As the 1980s were about to give way to the 1990s, I found myself listening less to American Top 40…
(…I never warmed up to Shadoe Stevens…)
…and listening more instead to Open House Party:
With the self-described “wild Armenian,” John Garabedian.
Lots of songs in this set made it my ears first via Open House Party.
Both Kon Kan’s I Beg Your Pardon…
… and Rob Base and D.J. E-Z Rock’s Get on the Dance Floor made use of prominent samples.
- The former features snippets of Lynn Anderson’s Rose Garden as well as GQ’s Disco Nights (Rock Freak) and Silver Convention’s Get Up and Boogie.
- The latter uses The Jacksons’ Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground).
Other Open House Party tracks included:
The Belle Stars’ rendition of Iko Iko, made big in the U.S. on the soundtrack to the film Rain Man (it charted in England several years earlier…)
…and Animotion’s Room to Move, which came from another movie soundtrack, My Stepmother Is an Alien.
Kool and the Gang lead singer James “J.T.” Taylor teamed up with Regina Belle for All I Want Is Forever, from the soundtrack of the movie Tap. It missed the Hot 100 – but hit Number 2 R&B.
Other R&B charters included:
Former Manhattans’ lead singer Gerald Alston remaking The Eagles’ I Can’t Tell You Why (Number 52 R&B…)
Mica Paris’ My One Temptation (Number 15 R&B, Number 8 AC…)
… and Eddie Murphy’s Put Your Mouth on Me (Number 2 R&B).
(An earlier R&B hit, “Caravan of Love” by Isley/Jasper/Isley from 1985-86, is one that I played a lot in 1989 because I always thought of its instrumental track when I heard Donny Osmond’s Sacred Emotion.)
Pop/rock had its moments in 1989:
With Michael Morales’ Who Do You Give Your Love To?
As well as Roachford’s Cuddly Toy (Feel for Me),
Henry Lee Summer’s Hey Baby,
Great White’s Once Bitten, Twice Shy,
and Winger’s Headed for a Heartbreak.
The Jeff Healey Band’s Angel Eyes broke on multiple formats, peaking at Number 24 on the rock charts while going Number 7 adult contemporary.
And Number 5 pop. Martika’s Toy Soldiers didn’t do as well AC, settling for a Number 37 peak, but went all the way to Number 1 pop.
Several songs aren’t available on Spotify this go-around – so we’ll go to YouTube to hear:
- Sa-Fire’s Thinking of You:
- One 2 Many’s Downtown:
- And Mavis Staples’ 20th Century Express
Here’s the Spotify link for the rest of this set:
Which ones do you like? Hate?
Share your thoughts in the comments.
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“Put Your Mouth on Me” is perhaps the best song title ever. And definitely the worst.
I only know 2 songs here (“I Beg Your Pardon” and “Toy Soldiers”) but couldn’t think of Martika’s name.
“Iko Iko” I know, but I don’t recognize this version. I only saw Rain Man once, but I saw K-9 plenty of times, and that has a fairly similar sounding cover (at least relative to the Dixie Cups’ version) by Amy Holland.
Here’s my contribution to 80’s “Who Sings It” gems, one I recently rediscovered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYKupOsaJmk
I like “Walk the Dinosaur” but since I highlighted their “Spy in the House of Love” last time, left it alone — one per artist (except if an artist is solo and part of a group/duo, too …).
I knew “Once Bitten Twice Shy” by the title, but not sure how well I know the actual song, listening to it now. I think I heard that cover of “Rose Garden”.
And that’s about it. I was pretty immersed in CCM at this point and unconnected from just about everything else. It shows.
I was fully immersed in alternative radio at the time but I’m still surprised how few of these I’ve heard. Most of the rest of this playlist ring no bells at all. Kon-Kan? Sa-Fire? One 2 Many? I’ll have to look them up. Thanks for expanding my horizons, Chuck!
The exceptions are “Angel Eyes,” which was everywhere, and “Toy Soldiers,” which wasn’t far behind. I preferred Ian Hunter’s original version of “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” and had a reluctance to like hair metal band covers of the glam rock I grew up on. Quiet Riot having two hits with Slade covers was a little disappointing. I’m glad they and the other late-80s bands brought attention to some great 70s songs by covering them, but I don’t think many fans even knew they were covers or bothered, in the pre-Internet days, to go find the originals.
Kon Kan’s Move to Move album is great. Sample-heavy synth pop that’s not afraid to have fun across genres.
My favorite song of theirs starts off like classic Latin freestyle, then it changes key and suddenly it’s a New Order song. Topped off with some Grandmaster Flash and Blondie samples for good measure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvxECxwswaY
If I remember right, @thegue is a fan of Sa-Fire, or at least of “Thinking of You.”
This batch of songs make it easy to see why the world was ready for grunge to sweep everything away and start fresh.
Still, 1989 wasn’t all bad…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWsRz3TJDEY
No fellow Brits that I’ve never heard of for once. Though in general I’m drawing a blank.
Kon Kan / Belle Stars / Martika / Mica Paris / Roachford are the only efforts I know.
Belle Stars version of Iko Iko isn’t as good as Dixie Cups and isn’t a patch on their biggest UK hit; Sign Of The Times – which as Wikipedia correctly states is not to be confused with Sign O’ The Times. Or Harry Styles Sign Of The Times. Or the ones by Bryan Ferry / Madness / Slade / Queensryche / Cee Lo Green / Petula Clark / Grandmaster Flash. Popular title.
https://youtu.be/lyV-GWhvZoY?feature=shared
Ah, the inclusion of Henry Lee Summer showing your Hoosier-centric roots. I heard a lot of him in the mid-late 80s. Q95 played “Time for Big Fun” a lot, but it was on a local/regional release before he went national, and I see I can’t even find the studio version of that song on youtube.
I was surprised that I knew 8 of these again…but some only barely.
My (re)discovery of the day is “Downtown” by One 2 Many. I don’t think I’ve heard that for ages, but I definitely remember the chorus (and I love that chorus). Amazingly, Tom in the adjacent cube (who really knows late 80s and 90s) isn’t sure that he remembers that one.
Thanks for the list!
Yeah, “Downtown’s” bridge sounds as Hornsby-esque as can be, and I love it.
My Stepmother is an Alien was so deserving of a reevaluation. Kim Basinger, so underrated. Arrow released it in 2021.
I hope Mavis Staples has one more album in her. Nick Cave wrote an original song for her. I don’t think he’d do that for just anybody.