Week commencing 8 April 1991

Four of this week in 1991's debuting singles that peaked in the 101-150 region of the chart spent at least seven weeks in the top 150, which is above the 1991 average of 5.65 weeks.

 

I have updated another earlier post with the following:

• 19 June 1989 - a new bubbling WAY down under entry from Z'Zi Labor.
  

 

Collette: this wouldn't be everlasting chart success.

  

Top 150 debuts:

 

Number 133 "This Will Be (Everlasting Love)" by Collette

Peak: number 122

Peak date: 29 April 1991

Weeks in top 150: 9 weeks

Weeks on chart: 9 weeks

 

New-Zealand born Collette Roberts started her career as a fashion model, appearing on the cover of Dolly magazine in 1983.  She launched a recording career in 1989 with an acid-house inspired cover version of Anita Ward's "Ring My Bell", which reached number 5 in May 1989 and was certified gold.  Collette's iconic bike shorts and fluorescent lycra image in the video for "Ring My Bell" became closely associated with her, and bike shorts are one of the first things most people who grew up in the 80s would think of when the name 'Collette' is mentioned.

After the initial success of "Ring My Bell", Collette copped a lot of flak and was almost universally panned by critics for her her image, lack of technical vocal ability, and because she was a model who scored a big hit with a cover version.  Australian radio was also stuck in classic/pub rock hell at this point in time, and would not touch dance or female pop music with a barge pole.

Often inaccurately referred to as a one-hit wonder, Collette followed up "Ring My Bell" with two further top 40 hits, which she co-wrote, "All I Wanna Do Is Dance" (number 12, July 1989) and "That's What I Like About You" (number 31, November 1989).  Collette's debut album Raze the Roof (number 48, November 1989) was a moderate success, denting the top 50.

After a gap of nine months, Collette returned in 1990 with a radically different image.  Gone were the bike shorts and bright colours; in was a short hair cut and lots of dark clothes.  Collette co-wrote her next single, "Who Do You Think You Are" (number 56, August 1990) as a response to her many critics.  Unfortunately, it was not a major success.  A cover version of Diana Ross' "Upside Down" (number 91, January 1991) was released as its follow-up, but fared even worse on the charts.

Collette's second album Attitude (number 107, April 1991) was preceded by another single, "This Will Be (Everlasting Love)".  Despite sharing a similar title, the song is not a cover version of Natalie Cole's "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)" (number 28, February 1976), but is an original, written by Collette and Southern Sons' Peter Bowman.

 

"This Will Be (Everlasting Love)" performed strongest in South Australia/Northern Territory, where it reached number 94.  The single would become Collette's final solo release.  She then briefly ventured into acting, appearing in two episodes of Home and Away in 1991 as Constable Nick Parrish's date, and then became a make-up artist.  In 2006, Collette appeared on an episode of Where Are They Now?, revealing that she also volunteers at Sydney's Taronga Zoo.

Despite Collette's solo recording career ending in 1991, we will see her again as a featured artist in 1995.

 

 

Number 134 "Spit in the Rain" by Del Amitri

Peak: number 118

Peak date: 15 April 1991

Weeks in top 150: 7 weeks

Weeks on chart: 10 weeks

Scottish band Del Amitri formed in Glasgow in the early 1980s.  Despite claims that the band name is Greek for "from the womb", the name Del Amitri is essentially meaningless.

Del Amitri released their first, self-titled, album in 1985, but it was not a commercial success.  After a four-year gap, their second album Waking Hours (number 8, June 1990), was released in Europe in 1989.  The album's lead single, "Kiss This Thing Goodbye" (number 28, June 1990), became a sleeper hit, taking seven-and-a-half months to reach its peak in Australia and spending 41 weeks on the chart.  Surprisingly, "Kiss This Thing Goodbye" was a bigger hit in Australia than in the band's home country, where it only reached number 43 in March 1990 after initially peaking at number 59 in August 1989.

"Kiss This Thing Goodbye" was followed-up, in Australia, by "Nothing Ever Happens" (number 46, June 1990) - my favourite Del Amitri song, and "Stone Cold Sober" (number 50, September 1990).  A fourth single from Waking Hours, "Move Away Jimmy Blue", was released locally in November 1990, but did not chart.

 

"Spit in the Rain" was an in-between albums single that did not appear on any of Del Amitri's studio albums until an expanded 2-CD re-issue of Waking Hours was released in 2014.

 

Internationally, "Spit in the Rain" peaked at number 21 in the UK in November 1990.

Within Australia, "Spit in the Rain" performed strongest on the South Australia/Northern Territory state chart, where it reached number 78.

 

We shall next see Del Amitri in 1995.

 

 

Number 139 "More Than a Girlfriend" by No Justice

Peak: number 121

Peak date: 20 May 1991

Weeks in top 150: 9 weeks

 

Australian band No Justice only released two singles, 1990's "Lately" (number 91, August 1990), and this one, which does not appear to be available to listen to anywhere online at the time of writing this.  It doesn't help that "More Than a Girlfriend" was only issued on vinyl and cassette, so sourcing a digital rip would not be easy.

Despite the band's lack of chart success, "Lately" managed to land heavy rotation on Home and Away at the time, and the band even appeared 'live' performing the song in an episode.

 

The drummer in No Justice was Countdown Revolution host Chook (real name Andrew Chalhoub), who sadly passed away in 2018 - something I was not aware of until researching this song for my post this week.  Before discovering this fact, I made the mistake of sending Chook a message on facebook (it was not apparent that he had died from his public profile) to ask if he had a copy of either the music video or an audio clip of this song...

September 2023 update: someone has kindly informed me that an audio rip of the extended version of "More Than a Girlfriend" has been uploaded to YouTube.  Unfortunately, the video will not embed normally into this post, for reasons unknown, but you can view it here.

 

 

 

Number 140 "How Much Is Enough" by The Fixx

Peak: number 119

Peak date: 29 April 1991

Weeks in top 150: 8 weeks 

We last saw English band The Fixx in April 1989.  "How Much Is Enough" was the lead single from the band's sixth studio album Ink.

 

Internationally, "How Much Is Enough" peaked at number 35 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in May 1991, where it was The Fixx's first US top 40 single since 1986.  The single missed the top 75 in the band's native UK.

I hadn't heard this song before, but liked it - particularly the chorus.

 

 

 

Number 150 "Shakin the Cage" by The Zoo featuring Mick Fleetwood and Billy Thorpe

Peak: number 142 

Peak date: 15 April 1991

Weeks in top 150: 3 weeks

 

Regular readers of my posts may know how much it irks me when an artist does not have a consistent name (e.g. The vs. no 'The' at the start of a band name) across their releases.  But a more egregious offence than that is when apostrophes are missing... and I say that as a Shakespear(')s Sister fan.  Here we have a song title that contains the word "Shakin", with no apostrophe used on the single's artwork.  Ugh.

Another dumb thing about this release is that The Zoo is a Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac side project, yet he is credited as a featured artist here.  Australian Billy Thorpe is also a member of the group, but is similarly credited as a featured artist.  The only explanation I can think of as to why this occurred is that the general public didn't know who The Zoo were, but might know of Mick Fleetwood or Billy Thorpe.

As if the above wasn't bad enough, The Zoo was credited as Mick Fleetwood's Zoo on their debut 1983 album I'm Not Me, but are listed as The Zoo on the band's second album, 1992's Shakin' the Cage - note correct use of the apostrophe.  Billy Thorpe wrote eight of the album's ten tracks, and co-wrote the other two.

As someone who wasn't aged over 40 in 1991, I'd never heard of this, or Mick Fleetwood's Zoo.  Listening to "Shakin the Cage" now, it's just the kind of thing you'd expect Triple M to have added to their playlist in 1991.  Decent enough music for long drives through the countryside, but that's about it.

 

 

 

Bubbling WAY down under:

 

Number 160 "Secret Love" by Bee Gees

Peak: number 158

Peak date: 29 April 1991

Weeks on chart: 6 weeks

 

Bee Gees had three singles that peaked outside the ARIA top 100 in 1989, and we last saw the group in October 1989.

 

"Secret Love", the lead single from the group's nineteenth studio album High Civilization (number 126, June 1991), was the fourth in a string of seven Bee Gees singles to peak outside the Australian top 100 between 1989 and 1995.  The group would not trouble the ARIA top 100 singles chart again until 1997.

 

Internationally, "Secret Love" was a top 10 hit in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and the UK.

 

Within Australia, "Secret Love" was most popular in Western Australia, where it reached number 129.

.

We will next see Bee Gees in 1993.

 

 

Number 167 "Family Affair" by Stephen Cummings

Peak: number 167

Peak date: 8 April 1991

Weeks on chart: 2 weeks

 

Australian singer-songwriter and jingle-writer Stephen Cummings last graced our presence in August 1989.  Stephen's biggest solo hit on the Australian charts was "Gymnasium" (number 27, September 1984), while his biggest hit with his former group The Sports was "How Come" (number 21, July 1981).

"Family Affair", a cover version of Sly & The Family Stone, was the second single lifted from Stephen's fifth studio album Good Humour (number 40, March 1991). It followed "Hell (You've Put Me Through)" (number 33, February 1991), which was Stephen's final top 40 hit.

On the state charts, "Family Affair" was most-successful in Western Australia, where it reached number 151.

We shall next see Stephen in June 1991.

 

 

Number 170 "Found Love" by Double Dee featuring Dany

Peak: number 170

Peak date: 8 April 1991 

Weeks on chart: 6 weeks (1991 and 1996 chart-runs combined)

Double Dee were an Italian studio boffin act, and they roped in singer Dany (real name Donato Losito) to provide vocals on this track.

Internationally, "Found Love" peaked at number 38 in the Netherlands in October 1990, number 40 in the Flanders region of Belgium in November 1990, number 23 in France in November 1990, and number 63 in the UK in December 1990.

Confusing matters on the Australian chart, both the original version of "Found Love" and a 1995 remix that was released as a single are combined into the same entry on the ARIA database.  "Found Love" peaked in 1991 on two of the state charts (New South Wales/Australian Capital Territory and Queensland), and in 1996 on the remaining three state charts.  While I unfortunately cannot give you a national Australian chart peak for the 1996 release of this track (as it missed the top 150), I can tell you that it was not higher than number 170, and that it performed strongest in South Australia/Northern Territory, where it reached number 120 in March 1996.

Double Dee will bubble under again on the Australian chart in 2003.

Number 175 "Out of My Mind" by Soho

Peak: number 156

Peak date: 22 April 1991

Weeks on chart: 2 weeks

Twin sisters Jacqui and Pauline Cuff, together with producer Timothy London, form Soho.  The group released two singles in Australia in the late 1980s that failed to chart: "Piece of You" (May 1998) and "Message from My Baby" (April 1989).

"Hippychick" (number 21, January 1991), which prominently samples The Smiths' "How Soon Is Now", gave Soho their first - and only real - hit, peaking at number 8 in the UK upon re-release in January 1991, and narrowly missing the top 20 in Australia.

"Out of My Mind" was the second single lifted from Soho's second album Goddess (number 102, January 1991) in Australia.  It was also a single in the US, though the UK went with "Love Generation".

 

On the ARIA state charts, "Out of My Mind" performed strongest in Victoria/Tasmania, where it reached number 145.

 

Soho returned with a new single "Ride" in 1992.  Although I caught the video for "Ride" as a new release on rage, the single does not actually appear to have been released in Australia.

"Out of My Mind" was Soho's last single to chart in Australia.

 

 

Next week (15 April): Seven little* top 150 debuts and three bubbling WAY down under entries (*this comment will make sense next week).

 

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