29th September 1990 for four weeks

Show Me Heaven is power ballad heaven. It is a truly sensational song and Maria McKee absolutely belts it out.

I can remember that it was a song from a movie but have only just realised that it was from Days Of Thunder, a film I’ve never seen.

The song was huge at the time and it just became one of those classic songs almost as soon as it was out.

I wonder what became of Maria McKee?

9/10

15th September 1990 for two weeks

In 1990 we were still years away from the ability to fast forward through adverts. I don’t watch any adverts on TV now, if I can avoid it. 33 years ago we had to sit through them all, and this is what led to a song from 1973 reaching Number One.

The Joker was used as the soundtrack to an advert for Levi’s jeans. I don’t remember the advert. But I do remember the song. I quite liked it. It felt a bit grown up – it talked about smoking and that was edgy. I can remember that it beat Deee-Lite’s Groove Is In The Heart to the top (more on that in a moment) and that was definitely a good thing because I hated Groove Is In The Heart. 

Over the years I grew to like the song more. It feels an unlikely song to reach the top somehow. That advert must have been brilliant! Levi’s adverts were responsible for a few more songs to reach Number 1. We’ll come to them over time…

Apparently The Joker beat Groove Is In The Heart to the top on a technicality. They both had the same sales! That is incredibly unlikely, you would think, but back in 1990 a lot of estimating was used to calculate single sales. Joker made it to the top because they increased their sales more to get to the top, which meant that Groove Is In The Heart was at Number 2.

Ironically, I now consider Groove Is In The Heart to be a fantastic song! It is a disgrace that it never reached the top as it is brilliant, sounding just as good 33 years later.

7/10

25th August 1990 for three weeks

The next kid-friendly song to top the charts in the summer of 1990 was led by Timmy Mallett, the Wackaday TV presenter who all children loved. Yes, the star of Mallett’s Mallett and other hilarious (I say that without sarcasm) kids’ TV teamed up with Andrew Lloyd Webber (!) to produce a great pop song.

Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini is apparently a song from the Sixties originally that had been popular in other languages. Wikipedia pretty much describes that the song was produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber for a laugh and that, apparently, Mallett didn’t actually sing on the song.

I’ll be honest, I don’t care if he did sing on the song. It is fun and that’s all that it was aiming to do.

I think it still sounds alright 33 years later. They don’t make pop songs like this any more!

By the time IBTWYPDB was off the top of the charts I was at high school and my musical taste would be forced to grow up. Until this point I never really understood that other people would disagree with you about whether a song was good or not. Over the coming years I’d learn that liking pop music was not cool. It wasn’t till I was an adult that I stopped caring.

7/10

28th July 1990 for four weeks

Now you’re talking!

Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles was one of the best cartoons when I was a child. I loved it. I have memories of buying a TMHT t-shirt and shorts set and then being so excited to show everyone what I was wearing that I ran into a closed glass patio door rather than the open one.

The release of the Teenage Mutant NINJA Turtles movie (in the UK they didn’t use Ninja until the movie, although it was fine in America!) was exciting. When I was a young child we never went to the cinema, though, so didn’t expect to see the movie. But it was still exciting!

Partners In Kryme released Turtle Power!, a song from the soundtrack of the movie. It is awesome. It’s rare to find a song so blatantly geared at children that takes itself so seriously. It sounds far more grown up than it should. Partners In Kryme showed no signs that this song was for kids.

In my opinion Turtle Power! still sounds amazing, although there is absolutely no way that it would be played on the radio in 2023.

It was Number 1 thoughout the summer holidays of 1990. This would be a summer of hits geared towards children as the next song is also very silly. The rest of the year was more musically sensible, a reminder that I started high school in 1990, so had to do lots of growing up.

7/10

23rd June 1990 for five weeks

I did not appreciate this song when I was a child. I had absolutely no idea how good it was. Sacrifice is a sensational pop record that I had no affection for when it was out. I don’t think I’d heard of Elton John at the time; he wore a funny hat in the video; it was more downbeat compared to the last few songs at Number 1 – all reasons why I think I just didn’t get it, or at least try.

As I grew older I understood it. Sacrifice is a moving, powerful pop song that is an absolute diamond of a record.

I have literally just heard Healing Hands as I typed the above. It’s quite good! 33 years after it came out, I’m still discovering good Elton John songs.

Sacrifice, if anything, has improved with age. It’s a stop and listen song, in the same way as Nothing Compares 2 U earlier in 1990.

This is the first time we are meeting Elton John on the chart, although he did reach the top in 1976, before I was born. We will meet him again…

10/10

9th June 1990 for two weeks

We arrive at one of the best football songs ever!

Don’t ask me why but there was a time when every time England qualified for a major tournament that a song would have to be released to celebrate this. This was often replicated with football teams as well, although only one will ever reach Number 1.

New Order wrote World In Motion and the England stars also sang on the release, notably John Barnes who coolly rapped in the song. 

World In Motion is fantastic! It is a genuinely great song as well as being a great celebration of football. We’ll meet other football songs later on this blog, but WIM is the only one that genuinely has a sense of being cool as well as having a novelty factor.

Despite their brilliance, New Order only ever had one Number 1 and this was it!

In the 2000s, the song had a mini-revival after it was included in a hilarious scene in BBC sitcom, Gavin & Stacey.

8/10

12th May 1990 for four weeks

And another dance record reached the top. And it’s another classic.

The beat from Adamski’s Killer is instantly recognisable. It is utterly brilliant.

And of course the vocals are instantly recognisable too. Seal recorded the vocals, although I believe he was uncredited, and his voice is amazing. This was his only song to reach Number 1 but he enjoyed huge global success throughout his career.

I have a recollection that Seal re-released Killer a few years later, but I don’t know recall what made it different.

Killer has been covered a few times, including by George Michael (a mash up with Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone) in 1993 and dance artist ATB in 1999. But nothing could ever beat Adamski and Seal’s version.

It has aged well – it sounds incredible when it’s played loud.

8/10

14th April 1990 for four weeks

The Nineties gave Madonna a slight change in direction. During the Eighties she created pop music. In the Nineties she wanted to experiment and shock.

Vogue was her first Number 1 of the decade. It followed on from The Power, and was also a dance tune. It still sounds great.

I can remember that there was some sort of dance which I never understood.

I don’t think I liked Vogue when I was younger, for some reason. I can remember liking it when it came on in a club during my going out days.

33 years later and the song still sounds fantastic and even better if you play it loud.

7/10

31st March 1990 for two weeks

Snap!’s first Number 1 came from their debut release, The Power. The German dance group would go on to release some brilliant songs, but this was the one that catapulted them to stardom.

The Power is a great dance tune. The evolution of dance music was becoming clear. Earlier dance tunes had got to the top with massive amounts of sampling. Songs like 19 and Pump Up The Volume, to me at least, had no cohesion. They were just a series of samples mashed together. Ride On Time in 1989 and then The Power in 1990 both used samples but there was a decent tune, decent beat and excellent production around the sample. Dance music was beginning to be taken seriously.

I can remember hearing The Power everywhere when I was 11. It was huge. It still sounds great now, but it doesn’t stand out quite the same now as it did on its release.

8/10

4th March 1990 for four weeks

What a song!

I absolutely loved this song. It sounded very different to anything else I had heard before. I adored the rap and my friends and I would rap this song together: “Tank fly boss walk jam nitty gritty you’re listening to the boy from the big bad city, this is jam hot, this is jam hot.”

I love the shuffling beat and the vocal from Lindy Layton. It was pop dance perfection. In my opinion it has aged well and still sounds great but I don’t think you hear it much.

I did not know it at the time but it was produced by Norman Cook, someone who I loved and would grow up to regard as a musical hero. We will hear much more about him in the future!

One of my favourite songs ever!

10/10