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Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’90s, Vol. 27

Dave Steed July 9, 2012 15

Section 3: The Airplay chart

Fastball’s biggest hit, “The Way” was never released as a single so therefore it only qualified for the airplay chart – peaking at #5.

Twenty-eight years after it was released, Jose Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad” finally charted hitting #70 in 1998.

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About the author: Dave Steed View all posts by
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.

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  • cmmmbase

    For what it’s worth, John Farnham was also the vocalist for the Little River Band from 1982-1986. Can’t remember whether you mentioned this in the 80s edition (Playing To Win showed up there). Also, he’s been hitting the charts in Australia since 1967..

  • Leroy Grey

    Thank you for rediscovering the best – and reliving the worst – of the 90′s for all of us. There’s better weeks in the next 21 letters, I just know it…

    Farnham’s “You’re the Voice” was the anchor for a great scene in the Lonely Island movie “Hot Rod”. It watches like the epitome of 90′s VH1 for a minute, and then… The song’s an anthem to me, now.

  • http://www.discoskonfort.com/artists/drxl/ drxl

    Tracy Thorn and Ben Watt (aka Everything but the Girl) have not actually stayed much out of the spotlight since Walking Wounded, just not as EBTG (even though they did release a final, and very good record after that; Temperamental, again very electronic). While working on WW, Ben became more and more interested in electronic dance music and by the WW tour, he was already taking the opening slot of his band’s own shows as DJ. After the tour, he became a very well known and successful (in the house music world, I mean) DJ, remixer, producer and label manager. I wish he had gone mor einto drum and bass, since WW incorporates both house and drum and bass in the EBTG’s jazzy pop sound, but that may be just me. Tracy Thorn, on the other hand, just released a beautiful album in 2010, Love And Its Opposite (on Ben Watt’s non-dance-sub-label Strange Feeling Records) which is one of my personal favorites of that year. So yeah, they have done not much that could put them back in the American pop charts, but they remain very much in the spotlight still.

  • http://www.drcastrato.blogspot.com drcastrato

    Groovy Train is the reason I continue to read this column. Each week about 90% of the songs are unlistenable to me, and the other 10% are the fairly major artists I’m already very familiar with (Faith No More, The Cure, etc). But once in a while, there’s a Groovy Train; a song I liked and had forgotten about. Thanks!

  • http://www.drcastrato.blogspot.com drcastrato

    Maybe I’ll pop in my copy of Extreme III today…it’s been a while.

  • Aron

    A bunch of familiar songs: At least 3 of the songs here (Fire Escape, Rockefeller Skank and Groovy Train) were played on Casey’s Top 40 since he was no longer doing Billboard. Plus, In Walked Love is still played in grocery stores and car dealerships across the country on a daily basis. But that Fab Five crap just shows that anyone could hit the hot 100 in the mid-90s if they had a microphone and 100 curse words.

    Speaking of Fire Escape, there is no way you’ll have a better song the rest of the series

  • MarkoP

    While not a huge hit, I do recall Fastball’s “You’re An Ocean” from their follow up album getting a decent amount of radioplay.

  • http://www.bastardradio.com steed

    I will now be listening every time I’m in a supermarket for “In Walked Love”….damn it.

  • mstgator

    Yeah, I liked that one… a bit too quick and breezy for pop radio in 2000 unfortunately. Went Top 30 on the niche Mainstream Top 40 chart and Top 20 at Hot AC.

  • Elysium

    Fastball is still an active band in Austin, plus the two lead singers do solo shows (Miles Zuniga and Tony Scalzo). I saw Miles Zuniga open up for John Oates a few months ago and he played “Fire Escape.” Fastball has put out a few albums after their major label run and they have some good tracks on them.

  • NastyG

    LOL They were definitely channeling Wilson Phillips in that track…

  • Leroy Grey

    I used to sing along to that all the time when it was on the radio – but that’s because I’ve got a thing for potty humor…

  • kingofgrief

    Can’t let the week pass without a comment as some certified KoG jams make the also-ran cut this week. First off, “Insomnia”, one of my top 10 singles for the decade. Despite their high-energy singles (“Salva Mea” is another fave) I too liken them to the Massive Attack family tree rather than any major club act.

    I was a fan before, but Walking Wounded immediately became my favorite EBTG album on first listen. Bought the CD and “Wrong” alike on release day; awesome Deep Dish remix on the single.

    In ’98/99, I got together with a friend who worked at our public access channel and produced three episodes of a video companion to Sound Awake. “The Rockefeller Skank” was my “Video Killed the Radio Star”, kicking off the pilot.

    I saw the Farm open for BAD II in ’91. The “Groovy Train” single (and possibly the Spartacus full-length) linger in my collection somewhere.

    In other news, I’m shocked that it took that long for “Feliz Navidad” to make a ripple, and I met Fem 2 Fem during a meet-and-greet at (where else?) a gay bar in ’93 (that single has not held up, alas).

  • Rich

    I found that Farnham tune on the Greenpeace “Rainbow Warriors” 2-disc compilation. (’88?) That was a strange selection of tracks, but I still dig it.

  • http://www.popdose.com/ DwDunphy

    You can also find a version sung by Chris Thompson on the Alan Parsons Live album — no foolin’!