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
Glenn Frey
“Part of Me, Part of You” 1991, #55 (13 weeks) (download)
”I’ve Got Mine” 1992, #91 (3 weeks) (download)
Hey, the start of “I’ve Got Mine” sounds like a cross between “You Belong To the City” and “Money For Nothing” from Dire Straits. Actually, it’s so close to the former #2 hit for Frey, that he might as well just have re-released it. Even if it’s a simple clone it’s 1000 times better than “Part of Me, Part of You” from the Thelma & Louise soundtrack.
(Kid) Frost
”La Raza” 1990, #42 (18 weeks) (download)
”No Sunshine” 1992, #95 (3 weeks) (download)
”East Side Rendezvous” 1995, #73 (14 weeks) (download)
”La Familia” 1996, #77 (9 weeks) (download)
I certainly wasn’t expecting that Kid Frost/Frost would show up four times here. “East Side Rendezvous” is the only song I remember hearing in Philly back in the day and even then I remember thinking this Latino rapper was some combo of Ice-T and Tone Loc. All four of these are pretty damn boring.
Fruit De La Passion
”Tic Tic Tac” 1998, #81 (8 weeks) (download)
Fuel
”Shimmer” 1998, #42 (12 weeks) (download)
No matter what you think about Fuel or “Shimmer” it’s probably one of the best songs in this post. Listening to this again now, it feels like the start of when rock radio really went downhill and became incredibly generic. However, I liked Fuel then and I never even remotely think of them now so I think I can safely say that Fuel did not kill rock radio.
Fugees (Tranzlator Crew)
”Nappy Heads” 1994, #49 (16 weeks) (download)
“Nappy Heads” was the first hit for Wyclef Jean, Pras and Lauryn Hill who were in transition from being called the Tranzlator Crew to the Fugees. They are one of the grand misses of the decade. Wyclef had a ton of talent. Lauryn Hill could have been one the greatest (and might actually be) but Pras was sort of a weak link. At some point Hill realized that her talent was worth taking solo and Wyclef could do his own thing and that amounted to the group having one really fantastic record in The Score and virtually nothing else together. Lauryn Hill hated the business so much she just stopped making music after her solo album and started popping out a bunch of Marley kids.
Fun Factory
”Close To You” 1995, #46 (20 weeks) (download)
”I Wanna B With U” 1995, #45 (20 weeks) (download)
”Celebration” 1996, #88 (12 weeks) (download)
“Take Your Chance” 1996, #88 (12 weeks) (download)
”Don’t Go Away” 1996, #93 (4 weeks) (download)
Eurodance!!!!!!!
…and good Eurodance at that. Fun Factory were a complicated group or maybe I should say were a complicated trio of groups as there have been three incarnations of the group and none of them shared any members (this couldn’t have happened often).
The group that made these hits were version #1 that consisted of Rod D., Steve (creative name, huh??) Smooth T and Marie-Anett Mey. However, the entire first record which spawned their most well known hit, “Close To You” was sung by a lady named Balja who had left the group by the time the song had been released. The rest of the tunes featured Mey on vocals from their second/third record Fun-Tastic. I say second/third because this is where it gets confusing for me. Nonstop the Album, was their first record and then I read in a few places that their second CD was titled Close To You, which may or may not have simply been a retitling of the album to match the hit first single. Then Fun-Tastic was released with the rest of these minor hits on it. Add to the confusion that “Take Your Chance” was released in 1994 with Balja on vocals and then recorded with Marie-Anett for the second release of it in 1996 and you get a nice little clusterfuck. And sorry but one of you will have to tell me if the version I have here is the original or the remake. Steve and Rod D. left the group in ’97 and then it reformed in ’98 with an entirely new set of members. I got a headache now.
Funkdoobiest
”Bow Wow Wow” 1993, #89 (5 weeks) (download)
I’m a little surprised Funkdoobiest didn’t have more hits as I remember their name quite vividly. That said, I wouldn’t have been able to name any songs from them, including “Bow Wow Wow.” The group consisted of DJ Ralph M, Sondoobie and Tomahawk Funk.
Funkmaster Flex
”Here We Go” 1998, #72 (14 weeks) (download)
I’m not really sure if Funkmaster Flex is any good or is just used by artists when they want some kind of flashy name recognition. He’s certainly more known as a DJ and producer and he keeps putting out albums which are essentially mixtapes. The rap world loves him, you’d recognized him on TV if you saw him but he’s another dude that I couldn’t place even one song to.
Funky Green Dogs
”Fired Up!” 1997, #80 (14 weeks) (download)
You just had to think this techno-dance trio was going to have many hits. “Fired Up” is pretty cheesy but damn catchy too and I would have thought many hits were to follow. But this tune was the only one to become even a semi-hit.
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Fu-Schnickens
”Breakdown” 1994, #67 (20 weeks) (download)
Another oddity here, the Fu-Schnickens only had two hits. Now maybe that’s what happens when Shaq rhymes on your first one but these guys should have at least been as big as the group I always associate them with – Das Efx.
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