Greatest Billboard Top 40(-ish) (Song That Is Reminiscent Of A) Ballad (1990 edition)

'Oh Father'

Well, in this poll, anyway! I voted for 'I skipped '89 because the ballads didn't jump out at me the way they did while poring through '88 and '90. This isn't a' in the other one, but it ended up getting deleted :P

Boring (my picks, I mean): "Nothing Compares 2 U" over "Oh Father" over "Come Back to Me."

i recently heard tommy page's "i'll be your everything" for the first time and it might be the worst song i've ever heard in my life.

lots of great options here! i'm sure "nothing compares" will get tons of votes so i'm trying to vote for something else but still it's a tough decision

Oh crap, I didn't notice "Nothing Compares 2U" so I voted for Lou Gramm. Mostly a garbage list.

What it takes vs nothing compares vs must have been love, voting for roxette cuz I trust ilx not to leave 'smith and sinead with goose eggs

lol i love this oprah performance. in general i appreciate when a performer can get the audience screaming for the entire duration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_RKuIk6GrA

songs i like a lot:

Babyface - 'Whip Appeal'
George Michael - 'Praying For Time'
Janet Jackson - 'Come Back To Me'
Johnny Gill - 'My, My, My'
Lisa Stansfield - 'All Around The World'
Mariah Carey - 'Vision Of Love'
Sinead O'Connor - 'Nothing Compares 2U'

still haven't decided :X

Finalists:

Babyface - 'Whip Appeal'
George Michael - 'Praying For Time'
Janet Jackson - 'Come Back To Me'
Lisa Stansfield - 'All Around The World'
Mariah Carey - 'Vision Of Love'
Sinead O'Connor - 'Nothing Compares 2U'
Madonna - 'Oh Father'

wtf "All Around the World" is a ballad?!

Like, what's a ballad really, man? Maybe this rock is a ballad, or that tree. I kinda feel like all of us are ballads, y'know?

a song with disco strings and that beat ain't a tree

I'll rep hard for the following sleeper ballads that may or may not get shortchanged by the voting bloc:

After 7 - 'Ready Or Not'
Bad English - 'Price Of Love'
Brent Bourgeois - 'Dare To Fall In Love'
Giant - 'I'll See You In My Dreams'
Lou Gramm - 'Just Between You And Me'
Nikki - 'Notice Me'
Regina Belle - 'Make It Like It Was'

I was tempted to include the other Stansfield top 40 hits in the list but I figured that was too ridiculous even for me.

"Just Between You and Me" got more airplay in my part of town more than the last three Foreigner singles combined; it was on every ten minutes. Then it disappeared. I haven't heard it since.

rmde at 'all around the world' being here but i do hear it on quiet storm so it's not as egregious as 'if it isn't love'

shortlist

Aerosmith - 'What It Takes'
After 7 - 'Ready Or Not'
Babyface - 'Whip Appeal'
Don Henley - 'The Heart Of The Matter'
Janet Jackson - 'Come Back To Me'
Jody Watley - 'Everything'
Johnny Gill - 'My, My, My'
Madonna - 'Oh Father'
Mariah Carey - 'Vision Of Love'
Maxi Priest - 'Close To You'
Quincy Jones et al - 'The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite)'
Roxette - 'It Must Have Been Love'
Sinead O'Connor - 'Nothing Compares 2U'
Skid Row - 'I Remember You'
Slaughter - 'Fly To The Angels'
Stevie B. - 'Because I Love You (The Postman Song)'
Tesla - 'Love Song'

sinead is the best, nostalgia tugs me toward skid row, but i feel i owe this vote to stevie b.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P46QnmEB5Tg

No "Sacrifice"?

Did all of you people who aren't voting for (or at least shortlisting) "Joey" just not notice that "Joey" is on this list?

OH FUCKING HELL

I didn't see "Secret Garden." There's my vote. This is the peak of expensive, deluxe R&B balladry. Maybe El DeBarge's peak too.

I'm afraid that 'Sacrifice' was sacrificed on the altar of 50 selections, MoT.

Holy christ, I must not have paid any attention to the lyrics because I had no idea Nikki was not a woman. Great song, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEZa5hemvdM

Also great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icagGXXN2R0

you guys, love is all around you, love is knockin outside yr do-ah-wo

Nikki is Martika's husband! They started a goth group together in the '00s!

yeah...fuck that guy

Did all of you people who aren't voting for (or at least shortlisting) "Joey" just not notice that "Joey" is on this list?

I didn't! I can't believe I voted for Lou Gramm!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Hall & Oates hate the original version of "So Close" because, according to Hall, the label forced Hall to accept Jon Bon Jovi's production and songwriting doctoring. I don't hear much difference: the song ain't that exciting anyway. But I prefer the Bon Jovi job b/c of the opening hook.

1991 has been kind of a bummer year for ballads, sad to say.

Could find it in my heart to vote for at least two-thirds of these.

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

Lotta fans of meh-period Aerosmith 'round these parts...

That's my favorite Aerosmith song.

It's pretty harmonically complex (esp the bridge) for a twangy power ballad. I think it changes keys 4-5x.

You have too many strong opinions about other people's tastes to admit something like that. xp

It's a good Aerosmith song, but it's still distinctly lower-tier compared to sooooo much of the other stuff here.

I have strong opinions about my own tastes too, to be fair.

oh cool Skid Row beat Madonna.

Bummed I couldn't have given a vote to these zero-netters:

Babyface - 'Whip Appeal'
Taylor Dayne - 'Love Will Lead You Back'
After 7 - 'Ready Or Not'
Poison - 'Something To Believe In'
Gloria Estefan - 'Here We Are'
Mariah Carey - 'Vision Of Love'
Maxi Priest - 'Close To You'

Especially the Estefan.

She was starting to bellow. I prefer "Can't Stay Away From You" and "Falling in Love (Uh Oh)."

Luther Vandross is a god and "Here and Now" still appalls me.

Janet Jackson - Come Back to Me
Jody Watley - Everything
Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2U
Lisa Stansfield - All Around The World
Roxette - It Must Have Been Love
Madonna - Oh Father
Babyface - Whip Appeal

man my radio station played Michael Damian's "Was It Nothing At All" as much as "Rock On," after which they flushed it down the memory toilet.

Oops meant to vote for "Whip Appeal" or "Vision of Love"

What's your radio station, Alfred? I have no idea what its range is/was, but I was a WAPE devotee until my family moved away from FL in the summer of '90, so it's entirely possible that that was the last time I heard that oft-played Michael Damian song (or any number of its contemporaries) on the radio. The pop stations in Indiana couldn't hold a candle to what I was listening to in Jacksonville.

I voted for Janet, but here are the rest of the correct answers to this poll:

Sinead O'Connor - 'Nothing Compares 2U'
Concrete Blonde - 'Joey'
Madonna - 'Oh Father'
Lou Gramm - 'Just Between You And Me'
Tesla - 'Love Song'
Regina Belle - 'Make It Like It Was'
Taylor Dayne - 'Love Will Lead You Back'
After 7 - 'Ready Or Not'
Gloria Estefan - 'Here We Are'
Brent Bourgeois - 'Dare To Fall In Love'
Faster Pussycat - 'House Of Pain'
Mariah Carey - 'Vision Of Love'
Maxi Priest - 'Close To You'
Nikki - 'Notice Me'
Whistle - 'Always And Forever'

Voted Lisa Stansfield, because ultimately that's the most correct answer to this poll.

I left Lisa Stansfield off of my finalist list because apparently it's not a ballad or whatever people were complaining about upthread. It would've definitely been a contender otherwise.

figured Sinead would have plenty of votes, so I went with the one Henley song I genuinely love.

What's your radio station, Alfred?

at the time Y-100 or Power 96.