EVERY Billboard #1 hit discussion thread 1958-Present

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

  1. Frank

    Frank Senior Member

    Blame It On The Rain - Milli Vanilli
    [​IMG]
    I mean, come on now. Maybe there's a good song in there somewhere, but it's nowhere to be found as presented on this record. This is terrible.
     
  2. KJTC

    KJTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    He was really good at executive producing albums, although I feel that approach worked better for artists like Dayne and Expose and limited his truly great talent, Whitney Houston. Her nineties releases were so much stronger because she had much greater creative control.
     
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  3. MongrelPiano

    MongrelPiano "When I was young they gave me a mongrel piano..."

    Location:
    USA
    "Nope, don't even think about blaming this plastic pile of nothing on me!"

    - The Rain
     
  4. Jmac1979

    Jmac1979 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    The problem with Whitney was that he was so consumed with dollar signs in his eyes that he stifled her from becoming a great. Janet for instance (not to
    mention the over present M) had maybe 20% of her vocal talent but she was able to stretch her creative muscle and ultimately had a much richer discography as a result.
     
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  5. KJTC

    KJTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    I think Whitney did just fine from I’m Your Baby Tonight through Greatest Hits. The decline after that, IMO, was related to personal struggles and not creative control. For me, Whitney had some great singles in the eighties but Clive was overly involved in making her pop, which meant watering down her R&B strengths. Jackson plays a role here, in that her work was crucial in breaking down barriers between the pop and R& B markets that made space for Whitney to make her best music in the nineties.

    Janet Jackson is a good example of an artist that I respect but haven’t much listened to. The only album I ever owned was Rhythm Nation 1814 and I have maybe three tracks from janet and The Velvet Rope combined. So I can’t make a fair comparison between her and Whitney or Madonna artistically. Madonna is my favorite non-country act and I love so much of Whitney’s music, so I have the complete catalog of both, with the exception of Whitney’s final album.

    I have immense respect for all three and believe they are all deserved of their membership in the Hall of Fame (and that Mariah should be in there with them, and I don’t think that I like any of her songs.) I’ll have to delve into more of Janet’s catalog!
     
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  6. Zombie Dodge

    Zombie Dodge Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dartmouth, NS
    The Rain has officially endorsed this instead:

     
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  7. Jmac1979

    Jmac1979 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    Being about 10 and stanning hard for Madge around this time, I would argue that Janet was the only other female pop star that really mattered at the time (not saying I disliked the others but she was the only one really posing a threat then), though she would hit the wall in the new millennium unfortunately.

    Like you I also prefer 90s Whitney but even I felt a certain blockbuster soundtrack felt like a regression after her 90 record was merely only a "hit" and not a diamond selling blockbuster on top of the chart for months
     
    Last edited: Jan 12, 2022
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  8. Reckoner

    Reckoner Made in Canada

    I can see young people discovering them through their streaming services, think they've stumbled upon something amazing and then after doing a little research for themselves or asking someone older "Who was Milli Vanilli?" they'll get told about the scam and say "Oh", and then move on. But, with having no real time, energy or money invested in MV, like those affected in the late 80's, they'll still listen to and enjoy the songs. They won't be bitter, like I am. :)
     
  9. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Good find, thanks!

    Blame it on the Clive!
     
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  10. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Get Control. It's young and dumb and full of fun.
     
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  11. KJTC

    KJTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    I figured that’s the best place to begin. That first run of four albums. Not bothering with the pre-Control ones.
     
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  12. torcan

    torcan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    Girl You Know It's True was my favorite album for 1989 and I like all the songs. I realize that Blame it on The Rain was probably the biggest hit, but I actually liked the second and third singles better and thought they were stronger. Blame It on the Rain finished in the 30s in my personal year-end chart, while Baby Don't Forget My Number and Girl I'm Gonna Miss You finished much higher. The title track was much lower because it took me a while to warm up to it at first.

    No matter who sang it - it was a great album!
     
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  13. torcan

    torcan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    Exactly. You bought it because you liked the songs...just because you found out the controversy, you still liked the same songs that you did when you bought it. I wouldn't want to remove this from my collection just because of that.
     
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  14. R79

    R79 Forum Resident

    Location:
    39629
    I remember this song and band for their appearance on the Super Mario Bros. 3 cartoon. Funnily enough, for home video versions, they had to cut out the song due to music licensing reasons, so you had MV singing to an instrumental track.
     
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  15. DesertHermit

    DesertHermit Now an UrbanHermit

    Blame It On The Rain - Milli Vanilli
    I didn’t know whether to laugh or throw up when I first heard this one. Still don’t.
    :laugh::hurl:
     
  16. MongrelPiano

    MongrelPiano "When I was young they gave me a mongrel piano..."

    Location:
    USA
    Huh, no kidding. "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You" always sounded like a sh*tty copy of "Make It Real" to me so good on the Jets for rejecting Vol-Di-Mort.
     
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  17. Cheevyjames

    Cheevyjames Forum Resident

    Location:
    Graham, NC
    Milli Vanilli - Blame It On the Rain

    Their best song. I ragged on Diane Warren with the last song, but I will admit that she can actually write a song even if I think it's not very good. At least this one is properly written and not a pile of stuff that doesn't work together like MV's previous songs. The vocal performance is still pretty bad and the instrumental backing is thin and sounds synthetic. Still, the vocal hook in the chorus is catchy and sells the song. If this song was put in the hands of a better producer, better musicians, and certainly better vocalists then it could be somewhat enjoyable and probably would end up in my "keep" pile. The performance kills this song, though.
     
  18. KJTC

    KJTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    Warren didn’t write “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You.” Not that I can distinguish between these songs.

    I didn’t get MV at the time and I still don’t get them now, but this thread has shown that their music has brought happiness to people and I’m happy for those people.
     
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  19. KJTC

    KJTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    This was right before I started really paying attention to current music around 1990. All of their stuff sounds off to me, vocally and production wise. I think I just missed the window of experiencing it while it was contemporary and I can’t get my head (or ears) around it now.
     
  20. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    The scuttlebutt was that the group name, translated, meant "positive energy." Which, as you would say, their music radiated to such people.
     
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  21. MongrelPiano

    MongrelPiano "When I was young they gave me a mongrel piano..."

    Location:
    USA
    I wasn't implying that she wrote it, I just thought it was interesting that there was a connection (albeit slight and indirect) between the Jets & MV beyond what I perceived in those songs.
     
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  22. KJTC

    KJTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    The connection is even stronger than that! The Jets recorded Warren’s song “The Same Love” on their 1989 album Believe, the same year MV recorded “Blame it On the Rain. “
     
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  23. KJTC

    KJTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    I’m usually so susceptible to that, too. My first favorite artist was Olivia Newton-John. She sang on her records, though! (And recorded a Diane Warren song, which might have been as mandatory as using too much reverb in this era.)
     
  24. Jmac1979

    Jmac1979 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    Geesh, now that you mention it, I hear it big time
     
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  25. Jmac1979

    Jmac1979 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    I always thought Arista made a gaffe by releasing "All Or Nothing" as the followup (and would be their last hit before the revelation, stopping at #4) when I think "Take It As it Comes" could've made yet another #1 hit

     

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