The S25 Contemporary music thread
Here we go again with the charts of the day, this time it's late 80s music and we have a lot of changes going on, a lot of the old guard of the seventies are beginning to fade away as are some of the early 80s acts which were replaced with a new sound from the Stock, Aitken and Waterman studios, and Disco had become House.
I'l begin with the top 30 from the w/e 29th October 1988 which was the week in which my daughter was born.
30 Desire U2
29 Twist In My Sobriety Tanita Tikaram
28 Acid Man Jolly Roger
27 All of Me Sabrina
26 He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother The Hollies
25 I Don't Believe In Miracles Sinitta
24 Riding On A Train The Pasadenas
23 Secret Garden T'Pau
22 I'll House You Richie Rich meets the Jungle Brothers
21 Real Gone Kid Deacon Blue
20 Nothing Can Divide Us Jason Donovan
19 Kiss Art of Noise Ft. Tom Jones
18 She Makes My Day Robert Palmer
17 Can You Party Royal House
16 Groovy Kind Of Love Phil Collins
15 Big Fun Inner City ft. Kevin Sanderson
14 Burn It Up Beatmaster with PP Arnold
13 She Wants To Dance With Me Rick Astley
12 Teardrops Womack and Womack
11 Stand Up For Your Love Rights Yazz
10 Girl You Know It's True Milli Vanilli
9 Never Trust A Stranger Kim Wilde
8 Harvest For The World The Christians
7 Wee Rule Wee Papa Girl Rappers
6 Don't Worry Be Happy Bobby McFerrin
5 A Little Respect Erasure
4 We Call It Acieed D. Mob (featuring Gary Haisman)
3 One Moment In Time Whitney Houston
2 Je Sais Ne Pas Pourquoi Kylie Minogue
1 Orinoco Flow Enya
I'd begun to lose interest in the music scene around that time, I had other things needing my attention and a lot of the music scen passed me by, I didn't like the SAW records or the House sound and Acid certainly was not my scene, however, one or two of these records stand out.
Tanita Tikaram was born in Münster, Germany, the daughter of a Malaysian mother, Fatimah Rohani, and an Indo-Fijian father, Pramod Tikaram. Her father's military career meant that she spent her early life in Germany before moving to Basingstoke, Hampshire, England when she was in her early teens.
Tikaram started singing in nightclubs while she was still a teenager and came to the attention of WEA Records. Her debut album, the outstanding Ancient Heart, produced by Rod Argent and Peter Van Hooke, was released in September 1988 when she was 19 years old. Two singles from this album charted, Twist in My Sobriety and Good Tradition. The album spent 49 weeks on the chart peaking at number 3. a follow up album, The Sweet Keeper, in 1990 also reached number 3, but only spent 7 weeks on the chart. Her chart career lasted until 1998 with varying success across the singles and album charts.
Deacon Blue are a Scottish pop band formed in Glasgow during 1985. Their name was taken from the title of the Steely Dan song "Deacon Blues". The line-up of the band consists of vocalists Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh, keyboard player James Prime and drummer Dougie Vipond.
The band released their debut album, Raintown on 1 May 1987 which was a chart success. Their seventh album, The Hipsters was released in 2012. As of 2012, Deacon Blue's total album sales stood at six million, with twelve UK Top 40 singles, along with two UK number one albums.
Irish singer Enya began her musical career in 1980, when she briefly joined her family band Clannad before leaving to perform solo. She gained wider recognition for her music in the 1986 BBC series The Celts. Shortly afterwards, her 1988 album Watermark propelled her to further international fame and she became known for her distinctive sound, characterised by voice-layering, folk melodies, synthesised backdrops and ethereal reverberations. She has performed in 10 languages.
Enya continued to enjoy steady success during the 1990s and 2000s; her 2000 album A Day Without Rain sold 15 million copies, and became the top selling new age album of the 2000s in the US, according to Nielsen SoundScan. She received the world's best-selling female award at the World Music Awards in 2001. She is Ireland's best-selling solo musician. Her record sales stand at more than 75 million worldwide, including over 26.5 million in album sales in the US, making her one of world's best-selling artists of all time. Her work has earned her four Grammy Awards and an Academy Award nomination.
Not much there for me I'm afraid, those House,Acid and SAW records don't sully my collection, perhaps I'd blanded out with Tanita, Deacon Blue, Enya and one or two others, but this period marked a big decline of interst in music for me. I invite comments on these charts, I know they'll mean a lot more to others who have greater fondness for the music of the late 80s.
