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.

With the next two Monday’s being Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve respectively, this will be the last BF90 for 2012. The next post will be on January 7th and we’ll continue for all of 2013! So Merry Christmas and happy new year to all of you.

Section 1: The Ass End

K7
”Zunga Zeng” 1994, #61 (15 weeks) (download)
”Body Rock” 1994, #61 (5 weeks) (download)
”Move It Like This” 1995, #54 (20 weeks) (download)

Louis Sharpe aka K7 was a member of TKA who had some hits in the 80s before going ”solo” even though his album is billed as K7 and the Swing Kids. Amazingly, despite being a decent record and having four singles chart from it, it didn’t sell all that much and there was never a follow up.

Patti LaBelle
”The Right Kinda Lover” 1994, #61 (16 weeks) (download)
”When You Talk About Love” 1997, #56 (12 weeks) (download)

Patti didn’t have much chart success in the 90s and while I don’t care too much for ”The Right Kinda Lover,” ”When You Talk About Love” is a fantastic track where she sounds totally vibrant and even relevant to the times. Patti has a bit to do with this of course but more of the credit is due to the production work of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (they actually did both here) presenting her with music that could showcase her talent. And even if both of these sucked she still gets a Popdose lifetime pass thanks to having a #1 duet with Michael McDonald.

La Bouche
”You Won’t Forget Me” 1998, #48 (20 weeks) (download)

[To the tune of Chic’s ”Le Freak”] — sing it, La Bouche, Le Douche. Man, we said that so much in college when ”Be My Lover” was everywhere that it quickly got old. Wait, no it didn’t. It’s still fun to this day, ”Bouche Out!” How we got to that point to begin with is stored somewhere in the bottom of a beer can I’m sure.

L.A.D. featuring Darvy Traylor
”Ridin’ Low” 1995, #47 (20 weeks) (download)

I’ve never heard of L.A.D., Darvy Traylor or this song before and I’m truly glad I will probably never hear it again. This really isn’t a good use of the interpolation of ”My Girl.”

The Lady of Rage
”Afro Puffs” 1994, #57 (11 weeks) (download)

The Lady of Rage was a sure shot to be the next big female rapper, right? I mean, this is a typical Death Row song in a period when their music was on top of the rap world. But this song was only from the Above the Rim soundtrack and there was no album to build on the momentum. She recorded it and it was supposed to be released in 1995 but ended up getting pushed back until ’97. The album sold well enough but she decided to leave Death Row and become an actress of which she landed a part on the Steve Harvey Show. She’s been rapping now and again, showing up on Snoop Dogg songs and releasing an album every now and again.

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L.A. Guns
”It’s Over Now” 1992, #62 (11 weeks) (download)

I can’t even listen to this piece of shit all the way through any more. After two killer records, they released Hollywood Vampires in 1991 and in an effort to recreate the success of ”The Ballad of Jayne” they went all soft and in turn went south rather quickly. ”It’s Over Now” was co-written by Jim Vallance, which screams out ”band on the downslide” but I even expect way better than this junk from him.

Laissez Faire
”In Paradise” 1991, #64 (17 weeks) (download)

Laissez Faire was a three woman freestyle band from New York. ”In Paradise” is nothing groundbreaking but for some reason I like it a lot more than many of the similar tunes of the time. Two years earlier and I’d bet they’d have had a top 20 hit on their hands.

George LaMond
”Look Into My Eyes” 1990, #63 (13 weeks) (download)
”No Matter What” 1990, #49 (16 weeks) (download)
”Where Does That Leave Love” 1992, #59 (20 weeks) (download)
”Baby, I Believe In You” 1992, #66 (7 weeks) (download)

The cousin of fellow Bottom Feeder, Joey Kid — LaMond had a few recognizable songs in the 80s. Along with his oddly titled ”Bad of the Heart,” at least ”Look Into My Eyes” and ”Baby, I Believe In You” should be familiar tunes to you. The latter song is a New Kids on the Block cover (you don’t hear that too often, do you?) and ends up sounding like a mish-mash of quite a few other songs. It samples ”Close To You” by the Carpenters but then borrows the baseline from ”Broken Wings” by Mr. Mister and there’s at least one other comparison in there that’s on the tip of my tongue but I just can’t place. Or maybe it’s simply because it doesn’t sound all that different from either of the NKOTB versions released before this.

About the Author

Dave Steed

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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