With Bottom Feeders we take a look at the songs on the Billboard Hot 100 that only got a little love. It’s an A-Z look at songs that charted no higher than #41 in the decade. Take a listen, enjoy and comment. And don’t forget, information on the top 40, airplay and bubbling under charts are on pages 2-4.
Section 1: The Ass End
Goddess
”Sexual” 1992, #74 (10 weeks) (download)
I know Goddess is a female singer from Amsterdam but at a low volume with all the harmony vocals, it sounds like all dudes singing, however them singing ”hey little boy…let’s get sexual” would be even weirder than the lyrics to this song already are. However, it always was a damn good song and there’s no mistaking it for dudes when you see Goddess holding her breasts in the video. The Billboard bible mentioned she was a background singer for Joe Cocker which you’d never get from this but also a singer for Falco, which totally makes sense.
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Goodfellaz
”Sugar Honey Ice Tea” 1996, #64 (10 weeks) (download)
This would be a much better tune if it wasn’t simply Lenny Kravitz’s ”It Ain’t Over Til’ It’s Over.”
Goodie Mob
”Soul Food” 1996, #64 (9 weeks) (download)
”Dirty South” 1996, #92 (3 weeks) (download)
”Black Ice (Sky High)” 1998, #50 (15 weeks) (download)
There’s only two reasons to really care about Goodie Mob (which stands for Good Die Mostly Over Bullshit), the first being that they are the first ones to coin the phrase ”Dirty South” which became not only an area but pretty much a genre of music. The second is of course that the member of the group that wasn’t Big Gipp, T-Mo or Khujo was Cee-Lo Green. ”Black Ice” with Outkast is the best of the songs here but otherwise nothing they did would have really given you the indication that something like Gnarls Barkley was coming.
The Goodmen
”Give It Up” 1993, #71 (14 weeks) (download)
The Goodmen are Zki & Dobre, a dutch house duo known to go under many different monikers. I understand this was #1 in the clubs, but since that was never my scene I don’t think I’ve ever heard this one before. Their one album as The Goodmen was curiously titled, Father in the Bathroom.
Good 2 Go
”Never Satisfied” 1992, #62 (14 weeks) (download)
Good 2 Go were a generic five-piece female R&B group from Los Angeles. Like so many of their peers, they had one self-titled album then faded away.
Lonnie Gordon
”Gonna Catch You” 1991, #79 (6 weeks) (download)
”Happenin’ All Over Again” 1993, #98 (2 weeks) (download)
Lonnie Gordon was one of the most generic dance singers of the decade. Not a bad voice but all her songs had basically the same beat to them. And her first hit, ”Gonna Catch You” was from the Cool As Ice soundtrack. Can’t get less cool than that.
Gorky Park
”Try To Find Me” 1990, #81 (6 weeks) (download)
Man, Gorky Park had a hit other than ”Bang!” I was totally unaware. And once you listen to the track, you’ll understand why they never had another one either.
Go West
”What You Won’t Do For Love” 1993, #55 (11 weeks) (download)
Go West, boy did I love them. I discovered them at the same point most of the US did, when ”King of Wishful Thinking” was released from the Pretty Woman soundtrack. It was then included on 1992’s Indian Summer with their next single ”Faithful” and the Bobby Caldwell cover, ”What You Won’t Do For Love.” But they didn’t release another album after having their biggest success (until reuniting in 2008). They actually have three albums before Indian Summer which actually did generate some Bottom Feeders in the 80s but at least for me they went mostly unnoticed until this point. To this day though, both of their major hits would end up on a best of the decade list from me.
Grandmaster Slice
”Thinking Of You” 1991, #85 (6 weeks) (download)
How many times can LL Cool J’s ”I Need Love” be recreated?
Grand Puba
”360 (What Goes Around)” 1992, #68 (14 weeks) (download)
”I Like It” 1995, #91 (9 weeks) (download)
For me Grand Puba always had a great flow but he was better on the lighter tracks with the pop samples like ”360 (What Goes Around).” ”I Like It” isn’t a bad song at all but to me it sounds just like a hundred other rap songs, while ”360″ is way catchier and much more memorable.
Amy Grant
”Big Yellow Taxi” 1995, #67 (15 weeks) (download)
Let’s play which one of these artists doesn’t belong… Amy Grant wins that one hands down. Sweet, innocent, Christian pop music around Goodie Mob and Grand Puba.
However, I was a fan at one time. In fact, I still own Heart In Motion which sorry, is a really good pop album. It was one of the few records of Grant’s really promoted outside of the Christian music buying population and proved to be her biggest hit.
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