Ah yes. Adult contemporary. A genre I fell asleep to countless times as a child. In the car.. while getting my haircut... in a waiting room. No limit to the ways one could fall asleep to this genre.
My mother loved Michael Bolton’s “Time, Love, and Tenderness” and I listened to it. I was 9, and I didn’t enjoy it. Then, around October 1991, I heard... *cut to “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
@@alejandroarroyo5124 In this context, "Adult" meaning boring; not violent, sexy, or dark. I hear this music and all I can think of is wood-panel furniture. In fact, I'd say adult-contemporary came back in the mid-2000s in the form of post-grunge.
@@ECL28E I wouldn't compare it to wood paneling, as that can actually look really good if done right. Really great way for an "Old world" look. Nah I'd compare Adult Contemporary to Live Laugh Love signs in a house that is completely white and grey
Bah. 91 was great. So many great metal albums, hiphop, pop, and rave songs. Gnr released their 2 use your illusion for God's sake. Charts always have shitty songs. That doesn't bother.
OK, as someone who's old enough to remember 1991, I think there's one thing Todd doesn't get about that year: It was stupidly, ludicrously, incredibly *optimistic.* We had won the cold war, defeated communism, and brought peace to the ENTIRE. GODDAMN. PLANET. The nuclear doomsday clock was reset. We were safe. We spent an entire fucking year patting ourselves on the back so hard that our goddamn arms dropped off. Because it was THAT fucking amazing that we legitimately were no longer in danger of flaming nuclear doom. That's why the music has no edge. We had no edge. That's why songs like "From A Distance" and anything from Amy Grant actually charted. We really believed that the worst was behind us. Want to understand the mentality of 1991? Listen to Jesus Jones' "Right Here, Right Now." Understand that that song was 100% sincere. "Right here, right now... there is no other place I would want to be. Right here, right now... watching the world wake up from history!" For a brief moment, we BELIEVED that shit. Absolutely. Utterly. Resolutely. Reality would catch up with us. Rodney King would happen. Waco would happen. Kosovo would happen. Blowjob impeachment would happen. But for a moment, Americans were absolutely convinced that we had just saved the world, and we spent a year celebrating that shit. And THAT is why "From A Distance" charted.
...agree with all you said....but looking back it was an awesome year to be Abel to feel like that. PS August 1990 Saddam invaded Kuwait, Jan 1991 the gulf war... and that wasn't even so bad in the big picture...
@@Dilley_G45 The whole time reading that (much of which I agree with) I was thinking that we all thought we'd be drafted for the Gulf War (I was a senior in high school). Yay, no more Cold War. Oh no, we just plunged into a hot one.
Sounds about right. I remember 1991 very well. I was in high school. Don’t forget that was the year we won desert storm. 115 days. Very few people got killed on our side.
@@philomelodia The whole fall of 1990 was the buildup with invasion in January 1991. I graduated in May 1991 and most of that year we didn't know how it would turn out. You are right that we didn't lose many, but we didn't know that it would be that way until February. A few months in a high schooler's life seem like eternity and it was 6 months of wondering if we'd be drafted (yes, high schoolers are dramatic like that). It's just funny to hear my kids talk about how wonderful the 80s were and all that and I'm thinking Iran-Contra, Cold War, Dirty War, IRA, Basque terrorists, Shining Path, FARC, famine in Ethiopia, New Coke, AIDS, Just Say No, James Brady, John Lennon, etc. (yes, those are the most random things that float around in my brain when I think of the 80s). Same with 1990-1991. Some good, some bad.
i remember, as clear as day, running onto the sports field near my parents' house and screaming BRYAN ADAMS ISN'T #1 ANYMORE!!!!!! and all my friends cheering. 16 bastard weeks.
Mark Goodier was the Radio 1 chart show host at the time... and the announcement went like this: "after sixteen weeks, Bryan Adams is down three to Number 4". The song that replaced it at the top was "The Fly" by U2. Anyway, here's the link to the Radio 1 Top 40 show from that week (27th October 1991): www.mixcloud.com/StephenTheRadioKid2000/radio-1-uk-top-40-chart-with-mark-goodier-27101991/
@@stephenemmett9753 First of all: what an upgrade. One of the worst hit songs of the '90s replaced by a track from one of the best albums of the '90s (I prefer Mysterious Ways, but The Fly is also great). Second, I'd like to imagine the first announcement being greeted like that video of the sports bar where everyone just starts jumping and screaming and waving their beers around after the team gets a goal.
After 6 weeks I didn't believe that it was still going. 16 weeks. Every music show and chart rundown ruined. For nearly four friggin' months. And how, after 14 weeks, were people still going 'Oh, I've just heard that Bryan Adams song - its quite good, I think I'll buy a copy'. What had they been doing for all those months?
@@sheldoncooper8199 I don't think that's true. Anything for Love was no1 for a while, but nothing like 16 weeks. Maybe 8-9 week? What's Up was nowhere close. Maybe a couple of weeks.
Actually, now that I think about it, something about the song does seem a little bit familiar. Ever so slightly. Certainly more than "The Postman Song".
bubbaliciousfisheyes Then, how do you explain that Stevie or Stewie guy, singing about how he loves his postman, or wherever the hell it was about?! I still agree with you that this is just one of Timmy's time traveling mishaps, but how do you remember it then?
Oh my god...Midler's little grin and wide eye at the end of the song is so profoundly disturbing. This isn't a positive song! At least have the grace to look solemn, thoughtful instead of grinning at me like you're auditioning for Winifred Sanderson
The song is actually the clever tale of a woman driven to madness by her own sense of cosmic insignificance and has adopted a persona of incredibly forced happiness as a coping mechanism
Modonna went completely over Todd's head. She was saying you should enjoy yourself during sex and not depend on your partner to get off. In hook up culture you focus on getting your own nut and less on your partners experience. It's a selfish outlook but it is very common especially with women who hook up often. As in "dont depend on him/her to get yours". The more Todd videos I watch, the more I realize just how little he understands sexual relationships outside of very basic and vanilla references.
Justify My Love was Madonna's attempt to imitate Enigma, a dark, techno-style of pop. It is kind of like the mirror opposite of Depeche Mode. Depeche Mode had dark pop songs with techno added, Enigma had dark techno songs with pop added. They had two huge hits, Return to Innocence and ... some song sung in French that reminded me of the visual aesthetic of the movie Flatliners.
Okay so basically Todd’s nemesis are as follows Bieber Chris Brown Adam Levine Bryan Adams Mike Love Peter Cetera (…and Chicago in general) All the WGWAG songs
I remember Timmy T. and Stevie B., this list jogged my memory and yes these songs were huge back then. You have to remember, the early 90's was a transition phase between the synth pop of the 80's and the emerging musical styles soon to explode in the 90's. These two artists were just 80's sound run off that appealed to us back then.
i was a 4 year old hanging out on my mama’s bed and i clearly remember seeing a lot of these videos on VH1 - *especially* rico suave. but never heard of those timmy/stevie t/b
I was 14 in 1991, and I've never even remotely heard of Timmy T or that song. We have different definitions of huge lol. I'd consider every other song on this list (except Stevie B's) to be huge.
They were both part of the freestyle genre of music - which I think was fairly confined to the US coasts. (I grew up in NY so I was well aware of the genre.)
I graduated in 1991 and you are correct that both were huge and that it was just reheated pop synth from the 80s. I guess they contrasted with the likes of Vanilla Ice, C & C Music Factory, and Whitney much the way that Alicia Keys and Billie Eilish run counter to the crowd (only they had way less talent). Sometimes you need the drippy droopy ballads or depressing/depressed songs to give you a break.
Here in mainland Europe it was like 12 weeks, but still a torture. It was just in the middle of my teenage years and I religious followed the charts every week. eurodance / techno was just breaking through and I also liked grunge, another new genre. And what did we get : endless Brian Adams and Mariah Carey. It took me 5 years of therapy to get rid of the nightmares
I lived through it. Bryan Adams at No1 for a third of a year. But to be fair, the top selling singles in the UK in 1991 were all unmitigated dreadfulness. Except for the surprising success of the KLF. I looked it up and the top 5 singles of 1991 in the UK were Bryan Adams, Cher with 'The Shoop Shoop Song', Chesney Hawkes with 'The One and Only', Right Said Fred's 'I'm Too Sexy' and 'Do The Bartman' by The Simpsons. Three One Hit Wonders!
nice, I heard 3am eternal that year in a car on my way to tennis practice, but didn;t know who it was. took me years to discover, but I still listen to the klf to this day.
According to the guy who wrote The Postman Song, the postman is supposed to be God. I don't know if that tidbit makes the song better or worse but I thought it was worth bringing up.
@@searchingformyself5319 I am on the spectrum and one, fuck you, we are not an insult and two, yeah, I have no fucking idea. Cause God sends messages? Doesn't work, he doesn't relay them between people. Edit: After finding Searching for Myself in the comments randomly antagonizing people, I have come to realize they're just an aggressive little shitstain looking for attention.
What I say to that is "You're *almost* right, Todd." What it's actually saying is "God is too far away to care about anything we do; will probably only notice if we set off a nuke or do something else that could be seen from outer space." The reason Christians aren't complaining? Because Todd's definitely right about one thing: when you think about it, that's HORRIBLE theology! Even aside from being thoroughly un-Biblical, Bette Midler's message in that song is really only comforting to serial rapists, mass murderers, Hollywood movie producers, and other psychopaths: "Beat, rape, torture, and murder anyone you want! God will only notice (let alone potentially do anything about) your evil deeds if they're roughly Hiroshima or Nagasaki-sized!"
#1 was even worse in Canada because radio stations are required by law to play Bryan Adams. I really hated that song back in the day but now I have softened to it over time. Probably due to Stockholm Syndrome.
@@friedchicken297 by Canadian law, radio stations are *required* to play a certain percentage of Canadian music. For the most part, I don't mind, cuz there's a wealth of actual talent in this country. But then you've got your Bryan Adams's, your Shania Twain's, and your Arkells ... they can jump off a cliff into a pit of spikes and hellfire for all I care
@@leeoliver9322 On the one hand, that could/should mean an abundance of Carly Rae Jepsen, The Band, Arcade Fire, and Joni Mitchell. On the other hand, it also means Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Nickelback, and Bryan Adams on a loop until you beg for mercy.
@@alex_flamer Is it because both the douchebags of leon and chance the rhymer are both assholes? Maybe they both saw what bryan adams did, and both decided to just follow his bad idea? Proving that both the Douchebags Of Leonidas and Chauncey The Rider, are assholes who shouldn't have fans in the first place. I mean, c'mon, they did what bryan adams did in the 90's!
@@FIXTREMEYes, it is. Thought I was the only one who thought that at all. That's why "Hercules" is one of my favorite disney movies. And because of how well the level was represented in the Kingdom Hearts games. Edit: I mean, fighting Cloud and Sephiroth? That's cool.
Bette Midler doesn't even have a religious background, which explains why From A Distance doesn't truly work as a religious song and as a Christian myself, I can fully justify with Todd's opinion to put that over other religious songs from 1991 on the list.
@@lenah9027 I haven't heard the whole song , I just thought since it's the same god it wouldn't matter. Th song definitely has a very strong Hallmark movie-vibe though :D It's not as batshit insane as Christmas Shoes, but she does have that terrifying smile lol
@@mymiki3646 the lyrics from the song are: "God is watching us God is watching us God is watching us from a distance" how is that not religious? I just think it's weird because I was raised Jewish and it's not a very Jewish kind of song. Judaism doesn't believe that god is at a distance from us. It's clearly a song that was recorded for mass appeal to Christians.
Side Note: Wayne's World got a huge boost when they did a Justify My Love parody with Madonna on SNL. It really put W.W. over the top. They probably never would've done the movie if it wasn't for that.
@@WildHeart7777 Uh, you're forgetting Wayne's World 2; as well, ma'am. Don't forget, BOTH Wayne's World movies are hilarious and worth your time. So if a crappy Madonna song, and their hilarious parody was how both Mike Myers and Dana Carvey both decided to give us, not 1, but TWO of the best early to mid 90's comedy movies ever, then I'm ok with that. I just wish we'd gotten a Wayne's World 3 though... but not saying we NEED one, but I've always wondered how a Wayne's World 3 would look. I mean; we got a 3rd Bill and Ted movie, and a 3rd Bad Boys movie, and that one was way better than the 2nd Bad Boys movie; so who knows? But even if it never happens, we'll always have the hilarious moments that both Wayne's World movies gave us.
When Timmy T isn’t making cheesy ballads like the one you covered, he was indeed making the Latin Freestyle stuff akin to what you described. In fact, the first two singles he released prior (Time After Time, What Will I Do) leans much closer to said style. (Sidenote: in the age of social media, Timmy T gained a new following from dabbling on the typical classic RU-vid stuff, such as short commentary, amateur film making, and comedy skits. In one of his videos, he did a piano cover of The Postman Song!)
Part 1 just doesn't show up at all for me. It's probably on that other hosting site Todd uses, but there's no link for it here, annoyingly Goddamn youtube and its idiotic copyright deletion shit.
It means that someone has tried to take it down withoug much justification. RU-vid will still avoid tacking it down in the U.S but must take it down in other countries for leagle reasons
Oh yea. Synths and drum machines were hard to program back in the day, so producers used the default settings a lot. And they wore out their welcome FAST.
BLACKIESBOY I know the Prodigy are great but I wouldn't exactly call Charly, Everybody into the Place or Out of Space POP! Never mind No Good {Start the Dance}, Voodoo People, Poison, Firestarter and Breathe!
Hey that Christian guy with a mullet is Michael W Smith. My grandmother's sister's granddaughter (so my cousin I guess?) married his son so I went to their wedding at his house (well his barn on his property) and the dude is loooooooaded. He's a huge deal in the Christian music scene apparently and is still kicking and doing very well. And now we're related by marriage. And I'm an atheist. Lol. Life is weird. *"from a distance" starts playing*
The PatriAgent my grandmother's sister's granddaughter's husband's father actually. lol I know there's no easy word for me to explain that with but that's our relation haha
Bryan Adams pretty much cannot handle criticism, which is why he threatened to sue AllMusic unless they deleted his files. I mean, if a critic reviewing site that like gives him bad reviews for some of his albums, he should've just set it aside so he could still keep making music instead of getting all butthurt and suing his critics. In fact, I don't even trust or care for critics at certain points considering how close-minded and opinionated they can be with their musical views.
1:21 I can elaborate "One more Try" was a "regional " radio hit that was really popular in the beginning of interactive tv entertainment this song was very popular on a Cable channel called "The BOX("Music Television YOU control" was their tag line),this song was still distributed on CASSETTE tape as a Single.He sometimes tours with old school Miami Freestyle Acts:Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam,Expose,Full Force,etc.the guy was kicking around as a journey musician for a lot of years."One More Try" was literally his Last Chance. Or he was going to quit..if the article I read when I was in high school is to be belived
Yep, Timmy T was a product of the cassingle era. Maybe the ultimate cassingle artist. And a whole lot of us got a whole lot of trim to that song. Good times, man. Good times.
1991 was a weird year. I mean on had alt rock bubbling up in the charts, 2Pac and Cypress Hill dropping their debut albums, RHCP hitting the big time with Blood Sugar Sex Magik, GnR dropping Use Your Illusion I and II. On the other you got the shit Todd went through plus much more.
does it really deserve to be number #2 though? i get the lyrics are...odd, but its own musical form and her voice, its a pretty beautiful song. shouldnt be thrown on the shit list just cuz Todd thinks the lyrics are morbid.
Speaking as someone in the UK, the early nineties was when music really seemed to diverge between the US and the UK. After the 80s pop thing totally burnt out, in the US it was replaced by stuff like in this video (a lot of which didn't chart in the UK), whereas the UK charts started to become filled with rave music for a year or two (none of which charted on the US hot 100)
80s UK music stations played a lot more European songs (obviously) but also had a lot more songs by Euro artists that had number 1 hits in the US but were essentially 1 or 2 hit wonders in the US but enjoyed much more success in Europe, Canada and Japan. Rick Astley's Take Me to Your Heart wasn't even released as a single in the US, nor was Kylie and Jason's duet as far as I know. Many a-ha songs were missing from US airwaves for the most part, and I once called in to a radio station and requested Julian Lennon's Too Late for Goodbyes in the US and they were like, "who's that?" Very few stations in the US near me do play "obscure" UK hits (i.e., hits in the UK but never or hardly ever played here in the US after its initial release), including a local college station that plays a eclectic mix. Other "Jill" or pop rock stations used to, as well, once in a while but they went off the air. I almost never hear Level 42, Climey Fisher and Boy Meets Girl in the US. If you do, then please point me in the right direction, e.g., station and online website, if any. Thanks in advance!
I had scoliosis surgery and being home schooled for most of 1990 and the early months of 1991 and I remembered One More Try and Because I Love You quite well. A lot of the soft rock and adult contemporary music calmed my anxiety down during that time because of being out of school, going through a painful surgery, getting bullied when I returned by wearing a large brace, and the political stress of the Gulf War. (My father was away from home not on the battlefield but one of the people building the aircraft that was used) and the end of the Cold War so becoming aware of the world news around me for one of the earliest times in my life. So that music soothed me.
Laughed so hard when you sprung bryan adams on us. He's a name you can just drop on people and it's guarenteed to get some sort of reaction. As a Canadian, this amuses me greatly.
So Mr. Adams was just cool n' the gang over Family Guy doing a parody of his song all the way through, even after Brain Griffin said it was the worst then he's ever heard EVER! But AllMusic cannot post ANY information about him; period. LMAO I guess he doesn't exist then....GOOD!
"God is deeply uninformed of your current situation" Just makes you want to go to church doesn't it? Such an uplifting message. Just like I am deeply disturbed by that garbage Better Midler calls music.
Honestly, that Timmy T song sounds like it was intended for Milli Vanilli to perform, but we all know what happened to them, so they just got this random guy to perform it
'From A Distance' actually came out as some sort of inspirational song during the first Gulf War, which is why it sounds the way it did. We were too busy freaking out because we were fighting in a distant land again--and we still had 'Vietnam-itis' during this time.
10:10 “cause i need to watch things die, from a distaaaaance. Vicariously I live while the whole world dies” never thought a christian singer would have basically the same lyrics as a tool song.
Roman Jones Yeah the whole theme of that song is mindnumbingly stupid & gets on my nerves too. However I'm also kinda annoyed with ppl using bad things happening to good ppl as an argument the God Doesn't exist.
How? How, you ask? Because bland ballads were the top trend that year. I remember HATING 99% of the hit music that year. Oh, and thank you for naming everything I DOOOOO, I do it for YOUUUUUUUU as the worst. It ruined the end of Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, and that movie was no prize.
I was born late '90, and my parents cited "From a Distance" as one of the biggest songs when I was born. I think it held a lot of sentimental value to people at the time (in USA, at least) because of the Persian Gulf War; people wanted peace, and the song speaks to that sentiment. There's a lyric in there that's like, "from a distance, you look like my friend even though we are at war" ... So that's just my response to Todd's why it got big at the time
From a distance is one of those songs like Leyla by Clapton that get real annoying really fast. Overplayed as well, and like Leyla, it's too repetitive, like why do we need the riff or hook lone more than twice in the song...? As soon as she started singing I changed stations on the radio
Michael W. Smith... Like Richard Marx inhaling helium. Michael Bolton... I've seen him in concert three times. The Time, Love & Tenderness Tour, the Timeless (The Classics) Tour, (got the t-shirts to prove it! lol) and just a few years ago I saw him again. Let me tell you, he puts on one hell of a show. It just dawned on me a few days ago that your channel's acronym is T.I.T.S. Well-played, sir!
This is prolly the most slept-on top 10 list he's done, the beginning had me dying of laughter holy shit Videos like this (and looking at the actual charts) really make you realize the majority of pop music in the 70s, 80s, and 90s was really awful and the stuff we all enjoy now really wasn't that popular in comparison
Given Todd’s frustration over list requests, do you sometimes hope that he eventually tackles the best and worst of as many past years in pop music as possible?
When I saw number 1 I threw my phone in the air and went "finally someone who agrees with me" Nearly everybody I know; my wife, in-laws, my parents are all ao defensive about it and I always thought it was a massive pile of wet garbage. Screw that song and screw that movie too
I love the piano/guitar solo in the outro. Make that the entire song. Then it’s fine. But the lyrics are absolutely a pile of cold mashed potatoes with no butter or salt.
Same…parents always turn the radio up when its on, and i f*ing hate it. And for the record, i genuinely like several of his other hits like Heaven, Run to You and Its Only Love. Just cant bear Everything I do.
Dude, I recently subscribed and have been binge watching your vids. I like your style. Tell it like it is and no bullshit and have some fun doing it. Otherwise you wouldn't be doing it. So keep on keepin on.
LOL! You know, when I was a kid, I had exactly the same problem with "From a Distance". I remember how horrified my mom, who liked the song, was when I went on a little rant about it. However, when I was a teenager I heard it again, and gave it a bit more thought. I realized that maybe the "distance" that she speaks of isn't distance in terms of space, but time. If that's so, then it means that God sees us for who we could be, given the necessary time to grow both as a species and individuals, which is actually a rather sweet sentiment. I really hope that was how it was meant, because a literal interpretation is pretty damned depressing. Of course, I've heard other Christians singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (which is one of my favorite songs, BTW) as if it were just a sweet hymn, so I think a lot of them just don't bother to think lyrics through as a general rule. :-/
"Justify My Love" is even worse when you consider the fact that the beat wasn't even theirs - they ripped it from a Public Enemy song. If you want to hear a good version of Justify My Love go listen to "Instrumental No. 2" by My Bloody Valentine.
I loved the music of the early 90’s. It was probably the last time we had a wide variety of sounds on Top 40 Radio. We had everything… New Jack Swing, Adult Contemporary, Hip-Hop, Hair Bands, Metal, Smooth Jazz, Alternative, Techno, Grunge, Country, Pop, Contemporary R&B, etc… damn near every genre had big name stars. Now we just have like 6 popular artists at a time, and almost every genre sounds the same 🤷♂️
I think the context of when From A Distance was released is important to remember. I mean it is overblown, the message is all over the place, and was overplayed at the time (though not as bad as Everything I Do I Do It For You or I Will Always Love You the following year). But it was released during the Gulf War, and at the time when many were anxious and worried about friends and family members going to war and so much awareness of suffering throughout the world, the song did provide comfort and semblance of faith. It It's like asking why One Sweet Day by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men was so popular in 1995. Well because it was released the same year as the Oklahoma City Bombing. People were emotionally affected by that and they turned to music to provide comfort.
I actually kinda dig "I'm Your Baby Tonight", and not just because it has a similar progression to the X-Men animated series theme. I've always liked Whitney's upbeat, energetic stuff, sometimes more than her ballads. "How Will I Know", "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)", the underrated and hard-edged "My Name Is Not Susan", her cover of "Step By Step", and the remix of "It's Not Right, But It's Okay", are all super energetic and deliver a nice shot of adrenaline. Mixing her powerful voice with some powerful instrumentation has always been a good way to get into my good books. I even like the remix of "I Will Always Love You" that was released on her Greates Hits album. I'm weird, I know.
I can hear the X-Men Theme on there. Not weird at all: I liked the Baywatch song "I'll Be Ready" by Jim Jamison because its piano part sounded like Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is" and there was another pair of songs that were like that but they escape me. (And no, it was not Ray Parker Jr.'s Ghostbusters and Huey Lewis' IWAND; it was something else.)
Every Heartbeat isn't a Christian song though it's a love song. All her previous albums before Heart in Motion were Christian songs and she was hated by the Christian community for releasing a pop album that didn't center entirely around some god.
There is a lot of upbeat swinging Christian music in blues music such as all that southern gospel stuff such as Spirit of God by Beth Hart. It's the bland stuff that's a turn off.
I research this era quite a bit; theres a mention in SPIN Magazine from the time about how even 'serious music fans' indulged in the string of hits Amy Grant had in 1991-2. I was surprised to find out she had five top 40 singles off that album, I had never heard of them before this episode.
UB40 started life as a bunch of unemployed youths who decided to get off their asses and start a group.Their first album ‘signing off’ was true to their reggae roots. Following advice from managers, producers etc they fell into the ‘white reggae ‘ trap.
I heard the Postman Song in the wild at the grocery store last night and I had to hunt this video down just to confirm it is a real song that is played on the radio apparently.
Come on, Todd! Timmy T's "One More Try" was a staple of our Junior High dances. This was the song that would play as the guys would stand on one end of the gym, the girls on the other end. You'd have your buddy go over to the girl you liked and ask if she wanted to dance with you. If you didn't get humiliated, you'd both make your way to the center of the gym and you'd put your hands barely on her waist, she'd put her hands on your shoulders, but both too afraid to touch bodies... and you'd sway back and forth awkwardly, as the dozens of parents and teachers watched, never to make it to first base. Oh, the memories! PS - Timmy T and Stevie B were both big in the Freestyle scene. They have better known songs that are upbeat and closer to the traditional freestyle sound ("Time After Time" by Timmy T. was decent)... but as with rock, rap, and most genres in the late 80s and early 90s, it was envogue to play overly sentimental mushy ballads. PPS - "From a Distance" was the worst song for our Junior High dances... We'd be all cozy with our sweethearts, dancing, getting closer, about to get to first base... then the part at the end would come and Bette would repeatedly remind us that "God is Watching Us, God is Watching Us..." And we'd suddenly feel guilty and awkward. And, yes, I did attend a Catholic School; we had that guilt hammered into us! PPPS - And Timmy T has street cred. He guest starred in an episode of Full House!
My personal bottom 10, using the same eligibility rules (had to be on the year-end Hot 100): 10) "One More Try" - Timmy T A limp want-you-back ballad that's certainly more competent than some of the other songs on this list, but still not worth listening to when so many better songs in the same vein exist. 9) "Iesha" - Another Bad Creation The production keeps this from being even lower, but the unpolished children's vocals keep it on the list. Not pleasant. 8) "Play That Funky Music" - Vanilla Ice Good job comparing yourself to some of history's greatest villains, Rob. Great idea when you're in a majority-Black genre. 7) "Rico Suave" - Gerardo I get the feeling this song was meant as a joke, but ain't shit funny about it. It's more just embarrassing. 6) "I'm Not In Love" - Will To Power The 10cc original is a transcendent piece, one of the absolute best of the 1970s. This cover... isn't. Everything that worked in the original is stripped away. Completely charmless. 5) "The Way You Do the Things You Do" - UB40 Speaking of charmless covers... UB40's success is honestly baffling. They were basically the Pat Boone of reggae. 4) "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)" - Bryan Adams Yep, not even in the bottom three. That's how awful this year was. Bryan Adams was the scourge of radio for a good decade and a half. Thank goodness the public at large ditched him before the millennium. 3) "Because I Love You (The Postman Song)" - Stevie B Not-so-fun fact: According to Billboard, this is the 79th-biggest hit of all time. Out of the entire all-time Hot 100, this may be the worst of the bunch. Awful singing, horrendous production, and a confounding title to boot. No wonder this one's been forgotten. 2) "From a Distance" - Bette Midler You hit the nail on the head with this one. The message it conveys is virtually the opposite of what was likely intended, and the song crashes and burns because of it. Of course, it doesn't help that Bette's performance is so off-putting. 1) "More Than Words" - Extreme Yep. Before Gary Cherone ruined Van Halen, he put out one of the absolute sappiest, most underwritten, and most irritating love songs of all time. Everything from the platitudinous lyrics to the sparser than sparse instrumentation to the grating vocal harmonies make this my most-hated hit of the year. Gary, Nuno, you two are great musicians otherwise, but this one is an absolute turd.
I can get behind the entire list except one. "More Than Words" absolutely bitch-slaps 98 other songs on the 1991 Top 100. I can grant you not liking a Hair Metal acoustic ballad, but even if you hate it, you can't honestly tell me that Gary and Nuno made a worse song than an all-time worst like "Everything I Do (I Do It for You)". Maybe I'm just a huge mark for Hair Metal (and particularly for Extreme), but I'd put "More Than Words" at the number two best slot. Literally the only song that beats it is "Wind of Change" by Scorpions.
Searching For Myself Since Prince died, his VEVO Channel has been uploading songs. And at least Prince allowed information about himself to be available on AllMusic, unlike Mr. Adams
@@searchingformyself5319 There's a difference between keeping your song from being on the internet and keeping all information about your career off the internet. Bryan Adams is an infected butthole piercing.
Between the music on this list and the Hair Bands on AOR at the time, it's no wonder that I was driven towards Thrash Metal and Alt-Rock, even before Nirvana's "Nevermind" blew up. Todd, be glad that you missed out on #s 4 and 5. And I don't know about you, but I think one thing that adds to the ickyness of "From A Distance" is that it came out during the lead-up to the Gulf War, so I associate it with that. And putting "The One And Only" at the end of the video was a stroke of genius.
Everything I Do is actually a very important song in Canadian History because it caused the laws around Can Con to change. Basically this song went to number one in Canada but wasn’t allowed to be considered a Canadian song because Bryan Adams only performed the song and was one of a handful of writers on the song and the rest of the writers were not Canadian. So Bryan Adams sued the CRTC over it and had them change the laws so if there was a writer or composer on a track who was Canadian it would count towards half a point on the MAPL (Music, Artist, Performance, and Lyrics) rating.
Yeah, when it comes to awful, slimy songs about -love- having sex, I'll take Love Me over Justify My Love any day of the week. You know what Todd's worst song of 2016 was? It was something bland and upbeat; I'll say that much. If your taste in music isn't at least somewhat similar to Todd's, his lists will not help you gauge the "quality" of a year's music.
I'm surprised Cherry Pie didn't make his list. That song epitomized all that was wrong with early 90's hair metal--and this is coming from someone who loved hair metal.
A song whose only existence is because a head honcho at the record company said something to the effect that *"the album is good, but it *needs a hit single!"*
