I give a mark out of 10 to every track – this poll is for you to tick all the songs you’d have given 6 or more to, and you can discuss the year in general in the comments box.
Loading ...A year of few number ones, though it took me an age to finish. My highest marks were 8 for Shakespear’s Sister and Charles And Eddie; lowest was a 2 for Wet Wet Wet. Onwards!
Tom in Popular • popular year poll • 1,888 views
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All the UK number ones since 1952, reviewed in order and rated by whim. As featured on Radio 2, The Times, Metro, Paul Cornell's LiveJournal, etc etc.
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Three out of twelve! (Shamen, Tasmin, Charles & Eddie) Although there are a few things in there that I can objectively see as being sort of good and might have given a six rather than a five to… In number one terms, 1992 strikes me as being a pretty dull transitional year. Roll on the rapid turnover of sparky chart-toppers of the mid-nineties.
The NME Critics’ Poll for 1992 seems to feature a disproportionate amount of long-forgotten indie to me. The Joyriders? Moonshake?
1. The Drowners – Suede
2. Sheela Na Gig – PJ Harvey
3. Motorcycle Emptiness – Manic Street Preachers
4. Creep – Radiohead
5. Drive – REM
6. Jump Around – House Of Pain
7. Television – The Drug Of The Nation – Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
8. My Loving – En Vogue
9. Pretend We’re Dead – L7
10. Metal Mickey – Suede
11. Babes – Pulp
12. Straight To You – Nick Cave
13. Avenue – St Etienne
14. Changes – Sugar
15. Armchair Anarchist – Kingmaker
16. Connected – Stereo MC’s
17. Free Range – The Fall
18. Little Baby Nothing – Manic Street Preachers
19. Didgeridoo – Aphex Twin
20. Old Red Eyes Is Back – The Beautiful South
21. Revenge – The Jesus & Mary Chain
22. Deeply Dippy – Right Said Fred
23. Would I Lie To You? – Charles & Eddie
24. Goin’ Out West – Tom Waits
25. It’s A Shame About Ray – The Lemonheads
26. It’s Not What You Know – New Fast Automatic Daffodils
27. King Of Gasoline – The Joyriders
28. Second-Hand Clothes – Moonshake
29. Steamroller – The Family Cat
30. Brenda’s Got A Baby – 2-Pac
31. Dixie-Narco Ep – Primal Scream
32. Middle Of The Road – Denim
33. Remedy – The Black Crowes
34. Geek Love – Bang Bang Machine
35. I’m On My Way – Betty Boo
36. Rich & Strange – Cud
37. Hold It Down – Senseless Things
38. People Everyday – Arrested Development
39. Mid-Life Crisis – Faith No More
40. Little Bird – Moose
41. The Impossible Dream – Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine
42. Summer Babe – Pavement
43. Theme From M*A*S*H – Manic Street Preachers
44. Medication – Spiritulized
45. Join Our Club – St Etienne
46. Gradually Learning – The Rockingbirds
47. Everybody Loves Me But You – Juliana Hatfield
48. This Is Not A Song – The Frank & Walters
49. Slow Dog – Belly
50. I Love Your Smile – Shanice
Much of the Melody Maker critics’ poll for 1992 has little truck with commercial mass appeal.
1. The Drowners – Suede
2. Sheela Na Gig – PJ Harvey
3. Taillight Fade – Buffalo Tom
4. Metal Mickey – Suede
5. Fast Piss Blues – Come
6. Trigger Cut – Pavement
7. Scum – Bark Psychosis
8. My World Is Empty Without You – The Afghan Whigs
9. Weekender – Flowered Up
10. Car – Come
11. Avenue – St Etienne
12. Drive – REM
13. Papua New Guinea – The Future Sound Of London
14. Pretend We’re Dead – L7
15. Dusted – Belly
16. Leave Them All Behind – Ride
17. The Blue Room – The Orb
18. Gravity Grave – Verve
19. Connected – Stereo MC’s
20. Rubbing The Impossible To Burst EP – Huggy Bear
BUMPER year! Also is this in the Blog 92 series on purpose?
No! Gosh I wonder how it ended up there.
I was back into reading the weekly music press by this point, for sure – I remember almost all of the tracks in #2 and #3. History has not smiled on some of them: I am fonder of more than I probably should be. A pretty fair snapshot of how much – 6 years after the hip-hop wars, 4 years after acid house – dance music and black music had dropped off the inkies’ agenda.
Here’s the Select list – my favourite music mag at the time, and probably the most trusted by my fellow students too.
1. Suede – Metal Mickey
2. The Orb – The Blue Room
3. The Klf – America: What Time Is Love?
4. Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy – Television (The Drug Of The Nation)
5. Stereo Mcs – Connected
6. L7 – Pretend We’re Dead
7. Future Sound Of London – Papua New Guinea
8. Erasure – Abba-Esque
9. Primal Scream -Dixie-Narco Ep
10. Rem – Drive
11. Pj Harvey – Sheela-Na-Gig
12. Mouse Of Pain – Jump Around
13. Denim – Middle Of The Road
14. Arrested Development – Tennessee
15. The Shamen – Ebeneezer Goode
16. Sugar – Changes
17. Suede – The Drowners
18. Electronic – Disappointed
19. Jesus And Mary Chain – Reverence
20. Julian Cope – Fear Loves This Place
21. U2 – Even Better Than The Real Thing (Perfectomix)
22. Flowered Up – Weekender
23. The Levellers – 15 Years
24. Nick Cave – Straight To You
25. En Vogue – My Lovin” (You’re Never Gonna Get It)
26. Spiritualized – Medication
27. Frank And Walters – The Happy Busman
28. Joey Negro – Enter Your Fantasy Ep
29. St Etienne – Join Our Club
30. Madonna – Erotica
31. Sonic Youth -Youth Against Fascism
32. The Aphex Twin -Digeridoo Ep
33. Morrissey – You’re The One For Me, Fatty
34. Nirvana – Lithium
35. The Shamen – Boss Drum
36. Orbital – Halcyon
37. Opus 3 – It’s A Fine Day
38. Finitribe – Forevergreen
39. Paul Weller – Uh-Huh Oh Yeah
40. Carlene Davis – Dial My Number (Morales Mix)
41. Ce Ce Peniston – Finally
42. Come – Fast Piss Blues
43. Right Said Fred – Deeply Dippy
44. Shut Up And Dance – Raving I’m Raving
45. Model 500 – The Passage
46. Sl2 – On A Ragga Tip
47. Smashing Pumpkins – I Am One
48. The Sisters Of Mercy – Temple Of Love 1992
49. Tc1992 – Funky Guitar
50. Strangelove – Visionary Ep
Uncomfortably straddling an NME/Face/Smash Hits/Q audience there.
Four from me: Shakespear’s Sister, Shamen, Charles & Eddie and Jimmy Nail.
Australia’s number ones of 1992 had little overlap with the UK’s – some of which you should be very happy about indeed:
Michael Jackson, “Black or White”, 3 weeks (after 5 in 1991)
Salt-n-Pepa, “Let’s Talk About Sex”, 4 weeks
Euphoria, “Love You Right”, 2 weeks
Julian Lennon, “Saltwater”, 4 weeks
The Twelfth Man featuring MCG Hammer, “Marvellous!”, 2 weeks
Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Under the Bridge”, 4 weeks
Mr. Big, “To Be with You”, 3 weeks
Euphoria, “One in a Million”, 1 week
Girlfriend, “Take It from Me”, 2 weeks
Kris Kross, “Jump”, 3 weeks
Vanessa Williams, “Save the Best for Last”, 1 week
Richard Marx, “Hazard”, 3 weeks
José Carreras and Sarah Brightman, “Amigos Para Siempre”, 6 weeks
Bobby Brown, “Humpin’ Around”, 1 week
Billy Ray Cyrus, “Achy Breaky Heart”, 7 weeks. Highest seller of the year.
Boyz II Men, “End of the Road”, 4 weeks
Whitney Houston, “I Will Always Love You”, 2 weeks (plus 8 in 1993)
A year that finished strong after a largely dreadful start: Shakespear’s Sister is the only thing in the first 7 months that isn’t repulsive, but after that it’s all amazing all the time with Snap/Shamen/Tasmin Archer/Boyz II Men/Charles & Eddie/Whitney.
Those critic lists are mostly dreadful (Suede at No 1, kmt) but some awesome memories dotted among them: En Vogue, Madonna, PJ Harvey (first step on her way to National Treasure status 19 years later!), Shanice (how this wasn’t every publication’s No 1 I have NO IDEA kmt), Pac, St Etienne, Opus III, CeCe Peniston, SL2…
Voted for Shakespear’s Sister, Shamen, Charles & Eddie, Snap, and the quirky awesomeness of Jimmy Nail. Felt awful not voting for Erasure, one of my fave bands ever, but it really isn’t one of their best releases.
For me it’s another year where the rave ruled all, my fave track of ’92 is ‘Out of Space’ by The Prodigy. I didn’t discover it until 2004, but when it did it introduced me to a whole era of music I still love today – from there I discovered Opus III, SL2, etc, totally kicking ass over the mundane dross in the then-current pop charts.
Praga Khan’s ‘Injected With A Poison’, Felix’s ‘Don’t You Want Me’ and KLF’s ‘America: What Time Is Love’ also all stand out for me!
Voted for four – and one of those was a sympathy vote.
The Face singles of 1992 (courtesy of http://www.rocklist.net) were:
1. Jamiroquai – When You Gonna Learn
2. Arrested Development – People Everyday
3. Prince – Sexy MF
4. Us3 – Cantaloop
5. Martine Girault – Revival
6. Arrested Development – Tennessee
7. House Of Pain – Jump Around
8. Ministry – Jesus Built My Hotrod
9. Flowered Up – Weekender
10. Inner City – Hallelujah
11. Stereo MC’s – Connected
12. Yothu Yindi – Treaty
13. St Etienne – Avenue
14. Paul Weller – Uh Huh Oh Yeh
15. DOP – Rockin’ To The Rhythm
16. Jah Wobble – Vision Of You
17. Future Sound Of London – Papua New Guinea
18. Right Said Fred – Deeply Dippy
19. Pete Rock and CL Smooth – Troy (They Reminisce…)
20. Manic Street Preachers – Motorcycle Emptiness
21. One Dove – Transient Truth
22. Chaka Demus & Pliers – Murder She Wrote
23. Tito Puente – Ran Kan Kan
24. Primal Scream – Dixie Narco EP
25. Nirvana – Lithium
26. The Rockingbirds/St Etienne/Flowered Up – The Fred EP
27. The Sandals – Nothing
28. Kriss Kross – Jump
29. Dina Carroll – Ain’t No Man
30. Secret Life – As Always
31. Young Disciples – Move On EP
32. Inner City – Pennies From Heaven
33. Wreckx N’ Effect – Rumpshaker
34. Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy – Television
35. Mombassa – Cry Freedom
36. U2 – One
37. Brand New Heavies – Stay This Way (remix)
38. Sylvian/Sakamoto – Heartbeat
39. Degrees Of Motion – Do You Want It Right Now
40. L7 – Pretend We’re Dead
41. Madonna – This Used To Be My Playground
42. Melissa Morgan – Still In Love With You
43. Des’ree – Feel So High
44. EPMD – Crossover
45. Teenage Fanclub – What You Do To Me
46. Tom Waits – Goin’ Out West
47. The Orb – Assassin
48. The Rockingbirds – Gradually Learning
49. World Series Of Life – Spread Love
50. Shabba Ranks – Mr Loverman
A SEVEN for me, though to be honest most of them were 6/10 jobs.
Some great stuff in those magazine polls – Jump Around, Metal Mickey, Babies, Avenue, Didgeridoo, Middle Of The Road, Scum, Weekender, Jump, Papua New Guinea, Television (The Drug Of The Nation), The Blue Room… and elsewhere a great year for rap (Dr Dre, Snoop, Ice Cube) and rave (The Prodigy and many others we talked about on another thread)
Nice surprise to see ‘The Passage’ crept into that Select list – gorgeous work. Can’t say I am familar with ‘Fast Piss Blues’ tho.
Ticked eight but only Snap and the Shamen are 8+
Only four for me. A combination of getting old, moving to the States/being disengaged from charts, and a lot of them being rubbish.
Re #11. Neither was I… I was intrigued;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoVBCwzGwm0
Hm. I can see how if you really liked Husker Du, Dinosaur Jr and Nirvana, you’d think that all of your Christmases had come at once if you heard this. For someone like myself, I can’t say that its a towering work on the scale of Avenue or Weekender, though.
Peel list here:
1. Bang Bang Machine Geek Love
2. PJ Harvey Shee-La-Na-Gig
3. Ministry Jesus Built My Hotrod
4. Wedding Present Come Play With Me
5. The Fall The Legend Of Xanadu
6. The Fall Free Range
7. Sonic Youth Youth Against Fascism
8. Pavement Trigger Cut
9. Babes In Toyland Bruise Violet
10. Pavement Here
11. Future Sound Of London Papua New Guinea
12. The Fall Ed’s Babe
13. The Jesus And Mary Chain Reverence
14. Wedding Present Flying Saucer
15. Suede The Drowners
16. Sugar Changes
17. Sonic Youth Sugar Kane
18. Wedding Present Silver Shorts
19. Wedding Present Love Slave
20. The Orb Blue Room
21. Sugar A Good Idea
22. Babes In Toyland Handsome & Gretel
23. Sonic Youth 100%
24. Wedding Present Blue Eyes
25. Dr Devious Cyber Dream
26. Sonic Youth Theresa’s Sound World
27. Pond Young Splendor
28. Drop Nineteens Wynnona
29. Datblygu Popeth
30. Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy The Language Of Violence
31. Frank & Walters Happy Bus Man
32. Arcwelder Favour
33. Therapy? Teethgrinder
34. The Fall Kimble
35. Pavement In The Mouth A Desert
36. Love Cup Tearing Water
37. Pavement Summer Babe
38. Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy Television The Drug Of A Nation
39. Boo Radleys Lazarus
40. Ride Leave Them All Behind
41. Wedding Present Sticky
42. Pavement Circa 1762
43. Drag Racing Underground On The Road Again
44. KLF & Extreme Noise Terror 3AM Eternal
45. Buffalo Tom Tailights Fade
46. Wedding Present Falling
47. Pavement Conduit For Sale
48. Sugar Helpless
49. Verve All In The Mind
50. The Fall The Birmingham School Of Business School
#5 MOUSE of Pain?
With swelling national pride over having a record about big butts atop the charts for FIVE weeks I present the US #1s:
“Black or White” – Michael Jackson
“All 4 Love” – Color Me Badd
“Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” – George Michael and Elton John
“I’m Too Sexy” – Right Said Fred
“To Be with You” – Mr. Big
“Save the Best for Last” – Vanessa Williams
“Jump” – Kris Kross
“I’ll Be There” – Mariah Carey
“Baby Got Back” – Sir Mix-a-Lot
“This Used to Be My Playground” – Madonna
“End of the Road” – Boyz II Men
“How Do You Talk to an Angel” – The Heights
“I Will Always Love You” – Whitney Houston
And here’s Pazz and Jop:
1.Arrested Development – Tennessee
2.House Of Pain – Jump Around
3.Kris Kross – Jump
4.En Vogue – My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)
5. Arrested Development – People Everyday
5. Cypress Hill – How I Could Just Kill A Man/The Phuncky Feel One
7.Sir Mix-A-Lot – Baby Got Back
8.U2 – One
9.The Klf – Justified And Ancient
10.Sophie B. Hawkins – Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover
11.L7 – Pretend We’re Dead
12.Tlc – Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg
13.R.E.M. – Drive
14. Das Efx – They Want Efx
14. K.D. Lang – Constant Craving
14. Prince & The New Power Generation – Sexy M.F.
14. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under The Bridge
14. Pete Rock & Cl Smooth – They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)
14. Wreckx-N-Effect – Rump Shaker
20. Ministry – Jesus Built My Hotrod
20. Nirvana – Lithium
20. Lisa Stansfield – Real Love
20. Utah Saints – Something Good
24. Arrested Development – Revolution
24. The Cure – Friday I’m In Love
24. Madonna – Erotica
24. Bruce Springsteen – Human Touch
24. Paul Westerberg – Dyslexic Heart
My first ever “None of Them”* – very ironic considering the vast amounts of 1992 hardcore I have – nb the amount of music I really love released this year probably rivals any other year…I even found Number 1′s to tick in the overall musically dire years of 1985 and 1986.
*The nearest was Jimmy Nail but I’m quite a strict judge and ‘AND’ isn’t really a 6.
Looking at that MM list, this was actually my indiest year, not 1989 as I previously thought. I think I could sing you about 85% of that list even now.
Not a great year, was it? When records as weary and wearying as the Mary Chain’s Reverence and REM’s Drive score so highly in various charts, you have to worry. Obviously, as in any year, there are some blinders: the Rockingbirds’ Gradually Learning, Pete Rock & CL Smooth’s TROY, Jump & Jump Around, My Lovin’, Arrested Development’s Tennessee…
Re 2: Moonshake were formed by Dave Callahan, once of The Wolfhounds (combative C86 band much loved by the Manic Street Preachers). They leant in a then-fashionable Krautrock-and-dub direction, and as I remember were more admirable than actually enjoyable.
@20, Mark M.. Reverence and Drive seemed pretty great to me at the time and I still play ‘em today, but, hey, pace Lex, The Drowners b/w My Insatiable One & To the Birds is (on balance) the best single I’ve ever actually bought, so I’m in agreement with the UK critics lists on that front too.
When I look at the lists, however, I’m struck by no Alice In Chains, Dirt, no NIN, Broken and no Tori Amos, Little Earthquakes. These were transformative records where I was (and they remain in pretty high rotation).
Looking back, 1992 was Alison Krauss’s breakthrough year. I wasn’t listening to Bluegrass at the time, but Every time you say goodbye is the 1992 release I listen to most often now.
hi dere. I am shocked at how well Shakespeare’s Sister (or SS – DYS?) are doing. They are enemies of pop, the ultimate rockist bollocks of someone leaving a much loved pop act to start making music for grown ups and suddenly reap critical kudos.
If “rockist bollocks” is respecting someone because they’ve left a much loved pop act to start making music for grown-ups, then does “popist bollocks” mean automatically hating someone for doing the same?