Musical Memories – 12 December 1990.

It’s time to go back again and look at another classic top 100 singles chart. This time the date picked at random is 12 December 1990. Let’s find out what the hottest hits were in this week.

1 (non-mover) “Ice Ice Baby” – Vanilla Ice. This was one of the biggest hits of 1990. I wasn’t really a huge fan of it but it was remarkable just how successful this song was at the time.

6 (down 3) “Unbelievable” – EMF. The biggest hit for this band, “Unbelievable” even went on to be a chart-topping success in America. 

15 (up 14) “Just This Side Of Love” – Malandra Burrows. I don’t remember this song but there is a curious fact about it – this was a song by an actress who was in Emmerdale at the time, and it was released on the Yorkshire Television label. So my question is, is this the only UK hit single to have been released by an ITV regional company? I can’t think of any others.

17 (up 1) “Sucker DJ” – Dimples D. One thing that I know and really like about this song is that it samples the theme from the 1960s American sitcom I Dream Of Jeannie, and it’s really great.

21 (down 5) “My Definition Of A Boombastic Jazz Style” – Dream Warriors. Another great one, this one remains in my mind because I seem to remember it being played very regularly on the radio at the time for some reason.

25 (up 2) “24 Hours” – Betty Boo. Ooooh Betty! Betty was definitely one of my favourite pop stars for this era and it was always great seeing her in the chart, although she didn’t have many more hits after this. She has gone on to being a successful songwriter though. 

41 (down 7) “A Little Time” – The Beautiful South. The only chart-topper for this group who have had lots of great hits over the years, but it was really great seeing them there with this classic, even if it was for just one week.

51 (down 18) “Take My Breath Away” – Berlin. It’s back! A chart-topping single for this group in 1986, it re-entered the top ten four years later and it still sounded great.

54 (down 23) “Power Of Love”/”Deee-Lite Theme” – Deee-Lite. This group were great and “Power Of Love” was another terrific song of theirs, although it wasn’t as successful or memorable as “Groove Is In The Heart”, but then, what is? 

60 (down 21) “Step Back In Time” – Kylie Minogue. Kylie just couldn’t stop having top ten hits at this time, and of the ones produced by Stock/Aitken/Waterman I would have to say that this was my favourite one. 

I am a fan of a lot of hits from 1990, I do remember this era and I can’t believe how long ago it was now. Unfortunately in this week the top 100 is rather full of re-issues of very old songs from The Righteous Brothers and the like, daft novelty records, and the wave of irritatingly naff Christmas singles is beginning to take over the chart too. There were still a few good ones around though, it’ll be interesting what’ll happen next time.