Week commencing 29 July 1991

I can't identify any clever theme running through this week in 1991's ARIA chart debuts outside the top 100.

 

Before we dive in, on a sad note, I received news that a regular reader of my blog, Craig MacGregor, passed away this week, following a long illness.  When I started writing these chart recaps, I never imagined that I would end up having several long phone conversations with one of its readers, but that's what happened with Craig and I.  We both shared a keen interest in the ARIA charts and flop music of yesteryear, among other commonalities.  I had planned to meet Craig when he returned to Australia from New Zealand for a period in May 2021, but COVID and border closures put an end to that.

 

While Craig was preparing to die, he sent me his copy of Joel Whitburn's Billboard Hot 100 Charts - The Eighties book, a New Zealand chart book, and some printed ARIA top 50 charts from the 1990s with Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia/Northern Territory state charts on the reverse that I did not have (I am in Victoria), as he wanted these to go to someone who might use them.  RIP Craig (or 'kool beanz', as he might have said).

 

Ric Ocasek rocked away from the ARIA top 100 this week in 1991.

  

Top 150 debuts:

 

Number 108 "You Can Swing It" by Sheena Easton

Peak: number 107

Peak date: 5 August 1991

Weeks in top 150: 4 weeks

Chart run: 174-108-107-113-128

Weeks on chart: 5 weeks

 

Scottish singer Sheena Easton burst onto the Australian chart in 1981 with "9 to 5 (Morning Train)" (number 1, April 1981), which was re-named so as to avoid confusion with Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" (number 9, April 1981) from around the same time.

 

Between 1981 and 1991, Sheena amassed 10 Australian top 100 singles, with "For Your Eyes Only" (number 6, February 1982) and "What Comes Naturally" (number 4, June 1991) also reaching the top 10.  We saw Sheena bubble under with Prince in December 1989.

 

"You Can Swing It" was the second single lifted from Sheena's tenth studio album What Comes Naturally (number 38, July 1991).  Internationally, "You Can Swing It" peaked at number 54 in the Netherlands in August 1991.

Within Australia, "You Can Swing It" was most successful in Victoria/Tasmania, where it reached number 84.

A third single from What Comes Naturally, "To Anyone", was released in Australia in September 1991, but failed to chart.

Sheena would land one more charting single in Australia, with her version of The Three Degrees' "Giving Up, Giving In" - minus the comma in the title - which peaked at number 78 in January 2001.

Sheena had greater, albeit modest, success on the ARIA albums charts in the ensuring years, with No Strings (number 160, September 1993), Fabulous (number 95, March 2001), The Best of Sheena Easton (number 596, November 2008) and Original Album Series (number 1060, February 2015) all charting.

 

I don't recall hearing "You Can Swing It" before.  My take is that it was a bit too American-sounding to be a large hit in Australia in 1991.  "What Comes Naturally" was American-sounding too, but had a Prince-esque pop sensibility that "You Can Swing It" lacks.

While "You Can Swing It" was Sheena's last single to peak outside the top 100 in Australia, she will appear on a 1982 post coming up in October.

 

 

Number 118 "This Is the Way to Heaven" by Mark Stevens

Peak: number 118

Peak date: 29 July 1991

Weeks in top 150: 9 weeks

Top 150 chart run: 118-134-139-133-(out for 7 weeks)-132-132-147-140-150

 

In the week in which the 37 year-old Australian soap opera stalwart Neighbours is ending, it is fitting that we have a debut from an actor who played the role of Nick Page on the show.  Mark joined the cast of Neighbours in July 1988, which was after I - and probably a good chunk of the Australian audience - stopped watching it, opting instead for Home and Away.  That being said, Mark looks familiar to me - he was probably a pin-up in Smash Hits magazine a few times when I was a reader.  Prior to Neighbours, Mark was on Young Talent Time for three years; but, again, it was after I stopped watching it.

 

In the tradition of Kylie Minogue and all who've come after her, Mark was yet another soap-actor-turned-popstar hopeful.  But how did it pan out for him?  Not too well, going by the number 118 peak of this single, which would be Mark's only release to make the ARIA top 150.  Nonetheless, this single spent a respectable 9 weeks in the top 150.

I hadn't heard this one before.  It doesn't stand out as anything special to me, despite being written and produced by Nik Kershaw, whom we saw writing for another artist earlier in 1991.

Mark's Wikipedia biography is a bit of a depressing read.  He became addicted to drugs in the 1990s and, after overcoming the addiction, became a born-again Christian who is now affiliated with the lucrative Hillsong church.

 

Number 125 "Kozmik" by Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers

Peak: number 105

Peak date: 12 August 1991

Weeks in top 150: 6 weeks

Chart run: 125-118-105-112-123-125

Weeks on chart: 6 weeks

 

David Nesta Marley, better known as Ziggy, is the son of reggae legend Bob Marley and his wife Rita Marley.  Ziggy, together with his band The Melody Makers, placed two singles on the ARIA top 100 in the late 1980s, with "Tomorrow People" (number 36, June 1988) being their biggest hit in Australia.  The group landed a second top 100 'hit' in 1989 with "Look Who's Dancing" (number 69, October 1989), and two albums Conscious Party (number 34, July 1988) and One Bright Day (number 68, October 1989) made the top 100.  A mini-album Look Who's Dancing (number 111, June 1990) also registered on the albums chart.

"Kozmik" was the lead single in Australia from Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers' fifth studio album Jahmekya (number 111, August 1991).  Internationally, "Kozmik" peaked at number 11 in the Netherlands in July 1991, and number 44 in the Flanders region of Belgium in August 1991.

Locally, "Kozmik" was most popular in Queensland, where it reached number 84.

I don't recall hearing this one at the time, but the music video was on a tape I digitised about a decade ago.

We will next see Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers in 1995.

 

 

Number 133 "Sexdrive" by The Rolling Stones

Peak: number 133

Peak dates: 29 July 1991 and 12 August 1991

Weeks in top 150: 6 weeks

Chart run: 133-143-133-135-146-137

Weeks on chart: 6 weeks

 

We last saw rock fossils The Rolling Stones in June 1991.  "Sexdrive" was the third single, and one of only two studio recordings on the otherwise live album Flashpoint (number 12, April 1991).  Curiously, "Sexdrive" was not issued as a single in the band's native UK.

 

Internationally, "Sexdrive" peaked at number 31 in Sweden in September 1991, and number 24 in the Netherlands during the same month.

Within Australia, "Sexdrive" performed strongest in Queensland, where it reached number 101.

We shall next see The Rolling Stones in 2002 - assuming I am still writing these chart recaps in 2033.

 

 

Number 139 "Rockaway" by Ric Ocasek

Peak: number 139

Peak date: 29 July 1991

Weeks in top 150: 4 weeks

Top 150 chart run: 139-141-141-140

 

Together with his former band The Cars, in which Ric shared lead vocal duties with Benjamin Orr, Ric Ocasek (born Richard Theodore Otcasek) placed 12 singles on the Australian top 100 between 1978 and 1987.  Although it was not the band's biggest hit, the highest-peaking Cars single Ric sang lead vocal on was "Shake It Up" (number 10, February 1982).  My favourite Cars single with Ric vocals is "Tonight She Comes" (number 16, February 1986).

 

Ric enjoyed solo success on the Australian chart with the single "Emotion in Motion" (number 8, November 1986), which reached the top 10.  His only other solo top 100 entry, however, was "True to You" (number 100, February 1987).  I like both of these tracks a lot.

 

"Rockaway" was issued as the lead and only single from Ric's third studio album Fireball Zone (number 119, August 1991).  The single peaked at number 46 in Canada.

I don't recall hearing "Rockaway" before.  It doesn't compare to Ric's earlier solo releases, or those of The Cars, in my book.

 

"Rockaway" would be Ric's last solo single before his death in 2019, aged 75.

 

 

Bubbling WAY down under:

 

Number 172 "My Book" by The Beautiful South

Peak: number 172

Peak date: 29 July 1991

Weeks on chart: 2 weeks

 

We last saw British band The Beautiful South in July 1990.  "My Book" was released as the second single from the band's second album Choke (number 69, April 1991), following "A Little Time" (number 72, May 1991), which was their biggest 'hit' in Australia.

 

Internationally, "My Book" peaked at number 43 in the UK in December 1990, and number 25 in Ireland in January 1991.  "My Book" missing the top 40 in the UK is notable, as previous single "A Little Time" had gone to number 1 there.

 

Domestically, "My Book" performed strongest in Western Australia, where it reached number 138.

I hadn't heard this one before.  It's not bad, but I can see why it was not a huge hit.

 

The Beautiful South will next join us in 1992.

 

 

Next week (5 August): Three top 150 debuts and five bubbling WAY down under entries.

< Previous week: 22 July 1991                                      Next week: 5 August 1991 >

Week commencing 10 June 1991

I have no amazing insight into what connects this week in 1991's debuts peaking outside the top 100, so let's just dive straight in.  But before we do, I have updated last week's 1991 post with the following:

• 3 June 1991 - a new bubbling WAY down under entry from The Real Milli Vanilli.
   

Pat Benatar: she used to be somebody's rock chick.

  

Top 150 debuts:

 

Number 121 "True Love" by Pat Benatar

Peak: number 107

Peak date: 17 June 1991

Weeks in top 150: 4 weeks

Top 150 chart run: 121-107-117-114

Weeks on chart: 5 weeks

 

American singer Pat Benatar placed fourteen singles on the Australian chart during the 1980s, with three of those making the top ten.  Of these, "Love Is a Battlefield" (number 1, February 1984) was the biggest, with "All Fired Up" (number 2, September 1988) coming a close second.  We last saw Pat in April 1989.

"True Love" was the title track and only single issued in Australia from Pat's eighth studio album True Love (number 53, June 1991).  Known for her powerful rock voice, "True Love" was a radical departure from Pat's usual sound, dipping her toe into the jump blues genre.  Pat also had a make-over, displaying a softer image than typical for her (an evening dress!) in the music video.

"True Love" was only a hit in the Netherlands, where it reached number 21 in June 1991.  I cannot find evidence of this single registering on any other chart outside of Australia.

I hadn't heard "True Love" until writing this post, and was not aware of this album's existence at the time.  Pat seemed to disappear off the radar after "All Fired Up", with that song being her last major hit anywhere.  I have written before - and I am by no means the only person to make this observation - that a lot of artists associated with the 1980s fell on commercial hard times once the 1990s clocked over.

 

Within Australia, "True Love" performed strongest on the South Australia/Northern Territory state chart, where it reached number 77.

 

Pat would only land one further charting single in Australia, with "Somebody's Baby" (number 90, September 1993) in 1993.  That song deserved to do much better, and was as good as any of Pat's 80s hits in my view, but I guess Pat's time as an artist with hit singles was well and truly over by that point.

 

Pat placed a number of later albums on the ARIA albums chart - although all of them missed the top 100.  Her 1987 compilation Best Shots (number 19, February 1988) re-entered the chart in February 1992, reaching number 155.  Pat's next studio album Gravity's Rainbow peaked at number 130 in September 1993, Greatest Hits reached number 345 in January 2006, and 2 Classic Albums - Best Shots/Wide Awake in Dreamland peaked at number 344 in August 2011.

 

 

Number 135 "Falling" by One-Eyed Jacks

Peak: number 135

Peak date: 10 June 1991

Weeks in top 150: 2 weeks

Top 150 chart run: 135-137

 

I didn't watch Twin Peaks when it aired in Australia in early 1991, but you couldn't escape it.  Even my great uncle used to repeat the "she's wrapped in plastic!" line from the TV ads promoting the series.  Then, Julee Cruise's "Falling" topped the ARIA singles chart in April 1991.

It seemed obligatory for any big ballad hit in the 90s to have a cheap dance cover version recorded somewhere in continental Europe, featuring a singer whose primary language was probably not English, and here is the one for "Falling".

You can almost check the items off a list.  Cheap music video - check.  Woman with 'model' looks who may or may not be the actual singer (although surely they would have selected a better vocalist if she is only lip syncing) - check.  Sample from a recent dance/pop hit to give it a contemporary sound - check (in this instance, it's George Michael's "Freedom! '90").

 

Despite having said all of the above, I don't actually mind this version of "Falling".  I had not heard it before.

Danish DJ Kjeld Tolstrup was behind One-Eyed Jacks.  This track was their only release.  Oddly, I cannot find evidence of the single charting anywhere else.  Kjeld died in 2011, aged 45.

 

 

Number 146 "Keep It to Yourself" by Paul Kelly and The Messengers

Peak: number 146

Peak date: 10 June 1991

Weeks in top 150: 1 week

Top 150 chart run: 146

Weeks on chart: 4 weeks

We last saw Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly, with his then backing band The Messengers, in March 1991.  Here he is again, his fourth appearance in the 101-150 region of the ARIA singles chart in the space of twenty months.  While Paul might have snagged airplay and critical acclaim, commercial success usually eluded him on the Australian singles chart.

"Keep It to Yourself" was the second single lifted from the album Comedy (number 12, May 1991).  The single was most popular in Western Australia, where it reached number 121.

We shall next see Paul Kelly and The Messengers in October 1991.

 

 

 

Bubbling WAY down under:

 

Number 176 "What Is This Thing Called Love?" by Alexander O'Neal

Peak: number 176

Peak date: 10 June 1991

Weeks on chart: 1 week

 

American singer Alexander O'Neal last joined us in March 1991.  "What Is This Thing Called Love?" was the second and final single released in Australia from Alex's All True Man (number 108, April 1991) album.

 

Internationally, "What Is This Thing Called Love?" peaked at number 53 in the UK in March 1991, and number 81 in the Netherlands in April 1991.

 

Within Australia, "What Is This Thing Called Love?" performed strongest on the New South Wales/Australian Capital Territory state chart, where it reached number 160.

 

I hadn't heard this one before, but enjoyed it.  I think with a greater promotional push, Alex could have landed some commercial success in Australia during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

 

Alex will pay us another visit in 1997.  Before then, he placed another two albums on the ARIA albums chart: the compilation This Thing Called Love (number 214, July 1992), which took its name from this song despite it not being one of Alex's bigger hits, and Alex's next studio album Love Makes No Sense (number 192, April 1993), from which no singles charted in Australia.

 

 

Number 184 "Stop Myself"/"Godbless" by Died Pretty

Peak: number 163

Peak date: 5 August 1991

Weeks on chart: 6 weeks

 

Oh joy.  A double A-side single (which means I have to listen to two tracks) from a band I don't really care for: Australia's Died Pretty.  Alright, after listening to both tracks, they are not that bad; they're just not something I would intentionally seek out.  "Stop Myself" is my pick of the two.

 

We last saw Died Pretty in March 1990.  "Stop Myself" and "Godbless" were both lifted from the band's fourth studio album Doughboy Hollow (number 24, September 1991).  The single was most successful in Western Australia, where it reached number 126.

We will next see Died Pretty in September 1991.

Number 187 "Ruby Tuesday" (live) by The Rolling Stones

Peak: number 157

Peak date: 17 June 1991

Weeks on chart: 2 weeks

If I'm being brutally honest, I find it difficult to think of The Rolling Stones without thinking of how much Mick Jagger resembles The Joker from Batman, in my mind.  Why has he never played the role?!  OK, that aside and onto their music, we last saw British rock fossils The Rolling Stones in April 1990.

 

This live rendition of The Stones' 1967 song, recorded in Japan in 1990, appeared on their Flashpoint (number 12, April 1991) album.  It followed the single "Highwire" (number 54, April 1991), which was one of two new studio recordings included on the otherwise live album.

 

Internationally, this release of "Ruby Tuesday" peaked at number 59 in the UK in June 1991, number 34 in the Netherlands in July 1991, and number 27 in Switzerland in July 1991.  The original 1967 studio version of "Ruby Tuesday" peaked at number 1 in the US in March 1967, and number 6 in Ireland.

 

Domestically, this live version of "Ruby Tuesday" peaked highest on the Victoria/Tasmania state chart, where it reached number 141.

 

We shall next see The Rolling Stones in July 1991. 

Number 190 "Sing Your Life" by Morrissey

Peak: number 190

Peak date: 10 June 1991

Weeks on chart: 1 week

English singer-songwriter Steven Morrissey last joined us in March 1991.  "Sing Your Life" was the second single lifted from Moz's second solo studio album Kill Uncle (number 45, March 1991).  With this track, Morrissey makes his fifth appearance in the 101-150 region of the ARIA singles chart, in the space of just under two years.

 

"Sing Your Life" found greater success in Moz's native UK, where it peaked at number 33 in April 1991, although it was his lowest-peaking solo single there to date.  "Sing Your Life" did even better in Ireland, where it reached number 21 in April 1991.

 

Within Australia, "Sing Your Life" was most popular in Western Australia, where it reached number 156.

 

While I enjoy some singles by Morrissey and The Smiths, I am only a casual fan at best, and I hadn't actually heard this one before.  I liked it and would listen to it again.

One thing I have in common with Morrissey, which I didn't realise until now (the age when he started), is that we have both been vegetarians since age 11!  Well, kind of, for me, since I still ate chicken (I never cared for fish) until I was 15... and then once had a little bit of chicken fillet 'to be polite' at my grandparents' when I was 16.  Not eating meat for me is primarily a taste/texture issue - I find the taste and texture revolting.

 

Morrissey will next join us in November 1991.

 

Next week (17 June): A whopping nine new top 150 debuts and two bubbling WAY down under entries.

 

< Previous week: 3 June 1991                                                    Next week: 17 June 1991 >

Week commencing 2 April 1990

This week, there are four new singles debuting and peaking within the number 101-150 region of the chart, and one bubbling WAY down under entry for me to write about.  Given that I can't find a common thread among them, let's jump straight in.

 

But before we do that, here are couple of earlier posts I have updated recently, with newly-uncovered bubbling WAY down under entries:

 

* 6 November 1989 - with a new bubbling WAY down under entry from Exposé; 

* 29 January 1990 - with a new bubbling WAY down under entry from Liza Minnelli.

 

Tim Finn comes... not even close to making the top 100 this week.

 

 

Top 150 debuts:

 

Number 124 "Not Even Close" by Tim Finn

Peak: number 124

Peak dates: 2 April 1990 and 9 April 1990

Weeks in top 150: 5 weeks

Chart run: 155-124-124-128-129-137

Weeks on chart: 6 weeks

 

Coming not even close (ho ho ho... that pun was begging to be made) to making the top 100, ex-Split Enz band member Tim Finn's latest single, "Not Even Close", was the third release from his third album, Tim Finn (number 47, May 1989).  It followed "How'm I Gonna Sleep" (number 27, May 1989) and "Crescendo" (number 120, July 1989).  Tim's biggest solo success in Australia was his debut solo single, "Fraction Too Much Friction" (number 8, July 1983).

Tim would go on to join Crowded House for their third album, Woodface (number 2, July 1991), though only stuck around long enough for the first three of the five singles lifted from the album.  Following this, Tim returned to his solo career, and would again score top 100 success in 1993.

Tim will bubble under again in 1993, and would continue to score occasional bubbling under 'hits' until 2006.

 

 

 

Number 143 "I Feel Love" by Fan Club

Peak: number 105

Peak date: 14 May 1990

Weeks in top 150: 9 weeks

Top 150 chart run: 143-114-110-111-116-107-105-117-126

 

Not a Donna Summer cover version, "I Feel Love" was an original track from New Zealand band Fan Club (no 'the').  "I Feel Love" was the first release from their second album, Respect the Beat (number 139, September 1990), and peaked at number 8 in the band's native New Zealand in November 1989, becoming their biggest hit there by one place.

"I Feel Love" was Fan Club's second single released in Australia, following the title track from their debut album Sensation in June 1988.  The "Sensation" single was also re-issued locally in August 1989, but missed the top 150.

 

"I Feel Love" would become the only Fan Club single to dent the top 150 in Australia.

 

 

 

Number 147 "Almost Hear You Sigh" by The Rolling Stones

Peak: number 118

Peak dates: 16 April 1990 and 30 April 1990

Weeks in top 150: 8 weeks

Chart run: 160-147-137-118-126-118-119-122-133

Weeks on chart: 9 weeks

 

Now onto a band with a 'the' at the start of their name... except they seem to have dropped it from their album and single artwork during this era.  You can almost hear me sigh, right?

 

I wouldn't call myself a Stones fan, but don't mind some of their songs that I am familiar with.  "Almost Hear You Sigh" is one that I like; so, naturally, it flopped in Australia.

"Almost Hear You Sigh" was the third single lifted from the veteran British rockers' nineteenth studio album (or twenty-first American album - thanks Wikipedia!), Steel Wheels (number 7, September 1989).  It followed "Mixed Emotions" (number 25, September 1989) and "Rock and a Hard Place" (number 99, January 1990).

Going by its chart entry date in the UK, it appears that "Almost Hear You Sigh" was released in Australia some months prior to its UK release, where it peaked at number 31 in July 1990.  The single peaked at number 50 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in March 1990.

OK, as an aside, while researching this week's new entries, I stumbled upon this on the Billboard website, and had to write something about it:

Um... what the heck?  'Google's Top Hummed Songs 2020'.  Is this an April Fool's joke?  (It can't be, as I wrote this post on Monday 29 March 2021.)  And I thought Billboard/today's charts were generally meaningless.

We shall see The Rolling Stones again in 1991.

 

 

 

Number 148 "Good Things" by BoDeans

Peak: number 148

Peak date: 2 April 1990

Weeks in top 150: 1 week

Top 150 chart run: 148

 

The first I, and probably most other Australians, had heard of American band BoDeans was when their 1993 single, first released in Australia in April 1994, "Closer to Free" was used as the theme for the TV drama Party of Five.  It became a belated number 11 hit here in September 1996, as a result.  But, a decade prior to that, BoDeans scored their first chart 'hit' in Australia, with "Fadeaway" (number 76, September 1986), which I like a lot more.  The group also landed another top 100 single in Australia in 1988 with "Only Love" (number 95, April 1988).

"Good Things", which isn't even listed on their Wikipedia discography, was lifted from the band's fourth album, Black and White (number 101, August 1991), which was not released until 1991.  "Good Things" does not appear to have charted in any other country.

 

 

 

Bubbling WAY down under:

 

Number 171 "Shine On" by The House of Love

Peak: number 171

Peak date: 2 April 1990

Weeks on chart: 1 week

 

At the time of writing this post, number 171 is the lowest ARIA chart peak - or position, for that matter - I have from 1990.  Given that I have (again, at the time of writing this) 19 singles from 1989 that debuted at number 170 or lower, with the lowest of those being number 181, my impression is that the ARIA singles chart generally did not extend as low during 1990 as it did in 1989.  There is even one week in November 1990 when the singles chart stops at number 140.

 

We saw The House of Love bubble WAY down under back in August 1989, and here they are in the same region of the chart again, with the third single (though apparently only the second one in Australia) from their (second album with the same title!) The House of Love album (number 134, May 1990).

"Shine On" performed much better in the band's native UK, where it peaked at number 20 in February 1990, becoming their biggest hit.

 

Locally, "Shine On" performed strongest in Western Australia, where it reached number 135 on the state chart.

I caught the video for "Shine On" on Video Smash Hits once, at the time, and its catchy "she-she-she shine on" chorus stuck with me.  Something I didn't know until now is that the band released an earlier version of this track in 1987.

The House of Love would not trouble the ARIA singles chart again after this, although they had a couple of top 250 (!) albums in 1992 and 1993.

 

 

Next week (9 April): Seven top 150 debuts, and one bubbling WAY down under entry.  Among them we have the final single from an almost three year-old album (and no, it's not one of the Jacksons).  You can also follow my posts on instagram, facebook and twitter.

 

< Previous week: 26 March 1990                                          Next week: 9 April 1990 >