top 40 at #41.

6 7 CELINE DION Where Does My Heart Beat Now 6 12

In 1990 2 big female voices emerged on the scene, Mariah Carey and Celine Dion. Though “Vision Of Love” was a great debut single, my relationship with Carey waned relatively quickly while Dion was a sustained chart performer for me. Carey clearly won the Pop battle (she stands as the #4 artist of all-time on the Billboard Hot 100 though Dion places at #87, so not shabby at all). 4 of Dion’s songs have made my top 25 of the year: “Tell Him” with Barbra Streisand, “Shadow of Love”, “Ain’t Gonna Look The Other Way” and the fantastic “Taking Chances”.

4 8 DREAM WARRIORS My Definition Of A Boombastic Jazz Style 1 14

Hip Hop is not a regular genre on my chart and usually when a song appeared it had a quirky bent to it. This is so true of this song from the Canadian trio, my #19 song of 1991. The early ‘90s was the time of a Jazz-Rap sub-genre that did have some gravitational pull with me. The instrumentation of this song is irresistible, bringing a ‘60s lounge vibe to it. It actually samples the 1962 Quincy Jones song “Soul Bossa Nova”. This was a huge song for husband John (he had a fascination with lounge music in the ‘90s) and our circle of friends. It did go top 25 on Modern Rock and top 15 the UK, Sweden, and Switzerland but it didn’t chart in their homeland.

7 9 JUDE COLE House Full Of Reasons 1(2) 13

I wrote a bit about Jude Cole on last year’s blog page. I would say he was my favorite Pop-Rock artist during the first half of the ‘90’s. If you are a fan of Bryan Adams this album would totally appeal to you. This was the sixth song from his album “A View From 3rd Street” to chart and the first of his to go to #1. On it’s heals “This Time It’s Us” (35) would follow to the summit. The last 3 songs from the album would chart as well with “Get Me Through The Night” making it 3 at #1. In January this year he released his first album since 2000, “Coup De Main”, which is a bit folkier and I’m just starting to digest. On it he does a cover of the song “Starry Eyes” a 1979 almost top 40 song by the Records. He was briefly a member of that band in 1980.

11 10 JESUS JONES International Bright Young Thing 10 8

Coming out of the same Alt-Dance pool as EMF, this band had just come off the huge “Right Here, Right Now” which had spent 2 weeks at #1 on my chart in December. That song was about the end of the cold war and was originally titled Nelson as it was inspired by Prince (Roger Nelson’s) 1987 hit “Sign ‘O The Times”. The band was associated with an Alternative sub-sub-genre Grebo that had a short shelf-life. ‘Young Thing’ and “Who?, Where? Why?” (148-debut) were more indicative of the style, a mix of Punk, EDM, Hip-Hop and Industrial. 2 other Grebo bands land back-to-back further down the list. Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine’s “Bloodsport For All” (100) and Pop Will Eat Itself’s “X, Y & Zee” (101). That band took the moniker to heart with songs like “Grebo Guru” and “Oh Grebo, I Think I Love You”.

12 11 THE KLF 3 AM Eternal 11 7

The lines of these Alt-Dance sub-genres are so very blurry that they all fit under the larger umbrella. This time was probably one of my favorites for the melding of Alt-Rock and Dance. It had more of a bite than the earlier danceable New Wave, though some of the ‘80s product in that realm had a more sinister feel. The KLF started out in 1987 and the JAMS (Justified Ancients Of Mumu) and in 1988 scored a UK #1 as the Timelords with “Doctorin’ The Tardis”. That song was a mix of the “Doctor Who” theme song, Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll (part two)” and the song “Blockbuster” by Sweet. The JAMS label was named KLF Communications and that is what led to future songs under the name the KLF. This song was originally recorded in 1988 and ‘Ancients of Mumu’ is a predominant line in the song. The song reached #5 on the Hot 100 and in early 1992 they almost returned to the top 10 with the #11 “Justified and Ancient (Stand By The JAMS)” with Tammy Wynette. Clearly, they could not release their schtick, and the sub-title winks at her signature hit “Stand By Your Man”. Always achingly trying to be clever, the tongue in cheek of the sample-heavy KLF’s name is that it stands for Kopyright Liberation Front.

10 12 WHITNEY HOUSTON All The Man That I Need 10 12

The next 4 songs are all ballads. This song originally appeared on a 1982 Linda Clifford album and was written by the team of Dean Pitchford and Michael Gore who were responsible for much of the music from the movie “Fame” in 1980. 2 of the songs from that soundtrack were co-written by Lesley Gore (of the 1963 #1 hit “It’s My Party”), “Out Here On My Own” and “Hot Lunch Jam” (The KLF should have jumped on that remake). Michael Gore is Lesley’s younger brother. After Clifford contributed the vocal to the song “Red Light” for the soundtrack, the songwriters worked with her on her next album. Houston’s version totally took the song to another level.

17 13 HALL & OATES Don’t Hold Back Your Love 13 9

In essence, this was the last hit by the powerhouse duo. It only peaked at #41 on the Hot 100, following the #11 “So Close” but it did make the top 5 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The original version of ‘Close’ was co-written by Hall and George Green who also co-wrote John Mellencamp’s “Hurts So Good”. The final version got an assist from Jon Bon Jovi and producer Danny Kortchmar who had been working on the “Blaze Of Glory” sessions. This one was co-written by Richard Page of Mr. Mister.

24 14 RICK ASTLEY Cry For Help 14 6

The lead single from Astley’s third album “Free” was his first real ballad to be a hit (and his last top 10 in the States). The gospel-tinged song was by far my favorite tune by Astley, ending up as my #15 of 1991 during its original run on my personal chart. In another co-writing scenario, his writing partner was Rob Fisher of Naked Eyes and Climie Fisher fame. In 1983 the Naked Eyes song “Promises Promises” was my #1 song of the year. Though I was only so-so on their hit “Always Something There To Remind Me”, the album was a standout for me, bringing 4 other songs into my top 10, including a second #1 “I Could Show You How”.

18 15 STYX Show Me The Way 15 12

Like Hall & Oates, 1991 saw the last appearances in the upper reaches of the Hot 100 for Styx. This inspirational ballad, written as a sort of hymn for Dennis DeYoung’s son, rode to #3 and became connected to the Gulf War and resurrected after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. It was the second single from “Edge Of The Century”, after “Love Is The Ritual” made the Rock top 10 in the fall of 1990. The third single, “Love At First Sight” brought them to #25 on the Hot 100.

February 21, 2021

The biggest difference between 1991 and 2001 on my chart is the lack of the Alt-dance that was prevalent back then and the introduction of Country, though there are a couple of danceable songs on this top 15. There is also, except for one juggernaut of a song, no songs that would be deemed as a current hit.

LW/TW/ARTIST/SONG/PEAK/WEEKS

1 1 FEE WAYBILL Faker 1(3) 8

The lead singer of the Tubes surprised me with this blistering track co-written by Richard Marx. The beginning of 2021 was seeing an absence of big songs for me as songs had been lingering on my chart a little longer than normal. Once this one clicked a few weeks ago it made the jump from 25-1. 40 years ago, his band was experiencing their first real mainstream success with “Talk To Ya Later” becoming a top 10 Rock hit (surprisingly only bubbling under the Hot 100 at #101) and their top 40 pop entry “Don’t Want To Wait Anymore”. Through the latter half of the ‘70’s they had some underground success and one minor hit “Don’t Touch Me There”. With the 1981 album “The Completion Backward Principle” they teamed up with producer David Foster and on ‘Later’ Steve Lukather of Toto which led to a combo of Pop sheen and their well-known quirkiness (“Sushi Girl”), a winning combination.

2 2 ALL STAR UNITED Take Me Away 2 15

My blog writing and podcast production has brought me many songs from the past that were forgotten or are new to me. I just this month started an oldie’s chart on Beyond Radio as there are other personal charters that feature older songs on their charts as well. This late ‘90s Christian Rock band had 13 songs on my personal chart between 1998 and 2010. This track is from the 2007 album “Love And Radiation” and becomes the band’s highest-charting song for me, pushing past the #3 “Worldwide Socialites Unite” in 2000 (not available on Spotify).

6 3 MCFLY Tonight Is The Night 3 11

This British Pop band is named after Marty McFly from “Back To The Future”. This is their first top 10 on my chart. In the UK they have had 19 top 10’s with 7 of those going to #1 since 2004. One of those #1’s was “Baby’s Coming Back” in 2007, a remake of the 1991 Jellyfish song (not available on Spotify).

9 4 BLAKE SHELTON Minimum Wage 4 4

This song saw some controversy upon its release, a millionaire singing about minimum wage, but it was ill-conceived when listening to the lyrics; “your love is money, you make a man feel rich on minimum wage”. I was instantly drawn to the propulsive upbeat Country-Rock of this tune, a certain #1 for me. It would be his third #1 for me and already his ninth top 5.

3 5 HARRY STYLES Treat People With Kindness 1(4) 25

What was a year ago a moderately successful song on my chart, ‘Kindness” has turned into a major hit for me. The superbly adorable video released on January 1 brought me such joy and its message was undeniable after the year we have had. I also experienced some of the nuances of the song that I had missed (the bongos and fuzzy guitar towards the end), even with a feature on a podcast episode. A lyric like “I don’t need all the answers, feeling good in my skin, I’ll just keep dancing” just adds to the allure. I love his old soul vibe. The video also made me fall in love with Phoebe Waller-Bridge and made me watch “Fleabag” finally.

7 6 BLACK STONE CHERRY Again 6 13

This is a second-generation Southern Rock band; co-founder John Fred Young is the son of the Kentucky Headhunters Richard Young. Not always a go-to genre, in 2012 they spent 2 weeks at #1 with “In My Blood”, their highest charter on the Rock radio chart and their only top 10.

4 7 HOT CHIP f/ JARVIS COCKER Straight To The Morning 2 15

21 years in and the UK synthpop band finally makes my top 10 for the first time, peaking at #2 a couple weeks ago. Joe Goddard spends time between Hot Chip and 2 Bears who made my top 40 in 2016 with another disco-y track “Not This Time”. Member Alan Doyle also splits time with LCD Soundsystem. That band’s song “Tonite”, my #4 song of 2018, was extensively analyzed on the Dec. 26, 2019, episode of Beyond Radio Presents. See Alt-Dance has made its appearance in 2021.

8 8 THE TEMPER TRAP Thick As Thieves 8 11

Another older title discovered from my blog writing is from the Australian band’s 2016 album of the same name. The song “Alive” from that album was the band’s sole #1 on my chart, though “Fader” and “Sweet Disposition” made my top 10 in 2010.

46 9 OLIVIA RODRIGO Driver’s License 9 4

The emotional impact of this massive hit is not lost on me. The anguish in her voice, especially towards the end, is impressive. The amount of sad and sad-sounding songs that are big hits these days does not speak to me (see Harry Styles) but sometimes it is appropriate.

15 10 MERCYME Say I Won’t 10 6

This Oklahoma band has been a force on Christian radio for 2 decades now. This week they notch another top 10 for me. Of their 16 top 25 songs on my chart, 6 have risen to #1 and another to #2. This seems destined for at least the top 5.

20 11 KEITH URBAN Forever 11 4

Could my king of the Country genre score an 18th #1 song on my chart? I was thinking the latest album “The Speed Of Now, Part 1” might not even get a top 10 though “Out The Cage” snuck up to #9. Again, definitely looking at the top 5, we’ll know over the next month or so. If it does, it’ll be the big ending to the song that does it. Love me some wailing guitar.

5 12 RED RUM CLUB The Elevation 3(2) 15

Extensive use of trumpet sets this indie Brit-Pop band apart and adds a fun factor. Their first top 10 for me but they have reached my chart 4 times in the last 2 years

13 13 THE SCORE f/ AWOLNATION Carry On 13 20

This song has spent 10 weeks in my top 20 without making the top 10, an interesting circumstance. The L.A. duo has a decidedly Imagine Dragons vibe but this one is more enjoyable for me than any recent Dragons song.

14 14 STEPS What The Future Holds 14 16

The UK’s late ‘90s version of Abba came back in 2017 and again in 2020 with 2 back-to-back #2 UK albums. They perform reliable Dance-Pop but this is the first time they’ve reached my top 50.

10 15 HONORARY ASTRONAUT Final Dream Machine 5 20

A side project for the Dear Hunter’s mastermind Casey Crescenzo, this doesn’t feel that off from that band’s expansive theatrical rock. Once I discovered that band in 2016, they racked up 16 top 20’s on my chart by the end of 2019. Of those 6 went to #1.

It’s hard to say which top 15 is more diverse. One side note, even though they are not in my current top 15, members of Jellyfish are on my current chart as the Lickerish Quartet. They have 2 songs moving up my chart right now from their second EP “Threesome, Vol. 2”; “Sovereignty Blues” at #26 and “Do You Feel Better” at #47, while “Lighthouse Spaceship” spent 3 weeks at #1 in September. As a solo artist Roger Manning Jr. also reached #1 for 3 weeks in November with “The Quickening” and his “Operator” is still week’s #35. After a 25 year plus absence, it’s like an old friend has come back into your life.