19 October 1989 When Chubby Checker followed up 'The Twist' with 'Let's Twist Again', he at least had the decency to make them two different songs. No such qualms for our Watership Downer friend Jive Bunny, whose follow-up to hit single 'Swing The Mood' also starts with the exact same Chubby Checker sample. I bet … Continue reading Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers – ‘That’s What I Like’ →

5 October 1989 Already in late 1989 we had harbingers of the decade to come. Here's Wet Wet Wet as they begin to move away from the "popped in" of their debut album title and towards its "souled out". In a few years time they will release a single that is truly an anal fistula … Continue reading Wet Wet Wet – ‘Sweet Surrender’ →

28 September 1989 Quick recap. At first, up to early September 1989, you were hearing the voice of Loleatta Holloway as sampled from her 1980 single 'Love Sensation'. Since then, once Holloway and other interested parties had a quiet word with Black Box about the niceties of copyright and clearance, you have apparently been hearing … Continue reading Black Box – ‘Ride On Time’ →

21 September 1989 The least fun of all the Marx Brothers, including Karl, the mullet-wearing Richard had successfully opiated the US masses for a couple of years with his piano-led "adult contemporary" soft rock. This was his first big hit on our side of the Atlantic: a cheesy spectre that haunted Europe. 'Right Here Waiting' … Continue reading Richard Marx – ‘Right Here Waiting’ →

7 September 1989 "Thank God for that!" is not, I admit, the traditional greeting for a Stock, Aitken and Waterman single by Jason Donovan. As we trudge across the inhospitable salt plains of the late-1989 charts, though, this is a veritable drink of fresh water. Naturally, 'Every Day (I Love You More)' is a pre-cast … Continue reading Jason Donovan – ‘Every Day (I Love You More)’ →

24 August 1989 There's a generation of people for whom Nelson Mandela was always the twinkly-eyed, grandfatherly figure who served as president and figurehead of South Africa in the 1990s and '00s. For those of us who were alive and aware of world affairs in 1989, we had a different concept of him - and … Continue reading Dolores Keane – ‘Lion In A Cage’ →

10 August 1989 Next time you overhear some barstool blowhard or drunken uncle opining that the charts today are rubbish, and music was far better back in their day, well - even without entering Exhibit A for the prosecution (below) that statement is always a load of rubbish and a sure sign that the opinionator … Continue reading Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers – ‘Swing The Mood’ →

27 July 1989 I've said it here before and I'll say it again: in the late '80s charts there were worse things than Stock, Aitken and Waterman records. The poster boys for that maxim are Bros, now down to the two Gosses. This called for revised branding that reduced their three-person stick-figure logo to two … Continue reading Bros – ‘Too Much’ →

20 July 1989 Succession planning is tricky for any business, but especially a self-styled Hit Machine. Teen pop idols have a short shelf-life and high turnover rate at the best of times. Soap stars as teen pop idols are fine for when you want to jump off their existing public persona, but they tend to … Continue reading Sonia – ‘You’ll Never Stop Me Loving You’ →

6 July 1989 Content warning: domestic violence; abusive relationships; male violence against women Yes, a number one single in Ireland in 1989 was a jaunty, ersatz trad-Irish ditty that romanticises abusive relationships and serial male violence against women, with no sign of any remorse or comeuppance. The male narrator is also a musician, so we … Continue reading The Waterboys – ‘And A Bang On The Ear’ →