The History of Pop part 28 aka A Body Like Arnold with a Denzel face

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

A slip of the fingers means this poll was briefly published CONTEXT-FREE but here we go, it's 1994, Wet Wet Wet spend 15 cruel weeks at the top of the charts and the first stirrings of Britpop turn up on Now, playing second fiddle to Stiltskin.

Fans of the Mad Stuntman will be gutted by his one-vote loss to Ace Of Base's "The Sign" - both acts return on this compilation. The general consensus on the Smashing Pumpkins is "not very good at all", with a small but vocal minority arguing for "good, actually".

And that's about all I can say - over to you!


[Poll #683198]

Comments

[juror8.livejournal.com]

I get the feeling I may be alone in voting for Stiltskin. They were Avwil/Kelly Clarkson seven/ten years before she was!

[catsgomiaow.livejournal.com]

Heh I voted for them too! :)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The Ace of Base tune was in a book of the 100 most important songs of the 20th century!

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Shurely it's Aswad that made Don't Turn Around though?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I'm sure the Toni Braxton song was called 'Another Sad Love Song'! That's how it went anyway. Toni Braxton is quite classic generally, I think.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Lex is correct.

"It's just another sad love song, racking my brane, like craaaazy"

or similar

[mostlyconnect.livejournal.com]

This was the first album I ever owned!

[catsgomiaow.livejournal.com]

Me & boyofbadgers clearly ex-readers of SMASH HITS. "Ver Wets" indeed...

[juror8.livejournal.com]

Dawn Penn- You Don't Love Me (No No No): surely the only song ever to appear on both a Now That's What I Call Music! and a Soul Jazz compilation (200% Dynamite, fact fans)?

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

...and/or Nice Up The Dance!

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Were Blur even more despicable than the Beautiful South?

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

i don't find either despicable.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

No recollection AT ALL of Sonic Surfers.

I remember Let Loose as being much later, too.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Me neither/me too (even though I owned this!).

Both boy band songs here ('I Swear' and 'Crazy For You') are better than the entire collected works of Take That.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The Dawn Penn vote is shaping up to be a great Poptimists tragedy :(

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

I honestly have no recollection of that track at all. First year at uni syndrome kicking in bigstyle now.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

fewest ticks from me ever

what a piss poor NOW

i am incensed by The Mad Stuntman's defeat in the previous round.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

LIES. This is my favourite ever Now, signifying summer '94 (with its orange-gold cover art and continued summer-ov-reggae hitX0r) and thus happiness.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i think this could be the lowest average vote ever, only four songs in double figures after c. 15 votes...

attn CARSMILE

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Good work on the damon question, doing your duty there.

Re: attn CARSMILE

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

There's No Other Way >>>>> Popscene

Further INJUSTICE

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Maxx - Get-A-Way - 33%????? This is EASILY as good as "Mr Vain", "Rhythm Is A Dancer" etc etc.

Re: Further INJUSTICE

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i'm not sure which one this is...

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

woah I'm sure I ticked Dawn Penn but it doesn't seem to have picked it up. How can I go back and change my ticks?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Click on the direct link to the poll then go to 'fill out poll'

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

TBH I hardly recognise any of these, so I just ticked all of CD2 and none of the others. Must have been when I was at Uni and not listening to that there !P!o!P! music, on a steady diet of Tindersticks and Go-Betweens.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

1. I never realised 2 Unlimited released so many singles! They must be nipping at UB40's heels by now, if still well behind Mr P. Collins of Switzerland.

2. What's the poptimist view of M People? I thought Movin' On Up and Renaissance were both pretty good singles. I probably still spat blood at the time when they won the Mercury tho. But how does history view this event? Was it a triumph of pop over the rockists or just a perverse decision by Frith & co.?

3. I own 3 of these songs.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

1. I think they - cannily - made sure pretty much everything they released landed on a Now.

2. I am with you on Movin On Up and particularly Renaissance which is a fine record. At the time of the Mercury I was at uni and there was uproar, I seem to recall that I took a contrarian view cos it was fun, but no doubt I thought Pulp or whoever should have won really. Was this the year Luke Haines got annoyed? I think Frith liked the idea of giving the prize to something that was pop, aspirational, black, feminine etc etc - you can totally see WHY they won.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

I ticked very few. Among the many I didn't tick was Sweets For My Sweet, despite sort of knowing the main female singer on that - a pal of my then-wife who had made a small fortune (like paying her mortgage off) being Boyzone's backing vocalist. "Fucking wankers" was her opinion of the boys.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The next Now is an ABSOLUTE CLASSIC, incidentally.

[dorsalstop.livejournal.com]

You think? Celine Dion, Monster-era REM, "Mmm mmm mmm", and "Zombie".
Sounds DUDley DUD to me and not 10x Whigfields could save it.
But that's for next week.

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

Marcella Detroit is so being robbed here. Maybe if she'd called it "Give A Little Bit Of Love" instead, people would REMEMBER and RECOGNISE. Salt N Pepa should win. Ace of Base's "Don't Turn Around" shits on Aswad's.

Marcella:

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeooooooooooorrweeeeeeeeeeeeeehoooooooooooiiii

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Voting explanation: I've voted for not only stuff I like now, but stuff I BOUGHT on CASSINGLE at the time (China Black, The Grid, M People, Stiltskin) and CURSED myself when I realised they wz on this Now. I remember being ANGRY at my Dad for wanting to hear the BBC GLR traffic report in the car which interrupted Radio1 chart countdown ft Dawn Penn (ACE, and Real Name: Dawn Pickering). Said single Broke Records (probably) by only being released on the THURSDAY and managing to get to no 3 in the charts by SUNDAY. Well done Dawn!