POLL: 20 years ago, these were the #1 singles of the summer! (1990)

I don't even remember the Glenn Medeiros and Sweet Sensation songs.

Just when I thought it couldn't have got worse than the 25 year poll...

(voted Roxette fwiw)

...and unlike the 1985 poll, VH1 didn't include these on countdowns so I know the tunes of none of them.

I know every single one of these. The bottom two are the worst. "It Must Have Been Love" is Roxette's second-best ballad (after "Fading Like a Flower"), but "Step by Step" is NKOTB's finest moment; the canned disco strings sound surprisingly fresh.

I thought the Mariah and Bon Jovi ones sounded okay at the time, too. And I had loved the over-the-top upbeat Latin freestyle on Sweet Sensation's debut album from 1987 or so, but by 1990 all those freestyle groups had slowed to dullish ballads. So I'm voting for NKOTB.

It fascinates me how Sweet Sensation, Exposé, Stevie B, Cover Girls, and Timmy T suddenly scored hits years after freestyle's prime...yet were all slushy ballads.

Maybe there's a rough equivalent between this phenomenon and hair metal's biggest hits (i.e. also ballads).

It was a relevance grab, surely. (I'd have been fine with freestyle going ahead full speed for another five years at the time, but sadly it didn't.)

rough equivalent between this phenomenon and hair metal

Those two genres had a lot in common -- even some of the same makeup and haircuts, and stolen girl group drumbeats. (See: first Cover Girls and Poison albums, especially.)

And fwiw, Timmy T's "One More Try" from '91 was an excellent ballad. (For some reason, freestyle boys -- see Noel, too -- were often better at being wimpy and sentimental than freestyle girls. But the girls totally killed on the fast stuff.)

"Cry Tough" as performed by the Shirelles just came to mind...and it's not bad. xp

Poison never did anything that verged on hysteria like the great Trinere, Debbie Deb, and Exposé hits, although I can totally hear any one of these femmes taking "Nothin' But a Good Time" somewhere unfamiliar.

And fwiw, Timmy T's "One More Try" from '91 was an excellent ballad. (For some reason, freestyle boys -- see Noel, too -- were often better at being wimpy and sentimental than freestyle girls.

Generally true (see also: Stevie B's "In My Eyes"), but I could never stand "One More Try."

Alfred that is one hell of a truth bomb and something that, despite my SigOth and I liking the majority of mainstream freestyle bands, her tastes run toward the slush and I prefer the stacatto arpeggiator throb.

and it was aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-ah-ah-ah-ah-aaaaaaaaaall that you turned out to beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

voted Roxette, but actually "Vision of Love" might be my favourite Mariah song...it's def. archetypal, and IIRC VH1 placed it as it's #1 video of the millenium sometime around 2000...

I had no idea there was a reasonable explanation for the existence of Timmy T!

(continued): eg, she loves "The Postman Song" and I'm more "I Wanna Be The One"/"Spring Love"

"I Wanna Be The One" is massive. If you listen to it again, you'll notice three different melody lines in the first forty seconds.

Further proof that 1990 was the worst year for music of the last 50

1985, 1993, and 1998 are worse.

Don't know if anyone's going to do it but 1995's a good deal better.

I looked at 1995. #1's were staying #1 so long that year that there were only about 4 songs to pick from.

No memory of any of these except Mariah. Abstain.

I love 1990 more than pretty much every other year of my childhood, but this list isn't doing it for me. It's between the Roxette and Carey ballads.

1985, 1993, and 1998 are worse.

Worse for number 1 hits, or music overall?

#1's.

"She Ain't Worth It" is so awful. It's like those fake songs they used to use in TGIF sitcoms.

Much better than "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You," which is like one of those fake songs straight high school couples fall in love to in TGIF sitcoms.

Roxette for me.

NKOTB. Can't imagine many times I'd vote for them, but this is one of those times.

Roxette needs a singles poll.

I love the shit out of Roxette, and this might be my favorite song of theirs. Impossible to say (would be totally down for a Roxette poll btw)

total garbage, wouldn't want to have to listen to any of this tbh

this is worse than the 1985 poll damn

Pretty sure this was the year I decided to stop listening to radio and/or following the weekly top 40.

Pretty sure this was the year I decided to stop listening to radio and/or following the weekly top 40.

That was '94 for me, but it was for only a year. And then I gave up again sometime in the '00s, but this time only because I'm now old and haggard.

*blech*

The Mariah song is still dope. I have always hated the rest except, weirdly, for that Wilson Phillips song.

Roxette. Just for the unexpected chord progression in the chorus just before the end.

Oh man, I loved "She Ain't Worth It." This was right about the EXACT time I started paying attention to radio/pop music. Lots of memories.

It's like those fake songs they used to use in TGIF sitcoms.

Awesome.

Similar song from summer of '90:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBWKg1e7vR0

ha! I had wiped that guy from my memory.

I gave Bon Jovi a knee-jerk vote before I noticed the Wilson Phillips song

I was just sitting here thinking "what's missing from this list?" Bell Biv Devoe's "Poison," because it was absolutely inescapable that summer. But apparently it only peaked at #3 on the Hot 100. The heck?! I think that's the song that epitomizes 1990 for me.

Jam-Lewis experienced a new peak that summer, what with Johnny Gill, Ralph Tresvant, etc.

As for Dino -- his shrewd handlers marketed him as "freestyle," so all his singles got tons of local airplay.

His biggest hit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKwbSTaGsd0

I swear I didn't know this: Tom gets to Glenn Medeiros' other hit.

Huh, didn't realize Dino had another top 10 hit. Probably because it was just *before* "Romeo."

This is a great resource for seeing what was on the chart at any given time. It's not Billboard, it's ARC Weekly (which is airplay-only and tends toward mainstream top 40), but you still get a good feel for the time period.

(Click on any of the dates to see the top 40 for that week.)

Wow -- I know at least thirty-two of the songs on the July 21 list. This was the peak of my top 40 listening.

Where the fuck is
Poison-Bel Biv Devoe
Ready or Not-After 7
Can;t Stop-After 7
All I Do is think of you-Troop

"vision of love" and "it must have been love" are both AMAZING ("vision of love" is better)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

WTF? I've never heard those Glen Medeiros and Sweet Sensation songs either - and I'm a 1990 expert...

What is freestyle?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51Iq8JmmfxY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksHsh4r8tJA

I remember Glenn Medeiros but dont think its that song.

Wow -- I know at least thirty-two of the songs on the July 21 list. This was the peak of my top 40 listening.

It's crazy how true this is for me too. Not July 21st. Apparently I hit my peak while "Escapade" was #1 a couple months prior.

(xx-post) Wow. I don't think I've heard either of those songs since I was about six, and I certainly didn't know that kind of music had a name. I would've just lumped it in with 80s pop. Interesting. So they called it "freestyle" even though it had nothing to do with freestyle rapping?

Its longer name is Latin Freestyle, though the "latin" part got largely dropped by the time people like Information Society moved in on the sound.

Wow -- I know at least thirty-two of the songs on the July 21 list. This was the peak of my top 40 listening.

It's crazy how true this is for me too. Not July 21st. Apparently I hit my peak while "Escapade" was #1 a couple months prior.

― rim this, fuck that (Eric H.), Wednesday, June 30, 2010 8:29 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

To quote Gloria Estefan, here we are.