Hammer: "Addams Groove"

11 December 1991

"It's good because he hasn't used bits from anyone else's songs in this like he used to all the time."

— Rozalla

In the summer of 1990 MC Hammer, aka Stanley Burrell, hit it big with a huge pop-rap tune while sporting ultra-baggy pants, a pair of glasses that he didn't really need and a goofy smile that gave away how delighted he was with his new found popularity. "U Can't Touch This" dominated the airwaves that year, even though Capitol Records conspired to hold down its single release in order to ensure stronger sales of the album Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em, a practice that would soon become the (annoying) standard in North America's music scene. (For more information, check out Chris Molanphy's Hit Parade podcast episode "The Great War Against the Single Edition") It spent nearly half a year at the top of the US album charts and it did pretty well damn-near everywhere else too. No one would've thought so at the start of the year but a 

A year later and he already seemed to be having a mid-life crisis. Trashed as a sell-out within the hip hop community, he toughened his image a bit, returning with "2 Legit 2 Quit" which everyone could see was a little too on-the-nose, while the title re-affirmed the suspicion that he had Prince-like pretensions in mind. Nevertheless, the re-branded Hammer was back and keen to show off his bona fides as a real ale rap star who wasn't just for ver kids. You know what would've been a clever move? Anything but doing the theme song to a family-friendly movie.

The Addams Family is one of those long-standing film/TV franchises which I've never had much to do with. I've never seen a re-run of the old television show from the sixties, I couldn't be bothered with either the 1991 cinematic remake nor its sequel two years later and I'm not particularly interested in checking out the recent Netflix series Wednesday. I do know they were ahead of the curve in reviving it as a movie in the nineties, a trend that would grow old very rapidly (with The Fugitive and Maverick being the two exceptions). Similarly, Hammer had a jump on cutesy rap numbers providing the theme song to pointless, unfunny so-called comedies. Damn, the nineties were pitiful, weren't they?

As Zimbabwean singer and guest reviewer Rozalla says, it makes for a refreshing change that Hammer's latest single isn't swamped in "anyone else's songs". That said, Burrell could've fitted a decent tune of his own around his raps if he wasn't going to rely on nicking other people's music. Meanwhile, he's more than happy to sample himself with "Addams Groove" closing out with repeated lines of "2 legit". Hammer is 2 Legit and so too are the Addams clan: I suppose if a cartoonish macabre horror family is to be considered credible than why not also a cartoonish hip hop star with a "message"?

Whatever charm "U Can't Touch This" had/has (it had little hope of appealing to me back then because (a) I didn't care much for hip hop beyond Dream Warriors and Monie Love and (b) it was impossible to avoid; nowadays I'd say that I don't hate it), Hammer's appeal had long since vanished by the time of "Addams Groove". The movie tie-in probably helped give him one more hit in the UK (American pictures would often have delayed release dates, giving their soundtracks the status as previews) but he was already done back in the States. Stanley 

Burrell's duality would persist: he tried his hand as a gangsta rapper and he has also been ordained as a minister. He may have fancied himself as tough and street savy but the Hammer that sampled Rick James, used Faith No More melodies, pranced around in pyjama pants with suspenders, soundtracked a sixties TV revival and had a "message" was, for all his other ills, the much more Legit option.

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Also Reviewed This Fortnight

R.E.M.: "It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)"

I like a lot of the acts reviewed in this issue but I'm not too crazy about what most of them chose to put out. As such, I've reluctantly chosen this classic single from R.E.M.'s  patchy 1987 album Document. (I say "reluctantly" because I would've preferred to write about something current) Though Out of Time is a stronger album than Document, there's no question which of the two had the better selection of singles (for such a big album, it's a little odd that the big hits seemed to dry up after "Losing My Religion" and "Shiny Happy People"). Interested in an R.E.M. that has both 45's and the long player down? Well, they were soon to unleash one. Meanwhile, Rozalla loves this "happy song" which happens to be about the apocalypse. Hey, if you can't make the end of the world into an excuse for a jolly rave up then I don't know what to tell you.

The KLF featuring Tammy Wynette: "Justified and Ancient (Stand by the JAMs)"

27 November 1991

"Half of the Smash Hits office is sick to death of this record because the other 50% of us insist on playing it 99 times a day."

— Johnny Dee

It was in the spring of 1998 that I bought my first country music CD. Gram Parsons was a figure I had recently become familiar with and my curiosity was such that I decided to invest in a copy of GP/Grievous Angel, a two-fer of the singer's only solo albums. (Rather surprisingly, this budget compilation is a far more satisfying listen than the more comprehensive three disc set The Complete Reprise Sessions from 2006) Frequently described as country rock, it was clear that he was much more of the former than the latter. Much to my astonishment, I wasn't turned off. This wasn't cornball country nor was it over-emotive; it was genuine but it didn't go overboard in having to prove it. Maybe there's something to this country rubbish after all. Too bad I wasn't able to recognize this six or seven years earlier when I first had the chance.

The KLF seem very locked into 1991, especially in North America where they didn't factor into the charts a year earlier. '92 had only just gotten under way and they promptly retired while having their entire back catalog deleted so they very much made the most of being a flash in the pan. The only thing was, their first three singles all sounded pretty much the same, as though a hip house collective had decided to try their hand at stadium rock. It proved a popular formula: "What Time Is Love?" had got the ball rolling before everything erupted with the still-extraordinary "3 a.m. Eternal". The little I managed to hear of "Last Train to Transcentral" left me feeling underwhelmed: it was fine but hadn't we already heard this kind of thing before?

Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty seemed to split The KLF's duality down the middle for their end of year releases. "It's Grim Up North", credited to alter-ego The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, is a total racket that is in dire need of a tune to go with it. Normally their hits are earworm friendly, going all the way back to 1988 Dr. Who-inspired chart topper "Doctoin' the Tardis" which they put out under the name of The Timelords, but "Grim" was an uncharacteristically ordinary work from them. Being on a creative and commercial roll, the single nevertheless nabbed a Top 10 spot though it would quickly fall off in order to make room for their shot at the Christmas Number One.

"Justified and Ancient" still retained that distinct KLF sound: there are those giant power chords, there's more than a little tribal chanting and associate Ricardo da Force goes on an extended rap in the bridge (since they "drive an ice cream van", I've always wondered if the late Ricardo Lyte's call to "make mine a 99" is in fact him placing an order for one of those lovely English soft ice creams with a flake bar sticking out of it; to think people bash British cusine, the chumps). Heavier elements are scaled back but what is most unexpected is the presence of country legend Tammy Wynette, along with some subtle slide guitar.

Cross-generational pop collaborations had been a thing for a while now. This space has already covered Aretha Franklin's duet with George Michael, the Pet Shop Boys bringing back Dusty Springfield from the brink of obscurity and that curious pairing of the Happy Mondays and that old bloke Karl Denver; the latter of these was also something of a cross-genre work as well, with the indie Mondays bringing in the country/Celtic folk yodelling of Denver. The big one in 1991 had been Natalie Cole's rendition of "Unforgettable" as a duet of sorts with her late father Nat King. The results weren't up to much but the sheer novelty of bringing back a legend from the dead ensured that it would be one of the biggest singles of the year. But with Wynette still very much alive, "Justified and Ancient" was able to be unique and far less creepy — and brilliant.

Irony had a role in this story as well. The Pet Shop Boys had recently released their controversial cover of "Where the Streets Have No Name (Can't Take My Eyes Off of You)", their homage to building up the power of U2's 1987 smash while tearing down their odious rock 'n' roll mythos (something, "ironically", Bono and co. were busy attempting to do themselves with their early nineties transformation). The last person pop kids would've expected to see fronting The KLF's latest record was an old country and western dame: we could have embraced it or we could've chosen to find the entire thing to be just a laugh. If I was to have guessed, I would have said that the majority of the pop stars I admired hated country music as much as I did. Far from appalling me, Drummond and Cauty managed to get away with it because they probably didn't mean it in the first place.

Happily, it didn't matter either way. "Justified and Ancient" transcended novelty pop becoming a magnificent work in its own right. Close-minded individuals might have dismissed "3 a.m. Eternal" as yet more "rap crap" but they couldn't just brush this one off. For a time it seemed like everyone had room for The KLF and Tammy Wynette in their lives. CBC radio, normally not accustomed to playing anything un-Canadian, much less a radical country-house track, put it on no doubt to bemuse middle-aged listeners. My folk music-loving parents kind of liked it. At school, everyone was into The KLF. Those self-righteous rap fans who always went on about it having a "message" (surely they must've known there was no message to be found in the music of Drummond and Cauty) loved them, for once putting me in agreement with a faction I normally had nothing to do with.

By Wynette giving an impassioned reading to a great song didn't get the pop kids to open their minds when it came to country music. We just couldn't get past our prejudices. It probably didn't help that in the spring of '92 the suddenly strength-to-strength Simpsons parodied country music in the season three classic "Colonel Homer". Original breakout star Bart spoke for us all when he proclaimed that "country music sucks", even if I was less keen on the radio shock jocks that supposedly "amuse us all" that he favoured. Then came "Achy Breaky Heart", the annoyingly catchy but still horrible hit single from Billy Ray Cyrus. Garth Brooks had been the biggest selling artist in North America at the time and he sucked too, especially to the ears of a late stage member of Generation X. In country, the chaff always stands out; as for the wheat, it's something one has to seek out. Either that or have The KLF serve it up on a silver platter.

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Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Simply Red: "Stars"

Of all the massive pop stars Mick Hucknall must be near the top in terms of those who are the most disliked. I'm sure the millions of records sold and hundreds — quite possibly thousands — of women bedded provides more than a little comfort but it surely must stick in his ginger craw that respect hasn't been as forthcoming. Honestly, he ought to try respecting himself more though. "Money's Too Tight (to Mention)" aside, Simply Red's many cover versions are dreadful while Mick's originals aren't too bad. "Stars" is one of his best. Giving up, at least for the moment, any hint that he is the legit heir to Al Green, early nineties Red became focused on recording some of the most well-crafted pop of the time. Emotional profundity be dammed, "Stars" is a rare belter that is impossible to dislike. As opposed to, say, Mick Hucknall.

Bim: "Factory"

18 March 1982

"Brilliant — but so far only Peter Powell seems to have realised it."

— Tim de Lisle

We tend to think of the indie DJs when it comes to champions of up and coming bands. John Peel supposedly cried when he first heard The Undertones' "Teenage Kicks" and his famed Peel Sessions were instrumental in getting bands signed to major labels and into the charts. Janice Long was similarly dedicated to lifting up bands on the fringes. Being on a public broadcaster like the BBC, there wasn't the commercial pressure to dedicate the bulk of air time to the hottest groups.

But it wasn't just the trendy disc jockeys who did this. To one extent or another, they all performed this task. Mike Reid may have voted Conservative and played tennis with Cliff Richard in his spare time but he was also an unlikely backer of Liverpool indie rockers The Icicle Works. Bruno Brookes was also a Tory but this didn't stop him from getting behind late-eighties' acid house, with the brilliant "Stakker Humaniod" owing at least some of its Top 20 success to Britain's most popular DJ of the era. Rather admirably, this generation of Thatcherites on the wireless thought nothing of promoting even the most staunchly left wing acts.

With his blond hair, dimple and cheery disposition, Peter Powell was a popular DJ who is recalled a lot more fondly than many of his contemporaries. While the majority of radio presenters past and present struggle to avoid making it all about themselves, he admirably kept his ego in check. Seemingly uninterested in being too cool for school, he got behind some of the more commercially dominant acts of Britain's second great pop boom, including Culture Club, Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet. Pop kids didn't need to be hectored by either self-righteous indie types or boomers stuck in the sixties; to have a DJ like Powell who didn't seem to resent current mainstream music would have been much appreciated.

Still, not everyone he backed enthusiastically took off. The Church are a long-standing Australian institution with a very respectable back catalog but they never troubled the UK Top 40 in spite of Powell's best efforts. Proving there's only so much one Radio 1 presenter can do, he was similarly unsuccessful in promoting London quintet Bim.

Culture Club, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet...and Bim? (The name doesn't quite fit in with the rest, does it?) Could they have become a part of the Second British Invasion? It seems far fetched though it really shouldn't. In lead singer Cameron McVey they had a figure with movie star looks, albeit seemingly without quite the same flair for the spotlight as Boy George and Simon Le Bon. They also crafted some fine singles that check all the required elements to please Tim de Lisle (and, indeed, Peter Powell). Exciting? Oh yes. Good for dancing? I can't see why not. Well-produced? I suppose so. And, crucially given the pop climate, powerful? As powerful as anything Lemmy or David Lee Roth had in them, that's for sure.

Let's just jump back to "Factory" being "well-produced". While not self-produced, it's notable that two very influential studio boffins were members of Bim. McVey would try his hand again at a pop career with a single called "Looking Good Diving" alongside partner Jamie Morgan. Their prospects were promising enough that it was produced by Stock Aitken Waterman. Its B side was the similarly-titled "Looking Good Diving with the Wild Bunch", a song that would soon evolve into "Buffalo Stance", the hugely popular and influential hit single for McVey's now wife Neneh Cherry. This would become his launch pad towards producing hip acts like Massive Attack and Portishead as well as pop groups All Saints and Sugababes. Bim bassist Stephen Street would also head in the direction of production, helming Morrissey's solo debut, the first five Blur albums and The Cranberries. Indie guitar pop wouldn't have been the same without him.

There's little doubt that their talent and experience in a band aided the careers of both McVey and Street as they found themselves coming into their own behind mixing desks. Yet, they somehow couldn't quite cut it as pop stars. They had a look, they had a sound, they even had power but what they might have lacked was lyrics for the kids to identify with. "Factory" is a great song but I can't really see it capturing the collective imagination the way Haircut One Hundred or The Associates had recently managed. "Love Plus One" and "Party Fears Two" made not make any sense but they're both aspirational, strange and whimsical. "Factory", not to mention Bim's other very well made singles, lacks these pop essentials.

But good on Peter Powell and Tim de Lisle to become mouthpieces for a group like Bim. Not everyone can be Duran Duran but it never hurts giving others a boost. "Factory" may not have been immediate pop but it remains "exciting, good for dancing, well-produced and powerful." Lesser acts have gone further with much less — Spandau Ballet being one of them.

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Mathématiques Modernes: "Disco-Rough"

They had a francophone name and a distinctly Continental image and yet it's tempting to wonder if Mathématiques Modernes were Japanese rather than French. (Why did it take me so long to realise that the two countries share a common pop tradition) The striking duo of Edwige Braun-Belmore and Fabrice Thiesset borrowed as liberally from Shibuya-kei as they did post-punk or anything they picked up from Andy Warhol — and at a time when it wasn't cool to try and sound as tacky and manufactured as possible. "Disco-Rough" has none of those vaunted qualities of "Factory" but its insistent rhythms and playfulness make it much more fun to listen to. Imagine being so cool that you're above dong a Peel Session. Mental note: forget UK-US pop, it's high time I went on a strict diet of Franco-Japanese stuff. More to follow — probably.

(Click here to see my original review)

Oceanic: "Wicked Love"

13 November 1991

"There's nothing quite like a "sooper" Oceanic tunlette to perk up flagging bodies and droopy eyelids, is there?"

— Marc Andrews

Are you sure about that Marc?

I'm going to get straight to the point: this record is a big pile of crap. Not nearly as exciting, fun or inventive as it thinks it is. Way too busy and cluttered for me to enjoy it. The singing doesn't do anything for me. A great big mess. No merit whatsoever.

Marc Andrews is correct that "Wicked Love" is a copy of previous Top 10 hit "Insanity" which was also lousy. I'm convinced that he managed to choose the worst new single here and so I'm going to provide my thoughts on all of this fortnight's contenders. This will allow me to (a) see if it is indeed the most pitiful of the bunch and (b) give me the chance to write about something other than bloody "Wicked Love". Let's get to it.

~~~~~

The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu: "It's Grim Up North"

The KLF, The Timelords, The One World Orchestra, The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu — and I'm probably leaving out other names that Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty used for their organization along the way. '91 was their year and they ended it in a big way, first with this thrashy racket which helpfully lists off some of England's grimmest towns and then a quick follow-up that I'll be getting to next week. Rather divorced from their fantasy Transcentral world of black and white police cars, stadium concerts and giant mobile phones which may explain why it didn't do anything beyond Britain. A clear step ahead of Oceanic but they were capable of much better.

C&C Music Factory: "Just a Touch of Love"

The law of diminishing returns is all over the singles review page this fortnight. At least C&C Music Factory managed to have three big hits before bottoming out with "Just a Touch of Love" as opposed to Oceanic and their one smash followed by a coattails riding follow-up. Not as terrible as I expected but not really my sort of thing. Next!

Cathy Dennis: "Everybody Move"

Now best known as a songwriter, Cathy Dennis had a successful pop career in her own right which peaked in 1991. She had a way with a tune and was nice to look at but she never mastered being comfortable as a pop star. Smash Hits pushed her hard but she had an easier time having hits in North America. Like C&C's "Just a Touch...", "Everybody Move" is just another ho-hum minor hit that wasn't going to convince anyone who had managed to resist her earlier chart entries. I think I liked it at the time but it could've been my hang up on redhead girls in my mid-teens that decided it for me.

New Edition: "Word to the Mutha"

A supergroup isn't really a supergroup unless current stars get together to form a band. New Edition had been a teen sensation in the eighties but then they grew up and virtually everyone involved became a star. Bobby Brown had dominated 1989 but associates Bell Biv DeVoe had stolen his thunder a year later with "Poison". And I think Ralph Tresvant had been big with one of those gloopy R&B ballads too. Then they reformed at a time when no one was demanding they do so and became one of the most forgettable band reformations in all of pop. Somehow not a hit. (Note: "Word to the Mutha" was officially credited to Bell Biv DeVoe with the others listed as guests; ver Hits was right to have gotten it wrong)

Julian Lennon: "Help Yourself"

In 1979 Bob Dylan became a born-again Christian and subsequently had a hit with "Gotta Serve Someone". Always game for taking the mickey, John Lennon responded with "Serve Yourself" which would go on to become a widely bootlegged favourite. Given the religious icons and hucksters on display in the accompanying video, it's likely that Julian was taking a page from his famous dad, right down to the Lennon-esque spoken part at the end. That said, it's one of those songs that people will describe as 'Beatley' even though it doesn't sound all that much like the Fab Four except in the generic sense. A good one which Andrews was not overly fond of for whatever reason. I was going to go with James but I think "Help Yourself" would've been my SOTF. Well done, Jules!

Shakin' Stevens: "I'll Be Home This Christmas"

There's an unwritten rule in pop that you have one shot at a Christmas hit — or at least there really ought to be. Shakey's early-nineties attempt at recreating the success of his '85 seasonal chart topper somehow managed to be even more feeble than cliche-fest "Merry Christmas Everyone" but he still had enough of a following to get into the bottom of the Top 40 with this, his first hit since "The Best Christmas of Them All" a year earlier. I doubt Cliff Richard was ever this crummy. I might even take "Wicked Love" over this nonsense.

Rozalla: "Faith (in the Power of Love)"

Zimbabwe's Rozalla Miller will be coming up in this space soon so this is serves as a bit of early research. The highlight is a searing .soprano sax part that is either synthesized or from an uncredited Courtney Pine. Rozalla's voice is a little too commanding for my taste but there are worse ways to spend three minutes. One of them is listening to Oceanic in fact.

Harry Connick Jr.: "Blue Light Red Light"/"The Bare Necessities"

"Let's light the tires and burn the fires, Big Daddy". Some people just don't know how to stick to what they're good at. Someone had to be Chet Baker-lite and it might as well have been Harry Connick Jr. "Blue Light, Red Light (Someone's There)" is an engaging recording though he sure managed to suck the fun out of "The Bare Necessities" from The Jungle Book. His nibs was clearly at his best with original material; as for standards, leave 'em for the fat lady to sing. Or Will Smith for that matter.

Belinda Carlisle: "Do You Feel Like I Feel"

Oh Belinda, the eighties are over. That quivering voice was so suited to fairlights and big drums and all that bombast so no wonder she had trouble adjusting to the next decade. I'm frankly surprised she did as well as she did during the first half of the nineties in the UK. For what it's worth I would've dug it three years' earlier. Meh.

James: "Sound"

Andrews reckons they've been on a Simple Minds trip of late and he's not wrong, even if "Sound" is nowhere near as dull as it ought to have been. Weird that they had "Born of Frustration" at their disposal but they decided to go with this as the first single from forthcoming album Seven. Then again, they strike me as the type of people who probably thought that "Sit Down" should've been a B-side. Odd choice of single but nevertheless a stellar example of the new septet James. Andy Diagram on trumpet steals the show. Incidentally, I'm beginning to fear that they'll never get their own entry on this blog. Shame.

Michael Jackson: "Black or White"

The one everyone doubtless expected to be this issue's Single of the Fortnight. Kudos to Marc for passing on it even if he could've done better; I'm right there with him in his underwhelment. Neither better nor worse than I remember it being, just sort of the same. The public had been so pleased to have Michael Jackson back (even if he wasn't even America's biggest MJ by that point) that they lapped up whatever he decided to put out. Bloody hell, that video is garbage and always was. Certainly no "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough" but I think we were well past the point of expecting something genuinely great. 

Extreme: "Hole Hearted"

Out to prove that they were more than a metal band desperately trying to have a hit with an acoustic ballad and they deliver...more acoustic stuff. "More Than Words" may have been crap but "Hole Hearted" was a modest improvement. Grunge is said to have killed metal (at least until the end of the nineties) but I reckon it killed itself. 

Bizarre Inc.: "Playing with Knives"

Jesus Christ, what the hell was with 'Inc.' being used so often back in the nineties? There was Models Inc., Money Inc., Inc. 182, it just never ended. Can't say I'm familiar with Bizarre Inc. but this reissue of "Playing with Knives" gave them a Top 5 hit. Not much to say here but it's better than "Wicked Love" because of course it is.

Bryan Adams: "There Will Never Be Another Tonight"

It's hard to say if the mammoth popularity of "Everything I Do" helped Bryan Adams' subsequent singles from album Waking Up the Neighbours or if it caused a backlash. Imperial periods don't normally include number thirty-two hits but the fact that this and predecessor "Can't Stop This Thing We Started" ("can't stop this cause we farted") performed as well as they did was probably due to his popularity being at an all-time high. Not great and miles away from "Cuts Like a Knife" and "Summer of '69" but not quite the worst thing on offer here.

~~~~~

Fourteen also rans and all but one are at least a bit better than "Wicked Love". But respect to Marc Andrews nonetheless: he avoided the obivous pick (MJ) and failed to be swayed by trendier types. He went with his favourite and good for him. The fact that his favourite is bloody awful matters little in the end.

~~~~~

Not Reviewed This Fortnight

Eg & Alice: "Doesn't Mean That Much to Me"

Reduced to a mention in the singles review sidebar but I've been a backer of Eg & Alice and their great lost album 24 Years of Hunger for so long that I just had to include them. Honestly, "Doesn't Mean That Much to Me" wouldn't have been my first pick as a single to promote the ex-Brother Beyond member's team-up with a former model and BMX champ but their sole LP of dense and moody sophisti-pop isn't exactly loaded with potential hits. This is one of the finest examples of how beautifully Eg White and Alice Temple harmonized. People often wonder why they weren't bigger but I just wish they'd recorded more together. Well ahead of virtually everything else here is this fortnight...yes, even Oceanic. 

U2: "The Fly"

30 October 1991

"Wooh!!!!! And it deserves exclamation marks!!!! As many as possible!!!!!!!!!!!! Blimey."

— Sian Pattenden

2 Unlimited, 808 State, Paula Abdul, Bryan Adams, Oleta Adams, Marc Almond, Anthrax, Kim Appleby, Arnee & The Terminaters, B.E.F. featuring Lalah Hathaway, Big Country, Bizarre Inc, The Black Crows, Blur, Marc Bolon & T-Rex, Michael Bolton, Bomb the Bass, Billy Bragg, Bros, Brothers in Rhythm, C&C Music Factory, Mariah Carey, Belinda Carlisle, Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, Cher, Marc Cohn, Cola Boy, Natalie Cole, Color Me Badd, Congress, Alice Cooper, Beverley Craven, Cubic 22, The Cult, DJ Carl Cox, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, DJH featuring Stefy, Deacon Blue, De La Soul, Cathy Dennis, Dire Straits, Divinyls, Jason Donovan, Driza Bone, EMF, Electronic, Enya, Erasure, Gloria Estefan, Extreme, The Farm, Fish, Flowered Up, Amy Grant, Guns N’ Roses, Heavy D & The Boyz, Whitney Houston, Human Resource, INXS, Incognito, Infiltrate 202, Jesus Jones, Jesus Loves You, Sabrina Johnston, Kiri Te Kanawa, Frankie Knuckles, Lenny Kravitz, Latour, Sophie Lawrence, Julian Lennon, Level 42, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, Little Angels, Londonbeat, MC Hammer, Manic Street Preachers, Marillion, Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch, Martika, Don McLean, Metallica, Bette Midler, Dannii Minogue, Kylie Minogue, Moby, Monty Python, Morrissey, Mötley Crüe, Alison Moyet, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Stevie Nicks, Oceanic, Omar, OMD, Ozzy Osbourne, PJB featuring Hannah & Her Sisters, P.M. Dawn, Ce Ce Peniston, Pet Shop Boys, Prince & The New Power Generation, The Prodigy, Public Enemy, Queen, Queensrÿche, R.E.M., Shabba Ranks featuring Maxi Priest, Vic Reeves & The Wonder Stuff, Cliff Richard, Right Said Fred, Roxette, Rozalla, Runrig, Saint Etienne, Salt-N-Pepa, The Scorpions, Seal, The Shamen, Simple Minds, Simply Red, Slade, Sonia, The Sound of Eden, Lisa Stansfield, Status Quo, Rod Stewart, The Stone Roses, T99, Technotronic, Kenny Thomas, Tin Machine, Tina Turner, Union featuring England World Cup Rugby Squad, Midge Ure, Utah Saints, Vanilla Ice, Voice of the Beehive, Crystal Waters, Wet Wet Wet, Karyn White, Young Disciples, Paul Young, Zoë

The one hundred and forty-two acts listed above all share one thing in common: they all occupied spots between numbers two and forty on the UK charts while Bryan Adams' immovable "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" sat at number one. A total of a hundred and sixty-seven singles took spots in sixteen weeks' worth of singles charts and all came up short of dethroning that mawkish power ballad from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves that refused to die. Following along from abroad back in Adams' native Canada, it was a site to see: it ruled the charts there for the bulk of the summer just as it did everywhere else but we all moved on. Except the British who just couldn't seem to tire of the bloody thing. 

The above list is an impressive one. At least fourteen of these groups and singers are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with a few more surely to follow (possibly even Bryan himself, despite what his many detractors might have to say on the matter, though it should be said he doesn't seem to be getting much support so far). There are acts that people revere to this day and others that have mercifully been forgotten about (and quite a few I've never heard of). Some I'm surprised to see appearing this late, others coming in earlier than I would've expected (I would never have anticipated encountering Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam and Moby as chart contemporaries).

Plenty of these people appear more than once as well. Cher, Extreme and R.E.M. all had singles on the charts when Bryan took the top spot, had follow-ups appear in the midst of his reign and then each had a third crack at it with "Everything I Do" still in the top spot. Bryan himself even had follow-up single "Can't Stop This Thing We Started" go in and out during this time. It was at number one for so long that it must've seemed like it would never fall off. Clearly, something special was going to have to emerge in order to dethrone it.

If "The Fly" itself wasn't terribly special then the return of U2 was reason enough for Adams' reign to end at just shy of four months. Ver 2's fanbase couldn't have been happier that they were back, those of us who thought they were okay were fine with them being back and those that hated them were probably just grateful that someone had finally turfed Bryan Adams from the top spot. For perhaps the first and only time, U2 weren't the divisive ones.

Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen were big enough and still young enough at the time that they could easily have come out with more of the same and still claimed the number one for the first week of November, 1991. In fact, this hypothetical reworking of "Pride" or "With or Without You" or "Bad" might have even managed an extra week or two on top. The fact that they went to number one with such a radical departure seems all the more remarkable.

The first inkling that things were changing for U2 was in August of 1989 when Clayton was busted for carrying some weed into Dublin Airport. This was clearly for his own use but that didn't stop self-righteous types from stepping onto their soapboxes. MuchMusic's Erica Ehm expressed her disappointment in a very hectoring tone but it's significant that his bandmates stood by him. Very little was said about it after the shock wore off and everyone moved on. Among those moving on were the members of U2. (In retrospect, the other sign of changes afoot was the track "God Part 2" on the otherwise rootsy Rattle & Hum album. Though clumsy lyrically, its rhythm is groovy and even sexy with a bit of an industrial beat. It also features some of The Edge's fiercest guitar work; Bono was going to have to up his game though)

Still, nothing could have prepared the public for what was to come. "What the hell was that?", we all cried the first time "The Fly" came on the radio. What had U2 done with themselves? Adam Clayton started dating supermodel Naomi Campbell and suddenly they're the most glamourous band on Earth? Pop kids such as myself assumed they'd been listening to nothing but the likes of Happy Mondays, Primal Scream and The Stone Roses for the past couple years while critics decided that their new sound was the product of Nine Inch Nails (as Brian Eno once said, only 10,000 people bought the first NIN album but everyone who did was already in a band who just happened to be looking for a change of direction) but I wonder if it was mostly a case of U2 rediscovering their non-American musical roots. Bowie's Berlin period, Krautrock, The Associates, Gang of Four, Joy Division and the post-punk/new wave scenes in general inform nineties' U2 at least as much as bloody Trent Reznor or Shaun Ryder. No wonder this new approach seemed to suit them so well: it had always been there.

"The Fly" gave them just their second UK number one but it lacks the legacy of much of the material from their peak period. Notably, it got left off the North American edition of The Best of 1990-2000 compilation. Subsequent singles from coming album Achtung Baby — "Mysterious Ways", "One", "Even Better Than the Real Thing", even the inferior and thoroughly unnecessary "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" — are all better remembered today. If it's recalled at all these days, it's as the song that finally toppled that damn Bryan Adams from the top of the UK charts. But it deserves better. Not many people return from a layover with something so startling — not even U2 themselves when they emerged from their so-called ironic period in 2000 sounding even more painfully U2 than anyone could have ever imagined.

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Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Genesis: "No Son of Mine"

By 1991, Phil Collins had balanced his commitments to longtime band Genesis with his solo career so deftly that it was difficult to tell the difference. Would anyone have noticed had "No Son of Mine", "I Can't Dance" and those other two been released under his own name? U2 would soon unveil their own much more considered account of inter-generational familial hardship with "One", a song that rapidly exposed this as the load of old nonsense that it always was. It's supposed to be about the man of the house beating either his wife or child but the narrative sure seems to side with the bastard of the story. Yeah, a boy who's been traumatized by a violent POS really ought to be the bigger person and reach out to daddy, am I right? How about "No Dad of Mine" instead, Phil? And yet, it went to number one in Canada for five weeks. I ought to think twice about making fun of the British for "Everything I Do", huh?

The Associates: "Party Fears Two"

4 March 1982

"The song is excellent with an Abba-style piano tune (at least I think it's a piano) breaking up the verses, rolling drums and a lyric which starts in the shower and proceeds to a party."

— Neil Tennant

I must say it's rather nice to be blogging about Neil Tennant as a Smash Hits critic after having just posted the sixth and possibly final Single of the Fortnight for the Pet Shop Boys. As I have written before, being a valued member of the Hits staff and then a pop star of more than some "note", he was bound to factor into the story of this top pop mag. Having pumped out his fair share of synthy classics, it's cool to see how he rates a synth-pop number of old. Well, sort of.

The Associates have often been cited as purveyors of synth pop along with the likes of The Human League, Soft Cell, Blancmange, Yazoo, Depeche Mode, New Order, Erasure and, yes, ver Pet Shops. I've said it before and I'm not alone. Simon Price in his liner notes to the essential Sparks compilation Past Tense lists them as part of the trajectory of synthy duos that came along in the aftermath of the late-seventies/early-eighties' success of the Maels (I don't have my copy of it handy but, in addition to many of the groups mentioned above, he may also have brought up Eurythmics and Tears for Fears). They appear as a pair on many of their album and singles covers (though that's not the case in their videos).

The duo aspect is difficult to ignore but I'm not so sure it's a synth-pop dynamic so much as it is the classic charismatic vocalist with moody instrumentalist pairing at work. Yes, the Maels seemed to operate in this fashion and so, too, did Tennant and Lowe and Lennox and Stewart and Alf and Clarke but this type of relationship existed outside the fairlight synths and Linn drum machines. Morrissey and Marr remain arguably the definitive singer-instrumentalist pairing and they did indie rock jangle. What's more, they were part of a quartet, The Smiths. As for The Associates, when Johnny Black inquired about how many members they had, he was only given the vaguest of answers. "Somewhere between two and nine people," was singer Billy McKenzie's best guess.

Synth-pop or not, duo or nonet, "Party Fears Two" is so outstanding that McKenzie and Rankine would struggle to better it. They came close, particularly with much of the Sulk album that would be released two months' later, but even otherwise solid singles like "Club Country" and "18 Carat Love Affair" pale in comparison. Their early indie work hints at something special to come, while their later, post-Rankine material manages to sound like McKenzie was having considerable difficulty recapturing what they once fleetingly had. To describe them as a 'flash in the pan' smacks of being derogatory but it's a label that fits.

In any case, who cares if they never came close because "Party Fears Two" is simply a perfect pop song. Though frequently knocked for his vocal histrionics (Fred Dellar, in an otherwise positive review of Sulk, says they "mar and jar") McKenzie's singing suits their material. Anyone who is so over-dramatic in real life would of course be a nightmare to deal with but these people frequently make the best pop stars (no wonder he and Morrissey got along so well, at least for a time). I have to think that Tennant is thinking of "Dancing Queen" when he brings up the "Abba-style piano" but the keys twinkle even more delightfully here. (Having trusted what I saw in the video, I credited the "fetching" Martha Ladly with the piano part but it seems it was Rankine's all along; perhaps they just wanted her there so they could have someone the camera loved just as much as McKenzie)

Sadly, we are now living in a world in which both of the core Associates are no longer with us. Luckily, they remain fondly remembered. McKenzie was said to have been the inspiration for The Smiths' "William, It Was Really Nothing" (which prompted an eventual reply song "Stephen, You're Really Something" recorded during a brief McKenzie-Rankine reunion in 1993). Rankie would go on to lecture at Stow College in Glasgow where he would play a vital role in the formation of Belle & Sebastian. Most of all, they put together "Party Fears Two", a number that borrowed from elements of the seventies but managed to point the way forward for many in the eighties. Simon Reynolds called them the "great should-have-beens of British pop" but at least they were all that this one time.

Rest in Power, Billy and Alan.

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Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Shakatak: "Nightbirds"

Shakatak have released thirty-three albums? Seriously? I don't think this English jazz-funk group has ever been dubbed an institution but if anyone deserves the label, it's them. Chances are they've recorded at least a couple dozen songs that rival "Nightbirds" and it behooves me to seek them out pronto. I wonder if their only other Top 10 hit "Down on the Street" measures up to this sleek and effortless bit of wonderment. Or what about near-miss hit "Feels Like the Right Time" from when they were wet behind the ears? Or the much more recent "All Around the World Tonight"? So much for me to explore. And, hey, if the remainder of their vast discography happens to be a disappointment, then at least they'll always have the incomparable "Nightbirds" which would end up being their very own "Party Fears Two", right down to the identical chart peak. "Me, I love it," Tennant concludes. You and me both, Neil.

(Click here to see my original review)

Pet Shop Boys: "DJ Culture"

16 October 1991

"Pump up the posh people time as Neil and Chris gird their designer-clad loins and topple headfirst into the swirling frenzy that is nightclub culture."

— Miranda Sawyer

This October, 1991 issue of of Smash Hits includes a Gordon Bennett! feature about the precarious state of the single. "Top of the Pops no longer features a Top 40 rundown. Sales of singles have reached an all-time low." Ver Hits proceeded to ask youths from all over Britain about it.

Their answers vary (some prefer not to have B sides, others like them and wish for more extras; some would like to buy more 45's, others seem content to wait for albums to come out) but they all seem to agree that singles had become a rip off and were no longer worth bothering with. While the Hits seemed concerned by this development, it's likely that the big record labels were happy with their prediction that "by the end of the century singles may no longer exist". In Britain they were allowed to grow prohibitively expensive for the average youngster while in the US they were being gradually phased out so that listeners would be forced to buy albums just for one song (aka to pull a Chumbawumba). CD formatting would revive the single somewhat in the mid-nineties but the days of kids snapping up 45's on a weekly basis en masse were drawing to a close.

And they certainly weren't snapping up many of the new releases in this same issue. Of the twenty-two records either reviewed by Miranda Sawyer or mentioned in the Also Released This Fortnight sidebar, not one managed to make the Top 10. Only eight were able to crack the Fun Forty — and the bulk of them aren't especially memorable. "The Show Must Go On" is mostly notable as the last Queen single released during Freddie Mercury's lifetime; "Caribbean Blue" (not reviewed since they evidently had to make room for the likes of Five Star and The Osmond Boys) is perhaps Enya's second or third best remembered song, so that's something I guess.

This even goes for "DJ Culture", Sawyer's Single of the Fortnight. There had been a time when the release of a new Pet Shop Boys' single meant a guaranteed Top 5 smash but this was no longer the case. Following the success of "So Hard" (their tenth Top 10 hit on the bounce) a year earlier, they had struggled to keep the megahits coming. The much-loved "Being Boring" proved to be their lowest charting single since the original version of "Opportunities" flopped back in 1985. In a move that smacked of desperation, they put out a cover of U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name" which returned them to the upper reaches of the chart but this also prompted a backlash. Then, the magnificent "Jealousy", closing track and one of many highlights on their album masterpiece Behaviour, only got to number twelve. There's nothing wrong with peaking within the Top 20 but for sure this was a come down.

With the coming Pet Shops' greatest hits package Discography: The Complete Singles Collection it was decided to tack a pair of new tracks to the end of it, just as Madonna had done a year earlier on her Immaculate Collection. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe agreed to do so but weren't overly keen on it. "Chris spent the whole time saying, 'Obviously they'll both be flops'," recalls Tennant. Putting new material on best of's is supposed to be a good incentive for potential purchasers but it sets up an unwinnable situation: people flock to the compilation at the expense of one of the supposed 'greatest hits' on it.

"DJ Culture" failed to dent the Top 10 — while Discography proved unable to give them that long sought after number one album; quite why it didn't become one of those mega-selling comps like Eurythmics' Greatest Hits or The Beautiful South's Carry on Up the Charts is anyone's guess — but the song was ahead of its time in at least one respect. Having been composed in the aftermath of the First Gulf War, Tennant observed that supposed war hero leaders like George Bush and John Major began using Churchill as a way of bigging themselves up. Instead of speaking their minds, they relied upon "samples" of quotations, just as DJ's and remixers sampled other records.

What Tennant wasn't to know at the time is that through television syndication and social media everyone began sampling the words of others in order to pass themselves off as wits. (I am by no means being judgmental: I am as guilty as anyone of quoting Seinfeld, The Simpsons and The Office as a means of trying to be funnier than I actually am) The 1995 VHS reissue of the Star Wars trilogy (as well as the subsequent 'Special Editions' that hit theatres a couple years' later) resulted in a lot more people becoming familiar with lines from these iconic pictures. Oddly enough, it was around this point that the famous misquote "Luke, I am your father" became much more prevalent in the culture; thinking about this blog post has made me wonder if misqotes are as accidental as we make them out to be.

Quoting Churchill went from something that only the lettered would do to an idiot's favourite passtime. Knowledge of the source mattered little. My own Churchillian quote choice is the one about the female MP (possibly the UK's first though I have no idea) who was critical of the prime minister being intoxicated. He shot back that while, yes, he was drunk, he would be sober in the morning but her unattractive state would be harder to clear up. Is this even close to what he actually said? Who's to say? What matters is I used Churchill in my own words. Bully for me.

Tennant misquotes Oscar Wilde with the line "And I my lord, may I say nothing?". There's no place left for the true wit to thrive. They've been replaced by an endless stream of quotations and misquotations. Those individuals with a unique voice inevitably get drowned out by the din of everyone else getting a lyric wrong or repeating a famous person with garbled syntax. We're now coming to a point in which those with the largest platforms complain that they are being silenced while what they actually have to say is of little value. There's no room for the public intellectual when everybody has a voice that they don't even use responsibly.

With "West End Girls" capturing them on the cusp of stardom and "Left to My Own Devices" at a creative peak, it's only right that the Pet Shop Boys would bring their six year run of unbeatable singles to a close with a third in a series of brilliant half-rapped, half-sung records. It isn't quite as astounding as either of them but the song's bridge rates as one of their finest. The dreamy "indulge yourself, your every move" passage turns it into yet another certified PSB classic. Sawyer astutely observes that they're "at their best when they're wistful" — it just takes time for the wistfulness to settle in. (This could be explained by the song's cut-and-paste roots, having been pieced together over the past several months)

Amusingly, Sawyer manages to double down on her blasse attitude towards "Being Boring", a single she assessed a year earlier as lacking the "swooshy drama or singalong chorus that Pet Shop Boys songs are made of". She didn't trash it but her lack of enthusiasm for what many — myself included — rate as Tennant and Lowe's greatest moment is still baffling. Much as I love "DJ Culture", I couldn't possibly say that it "knocks spots" off of "Being Boring". There's a reason one of these two songs remains a firm part of Pet Shop live shows to this day while the other has almost become an afterthought (to quote Sawyer, "sad but true"). 

I picked up Discography that November. I was grateful to have "DJ Culture" and other new track "Was It Worth It?" but I was even more thrilled by singles mixes of "Suburbia", "Heart", "Left to My Own Devices" and "It's Alright". (I was even excited to finally have "Where the Streets Have No Name": those kids in Smash Hits weren't the only ones who seldom bought singles) The two tracks at the end felt like a bonus, which in effect they were. The Pet Shop Boys had been such an important part of my life but I was now beginning to wonder how I might cope without them. (Was it even a certainty they'd carry on past this greatest hits they'd just put out?) It was time for them to step away for a while so that we might be allowed the opportunity to miss them. And just like "Liz before Betty, She after Sean", they were set for a rebirth of their own.

 

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Also Reviewed This Fortnight

MC Buzz B: "Never Change"

Bunny's runner-up for SOTF and one she seems to gush over more than the Pet Shops — "he's the Shakespeare of rap (only not as boring)". This MC Buzz B bloke (aka Sean Braithwaite) made significant use of Bruce Hornsby & The Range's "The Way It Is" thus putting him ahead of the curve of rapper's using samples of MOR adult contemporary, a trend that would continue throughout the nineties. He maybe could have dialed back on piano loop a bit but otherwise this is a splendid effort that deserved better than going absolutely nowhere. Really the only other decent single reviewed this fortnight in a batch of flops that aren't much fun to listen to.