We're a quarter into 1996 already. Some interesting things bubbling up on the charts here on the week of April 27th, at the end of Celine's #1 reign... 4 4 IRONIC –•– Alanis Morissette – 7 (4) "You Oughta Know" and "Hand In My Pocket" had made some impact already, but "Ironic" sealed Morissette's position as a major new star and fueled insane sales for the Maverick singer's Jagged Little Pill. Madonna suddenly looked like the most-savvy label boss on the planet, although her vanity imprint would never achieve similar success with any other act. Whether this is because Madge just got crazy lucky or got bored/jealous and decided to focus on her own career who's to say. But there was no doubt Morissette's psycho ex-girlfriend act stuck a chord with both the pop and rock album buying public, and this Diamond (16x Platinum) selling album was proof. While her career would never be anywhere near this hot again, for the remainder of the decade Morissette was the reigning cultural Queen of Gen X. The appropriately Gen X, low-effort "Ironic" video has - ironically - recently been remastered in 4K. The great irony of "Ironic" of course being that none of the circumstances described in "Ironic" are examples of irony. 11 13 TIL I HEAR IT FROM YOU / FOLLOW YOU DOWN –•– Gin Blossoms – 12 (9) Their first big new hit post the suicide of Doug Hopkins, from the Empire Records soundtrack. Launched them briefly to a new level as a Top 10 act in the US and it seemed as though they'd become a prominent jangly guitar rock act. But jangly guitar rock was on its last legs... 13 16 MISSING –•– Everything But The Girl – 38 (2) As if to emphasize this, EBTG's monster hit was finally falling down the charts...slowly...after 38 weeks and a #2 peak. In fact it actually rose three places this week. Can't keep a killer remix down. Audiences were clearly craving something more-electronic, and since the labels loved to chase success, they'd be getting it. 17 18 1979 –•– Smashing Pumpkins – 12 (12) Speaking of the Pumpkins, they were also experiencing a 1 position bounce on their way down the charts after peaking at #12 with their only Top 20 hit. A more-rhythmic than typical, alternative/post-grunge/art rock track. This video was all over TV, for years, and is a great example of Gen X slackertude. It definitely seemed to catch the zeitgeist of '96, along with Morissette's work. We were still in a weird lull from the economic recession of the early 1990s - the dot com boom was ramping up but largely very localized to the Bay Area and a few other hotspots - and a lot of people of my generation were looking at piles of student loan debt and severely diminished prospects. 22 33 GIVE ME ONE REASON –•– Tracy Chapman – 4 (22) 1988's #6 hit "Fast Car" sort of heralded the whole acoustic, more-organic movement in pop, but Chapman was never able to capitalize on that success on the pop charts and looked destined to be a one-hit wonder. But here she was on the tail end of that whole era she helped kick off with an even bigger hit, destined to climb to #3, her second and so-far final Top 40 single. She's to the acoustic / folky alternative '90s what Gloria Gyanor was to disco in the '70s, whose "Never Can Say Goodbye" and "I Will Survive" similarly bookended the disco era. 23 22 WONDER –•– Natalie Merchant – 21 (21) Second of three Top 30 hits for Merchant from Tigerlily, she was outperforming what her prior band had ever accomplished commercially. Probably my favorite of the Tigerlily hits. 25 30 JUST A GIRL –•– No Doubt – 20 (25) Headed to a #23 chart peak. Lead single off their monster Tragic Kingdom album that would ultimately go Diamond. While it sold roughly half as well as Jagged Little Pill worldwide, No Doubt would arguably go on to cast the longer cultural and musical shadow, and far more-successfully shift with the times, with lead singer Gwen Stefani going on to become - relatively briefly - a massive solo star in the middle of the next decade. "Don't Speak" had been released to radio as a single while Celine was clogging up the #1 spot and "Just A Girl" was peaking, and would go on to log 16 weeks at #1 on the airplay chart. But as it was never released as a physical single in the US, it wasn't eligible to place here on the pop charts, which it almost certainly would have topped. As a result the band never enjoyed a #1 single on the pop charts. The labels' insatiable greed strikes again. They were about to experience a rude awakening... 31 26 I WANT TO COME OVER –•– Melissa Etheridge – 11 (22) Etheridge had become a fairly consistent Top 40 presence since her #8 hit "I'm The Only One" back in '93, her first Top 40 single. She injected a bit of estrogen into the whole John Mellencamp axis of Americana rock. "Come Over" was I think her first "out" hit - KFOG played it into the ground here in San Francisco. The clock was ticking on this kind of music as a chart presence, but at the time it felt like this whole post-Unplugged sound would rule the roost forever. Her final (solo) Top 30 hit. 40 32 WONDERWALL –•– Oasis – 14 (8) These monsters of Britpop barely made any impact in the US, but "Wonderwall" was the exception, climbing all the way to #8 in the US. The assumption was they'd finally broke Britpop in the US and would continue charting singles here, but this would be their only Top 40 single and the genre had no real direct impact on this side of the pond. Honestly, I always found this single profoundly annoying, and got sick of Liam Gallagher's nasally flat singing almost immediately. Inexplicably, a slew of UK acts picked up the affectation at the end of the century as it became "trendy", probably barring them from entry to the US charts as well. 49 51 DON’T WANNA LOSE YOU –•– Lionel Richie – 3 (49) Richie had been gone an eternity between Dancing On The Ceiling in '86 and Back To Front in '92 and his top 40 career never recovered. That previous effort at least managed a pair of Top 40 singles at #20 and #21. Current effort Louder Than Words didn't even manage that, vanishing without a trace after placing this entry at #39, Lionel's final Top 40 single. Still, a 15-year career as a major Top 40 solo act - on top of his career as a Commodore - is nothing to sneeze at. Goodbye, Mr. Richie.
Sweat and LaBelle didn't acclimatize white soccer moms (and their kids, to some degree) to R&B vocal elements. Bolton and Dion did. I think it ultimately helped R&B acts down the line commercially.
Celine Dion - Because You Loved Me. There was a bloke who I worked with...bit off a **** licker, who absolutely love Dion. I never liked him. I never liked her. Another bland balladeer who sang bland generic ballads, I don't like this stuff!!!! 2/5
I presume the other Dion - a certain Mr. DiMucci (of "Runaround Sue" and "The Wanderer" fame) - would be more a favourite of yours?
Very true, there isn't a big style gap between Bolton circa '91 and Mariah circa '95. I guess I was thinking in terms of how Bolton/Grant/Estefan's ballads mainly stayed in their soccer-mom lane for airplay whereas Mariah/B2M were all over urban radio as well as soft rawk stations. Dion didn't get much, if any, urban airplay from what I recall and yet she thrived as her contemporaries receded.
"The Happening". Not one of the Supremes' best - and awfully dated - but it's okay! Apparently "Penny Lane" was #1 in Germany when I was born. I'll claim that one instead!
"The Happening" is definitely lower-tier Supremes. Still an okay song, but feels like it's trying waaaaay too hard to be "current".
It may been more Las Vegasy, and may not have been a huge hit (It still got as high as #11), but it's far from bad. For that, their fortunes started to fall with "Livin' In Shame". That one was lyrically a carbon copy of "Love Child".
I didn't say it was bad. I said it wasn't one of their best. And you chopped off the part of my statement where I said it was okay. And "The Happening" got to #1, not #11. Which is why it's under discussion... since the question looked at what song was #1 on the day of your birth.
I disagree. That wasn't intended. I notice that sometimes happens on this forum and I think it may be a bug of some sort. Ah! I referenced the R&B book by mistake.
None, AFAIK. But I do think she helped paved the way for successful R&B balladeers down the road by getting the soccer moms onboard, along with Whitney and also Taylor Dane to some degree from the legit R&B side of the fence. Dane's kinda forgotten now or considered a dance act, but her ballads were enormous.
Loathe "The Happening". Feels like a Vegas-y novelty tune, or like something you'd hear on Benny Hill. Atrocious.
I remember the discussion of "The Happening" when it was the current #1 mostly consisted of criticizing it. I remain surprised it didn't have more defenders. It's one of my favorite Supremes songs!
This thread would be quite boring if we all liked the same things. I love the song. I also like Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Engelbert Humperdinck, The Happenings, and Nancy Wilson. I grew up on that stuff.
Celine Dion was never R&B, or even really R&B adjacent. She was a pop balladeer, much like 80's Whitney Houston. Michael Bolton is in the same category, and I doubt either did anything for soccer moms getting into R&B music. R&B was changing rapidly in the 90's and the days of Babyface dominating the genre were numbered by '96. This was actually the year that Aaliyah dropped One In A Million and introduced Missy & Timb who were going to change the face of the genre drastically. Their music was far too edgy and interesting for soccer moms to be bumping.
In the mean time, I'd like to share a song that just missed the top 10, and peaked at #11 on the charts while Celine sat at the top. Joe's All The Things (Your Man Won't Do). A baby making classic that I'm sure spawned more than a few conceptions while it was on rotation Great song and great vocal. In my list of greatest male vocalists, Joe sits at #3 behind Luther Vandross and Peabo Bryson. He has the smoothest and most soulful tone. These were the guys I was getting into in high school and I always HATED that I sounded like a Broadway vocalists as opposed to an R&B one. #11 peaks are infinitely frustrating.
