Yeah, that sort of goes against character for me, doesn't it! I like Whitney and I like ballads, but not this one. The ballad still has to be GOOD for me to like it!
Well, there was Michael Stipe with his shaved head...But, this guy had them both beat for the shaved head category:
I actually prefer Whitney's. She breathed new life into that song and the backing gospel choir makes the song twice as anthemic and even more spiritual than other renditions.
Realistically Whitney Houston could've been far more prolific than she was. After 1990's, I'm Your Baby Tonight she took EIGHT years to put out another studio album (all those hits she scored in between were from ST scores). Considering the mega success of TBG, it would've made more sense for Whitney to have put out a studio album sometime in 1994 or 1995. It would've easily been another 20M seller for her, even the Waiting to Exhale ST is certified 7X platinum. She was very in demand but personal issues were getting in the way upon other things. I do wish though that we could've had another 90's Whitney studio album. On the list of biggest selling women artists of all time she's at #4 in album sales after Madonna, Celine and Mariah, but has by far the least material out in comparison to the others.
That's probably why I like it! Mostly, it was what they called "sophisticated soul". It had an urban sheen to it. The Solar (Sound Of Los Angeles) Records output suddenly sounded more like New York as New York City boroughs were moving in the direction of hip-hop. Yes! Around 1983, there was a deliberate effort on the part of R&B record labels and artists to sound more "White". Also, the trend was to slim down, cut the fat, and use drum machines and synthesizers to save money. That was because advances were being trimmed away as part of the consequences of the disco backlash. Also, many R&B bands had as many as eleven members. By 1986, about the only R&B bands left with that many members were Midnight Star and Kool and the The Gang, and I think Kool & The Gang even slimmed down a bit. Atlantic Star, Cameo, Bar-Kays, Con Funk Shun had slimmed down to as little as three core members. Even Chic dismissed the Chic Strings in 1981. When Earth, Wind & Fire came back in 1988, even they had jettisoned members. For me, that would be Cameo, The Time, Rick James, Chic, The Whispers, The S.O.S. Band, and Shalamar. Despite what most folks around here say, NJS, at least temporarily, breathed new life into R&B, but that was in the late 80s. What hurt it for me was the incorporation of rap into it. I have no gender preference regarding music. If the music's good, it's good. My mom and older sister listened to both: Dinah Washington, Nancy Wilson, and Dionne Warwick as well as Lou Rawls, The Temptations, and Ray Charles. But, my he-man-minded father only listened to male artists until the late 70s when I caught him with a Barbra Streisand tape in his collection. And, he once had me make him a whole 90-minute tape with nothing but the song "Our Love" by Natalie Cole repeated on it. That was not fun to do in the pre-CD days! I recently collected his entire catalog from Qobuz starting as a 12-year-old in what, 1962? You'd think it was all paint-by-numbers Motown, but he did a lot of jazz. Remember, like Marvin Gaye, he started out as a drummer, though, on those early records, he mostly played harmonica. What I hear these days are people like Dua Lipa or Demi Levato with 70s-style R&B hits, done with programmed drum sounds aligned to a grid, or Bruno Mars with Silk Sonic. But, it's still nothing like back in the day. The last R&B album I bought from veteran artists were The Temptations, O'Jays, and En Vogue, and that latter one was more rock/pop than R&B. I didn't finally get into her. I was never into her. But, remember sonny, i'm probably double your age, so I grew up hearing the Supremes records as they were originally released! Now, help me to my walker! My only proper Supremes album is "Supremes-A-Go-Go", and I have all her solo albums. The reason I say I avoided her all that time was because of the rude fanatics I had to deal with on another forum. It was so bad that it caused me to avoid her music. And, I remember when she was arrested for a DUI here in Tucson about ten years ago. She was a wrong-way driver, too. They gave her a mandatory jail sentence, but she wiggled out of it by doing it in her home state of Connecticut. I don't think she served a single day in jail. Look it up. After that, there was her being a Karen in a restaurant in L.A.. All that just left a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe she was going through a bad time. Who knows. I also stopped listening to Lou Rawls after he punched his wife in New Mexico. I only started listening to his music again after he passed away. And, Paul Simon and Donald Fagen also recently had domestic calls of violence. Glen Campbell and Eric Carmen were also busted for DUI, so i'm not picking on Ross.
Don't let people from Seattle hear you say that! They'll do you like Rodney King! I didn't get into Pearl Jam until their "Vitalagy" album came out, which I bought. More recently, I finally decided to get the "Ten" album and was surprised to remember it, so I definitely heard it back in the early 90s, though I didn't know who they were. I hung out with a few rock fans back then, so it's no surprise I would have heard it. Nirvana? I actually missed "Nevermind" by several months. I was talking about music with a co-worker back then and he was shocked that i'd not heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit". By that time, it had already run its course, so I went out and bought the CD. I was an instant fan. I also started watching MTV again.
@Grant Demi Lavato and Dua Lipa are a reference to classic R&B/Soul? Seriously? Lol, I think you're just looking in the wrong direction. I'd say you need to give KIRBY, Ari Lennox, Tkay Maidza and Chloe X Halle a try (especially their Ungodly Hour record). I'd also suggest Summer Walker or Victoria Monet (she's a frequent collaborator of Ariana Grandes). As far as guys go Frank Ocean, Xavier Omär and Braxton Cook are all really great. Phony Ppl are an amazing R&B vocal group (they do have a rapper though just so you're aware but they're all about the Harmonies). Considering you're already familiar with Silk Sonic, I'd suggest getting into Anderson Paak as a solo artist. His Malibu album from 2016 got as much play as Blonde, A Seat at the Table and Lemonade from me. HONNE are a pretty good R&B infused band as well if you want to go that route. As I said R&B isn't as mainstream as it used to be so you'd have to look a little deeper to really connect with the music. These are just some of my faves but there's a lot happening now in R&B that would surprise you. Demi and Dua though? Lmao. I do enjoy Dua Lipa, not coming for her. I just associate her more with Disco/House and EDM pop than R&B music. Future Nostalgia was one of my most played albums of both 2020 and 2021. I'll go check out The Time, The Whispers and Shalamar. Maybe I haven't given 80's R&B too much of a try. Will have to revisit!
Obviously my comment meant Nirvana was unknown on the national stage prior to "Nevermind". If that fact upsets folks in Washington state, that's their problem!
They were not completely unknown, I remember hearing Bleach in 1990 or so; no comparison to the massive popularity of Smashing Pumpkins in 1994, though. (Which grew even more massive with that bloated 2 CD Mellon Collie…) Really Gish’s popularity was perhaps along the lines of Bleach, as I remember hearing that that at a party in 1992 or so..
It's what I hear. I still get those "Now That's What I Call Music" CDs. Then there's that you and I may have slightly different ideas of what R&B is supposed to be. The only reason I know about Silk Sonic and Anderson Paak is because of Bruno Mars. If they had not all collaborated, I never would have heard of them at all. I'm sure there is, and you've given me some suggestions. I just don't know if I have enough curiosity to seek it out at this point. That little window of curiousness hasn't opened for me in years. Maybe tonight, maybe next week, maybe next year. Who knows. That's just how I work. I have to wait for my mind to open up to a desire to hear something new. Please do! I think you will be surprised at all the music you've missed/not heard/ignored. And, i'll check out some of your suggestions. See, this is what Steve Hoffman desires for this forum to be about, turning each other on to new (to us) music, to expand our musical palates, not to retreat to our comfortable corners.
I almost had my ass handed to me for saying the same thing to a woman who recently moved down here from Washington. They are fiercely defensive of their regional music and musicians! I also visited the Pacific northwest once and they are very musically insulated up there.
The point is that neither Nirvana pre-"Nevermind" nor SP pre-"Dream" had made a dent on the mass market. Not claiming only 143 people heard them before those bands "broke", but their audience was tiny compared to what they'd achieve with their followup albums.
Yeah. I would say they were well known during Bleach/Gish but it was pretty limited to the university age crowd.
they were well known here in germany, although also more by the indie-crowd... the magazine "SPEX" placed nirvana on place 6 in the end-year-poll of 1989... 1. De La Soul: Three feet high and rising 2. Neil Young: Freedom 3. Jungle Brothers: Done by the forces of nature 4. AR Kane: I 5. Gang Starr: No more Mr. Nice Guy 6. Nirvana: Bleach 7. Nomeansno: Wrong 8. Souled American: Flubber 9. SWA: Winter 10. NWA: Straight outta Compton
Now for the last one of the year. "Goid your lerns" on this one . . . #804 (11th of 1995): "One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey And Boyz II Men (#1 for 16 weeks - December 2, 1995-March 16, 1996) 16 weeks. Sheesh. More than the longest-running hit of the prior #1 occupant. Moreover, yet another example of ballad H-E-double-hockey sticks. When you combine Ms. Carey - who has often shown off vocal acrobatics, it seems, plainly for their own sake - with a group that, up to this point, monopolized the top of the charts for 33 weeks in the 1990s and, with this, their hold shot up to 49 - and, on top of it all, have been classified by some on this forum as tone-deaf - you get a recipe for the kind of imageries of h311 that were frequent fixtures of Gary Larson's "Far Side" comic strips. Her label, Columbia, achieved their own milestone with this: It surpassed the prior run of 13 non-consecutive weeks that Harry James' "I've Heard That Song Before" (with Helen Forrest on vocals) was atop the hit parade back in 1943. Oh, and did I mention this was the second number to enter the Hot 100 at #1? If this is of consolation, neither of the other two charts had this at #1 for as long: Cash Box' duration was 11 weeks; Radio & Records', 8. And in the UK, this would go all the way up to #6. Meanwhile, in this nearly one-third of a year span, #1's in the UK included "Earth Song" by Michael Jackson (much of the video for which seemed to be shot with what could be delicately called an "Unsteadi-Cam"); a George Michael tune that, in the next year, would peak here at #7; "Spaceman" by Babylon Zoo; a number by a British group featuring battling brothers that would barely make the Top 60 here in the next year; and a cover of the Bee Gees' "How Deep Is Your Love" by Take That.
Meanwile, here's the last Columbia single to hog the #1 spot for a significant part of a year until this came along . . .
As a 13yo girl when “One Sweet Day” came out, and a casual fan of both Mariah and Boyz II Men, I looooved this song. They played the video constantly on VH1 and to this day I know and do the hand motions of Wanya Morris’ many riffs along with the song. It’s sentimental, it’s a lil cheesy but also real so you can’t really say so except I and I’m sure others just did, I’d have considered it a fave at the time and it has lasted on mixed CDs and playlists since. I still listen to it!
One Sweet Day Oh jeez. Mariah Carey just had a song at number one that I actually thought was okay, and now she has to team up with these dorks and make some boring caca that absolutely no one in 1995 needed to hear. Mariah and Boyz2Men ain't Gladys Knight and The Pips, that's for sure.
Under The Pink by Tori Amos bowed at #12 in February of '94. So, those numbers are right in line with what a cult act would move in the early to mid '90s. Yeah, they seemed to blend genres more, especially with this album. Which is one of the reason why, when I heard these singles, I thought these guys were possibly the next Nirvana, because they weren't regurgitating the SOS.
Well, they were virtually unknown to me. I mean, I knew they existed and presumably had heard a song or seen them on MTV, but they hadn't really registered as a "thing". This album - and the growing media hype around them - changed that. Went and checked magazine covers from the period as well, and there was an explosion in Pumpkins coverage that began in December of 2004 and reached its peak mid-to-late '95. Rolling Stone, Spin, the in-house Tower Records magazine Pulse, etc. I don't recall seeing any of them at the time apart from this one: Which - Googling MTV's charts - makes sense, as this was the only Pumpkin's video to make the '94 MTV Top 100 videos. OK, so they outsold Tori Amos by a like a million. Pretty massive contrast between that and the Diamond-selling Mellon. Again, there's a reason why it felt to me in '95 like they were the next Nirvana. Whatever level of success they did or didn't enjoy prior to '95 - and I'd argue it was way more cult-like than mainstream - that was blown away by what was happening with them this year.
Yup. When I spent a few weeks in the summer of '91 in Bellingham one thing that stood out immediately was how different radio was up there vs. Phoenix. Way more of what I'd consider hard rock as a percentage of what was being played on the radio. But also not typical hard rock I was vaguely familiar with. In hindsight, I'm guessing at least some of this was either grunge or the stuff that inspired a lot of grunge. Some of it vaguely reminded me of college radio back in Phoenix, too. Vancouver, B.C. radio was different again. Way more UK influence up there than south of the border.
And Walter Afanasieff ain't Harry James or any of the musicians who played in his orchestra, for definite. But then, Elton John and Kiki Dee, when they did their "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" duet in '76, were no Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell either.
I currently have like five copies of the song, I just don't remember it. I never heard it back when it was on the charts.
