Hot Black Singles #1 Hits 1987

still not sure what i'm voting for but no way do i pass up an opportunity to post this vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-gu1KETjVY

i feel like "Sign" is going to sweep this, but I'm voting "Rock Steady" just bcz

obligatory trivia post about how every single from control except one hit #1 on the black singles chart...and that single, "when i think of you", was the only one to hit #1 on the hot 100.

i didnt notice Head to Toe or The Way You Make Me Feel but welp, still voting Whispers

xp that seems p logical to my ears tbh

well maybe not logical, but I mean it def seems like the song with more crossover than R&B appeal

my sixth (maybe seventh) grade talent show featured 2 sets of dudes doing skateboard routines to 'no sleep til brooklyn' but 3 sets of girl doing dance routines to 'control'. for me i think it's between 'control', 'pleasure principle', and 'diamonds' which features yet more janet but also: JEROME BENTON.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-d8MSlpZpI

Candy or Cassanova. Both all-timers for me.

"Sign..." is one of the weakest singles on this list!

"Diamonds" and "Pleasure Principle" are my two favorite Janet songs on the list, but O'Neal's "Fake" is the apotheosis of that late eighties Jam-Lewis sound. I've got a soft spot for Luther's first uptempo hit in years, the electro kiss that is "Don't Disturb This Groove," and Stephanie Mills.

More reviews: http://rockmetonight.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_archive.html

I don't use the word "underrated" often but Stevie's "Skeletons" sure is.

yeah it's an interesting curio, esp at the time - prince sticks his head out of his hole, see his shadow, six more weeks of paisley - but i couldn't imagine voting for it. i have to say prince vs mj has always seemed no contest to me (a prince freak), esp after 1983 at least but boy if you were to go just by this evidence presented by the top of these charts you might think otherwise.

xpost - pretty sure stevie's last r&b (or non-r&b for that matter i guess) #1 also

None of the Prince and MJ singles on this list represrent their best work and can't imagine voting for them based on the other goodies

I was considering doing a "Sign O the Times" vs. "Rockin in the Free World" poll a few weeks back--both supporters of Reagan in 1980 suddenly awakening into a shocked awareness of the social consequences of the '80s--but Prince vs. Neil threads are hardly a novel idea.

and I dunno if they were Reagan supporters so much as "artists making idiotic statements in support of a fellow egomaniac"

Angela Winbush wrote this gem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_ngGLzd6fI

lol well put Alfred

and Prince was a bigger egomaniac than Ronnie.

"Pleasure Principle" obv, but "Rock Steady," "Candy" and "Fake" all great too.

Agreed that "Sign" is one of Prince's least interesting singles up to that date.

the number of timelessly great songs on this list is completely insane

rock steady, control, (just like) candy, pleasure principle, don't disturb this groove, I feel good all over - these are my top ones here but I lean toward "candy" in part because I heard it the other day and it's just so together, what a smart fucking pop song - interplay between "backing" (crypto-lead) vocals & Blackmon just clever as fuck, unstoppable bass line, killer synth tones, INDEED I DO, A+ perfect single

but OTOH "don't disturb this groove" is so epochally great, something about that one encapsulates the era for me

but OTOH fucking "control"

how bout both encapsulate the era as well as "I Feel Good All Over"

I can't be objective about Stephanie Mills, love her too much

still waiting for the Stephanie Mills rediscovery

"Candy", fuiud

xpost bit by bit, it'll come

feelin

Luther Vandross - Stop To Love
Cameo - Candy
Freddie Jackson - Have You Ever Loved Somebody
Janet Jackson - Let's Wait Awhile
Jody Watley - Looking For A New Love
Michael Jackson with Siedah Garrett - I Just Can't Stop Loving You
LL Cool J - I Need Love
Stephanie Mills - (You're Puttin') A Rush On Me
Michael Jackson - Bad
Roger - I Want To Be Your Man
Michael Jackson - The Way You Make Me Feel

voted for

LeVert - Casanova

if u dont like this song then fuck u
sarry28 2 months ago

Candy was my first choice

I Need Love.
I don't know if LL's image matches the lyrics, but that kind of makes him more irresistible and really adds to the song's bittersweet undertone... Besides it's just a straight up old school classic.

Voted I Need Love as well.

Los blue jeans soothed my heart by voting for "Cassanova", thus freeing me to vote for "Candy"

Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam - Head To Toe!!

The Way You Make Me Feel is probably my favorite MJ song (only one of his in my ipod too). Going for that one. Matthew Perpetua exposed really well the reasons I love it:

It would be a profound understatement to say that Michael Jackson had a very strange life. In fact, the man led perhaps the single most unlikely and bizarre life of all time, every step of the way entirely removed from what anyone could consider anything like a normal existence. This is a large part of his tragedy, but it is also something that highlights his uncanny gifts as a musician and entertainer: Somehow, despite being so totally estranged from the ordinary, he was capable of evoking and articulating the essence universal emotions, and not just in broad strokes. I am certainly not an expert on Jackson’s love life and would not ever want to be one, but I think it’s fair to assume that the scenario in “The Way You Make Me Feel” probably doesn’t match up with his own experience — the line “I’ll be workin’ from 9 to 5″ is a give away — but the man could sell the sentiment of the tune without flaw, nailing the nuances of his character’s infatuation, excitement, and confidence. His musical skill was clearly innate and miraculous, but it would not have meant that much without this incredible gift for interpreting, simplifying, and at times totally abstracting emotional experience into something so potent and primal that it could be instinctively understood across nearly all cultural boundaries. The man probably never felt normal a moment in his life, but it really seems like he understood humanity, or at least enough to synthesize his observations into these brilliant, intuitive performances.

http://www.fluxblog.org/2009/06/my-lonely-days-are-gone

good stuff here, "Fake" "Casanova" Loose Ends The Whispers but I'm voting "Stop To Love" - not only one of Luther's best upbeat numbers but a real 80s message: don't let the workaday grind and upwardly mobile climb blind you to the finest thing in life. stop n smell the roses y'know?

voted "Head to Toe" over "Casanova" because coincidentally I already listened to it this morning but when the poll lets me make my second vote I'm flipping that.

"Stop To Love" - not only one of Luther's best upbeat numbers but a real 80s message: don't let the workaday grind and upwardly mobile climb blind you to the finest thing in life. stop n smell the roses y'know?

whenever I hear this at CVS I imagine the employees dancing.

Joyce Sims

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_H23dEmO4Y

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

Candy! So good so good.

imo the two best songs won out

Another excuse to post this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj3ple2ZKqU

still waiting for the Stephanie Mills rediscovery

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, July 29, 2012 9:46 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Bought import reissues of her 20th Century albums around a decade ago, thinking, "Nah, this stuff will never get reissued." Then that Hip-O Select comp came out last year.

'86 but peaked in '87. Probably heard it once for every 20 times I heard "Pleasure Principle."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GISRQ8_K18

man i'd never heard "i want to be your man" before tonight (just the songs that have sampled it obviously), what a song

"what a production"

"cassanova" getting shut out, what the heck

"Diamonds" getting shut out!

Roger - I Want To Be Your Man

Alexander O'Neal - Fake 2
The System - Don't Disturb This Groove 1
Force MDs - Love is a House 0
LeVert - Casanova 0

>:(