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!
I'm writing about every UK number one single, in order. It's taken a while, it'll take a while longer. Wander around in the archives, or join in with the marvellous bunch of commenters we've managed to attract - new voices always very welcome!
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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?
Like Charlie Busted?
The Vicar asserts that pop is only for kids: none more rockist! Indeed, #TROLLFAIL
Drive, an odd first single, was apparently written with David Essex’s Rock On in mind. I can’t say that Drive or Reverence are REM or J&MC’s best singles but there’s plenty more to love, and experimentation to admire, in those lists.
Oddly enough I do think Drive is my favourite REM song, I couldn’t quite put my finger on why as clearly it’s also a dirge, but I keep coming back to it in a way I never do the rest of their stuff.
Single, not song. “You Are The Everything” is my favourite REM song I’m pretty sure.
Good call on YATE. Truly evocative lyric; it reminds me of being to driven to my Nan’s house in Dorking at night, lying on the backseat, watching the streetlights whizzing past, with David Bowie’s terrifying Bewlay Brothers on the car radio.
I’ve been doing a lot of REM re-appraising recently, so much easier now they are no longer functioning (conclusion largely as expected: cut-off point is Automatic For The People, with Up as the true ‘comeback album’). I was trying to think of someone else whose stock would rise if they quit tomorrow and thought of Stereolab (aware that I might be in a glasshouse with a brick in my hand).
Coldplay?
REM-wise I remember being quite surprised that a lot of people hated ‘Shiny Happy People’ (indie snobbery maybe?) because I loved it.
Pre-Automatic For The People, REM had a habit of sticking out singles which were clearly aimed at breaking out of their ‘indie’ fanbase. The reason I didn’t like them is that, for such an oblique and atmospheric group, these songs were so grindingly obvious. Some were ok (It’s The End Of The World As We Know It), but Stand and Shiny Happy People came over as nursery rhymes that spelt out i.r.o.n.i.c. for the ignoramus. “Look everybody! It’s a POP song! Like an advertising JINGLE! Geddit??!!!”
Patronising to their (presumed as anti-pop) fanbase and condescending to actual pop fans, I think these tracks really mar the 87-92 albums. I prefer my irony from Homer Simpson (“ooooh! and what is this magical beast?”), which is no less subtle.
#30 and 31. Yes! ‘You Are The Everything’ is not my favorite REM song (that is ‘Perfect Circle’, probably), but it is their (Stipe’s?) greatest lyric, I think. They often aim for that everyday epiphany, but on YATE they achieve it more idiosyncratically, and more vividly, than anywhere else. “And you’re drifting off to sleep, with your teeth in your mouth” is pretty close to perfection: one of those phrases that just embeds itself in your consciousness.
~#34 – reading the front page, where in the “latest comments” section it says “#30 and 31. Yes! ‘You Are The Everything’ is not my favorite REM song…”, as I moved the cursor to click on the link the line “with your teeth in your mouth” immediately popped into my mind.
#8 And amen to that, too. ‘Out of Space’ is probably my favourite of the year, tied with ‘Avenue’. (Just ahead of ‘One’ and ‘Baby Got Back’.)
But check all those critics’ lists: it is not on any of them. I don’t really remember the early critical reaction to the Prodigy, but were they a case of Stooges-scale “getting it wrong”, in the sense of initial disdain having to be reversed in the face of manifest brilliance?
Wikipedia describes ‘Experience’ as “critically acclaimed”, but I am not sure I believe it. Of the reviews I have found online, Christgau called it “irritating”, and Q gave it three stars, in a classic case of not wanting to be fusty about this new-fangled “rave” business.
They got some perfunctory coverage in the music press I think, on basis of being actually popular with young people presumably, but as I recall it wasn’t ’til they dirtied up their image a bit around the likes of ‘Poison’ that they started to get taken seriously. I’d guess this because they could then be lumped in with crustiness and kill the bill and all that, rather than frivolities like incredible tunes, genuine popularity and having a good time.
Another reason is that it’s hard to know what to do with an act that breaks with a novelty record. It’s ludicrous nowadays, when ‘Charly’, ‘Everybody In The Place’ and ‘Out Of Space’ (those opening chords!) are as thrilling a triptych as it’s possible to imagine, but I reckon the press couldn’t tell the difference between them and Smart-Es or whoever did the Roobarb & Custard song.
“Out Of Space” was the highlight of every student disco I went to in my first year at University (a lot of them DJed by FT’s own Pete Baran, to be fair). I think that single was what primed the music press to pay more attention when “No Good (Start The Dance)”, “Poison” etc rolled round.
I think Select was pretty keen on Experience though so it wasn’t total press dismissiveness. But IIRC that review was quite combatitively contrarian – as if the idea that rave was brilliant pop was something which had to be sold hard to a wary public, rather than an obvious ‘fact on the ground’.
Roobarb And Custard was Shaft, who turned out to be respected ambient bods in disguise I think: Global Communication, wasn’t it?
Yep, Tom Middleton and the other bloke.
Experience got 4 out of 10 in the NME from old hippie Kris Needs. The Expanded 2CD version with all the single mixes is on a good day in my all-time top ten albums.
Also, fact fans, Experience is the all-time favourite album of Des O’Connor!
Tom Middleton wasn’t in Shaft, it was Mark Pritchard (the other one from Global Communication, more recently Harmonic 313 and Africa HiTech on Warp) and someone called Adrian Hughes.
And the strange thing is that with the rock press taking notice of the Prodigy the fanbase/raves/pirates no longer no longer had any interest in him (I’ll not say “them” as I always found the whole idea that it was a “group” and not just Liam Howlett also may have had something to do with “impressing” the rock critics/rock audience/America.
I suppose a brief period ending with ‘Start The Dance’ (if the music press had started to listen by then) was the only time when the ravers and the rock world overlapped.
Even at the age of 14 I though the music press suddenly jumping on the Prodigy’s dick in ’97 was gross. Like, just as their music became heavy-handed and terrible (though I do love “Breathe”) people finally caught up just because of the stupid “Firestarter” video? UGHHH.
If ‘Out Of Space’ is what softened up the press for them (#38), it must have been the sample what done it. A kids’ safety ad and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown spell novelty and therefore ‘not serious’, but an obscurish reggae tune would be just the hook nme needed to make them okay to like.
I’m sure there have been other novelty-to-credible career paths, but I can’t think of any right now. Stevie Wonder, sort of?
NME Readers Poll Best Single of 1992
1 The Drowners – Suede
2 Motorcycle Emptiness – Manic Street Preachers
3 Metal Mickey – Suede
4 The Only Living Boy In New Cross – Carter USM
5 Drive – REM
6 Changes – Sugar
7 Lithium – Nirvana
8 Ebeneezer Goode – The Shamen
9 Armchair Anarchist – Kingmaker
10 The Blue Room – The Orb
= Leave Them All Behind – Ride
= Goodbye – The Sundays
Melody Maker Readers Poll Best Single of 1992
1 The Drowners – Suede
2 Metal Mickey – Suede
3 Friday I’m In Love – The Cure
4 Motorcycle Emptiness – Manic Street Preachers
5 Drive – REM
6 Youth Against Fascism – Sonic Youth
7 Sheela Na Gig – PJ Harvey
8 All In The Mind – Verve
9 The Blue Room – The Orb
10 Connected – Stereo MC’s
#43, Depeche Mode come periliously close to fitting that template I’d say.
Plinky-plonky keyboard-pop with rather twee and overly cute lyrics > odd hint of something more > pseudo-political pop with naive but oh-so-well-intentioned lyrics (and the odd S&M reference) > BLACK CELEBRATION AND ALL THAT FOLLOWED SHEER WONDERFULNESS
(Correction: SHAKE THE DISEASE was the first fully-formed hint of just how very very very brilliant they could be)
1992 wasn’t really such a great year for music, was it?
Am I looking at the same lists as everyone else? If anything this is the point where I really get interested. I can see several songs in those polls that basically made my school days bearable.
Re 47: No, you’re not looking at the same list as most of the other people responding to the list
insofar as you were at a different point in your life, with different needs. You were at the point where music often matters most – my equivalent would have been 1986-7. In 1992 I finished university and climbed on to the very lowest rungs of professional writing about music, something that almost put me off recorded sound for good…
#43 – might I suggest David Bowie?
Novelty hit – Space Oddity*. Early history of similar novelty stuff (e.g. The Laughing Gnome, Please Mr Gravedigger). Then a gap of a couple of years before critical approval starts building around Hunky Dory/Ziggy Stardust.**
* I love Space Oddity, but it can be seen as a novelty, no? Title punning on 2001: A Space Odyssey, song cashing in on same and moon landing, gimmicky use of Stylophone.
** I admit I don’t know if this is a true reflection of Bowie’s critical status at the time.
Novelty to Srs? Blimey endless:
Jeff Beck, Kraftwerk, Mike Batt, etc..
How about Novelty to “attempted to be srs”, Babylon Zoo for example?
#46 re ’1992 wasn’t really such a great year for music, was it?’
Maybe we should do a ‘tick all the years you think featured a sufficient amount of great music’ poll as I wouldn’t mind seeing just how many people think otherwise.
That would be interesting, Steve – I wonder about consensus good/bad years. I think because of my age, and the average age of commenters, I’d swim against the tide by saying 1984 was a rotten year – not necessarily for its no.1s, though, but beyond the rise of the Smiths and the odd electro or hi-NRG record it felt like the heart of the eighties vacuum.
Is there already a way of seeing how people rate years by their no.1s?
1984 still had enough electro/early hiphop and the very very end of the old jazz-funk scene to put it ahead of 1985 and 1986 – IMHO they were absolutely abysmal although I agree 1984 was pretty dire too.
Ironic really that I dislike those years so intensely when the 1980’s was “my decade” (ie the whole of my youth falling amongst those ten years) and with 1980-83 and 1988-89 as good as it gets in any decade for me.
I’d be inclined to suggest 1981 – 1984 were very good years, but 1985 saw the Old Guard (courtesy of Live Aid) barge New Pop off the road. 1987 – 1989 sees the next decade ushered in early IMO.
There is no such thing as a good or bad year for music! Every year I’ve been a music fan has been an AMAZING year for music. Sometimes you have to look in different directions to other years but that’s your responsibility, not the music’s.
Oh, Lex. Of course you’re right, but try picking the bones out of ’75!
Andy and Fatgit, I’m guessing we’re all of a similar age. If I’d been 12 in 1984 I’d probably have found Frankie more interesting (I like the idea way more than the music) and would’ve by Live Aid in a John Cravens Newsround kind of way. I was 19, though, and quite aware that a golden era was ending with my teens.
1985 and ’86 saw me embrace fanzine culture and C86 so I found a lot there to get excited about. But outside of that, zip. Jack The Groove was a way out of a black hole, followed by Beat Dis, Acid Tracks, Strings Of Life…
1975 means ‘UK pop’ reggae, Soul before it became Disco, and teh Glam.
#55: That’s not the point. The general wellbeing is what is absorbed and recalled. There were a thousand great records released in 1983 for example but it was still a shit year for music.
I don’t think it would have mattered if I was 12 or 22 (I was 18 fwiw), I was totally sucked in by ZTT’s studio-trickery and neo-constructivism. The music varied in quality, but I still get goosebumps with Frankie and Propaganda.
And Lex, I don’t think I singled out a particularly “bad” year. You’re right about looking in the right places for thrills, but unless you are really committed in your search, some years have fewer thrills than others.
And other stuff happens in your life.
Dr Mabuse was one of my absolute favourite singles of ’84 by the way FG.
Mark, soul before disco? I’d say not. But I love Shame Shame Shame and The Moments’ Girls regardless. Early disco, more like, with soul singers trying to squeeze into the newly regimented beat. Glam was dead in the water.
I agree with Punctum re general wellbeing having an effect. I admit that how good a year was for me personally may probably slightly influence my opinion – I had such a great time in 1983 that nostalgia may be making me more positive about stuff like ‘Baby Jane’*, ‘La Dolce Vita’, ‘Down Under”Club Tropicana’ and ‘I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues’ than I would otherwise be. Having said that I don’t think any of them are bad pop records.
And even with my most objective head on I believe there’s a real fall off in 1984 and by 1985/86 it’s all got pretty hideous.
Yes Wichita I was 18 in 1983 so I am around the same age and to me Frankie just seemed like an ugly comedown after the pop splendour of the previous 2 or 3 years. I supposed I realised at the end of 1983 that 1982 was finally over…Throughout 1983 I had gradually been immersing myself in the jazz-funk (and emerging electro) clubbing culture and so was drawing away from mainstream pop anyway but in retrospect it looks like a good time as any to have got out.
I don’t mind 1975 personally:
Kraftwerk ‘Autobahn’,other good Krautrock, plenty of good modern soul/funk, early disco, big year for jazz-funk/fusion (‘Expansions’etc), ‘real’ and pop reggae, IMO last good Pink Floyd album. Not that the 10 year old me would have heard any of that aside from a bit of Capital Radio/Radio London played soul/disco/pop reggae at the time though.
*nb I can’t hear or even think of this song without being transported to sitting at a table out the back of my local pub in the early evening sunshine of a Saturday night in the summer of 1983
I’m a “glass is as EMPTY AS IT IS FULL” guy when it comes to…every year of my life, including my young adulthood the late-90s which may be as maligned as the mid-80s tend to be.
Some years might be better argued as good/bad for number ones or the charts in general (1992 DOES suffer in these respects due to factors such as the sales slump, the credibility struggles of TOTP and “1FM” (he he) at the time and fewer chart-toppers than previous years altho some may argue the latter as good especially as a dramatic shift would soon follow.
#56 1975 was a great year for music! All the ones Andy Pandy mentioned, plus Young Americans, Siren, Blood on the Tracks, Horses, Physical Graffiti, Red, Bob Marley and the Wailers Live. Also: Love to Love You Baby, Little Johnny Jewel, 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, Cortez the Kiler.
And if you went out, you could catch Stevie Wonder in his pomp, the Wailers touring Natty Dread, and Miles Davis with his Agharta / Pangaea band.
It was all there. As long as you could get yourself to downtown Manhattan / London / Osaka.
#63: Completely agree, and after one more MAJOR entry (and then nothing for a couple of weeks because I’m going on holiday. I’ll be back though) TPL will be diving into 1975, one of the most bizarre years for number one albums I can recall (no peeking ahead now!).
Also bamboozling was the 1975 segment of Kid Jensen’s Double Top 20 show on Smooth FM this week; this weird Bermuda Triangle of a chart where various bits of pop history flotsam and jetsam met in limbo; see for yourself. And with all this great music around (as mentioned above). The answer, as usual, is music radio programming policies and chain store-biased chart data.
And re 1975 I even missed Steely Dan at the top of their game.
#60, Wichita: Yes, soul before disco, in the sense of “Disco” being the Bee Gees and all that sailed. Your two examples are exactly the sort of thing I liked and am talking about. Hamilton Bohannon!
Glam wasn’t ‘over’ by 1975, it was certainly on its last legs (but who knew this at the time?)
At least in some cases the ‘soul before disco’ idea is completely literal:
Don’t leave me this way (1975)
Don’t leave me this way (1976) (although it didn’t hit #1 until 1977)
Anyhow, 1975 is a pretty fascinating crossover year for different sorts of dance music with all of Fire, Lady Marmalade, Jive Talkin’, (Bowie’s) Fame getting to #1 in the US.
Glam wasn’t ‘over’ by 1975, it was certainly on its last legs (but who knew this at the time?)
John Craven did; there was a special edition of Search dealing with it, and another entitled “Are The Rollers Finished?” when “Love Me Like I Love You” got stuck at #17 in spring ’76 (after the programme the single vaulted to #4!).
I’d say Don’t Leave Me This Way is full-on disco. In no way do I think this is a derogatory thing to say, but the regimented beat with the hissing hi-hat – well, that’s disco to me.
Re 66: … but maybe I see “Disco” as something different to other commenters here… Hamilton Bohannon is SURELY more disco than soul? Disco Stomp sounds closer to Hello’s New York Groove than George Perkins’ Crying In The Streets.
Re 68: Amazing! And two mentions for John Craven within 12 comments. And he was right, let’s see what Sweet got out and wrote their own hard rock songs, Fox On The Run and Action being their last Top 20 hits bar one in ’78; Gary Glitter scored one top 10 hit early in the year, his last til the 80s; Slade’s excellent How Does It Feel (no.15) saw them bow out of the Premier League, stats-wise at least (I LOVE the non-hit Nobody’s Fool from ’76); T Rex and Bowie had already shifted into soulful territory; The Rubettes and Mud alone carried the torch, the latter scoring six hits and an unforgettable performance in Never Too Young To Rock.
ps Punctum, the Rollers’ Just A Little Love is one of my favourite ‘finds’ of the year, so cheers for that! It would slot easily onto a Fading Yellow pop-psych comp.
Well, the “Disco” I was meaning was the “Saturday Night Fever” scene change.
#68, like any scene extant, there’s someone saying “Is it all over?” before it is. Not much point afterwards. “Is the X-Factor 2011 over? Oh yes it is, thanks.”
I used to say (still do, in fact), Punk was not dead when people said “Punk is Dead”, it was dead when people said “Punk’s not dead”.
Another indicator of a scene in terminal decline is a novelty hit. Not necessarily a pisstake, or a bad record, but a novelty nonetheless:
Rock’n’roll: The Champs – Tequila (1958)
Girl groups: The Shangri La’s – Leader Of The Pack (1965)
Flower power: Simon Dupree & the Big Sound – Kites (1967)
Swinging London: Des O’Connor – Dick A Dum Dum (1968)
Punk: Jilted John – Jilted John (1978)
The major exception is Rick Dees’ Disco Duck in ’76 – the scene grew and grew regardless. And Glam was always too much of a pop playground to be satirised, La Glitter having already broken all barriers.
Since when is any of these a “novelty”?
Since forever! Tequila?
LOTP is high camp
Kites was a psych cash-in, with a Chinese spoken passage.
Dick A Dum Dum is, hmmm, light hearted?
Jilted John is funny.
Disco Duck is a disco novelty record.
#71 – Wikipedia’s definition of a novelty song is “a comical or nonsensical song, performed principally for its comical effect. Humorous songs, or those containing humorous elements, are not necessarily novelty songs.” However, I’m not sure that gets us very far. Interestingly, the only rock’n’roll “novelty” song mentioned in the Wikipedia article is Yakety Yak (1958) – if that is “novelty” then so is Tutti Frutti!
Sticking with the mid-to-late 50s rock’n’roll era, I think the way in which “novelty” makes most sense is as a “comical” way of mocking (and cashing in on) a genre that was replacing established genres and was largely unloved by the establishment. For rock’n’roll, such novelty songs were around right from the start – e.g. Stan Freeberg’s Heartbreak Hotel, the Goons’ Bloodnok’s Rock and Roll Call, Mitchell Torok’s When Mexico gave up the Rhumba (to do the Rock’n’Roll), or Kay Starr’s Rock’n’Roll Waltz (all 1956).
Re 74: Thought I might open a can of worms there. I think you’re right on the songs that mock R&R. I picked Tequila because it’s made by R&R musicians, not mocking, just a bit… daft? I love it, but it doesn’t quite have the impact of Yakety Yak or Summertime Blues (both of which are built for ‘comical effect’), does it? It feels like the wind is going out of the sails.
Bobby “Boris” Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers “Monster Mash” stands out for me. 1962 might be a bit late for R&R parodies, but it’s really a parody of dance crazes than the music itself. It got the #3 slot in 1973 and has been a required feature of any Halloween party I’ve been to. Bobby Pickett has subsequently made a lucrative career from this one song or derivatives of it. It also works as a stand-alone pop song, which the best novelty records seem to achieve. I’d count “Yakety Yak” among those, definitely.
There were novelty punk singles the very moment “Anarchy” was issued. jking, for one
What’s JK’s novelty punk single? None of his ’75-’76 releases seem to fit the bill. Perhaps it was a bit like this – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELKb-lcW4e0&feature=player_detailpage#t=70s
I’m surprised about the comments about disco above – I thought it was one of the (few?) musical developements when it was agreed on exactly what year it not only started (1974) and that it became very big (pop number 1’s etc) straight away (George McRae) by the end of 1975 it was so big there were already articles saying was it was on the way out. Little did they know!
#78: It was “God Save The Sex Pistols” by “Elizabeth.” Which wasn’t very funny.
Yes. I’m assuming it wasn’t funny, never heard it.
Mind you, as Jonathan King would doubtless be the first to tell you, he recorded a song called “Anarchy Rock” as a b-side to The Weathermen’s “Honey Bee keep on stinging me” (ooh if only!), back in 1971.
He also recorded a “punk” single in 1972 entitled “Supershit.”
Let’s not talk about him too much, he might turn up.
He really might. Maybe here’s here already.
Good spot FG, Monster Mash was the signified that the dance craze started by Chubby Checker was in decline. No hits for Chubby, Dee Dee Sharp, The Orlons or The Dovells – all Philly dance craze specialists – after MM.
Is it ‘affectionate novelties’ I’m thinking of? Snidey ‘satire’, whether it’s J King or Stan Freberg, only tends to happen when a genre emerges. Not sure where Disco Duck fits into this pattern.
Signifier, I meant.
That’s probably it, yes: The “Think” sample of James Brown going “yeah, hoo!” never got used again after Bombalurina’s “Itsy bitsy”, also the “ah yeah” too,.
Also, Aneka’s “Japanese Boy” killed the NME sponsored JapPop movement stone dead!
an article in this week’s edition of the New Statesman magazine identifies 1992, with John Major’s victory in the General election as the ‘end of socialism’ in the UK:
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2012/03/education-labour-benn-school
Those Finnish 1992 no.1s in full:
Good year for Felix. And Lithium at no.1! I’d like to hear Moogetmoogs. Neon 2 I’m guessing were a Finnish 2 Unltd-alike?
Jan 20 The KLF – Justified & Ancient
Feb 17 Moogetmoogs – Kolmen minuutin muna
Mar 2 Hausmylly – Gigolo
Mar 16 Popeda – Kersantti Karoliina
Mar 30 Kurre – En rakkauttas saa
Apr 13 J. Karjalainen – Telepatiaa
Apr 27 ZZ Top – Viva Las Vegas
May 11 DJ Konnat – 9700-Irma
May 25 Wilson Phillips – You Won’t See Me Cry
Jun 8 Kaivo – Kun olet mennyt
Jun 22 Erasure – Abba-esque
Jul 20 Nirvana – Lithium
Aug 3 Madonna – This Used to Be My Playground
Aug 17 Shamen – L.S.I.
Aug 31 2 Unlimited – The Magic Friend
Sep 14 Neon 2 – Polku
Sep 28 Felix – Don’t You Want Me
Oct 12 East 17 – House of Love
Oct 26 Neljä Ruusua – Juppihippipunkkari (Remix)
Nov 9 Felix – It Will Make Me Crazy
Nov 23 KCD – Simo Goes Poing!
Dec 21 Colours – Help Us Back Home Sarajevo
The final Number One of 1992 presumably a comment on the Bosnian war, which began in April of that year.
Colours, whoever they were, beating U2 and Pavarotti to the punch by three years.
Yes, intriguing. The official British line was still “they’re all as bad as each other”, and would be for some years.
The penultimate no.1 was presumably a comment on Gabber.
Kat of this parish is doing OneWeekOneBand again. She’s going to be talking all week about The Fall!!
http://oneweekoneband.tumblr.com/post/67987229739/coming-up-the-fall
Going through all the Popular 1992 threads (mostly a month ago but as I have no order to how I read things, I only just got round to finishing it now) has seen me reconsider Ain’t No Doubt and Sleeping Satellite. I’d known, or at least known of (and barely listened to) each song for a very long time thanks to 90s number one specials on music TV. I cared for neither but now I really quite love them both.
Recently, 1992 has become something of an in-joke year for me among certain friends, someone connecting the dots that albums I have been hooked on relatively recently (Jehovahkill, certain compilations, and not for the first time, Nonsuch) from 1992, as well me going on about numerous hits, mostly rave hits, from the same year. My favourite singles of 1992 are mostly fall into the latter category (Don’t Go, Injected with a Poison, Trip to Trumpton), though some aren’t (Leave Them All behind, Motorcycle Emptiness).
Favourite songs from 1992 which weren’t singles
The Cure – This Twilight Garden
XTC – Rook
Disco Inferno – Love Stepping Out
Julian Cope – Necropolis
Ween – Don’t Get 2 Close (2 My Fantasy)
Peter Gabriel – Love to Be Loved
Alianza – Santiago
Aphex Twin – Heliosphan
The Prodigy – Hyperspeed (G-Force Part 2)
Nicolette – O Si Nene