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Cher's commercial rehabilitation, after more than a decade away from the
charts, had begun in the late 1987 with the slick AOR of I Found Someone
(written by giant of the genre Michael Bolton) and continued through 1989 and 1990
with Dianne Warren and Desmond Child-penned hits such as If I Could Turn Back
Time and Just Like Jesse James. Her first single of 1991, however, was
something rather different; a cover of joyful 60s pop nugget It's In His Kiss
(a.k.a. The Shoop Shoop Song) as featured in Cher's popular film of the time,
Mermaids.
The track reached the top of the UK chart on only its 3rd week, and was
the first time Cher had been at #1 in this country since her days in league
with Sonny Bono on I Got You Babe almost a quarter of a century earlier.
Another polished album of AOR, Love Hurts, was on the horizon and it would include
The Shoop Shoop song at the end as a bonus track.
KLF: The White Room
The KLF, brainchild of former Echo & The Bunnymen manager Bill Drummond, had
been around in a variety of disguises since 1987; The Justified Ancients Of
Mu-Mu and its shortened version The JAMMs to name but two. It was as the KLF,
however, that they found greatest success, and 1991 was very much their
year. It began with a #1 in the shape of 3AM Eternal and concluded with the
Christmas #2 Justified And Ancient (which featured Country icon Tammy Wynette on
vocals). Inbetween, there was another #2 hit, Last Train To Trancentral,
credited to The KLF featuring Children Of The Revolution.
During the first 38 years of the British Singles Chart, the highest debut
position for a new act had been #3 (Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice in December
1990). This week in 1991, that record was equalled Crystal Waters' club smash
Gypsy Woman, although the single never went all the way to #1. By the end of
1994, Whigfield had trumped all before her by entering the UK Top 40 at the very
summit with Saturday Night.
The Best of OMD
For OMD and Soft Cell, 1991 was feeling like 1981. 10 years earlier both
acts had enjoyed their best chart returns ; the former with Souvenir (#3), and
the latter with the Transatlantic chart-topper Tainted Love. Now they were back
in the upper reaches, albeit with a new version of their biggest hit in Soft
Cell's case (credited to Soft Cell featuring Marc Almond, who laid down a
new vocal for the release). The re-voxed Tainted Love was new at #10, and
eventually peaked at #5. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark put together an enviable
run of Top 75 entries throughout the 1980s, but the genuine hits were
becoming more infrequent by the time Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphries parted
bitterly not long after their 1988 Best Of set had sold in huge amounts. Following
a legal battle, McCluskey emerged with the rights to the OMD name (Humphries
taking the rest of OMD's extended family with him to form The Listening
Pool) and set about recording Sugar Tax.
The album's first single, Sailing On The Seven Sea,
was an anthemic update of the classic OMD sound and surprised
pretty much everyone by climbing to #3 in the second week of May. It now dropped
a place to #4, but the comeback was no fluke - next single Pandora's Box
also went Top 10, and the Sugar Tax album stayed near the top of the listings
for several months, becoming OMD's second most-successful album after 1981's
Architecture & Morality.
The Irresistible Cathy Dennis
The maxim of "If at first you don't succeed, try try again.." certainly did
the trick for Norwich's pop queen Cathy Dennis, whose slow-burning US
Billboard Hot 100 exploits in the early part of the year eventually set up a UK Chart
breakthrough with Touch Me (All Night Long), up to #5. Dennis, now more
famous (and richly-rewarded) for her songwriting credentials for all manner of
pop acts from Kylie to Will Young via Britney and Westlife, had first tasted
Top 40 action as guest vocalist on D-Mob's club anthem C'Mon And Get My Love in
the autumn of 1989 but the initial releases of Touch Me and Just Another
Dream failed to really take off. Once she finally got that first hit, a handful
more duly followed - mostly minor Top 30 entries, admittedly - before she
quit the spotlight after 1996's Am I The Kinda Girl? album.
There were re-issue rewards as well for thoroughly nice chanteuse Beverley
Craven, whose debut single Promise Me was moving #15-#6 almost exactly a year
after it originally failed to chart. Promise Me eventually reached #3, as did
her self-titled album, but not even a Best Newcomer award at the Brits in
1992 could prevent a sharp decline in fortunes.
(DVDfever.co.uk Ed: "Note how her record company refused to
name her album after her other single, Woman To Woman, for fear that it might
have lesbian overtones.")
The Essential Paul Young
Paul Young strung together a sequence of 7 consecutive top 10 hits between
1983 and 1985, but the next five years yielded little in the way of notable
chart action. Senza Una Donna - his duet with Italian vocalist Zucchero - thus
proved a surprised smash when it made #4 in May 1991, restoring Young's
popularity enough for his subsequent Singles Collection to top the UK charts upon
release three months later.
Once upon a time, before Britpop was even a twinkle in their floppy
fringe-obscured eyes, Blur were hitching a ride into the charts on the back of
Indie-Dance and the Baggy brigade. There's No Other Way (up 2 to #8) marked the
band's first Top 40 adventure, and until 1994's Girls & Boys remained their
biggest hit in the UK.
Having begun as a diversion for members of arguably the 80s' holy trinity of
seminal bands (New Order, The Smiths, Pet Shop Boys), Electronic - primarily
Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr, with the PSB's Neil and Chris chipping in -
released a whole album's worth of material in May 1991. Its trailblazing
single, Get The Message, had just peaked at #8, coming some 18 months after
Getting Away With It (not originally featured on the album) reached #12 just before
Christmas 1989.
Paul Weller: Modern Classics
Outside the Top 10, there were climbs for Roxette's Fading Like A Flower (up
14 to its peak position of #12) and Baby Baby by Amy Grant (moving #34-#26),
while Michael Bolton inched up a place to #23 with Love Is A Wonderful Thing
and the fourth UK hit for Wilson Phillips, You're In Love - moved up 10 to
#29, emulating the Top 40 exploits of Hold On and Release Me as well as
improving on the near-miss that was Impulsive.
Arriving on the chart were T'Pau at #31 with their first new single in over
2 years, the future #16 hit Whenever You Need Me, Jason Donovan at #25 with
the long-forgotten R.S.V.P., and the Paul Weller Movement at #36 with Into
Tomorrow; essentially the start of Weller's solo career after the ignominious
demise of The Style Council. Meanwhile, Colour Me Badd's I Wanna Sex You Up
debuted at #27 on its way to the very top a few weeks later, and R.E.M.'s Shiny
Happy People breezed in at #35.
Fans of Weller note that he has a new single,
The Bottle
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
