US #1s of 1991

Story checks out, I was 15 the year there wasn't much interest in my corner for pop, and that was 1994.

Also, these are all very good-to-great pop singles fuiud...

"Justify My Love," Madonna
"Love Will Never Do (Without You)," Janet Jackson
"Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)," C+C Music Factory featuring Freedom Williams
"Someday," Mariah Carey
"One More Try," Timmy T
"I've Been Thinking About You," Londonbeat
"Baby Baby," Amy Grant
"Joyride," Roxette
"I Like the Way (The Kissing Game)," Hi-Five
"Rush Rush," Paula Abdul
"I Adore Mi Amor," Color Me Badd
"Good Vibrations," Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch featuring Loleatta Holloway
"Romantic," Karyn White
"Cream," Prince and the New Power Generation
"Set Adrift on Memory Bliss," P.M. Dawn
"Black or White," Michael Jackson

good list

Yep, but it needs some “Emotions” too.

I love all three of the Mariah Carey entries here

I managed to vote for "More Than Words" but I was sure I had already voted for C&C Music Factory. Did we have two polls like this?

Don't get me wrong, lots of stuff I love on the list. I'm just surprised there was so much I didn't recognize. Lots of second or third singles, it seems like, so maybe I had just tuned out some acts I didn't particularly like after the first single. I know for sure that even though I was still captive to what was on MTV and the radio, at least as far as free music goes, I had definitely started snobbing it up by now.

Interesting. I ran my list of songs I didn't recognize by my wife, who is 1 1/2 years younger than me, and she knew them all *except* the Karyn White song. Which again, is so in the Jam & Lewis mold that it sounds familiar even if you don't know it, so maybe she did know it.

I was curious, so I glanced back at 1990 and 1992, and I know almost all of those songs, or at least there are fewer I don't know by title. But also interesting is that in 1992 there are pretty much half as many hits as there were in 1990 and 1991, like 12 songs to the other years' 24+. I wonder which year had the most number ones and which year had the least?

Love Will Never Do
Set Adrift on Memory Bliss
More Than Words
< -----(It's So Hard to Say Goodbye)
I Don't Wanna Cry
Baby, Baby
Someday
Joyride

Oh I forgot I Like the Way, which is right below I Don't Wanna Cry

Fun fact re Londonbeat: they were hired to do backing vocals for the track United Colours on Microdisney's final album, and they indignantly stopped the recording session halfway through because they found Cathal Coughlan's lyrics highly offensive.

P.M. Dawn

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

great results

Whatta year!

Just skimming, but compared to your last few of these I could do without most of these songs.

Man, every time I see lists of songs from the Interzone it wigs me out. From the end of 7th grade (summer of '90) to the beginning of my freshman year (fall of '91), we lived in four different cities, so it's like I'm seeing a mish mash of music from totally different eras. It doesn't help that I kicked off '91 bopping around to Amy Grant and wrapped it up moping out to Soundgarden. On the plus side, I can usually pinpoint pretty much exactly when a song was big based on where I was when it made the rounds.

I will say, despite not listening to the radio a bit the bulk of 1991, I know all of these songs but 11.

Looks like '91 was maybe the first year in which many of the number ones were sample-based. I would assume that has been the norm ever since.

I kicked off '91 bopping around to Amy Grant and wrapped it up moping out to Soundgarden

sounds like a Saturday to me

Just skimming, but compared to your last few of these I could do without most of these songs.

OTM

On the other hand, I just saw Alfred's ranking of *favorite* 1991 songs, and that list is much more appealing.

I'd mostly stopped listening to top-40 radio by 1991, so most of these songs I didn't pick up on until years later when I heard them on adult-contemporary stations. As such, they weirdly feel like they're from the 2000s to me rather than 1991.

On the other hand, I just saw Alfred's ranking of *favorite* 1991 songs, and that list is much more appealing.

― Josh in Chicago

it's magnificent