1991 One Year Wonders (part 2)

And now the follow up to our 1991 One Year Wonders. You need to start downloading right now, as this would make a hella-deck album by itself. If you feel so overcome with gratitude that you want to donate to the Institute, I guess that’s okay.

THE TOP TEN ONE YEAR WONDERS OF 1991 (10-1)

#10 Enigma (Sadness, Part 1) – Before there was Enya, these dudes rocked the “mystical but danceable” genre. Hard Core. I think they even had Gregorian Chant. Those of you who’ve read my script: this is the kind of music that would happen in the club scene.

#9 Timmy T (One More Try) – I can vividly remember this song ending every prom I went to that year. It was sad, touching, and seemed so romantic. Okay, it’s a bit cheesy now, but can still pull the heartstrings.

#8 Naughty By Nature (O.P.P.) – It’s hard to believe now they got away with this. Master stroke using the acronym and relying on old white people not understanding hip hop.

#7 Deee-Lite (Grove Is In The Heart) – Seriously: the more you look at 1991; we could dance for the rest of our lives on that year alone. This song had the best groove of the decade. I defy even the whitest of whiteys to not tap their foot.

#6 EMF (Unbelievable) – Were we just dancing fools back then? Since I have nothing else to add about this song, I’ll relate the following fact: I used to create such a frenzy at dances that I used to take 4-6 shirts to change into during the evening. Sad but true.

#5 Chris Issak (Wicked Game) – I refused to admit that the unbelievably smoking hot girl in the video (Helena Christensen?) influenced my thinking. This is just a great song, sexy and romantic. Oddly, Issak never again threatened the pop charts, but he did get some sort of show on Showtime. I watched five minutes of it here or there because I heard there was nudity, but sadly, found none.

#4 Jesus Jones (Right Here Right Now) – Koz swears they made more albums, even good ones, but nobody cares. I wonder if when they made this song they realized it would be played on 40% of all commercials in the 2000s. Oh well. Better than starving.

#3 Suzanne Vega (Tom’s Diner) – For you young punks, Suzanne Vega is like Dido, if she’d given up and embraced and embraced heroin. Just Kidding. Seriously: has their ever been a song simultaneously this catchy and annoying? (Don’t answer that, or I’ll have another top ten list on my hands). Admit it, you’re humming that opening theme in your head right now. To help you drive your co-workers batty, here are the lyrics so you can sing it to them all day long.

#2 Extreme (Hole-Hearted, More Than Words) – Hole Hearted came first, but it’s More Than Words we’ll remember. Talk about your power ballad. Sniff sniff. Incidentally, I was talking to Scapedragon the other day about Extreme, and she remembered their album was called Pornograffiti. (This both impressed me to no end and caused me to mock her as a hair-band groupie.) The title was pronounced porno-graffiti, but now that I think about it, how much do you wanna bet it was supposed to be more like pornography, but clever? Sadly, they’re gone now, but the song lives on.

And the number 1 One Year Wonder from 1991….

#1 Vanilla Ice (Ice Ice Baby, Play That Funky Music, White Boy) – You can ask anyone who knew me at the time, I was suspicious from day one, but even I have to admit he was a force to be reckon with. He came on as big as Eminem did later in the decade. The only difference: Eminem actually had talent, and stuck around. I’m not really blaming ‘Nilla (as those of us in the hood called him): back then it was all about the pre-packaged glam (the year before gave us Milli Vanilli. The similar word should have been a tip off). When it was revealed ‘Nilla wasn’t as hard as he seemed fans abandoned him in droves. But C’mon! True fans of rap (as I was) never bought into him from the start. What happened was that white America loved rap, and here was someone that looked like them! (More or less.) Weird side note: people like my sister missed the whole betrayal of hard-core thug life, so when Vanilla Ice came to play at her college she and her friends were just thrilled to get to see him. Weird how it all comes around, eh? As for me and my house, I’ll be playin’ the funky music….’til I die.

Up next: More music, if I can talk Koz into doing one for me, so I can get Friday’s stuff ready. Hope you enjoyed these.