"right here (human nature remix)" vs "don't walk away"

impossible

this is what it sounds like… when we make love

Good poll! These songs are very much linked in my memory, although looking at Everyhit they were actually a few months apart on the '93 UK chart.

Love them both but went with SWV.

never to be mistaken… long as this love we’re making

both rly good but yeah swv :)

oh dear

Don’t Walk Away for me. Those drums!

Proto Rich Harrison

voted jade

both of these songs have recently appeared on the Top Of The Pops repeats from 1993 airing just now (for non-Britshers who may not know: TOTP was a weekly 30-min show where acts with new or climbing songs in the Top 40 would either perform live, "live" or have their music video shown).

I was five in 1993 and growing up I always linked these two songs together - they were radio staples and I knew them as songs from *just before* I really started paying attention to pop music in 94/95. Of course, when you're that age, a song that's a few years old is normally considered ancient, but neither of them really felt "dated" to me. They just seemed so cool - you couldn't imagine Jade or SWV doing a Saturday morning kids TV show the way Eternal or Take That would appear weekly without fail. Both the groups and the songs seemed sophisticated - stronger hooks, richer harmonies, a more sexy and glamorous style of pop/r&b that we didn't really have here in the UK. The actual production on these singles is better too - "Right Here" hinges on its sample but it would still sound luxuriant without it, and "Don't Walk Away" has those opulent drums.

Other r&b girl-group hits from around this time like "Waterfalls" or "If You Love Me" aren't really doing the same thing in terms of balancing the sounds with the performance - "Waterfalls" is dazzling because of how the drums and synths sound, "If You Love Me" is vocal precision gymnastics, but to me these two polled feel distinctly like a marriage of style and performance where each part is equal.

Voted Jade largely because it's probably the unapologetically thiccest rnb hit that year (also maybe higher tempo than most?) - I can't remember what that beat is sampled from (it's also on Pump Up The Volumecl right?) but this song owned it thereafter and otherwise it's not so reliant on a big sampled hook, mixed with a fragility of sentiment or doubt in the music that is curioudly at odds with the singers assurances - a dynamic seemingly absent in Right Here whatever its own strengths.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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I voted for SWV here on the day too, but this should have been much closer

How did I miss this poll? Both great but "Don't Walk Away" is an absolute fucking jam.

did i vote in this? i should have. both good songs, but i'm surprised it was this close.

enjoy both about equally now but voted swv without a second thought based on how much i loved it as a kid