# Best #1 single of the year retrospective: 1990 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 28, 2014, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770 "2014-10-28T16:20:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/21 "2014-10-28T17:59:16Z")
Oh, and to mention albums released this year that didn’t have a hope of a #1 single, but I love them anyway: Sonic Youth - _Goo_ - Ok, “Kool Thing” might have had a prayer, but mellow was the rule of the day. It wasn’t. John Zorn - _Naked City_ - Property of the same roommate that had the rap records. He was, and always will be cooler than me on far too many substantiative levels. My first exposure to Zorn and Yamatsuka Eye. We’re both lucky we lived together for years, or I would have had to have “borrowed”\* it from him. - Do not listen to this unless you are willing to hear jazz massacred via rock band. \*Don’t loan me records, I forget. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/22 "2014-10-28T18:00:45Z")
> [@Palooka](#): > > Finally, 1990 when the ballad is dead and people can start dancing again. Ice Ice Baby is such a fun song. Shame that Van Winkle went nuts after everyone made fun of him because they didn’t understand sampling and Suge Knight stole all his money. Well, speaking for many of us who were fans of Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys and De La Soul etc. at the time, we didn’t make fun of him because we didn’t understand sampling, we made fun of him because he was a hacky joke within hip hop. Of course, his claims about how he didn’t just basically rip off the entire bassline from “Under Pressure” as the hook to his song because he repeated a note didn’t help, either. Plenty of people used sampling creatively - Vanilla Ice wasn’t one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Eddie\_F](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/22d042/32.png) [@Eddie\_F](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eddie_F)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/23 "2014-10-28T18:01:47Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I am a big fan of her first album, _The Lion and the Cobra_ - songs like Mandinka and Jerusalem are just great. Agreed. And don’t forget “Troy”. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/24 "2014-10-28T18:04:04Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Well, speaking for many of us who were fans of Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys and De La Soul etc. at the time, we didn’t make fun of him because we didn’t understand sampling, we made fun of him because he was a hacky joke within hip hop. Of course, his claims about how he didn’t just basically rip off the entire bassline from “Under Pressure” as the hook to his song because he repeated a note didn’t help, either. Plenty of people used sampling creatively - Vanilla Ice wasn’t one of them. And a big +40 white man “word” to that. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/25 "2014-10-28T18:06:26Z")
> [@Eddie\_F](#): > > I was _deep_ into my Metallica-fellating phase during this time. (Said phase would last another four years, approximately.) But I still watched MTV voraciously, so I am familiar with most of these titles, even if I can’t actually tolerate the majority of 'em. After looking up Youtube videos for the ones I didn’t recognize, I did remember most of them. But I don’t recall the group Sweet Sensation nor the song “If Wishes Came True.” Nothing about it sounds familiar. I wonder if I just filtered it out as generic early 90s pop. “I’ll Be Your Everything” is the other one I have no recollection of, nor does the name Tommy Page ring a bell. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/26 "2014-10-28T18:12:31Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Oh, and to mention albums released this year that didn’t have a hope of a #1 single, but I love them anyway: > > Sonic Youth - _Goo_ - Ok, “Kool Thing” might have had a prayer, but mellow was the rule of the day. It wasn’t. > John Zorn - _Naked City_ - Property of the same roommate that had the rap records. He was, and always will be cooler than me on far too many substantiative levels. My first exposure to Zorn and Yamatsuka Eye. We’re both lucky we lived together for years, or I would have had to have “borrowed”\* it from him. - Do not listen to this unless you are willing to hear jazz massacred via rock band. > \*Don’t loan me records, I forget. Yeah, racking through my brain, and then looking at lists, 1990 doesn’t really have much going for it. 1989 had a good number of albums that I loved, but all I see in 1990, besides the Sonic Youth you mentioned (I’m unfamiliar with Zorn), is Public Enemy’s “Fear of a Black Planet,” and I guess that’s it. Oh, looks like The Breeders “Pod” was this year, as was the Pixies “Bossanova,” but they’re both just solid records to me, nothing earth-shattering. Oh, wait, there is Ride’s “Nowhere.” So I’d add that to the Public Enemy and Sonic Youth. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/27 "2014-10-28T18:18:43Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yeah, racking through my brain, and then looking at lists, 1990 doesn’t really have much going for it. 1989 had a good number of albums that I loved, but all I see in 1990, besides what you mentioned, is Public Enemy’s “Fear of a Black Planet,” and I guess that’s it. Oh, looks like The Breeders “Pod” was this year, as was the Pixies “Bossanova,” but they’re both just solid records to me, nothing earth-shattering. Oh, wait, there is Ride’s “Nowhere.” So I’d add that to the Public Enemy and Sonic Youth. Damn, how’d I miss _Pod_? I wore out a tape of that, gave my brother the CD that year for Christmas, lost another CD I had, and bought a new vinyl copy last year. And to be honest, I thought _Fear of a Black Planet_ was released a couple of years before, and my roommate and his friends were still listening to it. I can’t think of a more uncomfortable set of sounds than a Public Enemy record. It’s audio Edvard Munch, truly great on a sonic level. ETA: Well, ok, the Zorn record is just as unsettling, but in a different way. You don’t know what it’s going to do next. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/28 "2014-10-28T18:24:15Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > = > And to be honest, I thought _Fear of a Black Planet_ was released a couple of years before, and my roommate and his friends were still listening to it. It’s possible you’re thinking of NWA’s _Straight Outta Compton_ (1988). ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/29 "2014-10-28T18:24:35Z")
I didn’t even have to read all the way down the list - _Nothing Compares 2 U_ just rips my heart out. _Ice Ice Baby_ is fun but a one-hit wonder needs more punch than that to be Number One. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/30 "2014-10-28T18:26:47Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > It’s possible you’re thinking of NWA’s _Straight Outta Compton_ (1988). Nah, they were listening to that too, but I’m fundamentally clueless. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/31 "2014-10-28T18:40:12Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Wow, lost for words at the layer cake of bad. I don’t even know how bad the list is, because there are so many songs that I have no idea what they sound like. I can’t help noticing that there are hardly any bands on the list—and can’t help speculating that this has a lot to do with What’s Wrong With Music starting about this period. I voted for “Hold On,” because it’s a song I recognize and don’t dislike, and I could at least vote for Brian Wilson’s genes. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/32 "2014-10-28T18:45:25Z")
I can’t decide. They’re all kind of meh. I will say, though, that anyone who votes for Vanilla Ice will be pilloried and mocked mercilessly until shamed. I didn’t like rap for years because I thought it was all c-rap like that. It wasn’t until the early 2000s when I discovered Bone Thugz-n-Harmony that I realized that rap could actually be good. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/33 "2014-10-28T19:03:45Z")
I kinda expected that as we went into the 90’s I’d start to know more of the songs, I’m a 90’s teenager after all. But I know very few of the songs on that list, I wonder if its an american thing, must check out the uk charts that year. Anyway, easy choice, _Nothing compares to you_ would win the poll in a lot of years. ---
**Author:** ![SaharaTea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/34 "2014-10-28T19:25:40Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > But I don’t recall the group Sweet Sensation nor the song “If Wishes Came True.” Nothing about it sounds familiar. I wonder if I just filtered it out as generic early 90s pop. Sadly, I owned that song on a cassette single (cassingle?). It was indeed a generic early 90s one-hit wonder. Not surprised to see Sinead winning handily. Probably one of the best covers of all time. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/35 "2014-10-28T19:28:46Z")
Another year farther away from my childhood and another year where only a handful of songs are familiar. I admit that Sinead O’Connor’s rendition of Nothing Compares 2 U is the definitive version and probably the standout from this year, but I can’t convince myself to vote for it. It’s not so much that the subject matter is shallow – lost love is always a winner as far as great art goes – but the expression of it in this song is so damned immature, as exemplified by the illiterate “2 U” and the “It’s been 17 hours and 15 days, Since you took your love away” coupled with “I put my arms around every boy I meet.” Two weeks of angst and slutty behavior, huh. Well, you’ve certainly been through the wringer, I can’t help thinking. So do you give extra credit for a fantastic rendition of kind of a dumb song? Probably, because that’s what Top 40 is all about. I’m going to go with the smokey and evocative “Black Velvet” instead. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/36 "2014-10-28T19:32:18Z")
Roxette, by a mile. Sinead O’Connor a distant second. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/37 "2014-10-28T19:47:29Z")
Good lord, what a pile of crap. I had to go with Sinead – she’s got pipes, and it’s a well-composed song (by Prince) – but I’m realizing I should probably bow out of the rest of the polls. Smapti did warn me that neither Nirvana, nor Beck, nor the Red Hot Chili Peppers, nor Radiohead will be appearing on these lists. Doesn’t bode well for music I’ve ever HEARD turning up in them, let alone music I LIKE. (And some if you know my musical tastes are VERY broad). ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/38 "2014-10-28T19:53:18Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Another year farther away from my childhood and another year where only a handful of songs are familiar. I admit that Sinead O’Connor’s rendition of Nothing Compares 2 U is the definitive version and probably the standout from this year, but I can’t convince myself to vote for it. It’s not so much that the subject matter is shallow – lost love is always a winner as far as great art goes – but the expression of it in this song is so damned immature, as exemplified by the illiterate “2 U” and the > > “It’s been 17 hours and 15 days, Since you took your love away” coupled with > “I put my arms around every boy I meet.” > > Two weeks of angst and slutty behavior, huh. Well, you’ve certainly been through the wringer, I can’t help thinking. So do you give extra credit for a fantastic rendition of kind of a dumb song? Probably, because that’s what Top 40 is all about. > > I’m going to go with the smokey and evocative “Black Velvet” instead. Thanks. I voted for Nothing Compares 2 U . . . and now I don’t like the song any more! Jerk! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/39 "2014-10-28T19:56:21Z")
Sinéad O’Connor, not because I love it, but because everything else is so awful. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770/40 "2014-10-28T19:56:46Z")
A meh year for US no 1s. The UK chart is a bit better, to my taste, both then and now. Other decent albums released this year: The Sundays - Reading, Writing and Arithmetic The La’s - The La’s Jane’s Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual Teenage Fanclub - A Catholic Education and My Bloody Valentine’s Glider EP came out, giving the first clues towards what on earth they were spending all of Creation Records money on… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1990/702770.md?page=3)