Billboard Modern Rock Number One Hits: 1991

Great list! I voted for Electronic, because it's most closely related to what I'm still listening to in 2009. Next would be "The Fly", the best-sounding off that album at the time and still a pretty hot single. Then I dunno, probably Nirvana and then REM. Boy did I hate Jesus Jones at the time but that single captures the vibe of "the walls are crumbling down" a lot better than, eh, "Wind of Change" or "Right Now"; and so I've warmed slightly to it.

I also voted for Electronic, but I'm fond of the P-Furs and "All This Time," the latter being one of the few solo Sting numbers I love.

Good list. I hate to be boring, but Nirvana.

I'm amused that Sting was considered a "modern rock" artist.

i wrote a piece a few months ago when the MR chart turned 20 years old and looked back through all the #1s over the years and there really was some wacky unexpected stuff in this era. i think i'm gonna vote for "Rush" because the hugeness of B.A.D. when i started listening to rock radio as a kid is one of those things that noone really seems to remember now.

lol I was about to write "anything but 'Rush'"

"more" was a #1 hit?!

On the modern rock chart, yeah. That song was massive.

any excuse to revisit this: lord custos tribute thread

College students listened to Simple Minds in 1991? (sincere question)

Yeah I was also gonna ask. I don't remember that Simple Minds song at all, or the Psychedelic Furs one. I do remember being disapointed by the Sisters and Siouxsie albums and singles at the time (although I still saw them both on their respective tours).

College students listened to Simple Minds in 1991?

High school students (me) did.

the P-Furs' "In My Head" got more play down here.

The Siouxsie album was crap, although the remixes were pretty good.

"Right Here, Right Now", but this list is actually shock full of great songs. "Losing My Religion", "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "The Other Side Of Summer", "Get The Message", "Mysterious Ways" and, yes, actually even "See The Lights" are all great songs!

And, as for some questions upthread, I believe "Modern rock" is a bit wider than just college rock. A bit less "underground" so to say, only just slightly to the left of mainstream but not much more. A bit like "New Wave" in the early to mid 80s and "alternative" later on.

Simple Minds may not have been very rebellious or "cutting edge" in 1991, but at the same time, they were so to a somewhat bigger extent than Poison and Extreme.

"Until She Comes," from the underpraised late-career renaissance of the Furs, whose middle period is kinda the ultimate record-store-clerk-attitude cliche: they were great til people found out about them; then they tanked and became total self-parody, in the process selling truckloads of records; and then, in a twist that over the years has begun to break my heart a little, they got truly great again (World Outside & especially Book of Days and super-especially "Torch," the last song on the A-side of the latter), only nobody cared.

nice try, andy kaufman

i think "Kinky Afro" is by far the best song on here. will admit that this is a great list of songs

What the heck is "Kinky Afro" doing on there? Happy Mondays in popular-in-the-U.S. shocker!

"Step On" was a bona fide, if minor, daytime radio/MTV hit over here, if I recall correctly.

Yeah, I heard "Step On" ten times more than "Kinky Afro."

I remember this period fondly: the summer before my senior year of high school. Other hits: remember Lloyd Cole's "She's a Girl And I'm a Man"? Kirsty Maccoll's "Walking Down Madison"? EMF'S "Lies"?

According to the modern rock countdown blog I did in '06, I ranked them

Losing My Religion
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Give It Away
The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Rush
Kiss Them For Me
All This Time
Kinky Afro
See The Lights
More
Until She Comes
So You Think You're In Love
Get The Message
Right Here, Right Now
The Other Side Of Summer

With everything after "Rush" (which I may have overrated) making the bottom half of the 228 songs. I only put two songs in mod-rock history below "The Other Side Of The Summer," namely Three Days Grace's "Just Like You" and U2's "Staring At The Sun." God it sucks.

http://modernrock4eva.blogspot.com/

hot linked pics need fixing, and I mistakenly list JAMC's "Blues From A Gun" and Charlatan's Weirdo as 1991 hits (they're 1990 and 1992 respectively)

a worthwhile ILM thread: Gateway Songs That You Now Think Suck. That's what "...Summer" was for me and Elvis C.

looks like modern rock was considered UK-only unless you were a stadium level act (REM, RHCP) or just about to be (Nirvana)

now it's mainstream rock lite, with fucking metallica on it

EMF'S "Lies"? - now that you mention it, I'm a bit blown away that "Unbelievable" isn't on this list.

remember David J's "I'll Be Your Chauffeur"? or was that the previous year?

oh, and Miccio, fuck you and your diss of PiL's "Disappointed" ;)

this was a strange time for "modern rock." Who the fuck would have bet that Peter Gabriel would score TWO number one hits?

This list is chock full of "I remember this as an unpopular song that I liked, who knew it was a #1 modern rock hit?" In this category: "Until She Comes," the still-hummable "So You Think You're In Love," and "More." Nirvana is a worthy candidate but for me it's the song I still play about 50 times a year, the one whose singular, peculiar, inimitable greatness I still marvel at, "Rush."

Funny how the Psychedelic Furs became the Stones of the early nineties, scoring "Start Me Up"-like echoes of past sonic greatness.

I went with "Kinky Afro," but now I'm afraid Siouxsie won't get a vote.

I voted for siouxsie.

now that you mention it, I'm a bit blown away that "Unbelievable" isn't on this list.

Nirvana or Happy Mondays are the only 2 songs I'd vote for.

Came out in 1990.

No, it charted in the U.S. in '91 (it hit #1 on the Hot 100 that summer).

Point being that it wasn't on the modern rock charts by 1991, I think.

Nah I guess it wasn't released in the US til 1991. It was a hit in the UK in 1990 though. Dunno why it's not on the Modern Rock chart.

it was on the MR chart, it just peaked at #3

too POP to dethrone Simple Minds

I'll admit it, I voted R.E.M. Jesus Jones is a nice strange bit of nostalgia, since I would rather be anywhere but in 1991.

"Real, Real, Real" and "International Bright Young Thing" are better songs (neither hit #1, though).

http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/news/images/Mike_Edwards.jpg

10 points if you can spot the pop star.

"Unbelievable" is a song written and recorded by EMF. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on July 20, 1991. It also reached number three in the UK, where it was a 1990 hit in December. - So it was released in the US in '91, and the reason it wasn't listed on the "modern rock" chart is most like because it went to #1 on the Hot 100 itself.

*likely

No, that makes no difference. Songs chart on both lists all the time. "All This Time" and "Mysterious Ways" were top ten pop hits.

it was on the MR chart, it just peaked at #3

― some dude, Thursday, January 8, 2009 10:34 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

a music forum thread that gets to the point of bickering about decades-old chart positions is nondifferent from a monk entering samadhi so I celebrate this moment

I would like to discuss the lyrics to "The Other Side of Summer."

ok thinking about the original post's claim of the "Nirvana years": what does this mean? B/c the kind of shit I was hearing on modern rock/"alternative" radio in the early to mid 90s wasn't really grungy at all, it was shit like Porno for Pyros, "New Age Girl" and the Spin Doctors, talked about on many other threads. Did the modern rock charts at the time really go all Nirvana / Alice in Chains / Soundgarden at the time?

well, the charts didn't per se, the #1s in '92-'94 are full of Toad The Wet Sprocket and the Cranberries and the Lemonheads...the big 4 grunge bands got played a lot no doubt, but you can't fill a radio playlist with 4 bands, so a whole lot of other stuff (some of it similar, some of it very different) got a lot of airtime too.

I still own tapes with stuff recorded from my college radio station from '91-'94. Very eclectic: I've got Daniel Ash, Debbie Harry, Porno For Pyros, Kate Bush, and stuff from the Judgment Night soundtrack bumping up against each other, never mind the grunge stuff. The early nineties >>> late nineties.

OTM. Late-90's were the worst.

for rock & pop, at least

yeah, i wouldn't dare say this on 77, but the Smashmouth era was definitely the bottom of the barrel

nah, "Walkin' on the Sun" alone saves them from the lowest tier of nu-metal also-rans & that endless stream of Seven Mary Three/Three Doors Down mule-vocalist lite rock.

wow, I just looked at the 1999 modern rock #1 chart, and the only songs I know on it, I know from Rock Band ("Learn To Fly" and "All The Small Things"). I didn't realize RHCP were so big that late.

Oh, "Smashmouth-era." Well, that does just about cover it, doesn't it?

RHCP have had 11 modern rock #1s. 8 have them have been from 1999 or later.

well, the charts didn't per se, the #1s in '92-'94 are full of Toad The Wet Sprocket and the Cranberries and the Lemonheads...the big 4 grunge bands got played a lot no doubt, but you can't fill a radio playlist with 4 bands, so a whole lot of other stuff (some of it similar, some of it very different) got a lot of airtime too.

The Lemonheads were very grunge influenced though. Along with other powerpop acts such as Matthew Sweet and Posies, The Lemonheads basically "went grunge" for a few years during the mid 90.

I'm amazed @ RHCP latter-day popularity! I mean, I can see it looking at those charts now, but I had no idea. I'm happy: in hs in 1990 it seemed like they were "the future" and then Nirvana broke. But I guess they were the future anyway, or *a* future.

I remember the big song of 1991 was I Touch Myself. That didn't make it to number 1? Same with Joey by Concrete Blonde. Those two songs were on the radio every ten seconds.

Funny how the Psychedelic Furs became ...

They were not good all slicked up, to put it mildly. But then they made up for it with All That Money Wants, one of the most criminally unappreciates songs I can think of.

voted for robyn, he deserves it

Siouxie and the Banshees - Kiss Them For Me

I keep waiting for the PSK Them For Me to come in and I never hear it.

hate to say it, but Kiss Them was an improvement on a classic.

(and then Sir Mix-A-Lot turned around and sampled Siouxie's Peek-A-Boo that year)

I just listened to Kiss Them For Me, and now I hear it. I had no idea.

To answer Alfred's call: "The Other Side of Summer" had the kind of lyrics that greatly impressed me at 16, meaning they were convoluted and too clever by two-thirds, didn't scan all that well, barely repeated, and railed against what I then perceived as "popularity," as in "the popular kids at school," meaning anyone I figured had more of a life than I did, which was a lot of them. It was a meta-song, which I also liked, because it made me feel smarter than the others. I once played it for a girl in my grade I had a crush on (like about half the women in the grade) who was dating a (much) older guy, figuring I could score sophisto points. I think I did, which isn't to say anything came of it (or that I actually tried to make anything happen). Mighty Like a Rose came out right in the middle of my obsessive Costello period and I played it a lot, figuring it was a masterpiece because it was by him. I was encouraged in this delusion by EW's A- review, by Armond White, I think--foreshadowing! He also called Spike an indulgent mess (C+), which I kind of agreed with. Now of course I think they're both messes.

There's so much imagery in this song that it strikes me less as rococo than simply undisciplined. Costello was deep into his post-grad phase where everything made sense as long as you were him--he'd been heading that way since (at least) Get Happy!! but "TOSOS" is where he really piles it on. You could call it a trash heap but then that'd play into the song's conceit: it's the other side of summer! You know, the underbelly! What a clever man! Music's all over the place too: he really loved the piano on "Dancing Queen," didn't he? He kept using it, anyway.

I will say I still liked the beard and the long hair. I kind of wish he'd grow them back now that he's respectable enough to have a TV talk show.

The Lemonheads were very grunge influenced though. Along with other powerpop acts such as Matthew Sweet and Posies, The Lemonheads basically "went grunge" for a few years during the mid 90.

There's so much wrong here I don't even know where to start.

The Lemonheads started off as a hardcore band, for heaven's sake. If they "went" anywhere at all in the mid-90s, it was pop. If we're counting "the mid 90s" as 1993-1996, they were less heavy than they ever were!

The Posies certainly never "went grunge," if you're referring to Frosting on the Beater and Amazing Disgrace. Any grunge association on the former is entirely the fault of Don Fleming, and beyind that, I'm not sure what's supposed to be so "grunge" about "Lights Out" or "When Mute Tongues Can Speak" or "Love Letter Boxes" or "How She Lied By Living."

Altered Beast and 100% Fun have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with grunge in any way.

OH NOES POSIES ARE ON THE "HYPE!" SOUNDTRACK THEY'VE GONE GRUNGE!!!!

Posies' live shows were ALWAYS louder and heavier than their records, anyway. I first saw them when they toured for Dear 23 and was surprised at the contrast between the recorded and live versions of, f'rinstance, "Any Other Way." Frankly, Amazing Disgrace has come closest to capturing what they sound like as a live band.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

ILM in agreeing with the Canon shocka ;)

Missed this somehow. Unsurprising results. Woulda voted for Chili Peppers or R Hitchcock.

It's hard for me to articulate how I feel about the fact that a chart like this existed at one time in, you know, a sensible country. Sort of absurd and mind-boggling but somehow natural at the same time?

Sisters for me.

It may look that way from your frozen wasteland, but there's nothing sensible about America.

America in 1991 was pretty much like today. The president was named George Bush and all....

The president isn't named George Bush today!

Oh I guess he still is for a little while nm.

I voted for "Losing My Religion" but I should have voted for "The Fly."

I enjoyed Matos's Elvis Costello writeup.

I found some videotape from my freshman year in college (fall of '92). I'm videotaping a thunderstorm outside of my dorm window (oh, the days before the internet) and I've got ROCK 103 JEFFERSON CITY playing on my boombox in the background.

In the clip, you hear "Losing My Religion" followed by "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. Interesting times for radio back then.

Poppy Bush Intezone in excelsis!