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Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’90s, Vol. 18

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Section 3: The Airplay chart

Sheryl Crow hit the airplay chart with “A Change Would Do You Good” and “My Favorite Mistake.”

Culture Beat hit #56 with “I Like You.”

The Cure hit the airplay chart with “Purple Haze” and “Wrong Number”

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Dave Steed is all about music; 80's and metal to be exact. His iPod will shuffle from Culture Club to Slayer and he won't blink an eye. He's never heard Astral Weeks but thinks "Dazzey Duks" by Duice is the bomb. It's an odd little corner of the world he lives in.

  • http://theisleoffailedpopstars.blogspot.ca/ Nasty G

    Happy to see freestyle and eurodance pop up again this week!  Definitely reminding me of my time in the clubs.  And who knew Cynthia had any hits, never mind three!? (that ballad is dire BTW)  And I thought Culture Beat had many top 100 hits, funny that… But the real joy of this week is Erin Cruise and your interview.  I’m ashamed to admit I’d never heard of her or her song (and I pride myself on knowing all about artists just like her!) but that track is right up my alley and she now has a new fan. ;)   Thanks!

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/FNSUGWRLEXJYMDQWHLZTIQZI4E Sandra

    How is it that Leaving Las Vegas hit #60? On what chart. Are you going by the reggae chart? Judging by how many times it was played on the radio when it came out I would have thought it would have been a #1 for 14 weeks in a row or something. Even now every time I get my hair done the station they are playing at the salon is always playing it.

    Anyway the 90s version of ass end has been letting me down. While the 80s version had tons of songs I loved and sort of forgotten about this one has way to much cheesy dated hip hop. A rip off of TLC here a bad imitation of boyz2men there. Meh. Wheres all the modern rock they used to play back in the day.

  • http://www.popdose.com DwDunphy

     The answer to that is that a lot of it did better and a lot did worse, but not a lot hit the middle ground such as Bottom Feeders is meant to cover. Your issue with the TLC/Boyz2Men ripoffs are, apparently the same ones audiences had back then!

  • Leroy Grey

    I have to agree with how incessant Sheryl Crow was on the radio – in St Louis, anyway.  In 1997, there was a ‘Lilith rock’ station (‘Alice 104.1′) that put any girl with a guitar in high rotation.  On a station like that, Sheryl was practically the Rolling Stones.  The station lasted barely a year and a half, but that yowl will haunt my memory forever.  Yeeks…

  • http://www.bastardradio.com steed

     I was actually using the Christmas chart. “Leaving Las Vegas” was her first single, so I  guess once she got the big hit out of the way, now people play the tune all the time.

    Keep in mind too, the Modern Rock chart started in late ’88…so it’s in full swing right now and much of the Mod Rock was pushed to rock radio instead of pop.

  • http://www.bastardradio.com steed

     That station is my hell.

  • http://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_songs-Power-Pop.html Brett Alan

     You have to remember how fragmented music radio was becoming. If you heard “Leaving Las Vegas” like it was the biggest hit of the year, you probably were listening to some sort of “alternative” or “adult top 40″ station rather than a mainstream “hit” radio station. The latter group were all that counted to the charts at that point. And those stations were very heavy on rhythmic music (R&B, dance, hip-hop) which is why in the whole decade of the 90s only 15 songs which could at all be described as “album rock” hit number one.

    I love Crowded House, but what’s more surprising with me is that while I usually am not a fan of Phil Collins, I quite like “Hero”. It was nice to see Crosby, who spent most of his career providing harmonies on hits sung by others, get some attention as a lead singer.

  • R S Crabb

    Sheryl Crow absolutely makes me want to firebomb the local Cumulus soft rock station, you can’t escape her mangling First Cut Is The Deepest or Every Day Is a Winding Road and it seems like a classic rocker has a new album coming, she has to be on it, Willie Nelson included. Makes me sick of how she whores herself out on every damn album. And she will NOT go away.

  • kingofgrief

    Damn, I guess I’d BETTER comment this week. Recent times have been nuts, but I’m still reading when I can.

    “Cold Shower” was one of my best friend’s favorite songs of the early 90s. He lived in Connecticut (or somewhere in New England) at the time; I may have never known of it if not from him, because I never heard it once via radio or club. I’ll be linking him to this week’s entry for sure.

    If we’re only discussing 7″/cassingle versions of charting singles, then “Never Enough” is my pick of the Cure trove here. “Pictures of You” and “Close to Me” are better songs, but the former was pruned too much for radio length and the latter sounds better in its original mix (not that the charting version was a travesty to my ears). The singles of “High” and “The 13th” are worth having for their B-sides (all available on the textbook-model Join the Dots box set).

    In closing, yeah…Disintegration was the best album of 1989. Though Doolittle ain’t that far down for me…