EVERY Billboard #1 hit discussion thread 1958-Present

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by alphanguy, Jan 29, 2016.

  1. DesertHermit

    DesertHermit Now an UrbanHermit

    Steady now…don’t get crazy on us! :winkgrin:
     
  2. Cheevyjames

    Cheevyjames Forum Resident

    Location:
    Graham, NC
    Catching up from the long holiday...

    Richard Marx - Right Here Waiting

    Those intro synths make me think back to Chariots of Fire and I think it could be cool...but then the piano starts and it changes the tone of the song. I'm not normally a fan of this kind of ballad, but all things considered it's pretty well-written. Firstly, the chorus is a good hook for the song and it gets reprised with the classical guitar solo. The chorus lyrics do feel a bit like a more simplistic version of Every Breath You Take. Two things I really appreciate about this song - first is that it's just a straight ballad and there's no "power" in front of that. Esp. in 1989 there would've been an easy tendency to add some huge bombastic drums that enter with the chorus. Not here. All we get is the main piano, the synth, classical guitar and Marx's vocal. I like the simplicity in instrumentation. The second thing I like is that minor chord at the end of the chorus that leads back into the verses. That's pretty unexpected and the mark of someone who knows how to write a song. I'm surprised I don't hate this, actually. Oh, and yes, his hair was pretty magnificent in this video. There's a side shot of him playing to the empty theater and his hair almost seems as big as the rest of him.


    Paula Abdul - Cold Hearted

    This song is definitely not as good as Forever Your Girl or Straight Up. I didn't like it in 1989 and time hasn't given me any sort of love for it. There's an overly-synthetic quality to this one and it just feels "cold". It's robotic without being interesting. It's not even danceable so there's not anything here that interests me.


    New Kids - Hangin' Tough

    I mean...it's a hook, I guess? It's catchy, but holy crap is that ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-oh obnoxious. This doesn't even feel like a song, it just feels like some sort of wanna-be tough guy anthem to impress 11 year old girls. "We're rough!". That's so, so terrible. This year started off so good and then it just gets worse and worse. There's nothing here for me to remotely enjoy. Not a performance, not attitude, not songwriting, certainly not the "guitar solo"...not a damn thing. Off the top of my head I can't think of a worse #1 song in this entire decade, though there have been some atrocious ones. Looking through the list...Stars on 45, Abracadabra, Can't Fight This Feeling, Higher Love, some of the Tiffany/Debbie Gibson tunes, Groovy Kind of Love, Baby Don't Forget My Number. I might go as far as saying Hangin' Tough is worse than Abracadabra.


    Gloria Estefan - Don't Wanna Lose You

    My favorite Estefan/MSM ballad is still Words Get In the Way, but this one is pretty enjoyable. She's in good voice with a solid and memorable chorus. There's a good turn around chord in the chorus as well that gives it a nice color. It's a pleasant song and pretty much a typical ballad for her.


    Milli Vanilli - Girl I'm Gonna Miss You

    The other hits I can recall just by seeing the title, but this one escapes me. Holy crap, I don't even remember this after hearing the chorus. I think this is the first song this decade that I don't remember. It definitely doesn't stay in my head. Hearing this directly after Gloria Estefan is being in a car wreck. The rapper of this group (the dude on the recordings) is terrible. Is that a different guy than the singer? Either way. If not for MV being in their thankfully short imperial phase, there's no way this would've hit the top 10 otherwise. It's a horrible song.


    Janet Jackson - Miss You Much

    Ah, it's been a while since we've heard from Miss Jackson. This was her first single from the new Rhythm Nation 1814 album. Even though I was in full metal-mode at this time, I will happily admit to liking this when it came out. The music here has this industrial-sounding robotic beat, but Janet's voice had become more melodic and this contrast really benefitted this song. It's very danceable with a strong melody. Catchy song and it's a still a fun listen all these years later. I love the groove on this.


    Roxette - Listen to Your Heart

    The synth/piano intro has a strong melody that previews the whole song. The guitars here make me think of a glam metal power ballad, it would just need more crunch in the chorus. It just goes to show how close "pop" and "glam metal" are, just a few production touches difference between them. I like the guitar solo even though it's clearly from a few different takes. This is an enjoyable song, but it's really not much different from any number of Cher/Heart/glam metal songs from this time period.


    Bad English - When I See You Smile

    I seem to be one of the few Journey fans on this site, or maybe there are so many haters that tend to be louder than everyone. I don't care, I have no problem saying how much I love their music. They were the first band that I got into at 10 years old back in 1985. My brother and I got all of their albums during late '85 through '86 and we devoured anything we could find by them. Journey's Greatest Hits came in late '88 and then here in 1989 we got Neal Schon's first solo album, Late Nite, and maybe a month or two later Neal joined forces with Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain and John Waite who we knew from his solo work. So yes, I totally loved this Bad English album when it came out and I admit it. The difference is that while Journey's music retains its awesomeness and high quality, Bad English definitely does not. I listened to this album a few months ago just to revisit and it doesn't hold up. Sure, Neal Schon had more of a presence here than he did back with Raised on Radio, but that doesn't help these songs.

    As for When I See You Smile, it wasn't one I outright loved but I never ffw'd through it while listening to the tape. John Waite is as earnest as ever and Cain does his usual thing here. Is it a good song, though? Haha, no. Not at all. It's got that trademark power ballad sound and there's not much that could save it. There is a nice change for Schon's guitar solo, but it's so terribly short that he doesn't have time to say anything. Which is too bad because they could've left off one of the many repetitions of the title phrase and given him more room for a great solo. Other than Steve Perry's fantastic voice and songwriting, what really lifted those old Journey ballads was Neal Schon's guitar playing. It's that extra juice that puts them over the top. This Bad English song doesn't have that at all. Really, his guitar playing outside of the short solo is practically non-existent. It's a shame, because this song could be slightly better at least. As it is, it's a self-important bore.

    Oh, this was written by Diane Warren? Ugh, no wonder it sucks.
     
  3. Jmac1979

    Jmac1979 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    Can't think about Bad English without the love thread they got a few months ago talking about how they were more successful than Asia, Traveling Wilburys, Bad Company and other "supergroups" just because they had a #1 single and the Wilbury's didn't.
     
  4. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
  5. Steve Mc

    Steve Mc Bangles Encyclopedia

    Location:
    United States
    When I See You Smile
    I have a higher tolerance for Diane Warren than a lot of you.
    Still, this song does little for me. It's just ok, not super over the top, but not particularly stirring either.
     
    ARK likes this.
  6. Frank

    Frank Senior Member

    When I See You Smile - Bad English
    [​IMG]
    "I know guys, let's compile a supergroup and try to top Richard Marx in a DB competition."

    Mission Accomplished. It's the "at me" at the end that puts them over the top.
     
  7. John Harchar

    John Harchar Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
  8. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Just making sure! :)
     
  9. Jmac1979

    Jmac1979 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    I liked John Waite better as the judge on Night Court than any of his music
     
  10. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    Catching up

    Girl I'm Gonna Miss You

    Never heard this one before. It's actually incrementally better than the other things I've heard from them. Still absolutely, unequivocally terrible, though.

    Miss You Much

    I never heard this one before, either. Yeah, I was really not paying attention to the charts by this point.

    Listening now, my reaction is: I hope she sent a big, fat royalty check to the Purple One. This sounds like it rips a fair amount off from Kiss.

    Listen To Your Heart

    OK, I'll listen to my Heart; my Heart is the group that produced great songs like Barracuda, Magic Man, etc. That's better than listening to the other hair-challenged Heart from the 80s, and much better than the Faux-Heart we have here.

    Yeah, another song I never heard before, unless the obvious lift from the Wilson Sisters counts as having heard it before.
     
  11. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    Even a stopped clock is right twice a day...
     
  12. Zombie Dodge

    Zombie Dodge Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dartmouth, NS
    Todd in the Shadows' "Trainwreckords" video for American Life concedes that the album didn't kill her career. She was too big to fail completely, and "Caught Up" was a big hit two years later.

    But after it came out, for the first time in her career, Madonna became ignorable. She worked overtime to get "Hollywood" to number one, and it didn't even make the Hot 100 at all.

    Going back to the nineties, I remember people being a bit sick of Madonna by the middle of the decade, mainly because of sheer overexposure. Ray of Light got her back on track for a few more years.
     
    KJTC likes this.
  13. Wild Horse

    Wild Horse Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    When I See You Smile

    These guys got a number one? :laugh:

    I actually sort of like this. So I suspect Diane Warren was owed a favour and the real songwriter put Warren's name on the credits.

    This is processed cheese, but sometimes there's a little flavour to it.
     
  14. Wild Horse

    Wild Horse Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    What makes me like it somewhat is John Waite's vocal.

    Underrated singer.
     
    ARK and pablo fanques like this.
  15. Hoover Factory

    Hoover Factory Old Dude Who Knows Things

    Location:
    Spokane, WA
    When I See You Smile

    :shake::shake::shake::shake::shake:
     
    DesertHermit, sunspot42 and Frank like this.
  16. KJTC

    KJTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    It is getting ahead of ourselves because a song from it will eventually be featured here, but the first time she was ignorable wasn’t with the album referenced above. It was with her second album of the nineties. I believe that an artist who we will meet soon and see more of than any other solo act said at the time, “I used to like Madonna. When she mattered.” We won’t see as much of Madonna in the nineties as we did in the eighties on this feature, but it ended up her best decade in many ways. And it involved multiple comebacks.
     
    Jmac1979 likes this.
  17. pablo fanques

    pablo fanques Somebody's Bad Handwroter In Memoriam

    Location:
    Poughkeepsie, NY
    The Babys were outstanding!
     
    SeeDubs, Wild Horse and Grant like this.
  18. Is that centimeters, millimeters or microns?
     
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  19. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    And speaking of which . . .
    #708 (30th of 1989): "Blame It On The Rain" by Milli Vanilli
    (#1 for 2 weeks - November 25-December 2, 1989)

    plus the music video

    And with this, Diane Warren essentially replaces herself at the top, as she also wrote this as well as "When I See You Smile" - so if you have to blame anyone for this latest example of "positive energy"[sic], blame it on her. (Turkish?! Sounds all Greek to me.)

    Radio & Records also had this at the top for two weeks, but Cash Box was not nearly as charitable, consigning its Number One duration to only one week. (As if a harbinger of things to come, the U.S. was the only "territory" around the world where this one reached #1.) Didn't do as much business in the UK, though MRIB was more generous in giving it a #37 finish; on the "official" chart it could only get to #52. Speaking of the UK, a New Kids On The Block single, "You Got It (The Right Stuff)," was in the first two of its ultimately three weeks at #1 there.
     
    Grant likes this.
  20. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus

    I like this one, and always have. I mean, not that much. But some. They (whoever they actually are) still sound like robots but Diane penned a winner melodyy with this chorus.

    3/5
     
  21. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Now that you mention it, the chorus did have a bit of gospel in there . . .
     
    Lance LaSalle likes this.
  22. Milli Vanilli - Blame It On The Rain
    That's convenient of them?
    Just threw up in my mouth a little bit
    1/5
     
  23. Reckoner

    Reckoner Made in Canada

    Blame it On the Rain - Milli Vanilli

    This is the only MV song that I've occasionally returned to after the great manipulative plot was exposed. 19 year old me enjoyed this record because it did have good songs. 20 year old me will become quite cynical towards my preferred music medium: Music Video. Warren knew how to find her place on radio with tracks such as this so, when I'm sticking just to evaluating the song on its own merits it's...
    4/5.
     
    Lance LaSalle likes this.
  24. Wild Horse

    Wild Horse Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Blame It On The Rain

    When you can't afford a decent drum machine.
     
  25. Zombie Dodge

    Zombie Dodge Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dartmouth, NS
    I believe there will be a Milli Vanilli critical reappraisal someday, as happened with The Carpenters and ABBA. Regardless of who was singing, they put out some of the most persistent earworms of the late eighties.
     
    ARK, sunspot42 and Lance LaSalle like this.

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