When you think of the music of the 90’s you normally think of Grunge, Gangsta Rap, and Nu-Metal. However, the decade started as a late 80’s backwash of Hair Metal and Kenny G saxophone solos.
The year 1990 is considered to be a transformative year in music as it was a cross-road year before the breakthrough of grunge (Nirvana’s landmark album Nevermind wasn’t released until September of 1991.) and Gangster Rap (Dr. Dre’s The Chronic album didn’t release until December of 1992.) leading to a year with no definitive musical identity.
The year’s biggest-selling releases were by the one-hit wonders MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice. While both of these acts helped Hip-Hop reach a new level of commercial dominance, these albums and artists have become a punchline in the overall history of popular music.
The year was also dominated by musical trends such as New Jack Swing, Soft Rock, Hair Metal, and Boy bands with artists such as Phil Collins, New Kids on the Block, and Poison dominating the charts.
The Year End list has a lot of songs that have been forgotten by modern listeners. The Year however was also a launch year for artists such as Mariah Carey and genres such as Alternative Rock. Alternative Rock scored its first real top 100 hits from SÃnead O’Connor and Faith No More.
This list will rank the ten worst songs that peaked at number one on the Billboard Top 100 from best to worst. These hits were ranked based on memorability and musical appeal.
10. “I Don’t Have the Heart” by James Ingram. Peaked at number one on October 20th, 1990
“I Don’t Have the Heart” was written by songwriting team Jud Friedman and Allan Rich for R&B singer James Ingram. Jud Friedman and Alan Rich would later write hits for Whitney Houston and Kenny Loggins but “I Don’t Have the Heart” was their first mainstream success while being James Ingram’s only number one as a solo artist. The song also earned Ingram a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance losing to a rerelease of the Roy Orbison classic 1964 hit “Oh, Pretty Woman.”
The song’s tempo is slow with a lush orchestral arrangement featuring a full string section. Ingram’s voice is reminiscent of soft R&B Ballardeers Lionel Richie and Luther Vandross. The song’s production is flat as the instrumentation feels lifeless outside the string section. The piano parts are basic chord structures mostly focused on the roots of A minor and Major G. Ingrams’ voice saves the song as his powerful falsetto comes into the fold during the bridge section at 2:43. Around the 3:50 is when it starts to finally find its groove with an explosive guitar solo that blends into Ingram’s repetition of the song’s title.
The theme is about a faded relationship with Ingram not having the heart (no pun intended) to see beyond the surface-level attraction of the love interest.
9. “Opposites Attract” by Paula Abdul with The Wild Pair. Peaked at #1 February 10th 1990
“Opposites Attract” was written and produced by Oliver Leiber for Paula Abdul’s 1988 debut album “Forever Your Girl.” The song features a collaboration with Abdul and The Wild Pair. The Wild Pair was a stage name for voice actors Marv Gunn and Bruce DeShazer. The song was the final single from the “Forever Your Girl” era and peaked at number one on the Billboard Top 100 in 1990.
The song’s music video is done in an animation live-action hybrid and was inspired by the dancing scene from “Anchors Aweigh” where actor Gene Kelly dances with Jerry from Tom & Jerry.
The song’s theme is attraction though the other party has nothing in common. Paula Abdul and Skat Kat like each other even though one is a human and the other is a kat. The theme makes the song laughable and goofy. The song’s instrumentation is just as goofy and comes off as a parody of the Minneapolis funk scene that gave birth to Prince & The Revolution.
The Rapping is a parody that at least makes the song memorable. The production is dated with casio synths and electronic drums. The synth lines especially at the 0.30-second mark sound like a Sega Genesis game trying to boot up.
The song’s hook is a comedy routine with the back-and-forth between Paula and Skat Kat. This song launched Paula Abdul’s career which is very thin and hardly memorable, her career as an American Idol judge and as a TV personality makes the song a time capsule of early 90’s culture.
The song’s charting placement is also an important milestone in popular music history as the song was one of the first collaborations between pop music and rap to chart at number one. Artists in the 00’s such as Jenifer Lopez and Mariah Carey would do this with hire profile rappers such as LL Cool J and Busta Rhymes but Abdul was the first to make this chart to number one.
In 1989, Jody Watley would do a pop rap crossover single with Rapper Rakim (of the duo Eric B & Rakim). The single “Friends” is a much better use of rapping in a pop song but I didn’t get higher than number 9, while Paula Abdul’s collaboration with a cartoon cat went to the number one spot. This proves that rap before A Tribe Called Quest and Ice Cube was seen as a joke to the mainstream audience who wanted cartoon parodies of hip-hop such as MC Hammer. This gave the genre a bit of a comedic and often mocked impression of the mainstream in the early 1990s.
8. “Love Will Lead You Back.” – Taylor Dayne.
Number One April 7th, 1990.
“Love Will Lead You Back.” is the second single from Dayne’s album “Can’t Fight Fate” and was written by Diane Warren (also written hits for Cher & Aerosmith).
Taylor Dayne is a pop singer with a limited persona outside her wild 80’s lion mane. Her style of pop was born out of the New York dance-pop scene and while her style of dance-pop is wildly more interesting than her biggest hits it was her biggest sappy ballads that made her a pop star. The song doesn’t feel distinct to Taylor Dayne as a singer rather it could’ve been a hit for any of 1990’s biggest artists such as Poison or Michael Bolton.
“Love Will Lead You Back.” is a template song for a style of blue-eyed soul ballads that dominated the upper half of the top 100. The song feels like a scrapped Whitney Houston demo due to Dayne’s abrasive vocals that sound like a parody of R&B Belters of the era. The song’s aesthetics seem to be forced on Dayne as this isn’t a style she feels comfortable with, however, the production and instrumentals are decent without an overreliance on Casio keyboards instead they play more as an application of the song’s organic instrumentation. The song’s lyrics are a bit cliche but Dayne gives them a cadence to make them sound at least somewhat inspired though they still have the energy of a Hallmark greeting card.
7. “I’ll Be Your Everything”- Tommy Page
Peaked at number 1 on April 14th, 1990.
Tommy Page was a forgotten early 90’s teen idol who was marketed as an everyman for the ladies with hits on the pop charts and a foot in adult contemporary. The song was written for Tommy Page by two members of the boy band New Kids on the Block (Daniel Wood & Jordan Knight) in collaboration with Tommy Page. Tommy Page getting help from the biggest band in the world for that year was his golden ticket to pop stardom. Page’s career is much like a Simpson’s joke of an artist who only got signed to a major label due to having a huge hit in the Asian market.
The song is a tired old cliche of a manufactured teen pop star, writing sappy love ballads with little to no substance. The vocal inflections of Page feel like he was the runner-up on American Idol with another cheesy synth line the running theme of the 1990 Top 100.
The chorus repeating Page being your everything is equally cheesy and creepy, creating a song that feels like the back pages of a middle school diary.
The song is not memorable but The Rain of Tommy Page has been written in the music history books as a one-hit wonder. The song itself has a unique trait to it being that each of the New Kids on the Block performed and sang on it giving the song a bit of a Philly Soul aesthetic with the background vocals. The biggest problem with the song besides being cheesy, is that Page can’t sing the high notes the song requires leading to a dull performance with dull production overlaid on top of it. Leading to a forgettable though completely harmless number one.
6. “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You”- Michael Bolton. Peaked at #1 January 20th 1990
Michael Bolton’s 1990 soft rock hit “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You”, is a cover of a Laura Branigan hit from 1983. The Laura Branigan version only peaked at number 12, however, Michael Bolton took the adult contemporary song to number one on the pop charts seven years later.
This single was the turning point in Bolton’s career taking him from a popular songwriter to a global pop sensation winning him a Grammy in the process for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
Michael Bolton’s music always felt like a poor man’s Peter Cetera (Chicago frontman) with a similar nasally vocal tone and the pillowiest soft rock backing tracks. But Chicago started as a horn rock band similar to Blood, Sweat & Tears or Booker T. & The M.G.’s before losing all credibility. Michael Bolton became the poster child for Divorced Dad Rock and never gained any credibility.
The song starts with the same cheesy and dated Casio synth lines that were all over the place in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Michael Bolton’s voice is a gravely and nasally tone which does work for this type of soft rock however it doesn’t allow him to show any real emotions other than whining. The song doesn’t start to come to life until the 1:03 mark when Bolton finally lets off a bit more grift to his voice which does play with the added drums that also come in at this mark. Around the 2:50 mark, the song’s power ballad nature starts to come into play with a guitar solo which is a nice tempo change as Bolton lets out a mild scream which amps the song up. But by this mark, the song has already bore its audience with melodrama to make up for it with a decent solo and some more involved vocal inflections from Bolton showing that he has range his vocal diction is notoriously atrocious.
The song is the perfect benchmark for what rock was starting to become by the late 80’s. Overly produced and fluffy power ballads that only start rocking when the guitar solo comes into play. The song leaves a bad taste with lyrics that are so egotistical. The song’s chorus ends with the lyrics “How am I supposed to live without you, now that you have left me?” Besides being an oxymoron it’s also whiny and pathetic. The song’s synth line is a blatant rip off of the Bette Midler hit From a Distance and it doesn’t help that Bolton instead of coming off as tender or macho comes off as a middle schooler trying to write his first love note.
5. “Because I Love You (The Postman Song) by Stevie B.
Number one on December 8th, 1990.
The song was written by Warren Allen Brooks and was performed by Stevie B.
It appears on his third studio album Love & Emotion. Stevie B as a singer feels like a plastic Ken doll as he has nothing distinct about him. The lyrics, production, and tone feel like it was made using a CD from my first song program. Stevie B.’s voice is rather distinct but in the worst way possible sounding like Eric Cartman from South Park took over Michael Jackson’s place in The Jackson Five. His tone is extremely nasally making Chad Kroger of Nickelback sound like Mariah Carey. The sound production continued in the early 90’s obsessed with stock Casio sounds with flat production and robotic instrumentation.
The song’s theme feels secretly designed for the background of an ABC TGIF sitcom sad scene, so much so you can hear Danny Tanner talk to DJ about her recent breakup with Steve through the song’s laughable chorus. The song aged like milk.
4. “She Ain’t Worth It” by Glenn Medeiros with Bobby Brown.
Number one on July 21, 1990
“She Ain’t Worth It” is the first single from Glenn Medeiros’s self-titled album and features Bobby Brown from New Edition. Glenn Medeiros is the definition of a genre becoming way too bloated.
The music style of New Jack Swing gave R&B a new pulse throughout the 1980s with artists such as New Edition and Janet Jackson.
Glenn Medeiros however doesn’t do anything offensive with this musical style, but he wastes a Bobby Brown feature on a forgettable song. The song’s production is thin with a salsa-included beat that still has stock Casio synth written all over it. Bobby Brown’s rap verse is full of passion and confidence allowing Brown to deliver lines with strange lyrical context with some energy that the song needs. Medeiros is a blank stand-in of a star giving little to no life in his performance.
Medeiros’s biggest problem is he has zero presence in his hit. His voice is very confident however, his conviction gives the song no adrenaline in desperate need. Medeiros is a rare case in music as he is more a two-hit wonder than a one-hit wonder and his presence in the music industry past 1991 is non-existent. The song’s instrumentation is catchy but after repeated listens the stock Casio sounds get grading. Bobby Brown and Glenn Medeiros don’t go together well leading to a mix that is less peanut butter and jelly and more so soy sauce and vanilla ice cream.
3. “Step by Step” – New Kids on the Block.
Number one on June 30, 1990.
“Step by Step” is the single from New Kids on the Block’s album of the same name and became the group’s biggest-selling single a cover of Maurice Starr’s other group The Superiors 1987 song.
By 1990 New Kids on the Block was music’s biggest name and while this song is a cover of an already 4-year-old song it didn’t matter as fans ate it up. The song is the definition of mediocre, using elements of New Jack Swing and Disco to make an electronic dance hit that is lifeless. Each band member takes a step in number order which makes each member’s part sound even more out of place and stiff.
The song was 1990’s song of the summer however it comes off as dated and cheesy even by the standards of 1990. Jordan Knight sings lead on the song as well as his step being three even though throughout the whole song it sounds like he is desperately trying to keep up with the beat of the song and constantly goes out of tune with the music. No members of the band sound remotely confident on the track which is supposed to make each member sound like a contestant on a dating game instead it makes them sound like they’re reading off a Hallmark movie script.
2. “(Can’t Live Without Your) Love and Affection”- Nelson.
Number one on September 29th, 1990.
Nelson was an American Hair Metal band formed by brothers Matthew and Gunnar Nelson who are the sons of Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Ricky Nelson. While their dad was a teen idol he still has some rock & roll edge to his music and his sons however are the definition of a genre’s dying days.
The song was written by the brothers as a love song for their crush on American Model Cindy Crawford, which gives the song an almost eerie stalker vibe, which hopefully wasn’t intentional.
The song is cheesy and way too cheerful becoming the single turning point when hair metal lost all credibility it had left as a metal subgenre and just became Michael Bolton-level soft rock. The song is as sweet as a cherry coke without any of the carbonation creating a sound that is more so power pop with a slightly metal guitar solo to keep them on the rock radio chart.
The song’s guitar structures are elementary level at best using the basic four-chord structure of pop music, while the drummer’s use of a double bass pedal is cool for the effect it comes off as a gimmick to keep some metal cred. The song is reminiscent of a prom slow dance with all the embarrassing memories in tack.
This song however is more so an egregious death wish for hair metal as a genre. When grunge took over as Rock’s definitive subgenre of the decade this was the schmaltzy hair metal they were talking about. Nelson wasn’t the first band to destroy the genre’s credibility as bands such as Warrant and Poison took the formula of hair metal without any of the street cred and hard rock roots. But Nelson was when the genre finally gave out creating a hit song that is so cheesy even Stewart from Beavis and Butthead would find it embarrassing.
1. “Ice Ice Baby”- Vanilla Ice
peaked at Number one on November 3, 1990
Probably the most infamous song to ever hit the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100. The song wasn’t meant to be Vanilla Ice’s trademark song as the record label originally released it as the B-side to his cover of the Wild Cherry hit “Play that Funky Music.” “Ice Ice Baby”, though a punchline in music history, is historically significant for being the first ever Hip-Hop song to peak at the number-one spot.
Vanilla Ice whose real name is Van Winkle is also an interesting case study into music sampling as the song’s uses of the John Deacon baseline from the Queen and David Bowie collaboration lead to a lengthy court battle between the band and rapper. This lawsuit however is more so a case study on the cred of Queen as stated by Rolling Stone writer Jordan Runtagh “Though [Vanilla Ice] paid the price, some argue that isn’t enough to make up for the potential credibility lost by Queen and David Bowie, who are now linked to him through a collaboration they had no choice in joining.” The Vanilla Ice sample has ruined Under Pressure for many music listeners as once they hear Vanilla’s flow they know they’re listening to one of pop music’s biggest disasters, as Ice still claims the sample is original.
The flow of the song is the stuff of legend as it is the peak definition of how to not have any charisma. The flow of Ice on the track isn’t even remotely in sync with the tempo of the beat, which makes it laughably bad to try to sing along to. Another infamous line is how Vanilla Ice rhymes “listen” to “invention” both of which don’t even remotely rhyme together. Vanilla Ice later goes on to rap about “chemicals” which is accurate to what the song does to its listener creating an earworm that for almost 35 years hasn’t remotely gone away from the public consciousness.
The song’s tone can’t be described as anything other than remotely racist and inappropriate as Vanilla Ice used a bubbling African American culture as a way to sell it to white suburbia. Being as pompous as possible, Vanilla Ice pretends to have any form of street cred to pretend to be a rapper while he is more or less playing a cartoon version of African American culture.
The song in itself isn’t rapping as it’s more so a student art project of a student who just learned how to loop record spewing nonsense words over a beat that is just a sample without any changes. Creating a pathetic song that’s the representation of how the year 1990 is easily one of the worst in the history of popular music.
The song being the first hip-hop number one is something to be remembered by the music industry not because of that historical connotation, but because the music industry has constantly used African-American art forms as an aesthetic choice without any respect for the artist that created it.
Leave a Reply