In this series I have been looking back at each year on the charts between 1986 and 1996 and asking the question "When did the Eighties actually end?" The background to this is a research project that focuses on the proliferation of Greatest Hits albums in the early 1990s. The assumption is that the shift from vinyl to CD, the influence of Baby Boomers and the value offered by compilation albums, reframed the way people thought about Pop.
Introduction
The division in 1990 between singles and albums, artists and charts makes the year seem very conflicted. In the Rock idiom it was very much a postscript to 1989, with most of the big selling albums having been released the previous year: Phil Collins, Elton John, Tina Turner, Cher etc. As such, 1990 seems like a coda to the Eighties. This is highlighted further by the deluge of Greatest Hits compilations flooding the market, with the proliferation of the retrospectives released on Compact Disc: Rod Stewart, David Bowie, Madonna etc. On the flip side, the Singles Chart is very different, with an emphasis on Dance: Acid-House, Rave and Sound-System culture in general. In this direction, 1990 sees the emergence of a new kind of Pop characterised by Post-modern playfulness and Conceptual Art posturing: The KLF, Snap, Beats International and Adamski etc. Layered over this, is a blanket of Nostalgia Pop in the form of soundtrack singles and re-releases. Linked to film, television, advertising and football, these distort further the cracked lens through which the new decade viewed itself (The Righteous Brothers, Pavarotti, Bobby Vinton and Bombalurina): disrupting the time-space continuum and creating apocalyptic anticipation of the new Millennium.
The Blockbuster Album
Looking back at the charts in 1990 it is clear that the juggernaut of big albums released in 1989 took a long time to come to any kind of stand still. This is evidenced in the freight of Adult Orientated Rock artists dominating the album charts: Phil Collins, Elton John, Tina Turner, Chris Rea, Cher, Eric Clapton etc. However, this is not just an Eighties hangover but a function of the way in which album promotion had streamlined itself to optimise the maximum potential for single-releases, radio play and MTV rotation. A good example of this is Belinda Carlisle's third solo album Runaway Horses. Initially released in October 1989, the album generated six single in the UK, over a fifteen month period:
1. "Leave a Light On" September 1989 (#4) 2. "La Luna" December 1989 (#38) 3. "Runaway Horses" February 1990 (#40) 4. "Vision of You" 1990 May (#41) 5. "(We Want) the Same Thing" October 1990 (#6) 6. "Summer Rain" December 1990 (#23)
What is interesting here is not just the duration for which the album was successfully mined, but also the unpredictability of the success: with thirteen months separating the two Top 10 listings. Likewise, Elton John's Sleeping With The Past had been around for twelve months when Radio 1 DJ Steve Wright stated playing "Sacrifice": a single that had failed to make the Top 50 the previous year. On the back of this patronage the song went on to become the third best selling single of the year.
The concept of the Blockbuster album was not new: Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982) famously spawned seven Top 10 hits in the US between October 1982 and January 1984. However, as the discrepancy between UK and US chart listings suggest, the British market was perhaps less receptive to this strategy:
If there is a finite audience for an album it stands to reason that as that there is a restricted audience for the singles contained on it: hence perhaps the relatively low chart position of the final single"Thriller" (#10) versus its 21st Century cultural resonance and innovative video. Other Eighties albums pushing the envelope with five singles included: Madonna's True Blue; Whitney Houston's Whitney; Genesis's Invisible Touch and Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet. However, this was the exception and not the rule: typically an artist could expect to see four singles from an album. A good example of this is the discography Eurythmics, whose career spanned the decade, concluding with the release of We Too Are One (#1) released in September 1989 and a smattering of singles into early 1990:
1982's In The Garden (#54) : Never Gonna Cry Again (#63); Belinda (#-)
1983's Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (#2): This Is The House"; "The Walk"
"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This" (#2) and "Love Is a Stranger" (#6).
1984's Touch (#1): "Who's That Girl" (#3); "Right By Your Side" (#10) and "Here Comes The Rain Again" (#8).
1984's 1984 (For The Love of Big Brother) (#23): "Sexcime (Nineteen-Eighty Four)" (#4) and "Julia" (#44).
1985's Be Yourself Tonight (#3): "Would I Lie To You?" (#17); "There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart" (#1); and "Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves" (#9); "It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back)" (#12).
1986's Revenge (#3): "When Tomorrow Comes" (#30), "Thorn In My Side" (#5), and "Miracle of Love" (#23) and "Missionary Man" (#31).
1987's Savage (#7): "Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)" (#25): "You Have Placed A Chill In My Heart" (#16); "Shame" (#41); and "I Need a Man" (#26).
1989's We Too Are One (#1): "Revival" (#26); "Don't Ask Me Why" (#25), "King and Queen of America" (#29) and "Angel" (#23).
What is evident here is the transition of Eurythmics from a 'singles' to an 'album' artist: with consistently strong album sales, but diminishing returns on the singes charts (a trend Annie Lennox would reverse with her 1992 solo release Diva). What is significant, however, about 1990 is the move towards five singles as industry standard: Phil Collins's ...But Seriously; Tina Turner's Foreign Affair, Michael Bolton's Soul Provider; Cher's Heart of Stone and Gloria Estefan's Cuts Both Ways. As with the Belinda Carlisle release, the success of these tracks was very variable: however, the emphasis had perhaps shifted from away having a hit single to prolonging the sales of an album that had already been a hit. It also, as we shall go on to discuss, mitigated against competition in a market saturated with Greatest Hits compilations: offering the illusion of both value and familiarity in terms of 'hits'.
The success of this strategy to extend the shelf life of big albums is evidenced in the number of big selling albums that were released the previous year: Phil Collins, Michael Bolton, and Elton John's etc. Other big sellers straddling the decade include:
Tina Turner's Foreign Affair (#13);
UB40's Labour of Love II (#15);
Chris Rea's Road to Hell (#19);
Cher's Heart of Stone (#28);
Lisa Stansfield Affection (#30);
Eric Clapton's Journeyman (#32);
Roxette's Look Sharp! (#34);
Gloria Estefan's Cuts Both Ways (#37);
The B-52s Cosmic Thing (#41);
Del Amitri Waking Hours (#43);
The Stone Roses' The Stone Roses (#47);
Many of these conform to the sonic template for AOR post-Live Aid, with the full band and warm production. The standout here being Lisa Stansfield's House-infused Affection and The Stone Roses debut: an album often cited as inspiration to the ensuing Brit Pop sound of the mid-Nineties. Only three recordings in the end of year Top 20 were released in the new decade:
George Michael's Listen Without Prejudice Vol.1 (#10)
Sinéad O'Connor's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got (#16);
New Kids on the Block Step By Step (#20).
While there is little that connects these Pop releases, on discrete tracks each gesture towards a more contemporary, Sound-System-influenced, R+B style. Marking this direction of travel, other contemporary successes that explore new musical frontiers include Technotronic's Pump Up the Jam: The Album (#22) and Soul II Soul's Vol II 1990 – A New Decade (#24). However, the influence of this emerging style can also be felt on the mainstream sounds of: Whitney Houston's I'm Your Baby Tonight (#25); MC Hammer's Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em (#36); Betty Boo's Boomania (#42); and Vanilla Ice's To the Extreme (#50). An anomaly perhaps is Madonna's I'm Breathless (#27), the soundtrack to film Dick Tracey. Consisting mainly of jazz and swing numbers by Stephen Sondheim and Patrick Leonard, its lead single 'Vogue" was minimalist House collaboration with DJ-producer Shep Pettibone. Likewise Jason Donovan's Between the Lines (#38) stands out for being the only Stock Aitken Waterman product in the End of Year Top 50; Kylie Minogue's third album Rhythm of Love having peaked at only number nine.
The division between sample-based Dance and Adult-Orientated Rock in 1990 is obviously magnified by the change of the decade. In preceding years big CD albums by both Dire Straits and Fleetwood Mac were on the charts for longer than 12 months. However, what is pronounced in 1990 is the way in which the Rock is dominated by the the Class of 89: Phil Collins, Elton John, Michael Bolton, Tina Turner, Chris Rea, Cher, Eric Clapton and Roxette. Indeed, there are only three new recordings in the established idiom making the End of Year Top 40:
INXS's X (#35);
Depeche Mode's Violator (#39);
Fleetwood Mac's Behind the Mask (#40).
This is a very mixed selection. On the one hand, the sound of Australia's INXS is aimed squarely at American MTV, and follows the formula of their preceding album Kick. On the other hand, UK-based Depeche Mode's 1990 offering is determinedly different: appealing more to the sound of US Alternative Radio and the American Modern Rock Chart. Both strategies paid off. Fleetwood Mac's Behind The Mask, however, is a tepid follow-up to 1987's Tango In The Night, recorded without Lyndsey Buckingham and producing nothing in the way of Top 40 singles. Fleetwood Mac are in this sense one of the first in a long line of artists who are annexed from the singles chart once a Greatest Hits has been issued: other casualties of this phenomenon in the period 1988 to 1990 include Dire Straits, Bananarama and Bryan Ferry. None of them would make the Top 10 in the subsequent decade.
Greatest Hits
If 1989 marked a respite from the slow drip of Greatest Hits compilations that had started to permeate the market at the end of the Eighties, the turn of the decade sees that trickle turn to a deluge. It is not so much the quantity of releases making the Top 50 (14 is slightly less than 1988 and 1989); but rather the significance of their sales, and consequently placings in the end of of year Top 30. Five entries in the Top 10 for 1990 are compilations: Madonna’s Immaculate Collection (#2); Elton John’s The Very Best Of (#4); Luciano Pavarotti’s The Essential Pavarotti (#6); The Carpenter’s Only Yesterday (#7); and Phil Collins’ Serious Hits… Live! (#9). Augmenting this are contemporary releases by Phil Collins and Elton John: …But Seriously (#1) and Sleeping with the Past (#8); and a further live album by José Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti entitled In Concert (#3). This very middle-brow stable of recordings is completed by three very traditional pop-rock offerings from Michael Bolton, Elton John and George Michael: Soul Provider (5); Elton John's Sleeping With The Past (#8) and George Michael's Listen Without Prejudice Vol.1 (#10). A further four Greatest Hits from Status Quo, Jimmy Somerville, David Bowie and The Bee Gees appear in the Top 30 overall taking the total to 33%. A 10% increase on 1988 (after the anomalous end to the decade) and in line with the trajectory of growth since 1986. In total there were fourteen Greatest Hits collections in the End of Year Top 50:
Madonna’s The Immaculate Collection (#2)
Elton John’s The Very Best of Elton John (#4)
Luciano Pavarotti’s The Essential Pavarotti (#6)
The Carpenters’ Only Yesterday (#7)
Phil Collins’ Serious Hits... Live! (#9)
Status Quo’a Rocking All Over the Years (#14)
Jimmy Somerville’a The Singles Collection 1984/1990 (#18)
David Bowie’a Changesbowie (#26)
Bee Gees’ The Very Best of the Bee Gees (#29)
Rod Stewart’s The Best of Rod Stewart (#31)
The Beach Boys’ Summer Dreams: 28 Classic Tracks (#33 )
Talk Talk’s Natural History: The Very Best of Talk Talk (#45)
The Bangles’ Greatest Hits (#46)
Peter Gabriel’s Shaking the Tree: Sixteen Golden Greats (#49)
Arguably this was the beginning of a more serious phase in the construction of rock canon: a consumer project cohered around the CD. Beginning in 1985 with Dire Straits' Brother's In Arms, the new format gathered momentum not with new artists but repackaging the past. In the first instance this was heralded by the re-release of classic albums by The Beatles in 1987. This refined with an emphasis on Greatest Hits packages in the period 1988/89: Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac and Roxy Music all had big selling retrospectives in the period. Rod Stewart's Best of, which came out at the end of 1989, maintained this momentum as did Greatest Hits anthologies from Elton John, The Carpenters, David Bowie, Status Quo, The Bee Gees, The Beach Boys and Peter Gabriel. More contemporaneous were round-ups from Madonna, Jimmy Sommerville, Talk Talk and The Bangles. What is clear is that by 1990 the charts were no longer just a competition between Pop contemporaries but with the Pop past as well; and for some legacy artists (Fleetwood Mc, Dire Straits etc) this pitted new releases against the assembled panache of their entire career
Singles Chart
Cross-referencing the Album Chart with Singles Chart at this juncture is interesting to notice a third category emerging alongside the binary of Adult Orientated Rock artists versus Teen Pop and Dance acts: that of Nostalgia Pop. Indeed, the top selling single of 1990 was a re-release of the 1965 single “Unchained Melody” by The Righteous Brothers, from the soundtrack to the film Ghost. Further down the chart we find the re-release of The Steve Miller Band 1973 recording “The Joker” (#24) and Bobby Vinton’s 1963 single “Blue Velvet” (#27): both featured prominently in television advertisements. Remakes also feature, with TV presenter Timmy Mallets pop alias Bombalurina’s cover of Brian Hyland’s 1960 novelty record “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” (#16); and Australian soap opera star Craig Craig McLachlan (& Check 1–2)’s cover of “Mona” (originally a Bo Diddley B-side of 1957). The power of TV and film in determining the pop landscape at this juncture should not be underestimated.
Other notable soundtrack recordings in the Top 30 include Maria McKee’s “Show Me Heaven” (#6) from Days of Thunder; Partner’s in Kryme’s “Turtle Power” (#13) from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; and Roxette’s “It Must Have Been Love” (#14) from Pretty Woman. Likewise, the 1990 FIFA World Cup provided the cultural context for hits New Order with “World in Motion” (#9) (featuring the England football team) and Luciano Pavarotti’s 1972 recording of “Nessun Dorma” (#11). This sentimental sonic template is reinforced by the further big hits :
Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares to You” (#2);
Elton John’s “Sacrifice” (#3);
The Beautiful South’s “A Little Time (#12);
Cliff Richard’s “Saviours Day” (#21)
Michael Bolton’s “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You?” (#28).
As with Elton John's "Sacrifice", it is impossible to speculate as to the influence of Radio 1 at this juncture and a generation of DJ's, like Steve Wright, whose archaic tastes had more influence on the charts than we can fully appreciate. When Matthew Bannister took over as Radio 1 Controller arrived in 1993 he shook-up an institution percieved as tired and dated: famously banning records recorded before 1990, and terminating the contract of eight long-serving DJs.
In terms of the kind of upbeat and innovative, self-aware pop that had characterised much of the 1980s, the role call of acts providing this in 1990was quite different. Notable Stars of 88 making it in the the Top 10 included: Belinda Carlisle, Pet Shop Boys, Deacon Blue and Erasure. Reassuring Iron Maiden also made it to number three with "Holy Smoke" (Morrisey is conspicuous in his absence).However, only Erasure and Deacon Blue made the End of Year the Top 50 with "Blue Savannah" (#43) and the sentimental"Four Bacharach and David Songs' E.P.The new sounds of 1990, were far more explicitly postmodern than the pastiche of Nostalgia Pop played by Steve Wright and some of Radio 1s older DJs:
Vanilla Ice’s (Queen and David Bowie sampling) “Ice Ice Baby” (#4);
Adamski’s “Killer” (#5);
Beats International "Dub Be Good To Me"(#7)
Snap's The Power (#10)
MC Hammer’s “U Cant Touch This” (15);
Technotronic’s “Get Up” (#17);
The Adventures of Stevie V; Dirty Cash (Money Talks) (#19);
Kim Appleby’s “Don’t Worry” (#20)
Paula Abdul Attract “Opposites Attract” (#25);
Deee-Lite's "Groove Is in the Heart” (#26);
Londonbeats’ “I've Been Thinking About You” (#29);
EMF's “Unbelievable" by (#30);
Blue Pearl's "Naked in the Rain" (#31);
DNA featuring Suzanne Vega "Tom's Diner" (#32);
Snap!"Ooops Up" (#33);
Soup Dragons "Im Free" featuring Junior Reid 5 (#40)
En Vogue "Hold On" (#45);
Chad Jackson "Hear the Drummer (Get Wicked)" (#46);
Black Box "Fantasy" (#47);
The KLF "What Time Is Love? (Live at Trancentral)" (#48);
Happy Mondays' "Step On" (#50)
This collision of House, sound-system culture, R+B and Hip Hop made the charts sound very different from the decade that preceded it. The Pop of '88 had been replaced with something altogether more complex and contested. Technology no longer replicated the traditional instrumentation and band sounds of drum-machine era Stock Aitken Waterman, but facilitated the conception of whole different genres. As a counterpoint the Nostalgia Pop of the album charts, film soundtracks and Levi advertisements, a new style was beginning to emerge influenced by Acid House, Rave Culture and Situationism.
The Conceptual Pop of 1990 embraced new ways of thinking about authenticity and authorship: replacing the pin-up star system that had characterised recorded music since the fifties with something more avant-garde. DNA, The KLF, Blue Pearl, the Adventures of Stevie V, Adamski, Snap, Beats International were very different to the New Pop sound of the early Eighties: a generation that emerged from the New Romantic scene in the aftermath of Punk, clamouring to make music videos and break America. Instead, the Acid House scene bequeathed the mainstream new ways of thinking about itself, incorporating elements of sound system / DJ culture into a routine exposition of the Pop process: the DNA of EDM.
For the proto-Millennials reaching approaching their teenage years the sounds of Acid House and Rave were perhaps more exciting than the sugar-coated Pop of Stock Aitken Waterman. Indeed, 1990 marks the conclusion of SAW's Imperial Phase. While they scored seven number ones in 1989, the only track to hit the top in 1990 was Kylie Minogues cover of the The Imperials 1964 Doo-wop hit 'Tears on My Pillow". Recorded in 1989, and featured on her album Enjoy Yourself, in keeping with the new world order the profile of the song was raised by it inclusion in her film debut The Delinquents. This aside, Stock Aitken Waterman made the Top 20 a further nine times in 1990 with hits for Minogue, Lonnie Gordon, Sonia, Big Fun and Jason Donovan.
Kylie Minogue’s ‘Tears on My Pillow’ (#1);
Kylie Minogue’s ‘Better the Devil You Know’ (#2);
Kylie Minogue’s ‘Step Back in Time’ (#4);
Lonnie Gordon’s ‘Happenin' All Over Again’ (#4);
Sonia & Big Fun’s ‘You`ve Got a Friend’ (#14);
Sonia’s ‘Counting Every Minute’ (#16);
Sonia’s ‘End Of The World’ (#18);
Jason Donovan’s ‘Hang On To Your Love’ (#8);
Jason Donovan’s ‘Another Night’(#18);
Jason Donovan’s ‘Rhythm Of The Rain’ (#9).
Clearly their time was drawing to a close when in October 1990 a singles charts was published without a PWL recording in the Top 75 for the first time in two years. The kids they lured with synthetic Pop confectionary were growing up and starting to develop more narcotic tastes. Commensurately those Stock Aitken Waterman stars (Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan) would also move on from the Hit Factory, to develop their own grown-up identities and pursue different musical directions in the coming years.
Another key difference between the 1980s and 1990 was the way in which Rock was no longer viewed as the more sophisticated adult medium to which teenagers graduated when their tastes matured. That relationship was reframed not just by the proliferation of middle-aged Baby Boomers but also the way in which the CD positioned Rock's back-catalogue as an aspirational heritage product. Within the end of Year Top 50 the sense in which Rock had become a very corporate entity is encapsulated in the sound of a number of recordings:
Elton John's "Sacrifice"/ "Healing Hands" (#1);
Alannah Myles "Black Velvet" (#18);
Roxette's"It Must Have Been Love" (#14)
Michael Bolton's "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You?"(#28).
In many ways the power ballad was perhaps a hangover from the excesses of the Eighties Rock production: supplanting the euphoric anthem style of Bon Jovi misty-eyed sentimentalism of T'Pau. Other notable hits in this genre from 1990 include:
Songs that weren't in adverts sounded like they might have been, with the chart increasingly serving a conduit for trailing the next Hollywood blockbuster. Indeed both Cruise and Isaak owe their chart placings to prominent placement in the television and film work of David Lynch (Twin Peaks/Wild at Heart). An interesting cross-over breakthrough in this idiom in 1990 is Mariah Carey with her debut single "Vision of Love" (#9): her decorated singing style influencing the direction of R+B well into 21st Century. However, in the End of Year Top 50 the only portents of a return to a less superannuated Rock style came in the form of the Soup Dragons' Dancehall-inspired, re-working of The Rolling Stones' "I'm Free" and Madchester escapees Happy Mondays's "Step On". Here the influenced of Acid-House and the cross-over between Dance and Rock laying the foundations for the Brit Pop Renaissance of the mid-1990s. Other acts embodying a more Alternative Rock sound with Top 10 singles include:
Depeche Mode’s "Enjoy the Silence" (#6);
The Stone Roses’ "Elephant Stone” (#8);
B52's Love Shack (#2)
Candy Flip’s "Strawberry Fields Forever” (#3);
The Charlatans’ "The Only One I Know” (#9);
The Stone Roses’ "One Love” (#4);
Happy Monday’s"Kinky Afro” (#5);
The Farm’s "All Together Now” (#4).
An anomaly of sorts is the camp, cartoon Rock of the The B52’s “Love Shack” (#23 on End of Year Top 40). With a catalogue stretching back to the late 1970s, their 1990 breakthrough in the UK was actually product of the influence of Alternative Radio in the US, which had made the song a Billboard hit at the end of 1989. Throughout this period, the Modern Rock Chart was a refuge to post-Punk acts impervious to the influence of Acid House: The B52's, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Deborah Harry and The Ramones.
Conclusion
Nineteen Ninety represents a liminal time in Pop culture: not just a turning-of-the-page, but an anticipation of the End of the Century. The fractured de-constructavist aesthetics of genres touched by Acid House (with their fractured lyrics and harmonic discontinuity) seem to embody Fin de Siècle anxiety about the coming age. Impervious to this change were a number of artists whose popularity seemed to fly in the face of adversity: survivors from earlier eras determined to make the final scene. These interlopers/hardy perennials included:
Cliff Richard's"Saviour's Day" (#21);
UB40's "Kingston Town" (#35)
Status Quo's "The Anniversary Waltz – Part One" (#36).
Ironically, however, the silent killer of 1990 was not Acid House or Rave, but the Compact Disc. What had begun as aspirational consumer product for audiophile Baby Boomers, was restructuring the way people thought about Pop. In the first instance, the CD placed emphasis on the Rock album over the Pop single: singles became a vehicle for prolonging the shelf-life of an album. Accentuating the impasse, was the emphasis of Dance music on mix culture and 12-inch vinyl. Secondly, the success of the Compact Disc constructed a canon of works around which a new History of Pop was cohered. While the process of canonisation elevated the status of these artists, it also removed them from the singles chart: Fleetwood Mac, Dire Straits, Bryan Ferry etc. The corollary of the division between albums and singles charts meant that there was now a greater division between new acts and heritage artists: Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart. It also pitted legacy artists into battle with their own back catalogues: consumers opting for the certain return on investment pf a Greatest Hits package over the untried sounds of new recordings. To a certain extent the template for the Blockbuster Album pioneered by Michael Jackson's Thriller mitigated against this: the more singles an album included, the better value it seemed (even if those singles had not been particularly big chart hits). Long term, however, the biggest shift in Pop would not be House Music or Hip Hop but the furlough of key acts synonymous with the 1980s, particularly in the post-Bannister era of Radio 1. In this direction, the power of gatekeepers and tastemaker should not be underestimated: as the surprising rehabilitation of Elton John's "Sacrifice" is testimony. To this end, the mawkish side of 1990 can perhaps be attributed in part to the influence of DJ Steve Wright. Indeed, the The Righteous Brothers, Sinead O'Connor, Maria McKee, Roxette, Julie Cruise etc would all go on to be staples of his Sunday Love Songs show, when he finally moved to Radio 2 in 1996. Clearly the Eighties were not over in 1990 and, as we shall go onto see, the proliferation of Greatest Hits in 1991 would only gain momentum: filling the charts with a roll call of artists synonymous with the preceding decade: Eurythmics, Tina Turner, Queen, Paul Young etc.The canonisation of the Eighties was only just beginning...
Top 50 Singles 1990 Music Week. London, England: Spotlight Publications. 2 March 1991.
1 "Unchained Melody" The Righteous Brothers 2 "Nothing Compares 2 U" Sinéad O'Connor 3 "Sacrifice"/"Healing Hands" Elton John 4 "Ice Ice Baby" Vanilla Ice 5 "Killer" Adamski 6 "Show Me Heaven" Maria McKee 1 7 "Dub Be Good to Me" Beats International 8 "Vogue" Madonna 9 "World in Motion" England New Order 10 "The Power" Snap! 11 "Nessun Dorma" Luciano Pavarotti 12 "A Little Time" The Beautiful South 13 "Turtle Power" Partners in Kryme 14 "It Must Have Been Love" Roxette 15 "U Can't Touch This" MC Hammer 3 16 "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" Bombalurina 17 "Get Up! (Before the Night Is Over)" Technotronic featuring Ya Kid K 18 "Black Velvet" Alannah Myles 19 "Dirty Cash (Money Talks)" The Adventures of Stevie V 20 "Don't Worry" Kim Appleby 21 "Saviour's Day" Cliff Richard 22 "Mona" Craig McLachlan & Check 1–2 23 "Love Shack" The B-52's 24 "The Joker" The Steve Miller Band 25 "Opposites Attract" Paula Abdul and The Wild Pair 26 "Groove Is in the Heart"/"What Is Love" Deee-Lite 27 "Blue Velvet" Bobby Vinton 28 "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" Michael Bolton 29 "I've Been Thinking About You" Londonbeat 30 "Unbelievable" EMF 31 "Naked in the Rain" Blue Pearl 32 "Tom's Diner" DNA featuring Suzanne Vega 33 "Ooops Up" Snap! 34 "Tears on My Pillow" Kylie Minogue 35 "Kingston Town" UB40 36 "The Anniversary Waltz – Part One" Status Quo 37 "Take My Breath Away" Berlin 38 "Better the Devil You Know" Kylie Minogue 39 "Tonight" New Kids on the Block 40 "I'm Free" Soup Dragons featuring Junior Reid 41 "Lily Was Here" David A. Stewart featuring Candy Dulfer 42 "Blue Savannah" Erasure 43 "Justify My Love" Madonna 44 Four Bacharach & David Songs EP Deacon Blue 45 "Hold On" En Vogue 46 "Hear the Drummer (Get Wicked)" Chad Jackson 47 "Fantasy" Black Box 48 "What Time Is Love? (Live at Trancentral)" The KLF featuring the Children of the Revolution 49 "Got to Have Your Love" Mantronix featuring Wondress 50 "Step On" Happy Mondays
Top 50 Albums 1990 Music Week. London, England: Spotlight Publications. 2 March 1991
1 ...But Seriously Phil Collins
2 The Immaculate Collection Madonna
3 In Concert José Carreras/Placido Domingo/Luciano Pavarotti
4 The Very Best of Elton John Elton John
5 Soul Provider Michael Bolton
6 The Essential Pavarotti Luciano Pavarotti
7 Only Yesterday Carpenters
8 Sleeping with the Past Elton John
9 Serious Hits... Live! Phil Collins
10 Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 George Michael
11 The Rhythm of the Saints Paul Simon
12 Vivaldi: The Four Seasons Nigel Kennedy with the English Chamber Orchestra
13 Foreign Affair Tina Turner
14 Rocking All Over the Years Status Quo
15 Labour of Love II UB40
16 I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got Sinéad O'Connor
17 From a Distance: The Event Cliff Richard
18 The Singles Collection 1984/1990 Jimmy Somerville
19 The Road to Hell Chris Rea
20 Step By Step New Kids on the Block
21 Hangin' Tough New Kids on the Block
22 Pump Up the Jam: The Album Technotronic
23 Choke The Beautiful South
24 Vol. II: 1990 – A New Decade Soul II Soul
25 I'm Your Baby Tonight Whitney Houston
26 Changesbowie David Bowie
27 I'm Breathless Madonna
28 Heart of Stone Cher
29 The Very Best of the Bee Gees Bee Gees
30 Affection Lisa Stansfield
31 The Best of Rod Stewart Rod Stewart
32 Journeyman Eric Clapton
33 Summer Dreams: 28 Classic Tracks The Beach Boys
34 Look Sharp! Roxette
35 X INXS
36 Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em MC Hammer
37 Cuts Both Ways Gloria Estefan
38 Between the Lines Jason Donovan
39 Violator Depeche Mode
40 Behind the Mask Fleetwood Mac
41 Cosmic Thing The B-52s
42 Boomania Betty Boo
43 Waking Hours Del Amitri
44 Reflection The Shadows
45 Natural History: The Very Best of Talk Talk Talk Talk
46 Greatest Hits The Bangles
47 The Stone Roses The Stone Roses
48 Wild! Erasure
49 Shaking the Tree: Sixteen Golden Greats Peter Gabriel
50 To the Extreme Vanilla Ice