— Damon
"And the saxophone!"
— Trey
"That's a great vibe."
— David
2 Unlimited, Aaliyah, Abigail, Absolutely Fabulous, Ace of Base, Aerosmith, Alex Party, All-4-One, Tori Amos, Carleen Anderson, Animal, Anticappella featuring MC Fixx It, Arrested Development, Arrow, Aswad, Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic Starr, BC-52's, Bad Boys Inc., Michael Ball, Duke Baysee, The Beastie Boys, The Beautiful South, Big Mountain, Blackgirl, Blast featuring V.D.C., Blind Melon, Blondie, Blur, Michael Bolton, The Boomtown Rats, Boyz II Men, Brand New Heavies, Bravado, Toni Braxton, Bobby Brown, Jocelyn Brown & Kym Mazell, Kate Bush & Larry Adler, C&C Music Factory, Cappella, Mariah Carey, China Black, Clock, Clubhouse, Joe Cocker, Alice Cooper, Corona, Cracker, Crash Test Dummies, Crowded House, Chaka Demus & Pliers, D:Ream, DJ Duke, DJ Miko, Deep Forest, Degrees of Motion, Marcella Detroit, Tony Di Bart, Dinosaur Jr, Direckt, EYC, East 17, Echobelly, Enigma, Kim English, Erasure, Eternal, Aretha Franklin, Future Sound of London, Peter Gabriel, Galliano, Gloworm, The Grid, Gun, Guns N' Roses, Sophie B. Hawkins, Hed Boys, Helicopter, House of Pain, House of Virginism, Ice Cube featuring George Clinton, Janet Jackson, Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Jodeci, Joe, Elton John, KWS & Gwen Dickey, K-Klass, R Kelly, Kerbdog, Killing Joke, Kristine W, L7, Let Loose, Level 42, CJ Lewis, Lighter Shade of Brown, Livin' Joy, Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories, Lucas, Lulu, M-Beat featuring General Levy, Magic Affair, Sean Maguire, Manchester United FC, Manic Street Preachers, Richard Marx, Maxx, Bitty McLean, John Mellencamp & Michelle N'Degecocello, Dannii Minogue, Kylie Minogue, Morrissey & Siouxsie, Mr V, Youssou N'Dour featuring Neneh Cherry, Shara Nelson, Nine Inch Nails, Oasis, PJ & Duncan, Robert Palmer, Pearl Jam, Ce Ce Peniston, Dawn Penn, Pet Shop Boys, Pink Floyd, Pizzaman, Pop Will Eat Itself, The Pretenders, Primal Scream, Prince, The Prodigy, Public Enemy, Pulp, Bonnie Riatt, Eddi Reader, Red Dragon with Brian & Tony, Reel 2 Real featuring the Mad Stuntman, Roachford, Juliette Roberts, The Rolling Stones, Rollins Band, Diana Ross, Roxette, SWV, Salt 'N' Pepa, Sasha with Sam, Mollison, Seal, Shampoo, Shed Seven, Nina Simone, Skin, S*M*A*S*H, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Soundgarden, Sounds of Blackness, Spin Doctors, Status Quo, Dave Stewart, Stiltskin, Sugar, Swing Out Sister, Take That, Terrorvision, Therapy?, The Three Tenors, Time Frequency, Tinman, Tin Tin Out featuring Sweet Tee, Two Cowboys, UB-bloody-40, Utah Saints, Volcano, Warren G & Nate Dogg, Crystal Waters, Whitesnake, Wildhearts, The Wonder Stuff, Worlds Apart, Wrecky-N-Effect
Just as I had with Our Bryan a while back, I have chosen to provide a list of every "artist" who appeared on the UK Top 40 during the very extended reign of Wet Wet Wet's "Love Is All Around" in the number one spot. There are similarities between it and "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", both in terms of their status and the way the hit parades behaved during these two periods. Canada's favourite sandpaper-voiced son had a sixteen week stranglehold of the top spot while the Wets came just a week short of tying him. Neither one seemed particularly cool at the time and their extended reigns at the top only encouraged more of a backlash against them. (I visited the UK during that summer at the height of its popularity and returned to Canada before I could get completely fed up with it)
The two mammoth records also held off a pair of unlucky number twos. Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy" ended up stuck in the runner up spot for an extended period as did "I Swear" by All-4-One. (I suppose the fact that they both managed to make it to number one on the American Hot 100 made up for this disappointment though) Indeed, the upper placings on the charts during these periods seemed remarkably static. In '94 in particular it seemed like The Grid's "Swamp Thing" (still an incredible single), The BC-52s' "Meet the Flintstones" (as godawful as ever) and Aswad's "Shine" (better than I remember it being) took up spots in the Top 5 and just refused to budge.
Another link is that they were both aided by being in popular films: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in the case of "Everything I Do..." and Four Weddings & a Funeral for "Love Is All Around". As was the present Single of the Fortnight Best New Single, a cover of "Baby I Love Your Way" performed by Big Mountain from the acclaimed 1994 picture Reality Bites. Hmm...one of these parings of movie and song is not like the others, is it?
(Before moving on, yet another thing that the two massive hits share in common is that Smash Hits didn't want to have anything to do with either of them.)
While it was mercifully free of lutes and the sort of tune that would get your average morris dancer on their feet, "Everything I Do..." had a woodsy quality to it that went well with the Robin Hood flick; it no doubt helped that the gravelly-voiced, lumberjack Bryan Adams was behind it as well. "Love Is All Around" had a triumphant bombast (again, aided in large part to the unsubtle Marti Pellow on vocals) that suited the runaway joy of what is still one the finest rom com's ever made. "Baby I Love Your Way", however, hardly seems to work as part of what is considered to be one of the quintessential Generation X films. Such was it's status as an odd one out that it quickly became overshadowed by Lisa Loeb's "Stay (I Missed You)", which doubtless benefited from the singer-songwriter's unique status as an unsigned act with a number one hit.
Ethan Hawke's Troy is one of those movie characters who seemed to spawn real life imitators, even though he could be an insufferable twit. (Surely I'm not the only one out there who thinks Winona Ryder's Lelania would have been better off had she managed to work things out with Ben Stiller's Michael) Prior to 1994, I wasn't aware of anyone who gave a toss about "selling out"; afterwards, it became a matter of utmost concern to virtually everyone I knew. Kurt Cobain wasn't able to do as much as Troy when it came to a whole generation suddenly becoming scared about our creative endeavours winding up in the hands of corporate elites in exchange for a buck or two. (How glad I am that I have managed to avoid selling out this blog in spite of all the moneyed interests who've been sniffing around) It's strange, then, that a little-known reggae group hailing from San Diego would take their cover of a Peter Frampton number and have it used in a picture all about young people's alienation with the real world. People like Troy who were obsessed with "authenticity" would not have been pleased.
"Baby I Love Your Way" is one of those songs that seems to have lasted in spite of its overall lack of quality. While it gave its composer a sizable hit when plucked from his staggeringly successful Frampton Comes Alive concert set, it really wouldn't become a rock standard until Miami dance act Will to Power merged it with Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird" on a memorable, if tasteless, medley at the end of 1988. Funnily enough, it was the former that came out of it better than the latter in spite of the chasm separating the original versions. This had to have been down to the vocalists: while Suzi Carr sang "Baby..." like she was one of the Wilson sisters from Heart or Taylor Dayne or someone equally competent from the era, longhaired brute Bob Rosenberg had, to quote David Anthony in Smash Hits, a "weedy voice" which did "Freebird" no favours. Imagine my reaction when I finally heard the originals.
Will to Power's version was at best adequate but it gave a second wind to a poor song. Big Mountain's idea of putting it to a reggae backing is so inspired that it's hard to believe no one had thought of it earlier. It sounds like this was how it had been meant to be all along. It probably doesn't hurt that a little ganja would've livened up something so trite. It's easy to picture members of UB-bloody-40 erupting in a jealous rage when they first encountered this record — and, to be sure, they would have messed it up where Big Mountain added some much needed spark and sunshine.
Beyond the three lads in E.Y.C. (I looked it up and it doesn't stand for Excellent Young Cannibals) and a handful of others, Big Mountain's "Baby I Love Your Way" has never been a critical favourite. I can't say I love it either but it deserves a little less scorn. They didn't have much to work with so it's commendable that they were able to get something reasonable out of it. I'm sure Troy from Reality Bites would have ripped into them for allegedly selling out but Michael would've been into it, Lelaina wouldn't have been bothered by it and Vickie and Sammy would've played the hell out of it — and who can blame them?
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
"Absolutely Fabulous"
Not unlike annoying self-titled albums, this Comic Relief single is credited to Absolutely Fabulous, which is also the name of the hit comedy series of the same time and the name of this "song". But I'm just going to mark it down as the title. I would say it saved me the effort of having to type it twice but here I am expending full sentences explaining why. Jennifer Saunders already had experience with Red Nose Day novelty hits but it was Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe who did the heavy lifting in this instance, right down to them plundering lines of Edina and Patsy to fill out the "verses". Complaints about references to "Pump Up the Volume" and "Ride on Time" being dated miss the point: how up on current techno music do you expect a pair of middle-aged drug addicts to be? Not exactly the finest moment for anyone involved but a good time nonetheless — and only slightly ruined by the "lyrics" printed in ver Hits which confirm that it is indeed "dull and soulless dance music" rather than "Donald Saunders dart music" as I had long been convinced. I still prefer it my way.
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