Whatever - The '90s Pop & Culture Poll CD 1

Seems to me a lot of members here will have a lot of favourites to choose from. I don't find this first CD too impressive, really, but gladly vote for a great song by Jesus Jones.

Some big tunes right here.

Went with TMBG because Deee-Lite will win anyway. Naughty By Nature, The Divynls, and The Sundays are all 9/10 tracks though.

Michael Penn, TMBG, Sundays, Dee-Lite and Divinyls are the best here. I vote for Michael Penn.

Went with Sinead O'Connor because Deee-Lite will win anyway.

voted for Michael Penn cause I'm shocked Geir didn't.

Mother Love Bone is kind of a WTF inclusion, guess they couldn't get a Pearl Jam song

voted for dee-lite because somebody has to if they're going to win anyway.

almost voted "new jack hustler."

first time i heard the divinyls track i was sitting on the couch of a shitty student apartment watching mtv, getting stoned with one of my roommates. it took about half the song to register with us what was going on. there were some glassy glances of OMG. then we kept watching for hours hoping they'd show it again.

The Sundays, easy.

So, not a "The The" poll then?

Mother Love Bone is kind of a WTF inclusion

Compared to Social fucking Distortion it's thuddingly obvious!

I like how this CD is a little souvenir of a terrible year...

("nothing compares 2 u" better get some votes up in here too)

??? - i hear "Ball And Chain" on the radio like once a week, never heard Mother Love Bone anywhere other than when I bought a CD. (xpost)

Nobody's ripped off (been able to rip off) "Groove is in the Heart" in the past 17 years.

Social D had a hit in the States?? I had no idea, they never crossed over in the UK at all

truth bombs

guys grab a girl don't wait make the twirl
its your world and i'm just a squirrel
tryna get a nut so move your butt
to the dance floor

The Mother Love Bone track is awesome. This sequence is insane:

BALL AND CHAIN – Social Distortion
BIRDHOUSE IN YOUR SOUL – They Might Be Giants
CHLOE DANCER/CROWN OF THORNS – Mother Love Bone

I hear ya some dude, just threw me cos almost all the other songs on the comp were translatlantic hits or at least had a degree of recognition factor in the UK

Oh, apart from Michael Penn on whom I'm drawing a blank... hey I think I'm gonna shut up now

lol @ Social D being pop culture

NOTHING COMPARES 2 U – Sinéad O’Connor
UNBELIEVABLE – EMF
IT’S SO HARD TO SAY GOODBYE TO YESTERDAY – Boyz II Men

This is impossible.

i never realized this box is "pop & culture." Barrrrrffffffff

if you guys looked at the whole tracklist and overall m.o. of this box it's pretty obviously inclusive of a lot of college radio hits and cult acts and deep cuts alongside the megahits. The Gits are on here!

i guess the gits are the culture part.

WALKING IN MEMPHIS – Marc Cohn

what the hell is this? only song on here I don't recognize

anyway Dee-Lite for sure

"walking in memphis" is one of those songs that i never heard during the entire 1990s but now it shows up on every list of 90s pop songs and i know tons of people who get totally sappy over it.

it goes.

(piano arpeggios)
put on my blue suede shoes as I.. boarded the plane
touchdown in the middle and the skies were blue, inthe middle of the pouring rain..

etc. Some of those words be wrong, but close enuff...

NO MYTH – Michael Penn
BALL AND CHAIN – Social Distortion
CHLOE DANCER/CROWN OF THORNS – Mother Love Bone
HERE’S WHERE THE STORY ENDS – The Sundays
WALKING IN MEMPHIS – Marc Cohn

I've never heard of these songs or these artists, were they like big in the US only?

(sundays = british)

i heard "walking in memphis" a lot while working in a u.k. pub circa '91.

I always thought "Walking In Memphis" was a massive hit in America. It's a drivetime radio staple over here. Big karaoke tune as well.

No Myth was Michael Penn's biggest hit (and it IS catchy) - he's Chris and Sean Penn's brother. Went on to marry Aimee Mann of 'Til Tuesday and
together they churn out AOR crap for PT Anderson movies.

Social Distortion is/was a shitty "punk" band from Orange County with rudimentary songwriting skills and a greaser fixation.

The Sundays were gigantic and were British - mostly sound like the Smiths as fronted by a wispy-voiced girl.

i heard Walking On Memphis three times a day on Capital during Summer of '91. i love the piano but more cos of the SUAD sample i guess.

On? In

Went on to marry Aimee Mann of 'Til Tuesday and
together they churn out AOR crap for PT Anderson movies.

y u brake hart shakey? ;_;

"Birdhouse In Your Soul" is the best thing on here - sweet and affecting, the honest tale of a small individual who knows his own insignificance but still thinks he's worth maybe a place in the heart of the one he loves. It's cute.

I'm word-perfect on Walking in Memphis and I don't think it's entirely the fault of Singstar...

"Birdhouse In Your Soul" was the song that made me jump off the TMBG bandwagon. I like it a lot more now than I did then.

I have no idea what song I'm voting for here (hint: NOT MOTHER LOVE BONE)

what's Freedom Williams doing nowadays?

Has Walking In Memphis ever been given the filter-disco treatment?

Nothing Compares 2 U will win this btw.

Geir if you're going to poll every one of these you should do a final at the end where you poll all the winners.

(Please space them out a bit though - would be better to do one a week rather than four or five a day)

I don't know what 'filter disco' is, but search either

"Raving, I'm Raving" Shut up and Dance, which has a long story attached to it, and Cher's cover version which is somewhere between the original and this version.

Also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PM1pI0EXaE&feature=related

Are we going to go through all the discs and then have a showdown, or something?

(Reviewing this box was one of the most fun + frustrating things I've ever gotten to do, review-wise.)

Was tempted to go for "Unbelievable", but went for The Sundays in the end.

Down to Sinead vs. Dee-Lite. Sindead by a hair ha. Also EMF & Naughty by Nature.

I saw the Nothing Compares 2 U video on MTV and was totally into it. (She cried!) I was carless but I cajoled a Sinead skeptic to give me a ride to a mall record store to pick it up. He mocked our mission all the way there, calling her Skinhéad O'Connor, but on the way back I made him blast the tape and he had to admit: good song. So of these choices, this one induces the most 90s nostalgia in me, which seems to be the box's purpose and subject - in this case, nostalgia for that first listen in the car, for the video, for waiting for the good songs on MTV, for new cars with built-in tape players, for times when a cassingle is the perfect medium, all of which are totally inseparable for me from the song itself. Which I still like.

I always thought "Walking In Memphis" was a massive hit in America. It's a drivetime radio staple over here.

If some American made a song about North London Cockney culture, performed in Mockney English and with a lot of corny and very obvious references, would it then have become a huge UK hit?

lol of course it would! Have you never seen the UK charts?

down wit OPP ...

sorry.

If some American made a song about North London Cockney culture, performed in Mockney English and with a lot of corny and very obvious references, would it then have become a huge UK hit?

a vision.

http://www.movieactors.com/freezeframes-77/MaryPoppins45.jpeg
ummm.....

xpost damn!

also, The Outfield did the "Brits making songs about American baseball culture schtick, performed it in near-perfect American accents (to the point that almost NO-ONE believed that they were really British), and with a lot of corny and very obvious references to baseball and Americanisms" ... all several years before "walking in memphis".

Babe Ruth (also British) did it years before the Outfield!

I voted for "O.P.P." A pretty easy choice. Second place would probably be Black Crowes (by far their best song) or Divinyls (not nearly their best song).

Marc Cohn is from Ohio.

Ummm . . . maybe I'm only familiar with their charting output, but which of The Outfield's songs consisted of songs "about American baseball culture schtick . . . with a lot of corny and very obvious references to baseball and Americanisms?" Aside from the band name and the album title "Play Deep," I can't think of anything by them which is accurately described by that sentence.

Geir if you're going to poll every one of these you should do a final at the end where you poll all the winners.

Surely a meta-poll in the end may be a good idea.

(Please space them out a bit though - would be better to do one a week rather than four or five a day)

I do like I use to with the artist/album polls, post a new one a day before the deadline of this one. And so on. Which means usually a little more than a week.

Btw. if some moderator could fix my code up there to make the image actually visible, it would be great.

Ummm . . . maybe I'm only familiar with their charting output, but which of The Outfield's songs consisted of songs "about American baseball culture schtick . . . with a lot of corny and very obvious references to baseball and Americanisms?" Aside from the band name and the album title "Play Deep," I can't think of anything by them which is accurately described by that sentence.

Have you never actually listened to the words to "Centerfield"?

oh haha that's John Fogerty, NEVER MIND

What album was that on? I don't even remember the existence of the song.

xp hahaha

Now I really want to hear an Outfield version of "Centerfield" and a Fogerty version of "Your Love." Someone make this happen.

Voted for other people's pussy.

Marc Cohn is from Ohio.

To answer an earlier question, I have not heard a filter-disco remix of "Walking in Memphis," but I have heard it given a treatment not unlike DJ Sammy's deal with "Heaven."

Walking In Memphis is awesome for lyrics, melody, and phrasing. One of the all-time great one-hits.

Marc Cohn is from Ohio.

ok, my bad lol ... still lead to an interesting discussion about The Outfield:

Ummm . . . maybe I'm only familiar with their charting output, but which of The Outfield's songs consisted of songs "about American baseball culture schtick . . . with a lot of corny and very obvious references to baseball and Americanisms?" Aside from the band name and the album title "Play Deep," I can't think of anything by them which is accurately described by that sentence.

actually, it is more about the album titles and the band's name, and the marketing angle/schtick therefrom ... now that i think of it, i can't think of any baseball-oriented songs that they did (why should they, they're BRITS and probably don't really understand/give a shit about baseball anyway).

Discography

* Play Deep (1985) #9 US
* Bangin' (1986) #18 US
* Voices of Babylon (1989) #53 US
* Diamond Days (1990) #90 US
* Rockeye (1992)
* Playing the Field (1995)
* Big Innings: The Best of The Outfield (1996)
* It Ain't Over(1998)
* Extra Innings (1999)
* Live in Brazil (2001)
* The Outfield Live (2005)
* Any Time Now (2006)

U CAN’T TOUCH THIS – M.C. Hammer

http://www.kenlayne.com/goldwater.jpg

Only songs I don't know are Michael Penn & Mother Love Bone. Tempted to vote for Deee-Lite just in case tipsy mothra is the only one who votes for it thinking everyone else will!

Upon further reflection, "Walking In Memphis" can also be surprisingly affecting if it catches you just right. Props to the phrasing on "down in the Jungle Room" and "ma'am I am tonight."

Schmaltz, yes, but schmaltz sold with conviction by a bulletproof jew. Fitty and Hove got nothing on him.

ok I blew my vote earlier on a lol but if I'd seriously voted it would be for Sinéad.

what the hell is this? only song on here I don't recognize

-- Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, August 13, 2008 10:39 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Dude won Best New Artist at the Grammys, but the song wasn't an enormous hit or anything (peaked at like #18 or so).

(OK, just checked: #13.)

Yeah, "Walking in Memphis" was one of those so-so hits that somehow got LOTS of airplay; it's never gone away.

I remember the trifecta of hits featuring black choirs in the spring of '91: Cohn's, Gloria Estefan's "Coming Out of the Dark," and Rick Astley's "Cry For Help."

Anyway, I voted for "No Myth" over Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-Lite and The Sundays." I wrote about it once. That Michael Penn album was the first I owned on CD!

c'mon - "what if I were Romeo in black jeans?"

There were some black people in Voices That Care, too.

"Walking In Memphis" transcended its meager Billboard showing, you snot-caked plebe! HONOUR THE KING!

TS: "Walking In Memphis" vs "Black Velvet"

(x-post)

"Black Velvet" for sure, that song rules. Plus
http://diosapasion.iespana.es/alannamyles.jpg

Ugh - I HATE "Black Velvet."

Alannah Myles' album hit the Top Ten!

Oh, apart from Michael Penn on whom I'm drawing a blank... hey I think I'm gonna shut up now

-- DJ Mencap, Wednesday, August 13, 2008 3:10 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Link

lol @ Social D being pop culture

-- Whiney G. Weingarten, Wednesday, August 13, 2008 3:30 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Link

social d made guitar hero.

there are still shit tons of horrid "street punk" bands that are basically nu-social d shit. sleeve tattoos and elvis hair, wife beaters and chain wallets.

Avenged Sevenfold does that shit!

these are the songs on this i can roll with:

U CAN’T TOUCH THIS – M.C. Hammer
NOTHING COMPARES 2 U – Sinéad O’Connor
NO MYTH – Michael Penn
LADIES FIRST - Queen Latifah Featuring Monie Love
BALL AND CHAIN – Social Distortion
BIRDHOUSE IN YOUR SOUL – They Might Be Giants
CHLOE DANCER/CROWN OF THORNS – Mother Love Bone **
NEW JACK HUSTLER (NINO’S THEME) – Ice-T
HARD TO HANDLE – The Black Crowes
O.P.P. – Naughty By Nature
GROOVE IS IN THE HEART – Deee-Lite

** maybe, i remember liking it but have not heard in like forever.

the lyrics to "Black Velvet" were pretty awful but I loved the video; unsurprisingly it hasn't aged well, and it's different from what I remember, which involved a horse...

Somewhere, in me (or in the archives), there's a thread that discusses the finer points of 80s / 90s mini-divas like Miles & Sophie B. Hawkins & Taylor Dayne & Toni Child & Lisa Stansfield and countless others, but it's not in me to start / search for that discussion today.

Toni Child

You mean Jane Child?

I mean Toni Basil!

(yes I mean Jane Child and her nosechain)

Jane Child's nose ring was the first I ever saw

Resemblances between Myles and Child? Sure. Dayne-Stansfield? Definitely. Hawkins is the wild cad.

Lisa Stansfield's Affection is one of my favorite albums of the early nineties.

Resemblances between Myles and Toni Child, that is.

Jane Child's nose ring was the first I ever saw

Either Jane Child or Perry Farrell for me, and best believe that had me confused.

This book of sheet music may still be in my mom's basement, but I doubt it.

If you've ever shopped at a supermarket or 7-11 late at night, you've heard "Walking in Memphis".

and countless others

Cathy Dennis
Tara Kemp

Haha, I heard "Walking In Memphis" like every week on the shuttle bus in Buffalo the last couple years.

I think they should have bent the rules a bit and put "Buffalo Stance" on this box set. It fits with these 1990 songs better than with the songs at the end of the 80s box set (except arguably for "Roam"), but was released in 1989.

Ah, Cathy Dennis, co-author of "I Kissed A Girl." How the mighty have fallen.

She's rakin' it in, bro.

"Anything Is Possible" (recorded by Will Young), and "Toxic" (recorded by Britney Spears) all reached the Number One spot, with "Toxic" and "Never Had a Dream Come True" also hitting the Top 10 in the United States. Her highest-selling composition, "Can't Get You out of My Head" (recorded by Kylie Minogue), spent four weeks at Number One in Britain, rekindled interest in Minogue in America, where it hit #7 on the Hot 100, and sold over three million copies worldwide to become the world's second highest selling single in 2001.

90s mini-diva Jill Sobule will have her revenge.

Oh, I know Dennis is a millionairess ten times over.

I speak as a fan of "Touch Me (All Night Long)," "Just Another Dream," and "You Lied To Me."

Sobule kissed a girl first, back when it meant something other than "ooh look at me!!!"

I made reference to "Black Velvet" in a capsule review once, and the editor changed it to "Blue Velvet." I didn't bother saying anything, because the point still made sense with "Blue Velvet," and I thought maybe the editor was doing it on purpose ... but now that some time has passed, I think it was just that she's been largely forgotten!

"Cool Story, Nabisco!"

I wish it had been forgotten by Canadian radio stations.

Black Velvet...if you please.

some great tracks here

the easy thing would be to vote for the sundays but i choose 'hard to handle' instead

no myth also a banger

the easy thing would be to vote for the sundays but i choose 'hard to handle' instead

whoa. I just don't get "Hard To Handle" I guess. Their only commercially-released cover song, and there are at least four unquestionably superior tracks on that record.

"hard to handle" is great, but it really is just like a great bar-band cover song. i'd take "jealous again" or "twice as hard" instead.

was "black velvet" used in a beer ad, or do i just think of it as the kind of song that should have been?

Black Velvet...if you please.

Oh, Nabisco, if only you responded to that capsule editor w/ this...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I like how this CD is a little souvenir of a terrible year...

Voted!!!

Lisa Stansfield's Affection is one of my favorite albums of the early nineties.

Agreed - it's a timeless update of the Philly soul sound, was spinning it in the car a few weeks ago.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Wow!

TMBG is a pleasant surprise here :)

(And, I didn't figure anyone but me would vote for Jesus Jones, but I am happy there are some sane people after all)

I find it so odd that people don't know/remember No Myth and Walking In Memphis, it plays all the time here on the radio. WalkingInMemphis wasn't that successful in the original version, but was a VERY popular cover later on by Cher.

U CAN’T TOUCH THIS – M.C. Hammer

Nor would I want. I think that's the song I hated the most when I was a teen. Man. Then later on in my 20s I discover all my friends were digging this. WTF.