1991 Grammy Awards Record of the Year poll

ugh that should be '91. I'll ask the mods to fix. (ditto the Album poll)

How can this be anything but “Nothing Compares 2 U”

Mariah > Sinead > Hammer > Phil >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Bette

The degree to which I liked "U Can't Touch This" at age 10 is incomparable to any other song at any other point in my life

Like I couldn't even imagine loving Missy or the Melvins to the sheer obsessive degree to which I loved "U Can't Touch This" in 1990

I'll take Bette over Mariah and Phil both (and I don't care for "From a Distance" either). Voted Sinead.

(thx mods)

I like all of them to some degree except "From a Distance"

I think my detesting of "Another Day in Paradise" was sealed when Phil Collins was on Arsenio Hall with special guest celebrity backing vocalist David Crosby to perform his very important socially conscious new song. Coincidentally, it's when I began to detest David Crosby as well.

Voted "Sinead," though that Mariah is about the only slow song she ever did I liked.

haha, "Sinead" oops

xp when I was a kid, I didn't understand any of the lyrics other than "oh, think twice", but I really liked the keyboard hook

for an approximation of what matos is talking abt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-6Nv5EI4aE

i'm pretty sure this is my first memory of hearing "new" music--i have a distinct memory of the radio being like "this is the new phil collins song"

Damn it, the official "Sussudio" video is not on YouTube. NOT FAIR.

lordy if there's gotta be adult contemporary from someone who could've been the most epic artist in American popular music history but then betrayed that potential with, um, adult contemporary (although who could blame her - Janis Joplin herself would have wound up somewhere close to Vegas too if she wasn't already heading in the direction with Pearl), then let it be a complex fluke like "From a Distance." so that.

Sinéad over Hammer by a long way. I don't remember the Mariah Carey song but she's always been a blind spot for me, probably because of songs like this judging from the reaction on this thread so far (I gather she's sung better songs since then, I've just not bothered to check, though I've probably heard them without knowing it was her) (I do remember her being hot in the videos, though).

If I may be permitted a bit of personal social commentary (spurred by thinking yet again about the p4k relation to mass pop culture): at my hs (this was junior year) I only knew two people who loved "U Can't Touch This", myself and another guy who was also crazy into hip hop. Yes it was lol white suburban Georgia high school but I bet this song was huge among others at my hs; but I was in honors/AP classes only and didn't really know anyone who wasn't (lol if you want; I think people typically just make friends with those they spend lots of time with). And in that class of people hip hop / r&b, even the poppiest stuff like Hammer, just didn't register as something worth listening to. Hell, even listening to G&R or hair metal was a stroke of rebellion. Mainstream indie-ish stuff like Nirvana, U2 were huge and socially ok, def. southern indie stuff that never really broke out elsewhere (REM was the one of these that made good), these were huge and socially ok, as well as classical, 70s prog rock and classic rock, 80s prog and classic rock for the more rebellious ones. But huge pop was not---even Def Leppard was for the "regular" kids. I don't think my colleagues ever explicitly sussed this hierarchy out for themselves. But it occurs to me that similar battle lines are in place still. And as I've aged these old lines have hardened among my acquaintances.

If you don't remember the Mariah song you should listen to it before voting as it's 100 miles above anything else she ever recorded. Hard choice between Mariah and Sinead here, but my love for Prince's recording of "Nothing Compares 2 U" has slightly dinged my feelings about Sinead's version, so I'm giving it to Mariah. Vocal on this still shivers me.

re Euler, for what it's worth, I was at an Ivy League college in 1991, made up of the collected AP classes of this great nation, and "U Can't Touch This" was much liked there. As was "Ice Ice Baby." Not sure what point I'm trying to make. Just that I do think your experience was more of a Georgia thing than a "white nerds don't listen to mainstream R&B/hip hop" thing.

That's a good point re. my "white nerds" point (which is also a good way to put my point). Although is does the white nerds point also reflect P4K's readership? I don't know anyone in rl who reads P4K or (probably) has even heard of it, but I'm in my mid 30s and know hardly anyone in rl who listens to anything but jazz and classical (white nerds grown up). BTW at least in France this snobbery toward mass culture is even stronger; a couple of summers ago here I tried to talk to colleagues about Justice (when the album had just come out and there were cross posters all over Montmartre) and none of the young people even knew who Daft Punk were. But they were happy to talk about Bach.

I will give the Mariah a listen. I remember one song of hers, "Emotions", which I still sing around the house when one of my kids freaks out for no clear reason (giving you an idea of the kind of headspace she occupies for me).

my love for Prince's recording of "Nothing Compares 2 U" has slightly dinged my feelings about Sinead's version

Opposite for me. Never thought any of Prince's performances matched the icy production of Sinead's.

Voted for Sinead and am much pleased that "Another Day in Paradise" is getting the opprobrium it deserves, after its omission in my Collins single poll left some posters jonesing for it. Never mind its sentiments – what about that damn KEYBOARD hook? It defines "treacle".

fyi in massively whitebread suburban St Paul, "U Can't Touch This" was also massive among everyone except the metalheads and cutters

"Vision Of Love" is pretty much the only reason why I don't hate Mariah Carey for what she's done with her career so I'm tempted to vote for it even though I like it less than "Nothing Compares 2 U" and "U Can't Touch This".

I don't mind "From a Distance," but Amy Grant could have sung it better.

ouch

I enjoyed "Vision of Love" this morning, and was pleasantly surprised by the album on a whole. Her voice grates on me a bit, but it's nothing I couldn't get used to.

Best year ever for "Record of the year" only for the fact that TWO of the songs replaced "You" with "U" !!!!!!!!!!!

We've conclusively determined, by the way, that "U Can't Touch This" >>>> "Super Freak," right?

nope

That's a tough one: it's up to the "can't touch this" hook vs. the "the kind you don't take home to mother" hook for me. I lean toward the latter, though I'd rather dance to the former.

"Vision of Love" sounds like a Celine Dion reject.

I don't recall Celine ever doing awesome quiet storm.

And Celine has no gospel in her voice, which is totally what makes thw song.

From a Distance sounds more like a Celine reject, imo.

^^^

If anything, Celine songs sound like Mariah rejects, not vice versa.

"Would you prefer being punched in the face or the stomach?"

Oh, please.

NOT THE FACE

Punch him in the ear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3X-bCA_AR0

i know that's more of a freedom williams dis but that shot of the family trying his movies takes me back to my fellow 5th graders hammer dancing like nothing else

his moves, rather.

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

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Sinead, Hammer, Phil still sound good. Bette is okay. Mariah one is not her best #1 song.

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

Um, who ate my Bette vote?

The same thing that ended this poll a day earlier than I set the deadline, I imagine.

Every time a "poll closes in one day" post arrives, I magically get to vote in the poll again, which makes me wonder if the results are getting cleared out on Results Eve.

I don't think 50-odd ppl would have voted in the past day.

Maybe we just get a last minute chance to change our vote, then.

Or maybe mods are fucking with us.

I hated that Sinead song so much that year.

Would have voted for Mariah, had I seen this on time. Second place, Hammer. Third, Phil Collins.