— Tony Cross
Taking a break from covering the comings and goings of the cast of Beverly Hills 90210, the opening pages of Smash Hits' penultimate issue of 1992 are instead devoted to the magazine's annual Poll Winners party. Rather than showing off pics of the acts with their awards, we have a smattering of people of some note who happened to turn up. The cover features Kylie, Take That's Mark Owen and erstwhile New Kid on the Block Jordan Knight; on the inside, they're joined by East 17's Brian Harvey and a very uninterested Mark Wahlberg (who may well have been plotting his shift from pitiful rapper to overrated actor). What doesn't feature is a spread on Smash Hits trying to work out the favourites for the coveted Christmas Number One.
To what should have been the surprise of absolutely no one, Whitney Houston took the title in '92 with her memorable if hugely overplayed "I Will Always Love You". I'm not sure how it would go on to become her signature song when she already had "How Will I Know" and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" but there's no denying that it was widely popular and remains so to this day. Also it the chart's upper echelons was Michael Jackson with a single I have no memory of ("Heal the World", I'm just going to assume it was another "Man in the Mirror"), Take That continuing to slowly establish themselves as Britain's most popular group, a pair of undoubtedly hopeless "mega-mixes" and a collaboration between the Stars of the World Wrestling Federation and the now duo team of Stock Waterman with "Slam Jam" (such is the rapidly changing world of pro wrestling that the British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith is one of the vocalists yet was already gone from the WWF by the time the single hit the shops; in fact, by early 1993 only two of this Smash Hits poster's stars — Bret "Hitman" Hart and The Undertaker — were still regulars in the fed's squared circle). It is only if you scroll down a bit that you'll find "Motownphilly" by Boyz II Men reaching what would ultimately be its peak of number twenty-three. I think they call that an also-ran.
"Motownphilly" had already been reviewed just over a month earlier when Mark Frith predicting that their "laid back harmonies and doo-wop hip hop that only Americans love" would catchy on pretty quickly over in Blighty before long. Presumably held off for the Xmas rush, Tony Cross similarly looks into his crystal ball and foresees a festive fave. Well, they aren't professional fortune tellers and even if they had been they would've also messed this one up.
The British have long embraced African American pop stars. Though they took to the likes of Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Prince and Whitney Houston, they often gave particular love to acts that had largely been ignored back home. I already blogged about Shalamar and Cameo becoming like national treasures in the UK and they were joined by Alexander O'Neal and Inner City as Americans with little-to-no popularity in the States who managed to break Britain. But this didn't work out for everyone. Luther Vandross was a big deal in the US for much of the eighties but he only made a modest impact across the water. Similarly, while Boyz II Men would enjoy a string of hits in their homeland, their success in the UK was decidedly more mixed — especially if you happen to ignore that hit.
But let's not ignore it for the moment. Even in the case of "The End of the Road", its record-shattering thirteen weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 dwarfed the fortnight-and-a-half it spent at number one in Britain. Nevertheless, it had an extended chart run, first when it took its sweet old time getting all the way to the top spot and then as it reluctantly worked its way down the listings (in the week after Christmas, it was still lingering and was just one spot below "Motownphilly" in the Top 30; a week after that and it was up a bit while its predecessor was beginning to fade away). You'd think with such a big hit on their hands that this re-release of a Top 5 US smash from a year earlier would've gone down a treat but the public hadn't yet become tired enough of the one they knew; by the time they did, they had evidently also become sick of Boyz II Men.
Tom Breihan in a largely positive retrospective review of "The End of the Road" admitted that when he was a kid he found the first Boyz album to disappointingly over-stuffed with slushy ballads. He wanted more of "Motownphilly", a song that he couldn't get enough of at the time and which he rates as a ten out of ten classic. I understand the frustration. The masses love their slow songs from movie soundtracks that they can slow dance to in their high school gymnasiums but I'm far less impressed by gushy songs sung with "meaning" and which as clearly meant to be "important statements". They're boring for the most part, especially in the hands of groups who trade in nothing but these slush-fests. Except for one vital problem: Boyz II Men were in their element with slow songs while fast-paced dance tracks didn't suit them one bit.
"Motownphilly" is such an on the nose title but does it really bear any resemblance to the music therein? Motown? Well, I think they were signed to what remained of the old Detroit-based Tamla label but I don't hear it myself. Philadelphia soul? Maybe in the case of something like "The End of the Road" but, again, I can't spot it here. More to the point, citing black popular music's most dominant styles of the sixties and seventies did them a world of good in terms of credibility. Just being yet another reasonable new jack swing dance number just wasn't going to cut it. It was only recently that I discovered that ver Boyz had been the prodigies of Michael Bivins, the Biv of Bell Biv DeVoe, the New Edition offshoot whose hit single "Poison" had been the rap-soul anthem of 1990. Having been globally successful with two separate groups over the past few years, Biv must've reckoned he could be a svengali in his own right for fellow Philadeliphians Boyz II Men. But new jack didn't suit this foursome nearly as well and not one of them could rap worth a damn so they were right to go the Babyface route to smooth R&B chartdom.
The British could only dabble in this kind of thing and I couldn't blame them. Having found a renewed appreciation for female-fronted acts of the time, I was also reminded of just how much I couldn't stand their male counterparts. The girls seemed to have a way with pop hooks and they seemed to delight in their status as riders of the giddy carousel; the guys seemed forever in a pickle over how serious they were meant to be. It was in December of the following year that Boyz II Men guest starred in an episode of the popular sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Will made a silly pledge to have them sing at his cousin's baptism which he somehow managed to pull off. While everyone else cracked gags with ease, the Boyz came out and did "Silent Night" or "Away in a Manger" or whatever it was (did I mention that it also doubled as a Christmas episode?) looking, as always, like they meant every single word of it. Being funny, looking like they were enjoying themselves, having a laugh, these were all meant for others in the world of pop.
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Nirvana: "In Bloom"
I always forget that Nevermind had four singles taken off of it. Nirvana's breakthrough which somehow isn't overrated didn't seem like it was potentially hit-packed but they did well with what they had, especially for a rock album. The first three simply had to be singles but I imagine there was some debate over the fourth. Luckily, the sneering sarcasm of the chorus of "In Bloom" was enough to ensure that they be able to fashion yet another nice video around it which I have to think must have sealed it. The funny thing is, you kind of want to mime along with it like a bunch of dweebs even if you haven't seen its memorable promo. I prefer the subtler Pet Shop Boys-ian style of irony but I dig Kurt Cobain's own unique take on it. An easy Single of the Fortnight Best New Single in my book even if it didn't need to be one.
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