# Best #1 single of the year retrospective: 1991 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 30, 2014, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998 "2014-10-30T13:13:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/41 "2014-10-30T18:39:38Z")
Alright, who voted for Amy Grant? Show yourself! ---
**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 30, 2014, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/42 "2014-10-30T18:43:25Z")
> [@Eddie\_F](#): > > The video was pretty great. The song, not as much. It’s quite possible that is what my “vague recollection” is glomming onto. 🙂 I found a video of it online and, nah, it wasn’t a bad song. I’ll still stick with my choice, considering there’s nothing else on this list I feel is clearly better. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/43 "2014-10-30T18:44:57Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > I agree with Sapmti, Spamti, and their ilk that we should stick with the original plan. Even negative results (i.e., the crappy Billboard #1s from 1990 to something like 2005) are results, and might suggest interesting things, but only if we keep the original protocol. OK, OK, I’ll relent for now, out of respect for Spumanti. BTW, why did you pick 2005 as the end of lameless of the top #1 category? I looked ahead to 2007-2011, and as usual there was 2-3 good songs (yes, yes, my opinion) and the rest kinda meh. ---
**Author:** ![Tiktaalik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7cd45c/32.png) [@Tiktaalik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tiktaalik)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/44 "2014-10-30T18:47:33Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Aside from a few gems, the list of #1 alternative songs from 1991 is made up mostly of stuff I don’t remember either; > > Sisters of Mercy - “More” > Happy Mondays - “Kinky Afro” > Sting - “All This Time” > Jesus Jones - “Right Here, Right Now” > REM - “Losing My Religion” > Simple Minds - “See The Lights” > Elvis Costello - “The Other Side Of Summer” > Electronic - “Get the Message” > Siouxsie and the Banshees - “Kiss Them for Me” > Big Audio Dynamite II - “Until She Comes” > Robyn Hitchcock - “So You Think You’re in Love” > Red Hot Chili Peppers - “Give It Away” > U2 - “The Fly” > Nirvana - “Smells Like Teen Spirit” > U2 - “Mysterious Ways” > > The alternative charts (which started in 1988 and are based on airplay data from about 80 stations nationwide) might be a good idea for a future poll series, though. > > (In case you’re wondering, the current alternative #1 is “Stolen Dance” by Milky Chance. I know every song on this list and like most of them. I probably liked Sisters of Mercy most back then - now I’d vote for Electronic. On the mainstream list I guess EMF - but their were other Manchester scene bands and songs I preferred over them. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/45 "2014-10-30T18:52:17Z")
Easy to narrow down my choices - if I couldn’t remember it within a minute or so, out it goes. I picked “Black or White”. I liked the video very much, and the song is catchy. Madonna is not one of my favorites, and the rest were less than memorable. Have to agree with the consensus - 1991 = verging on 70s level of suckitude. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/46 "2014-10-30T18:57:23Z")
I went with “More than Words”. Being able to play it was a good way to get a girl’s attention back then. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/47 "2014-10-30T19:01:53Z")
The 2nd post said it best about “Unbelievable.” It still sounds good today. It’s my top pick for the year. It’s hard to pin that song to a specific style - rock, pop, rap. A true renaissance song. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/48 "2014-10-30T19:06:33Z")
Extreme - “More Than Words.” I don’t know the vast majority of these songs. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/49 "2014-10-30T19:39:11Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] Rough year, indeed. Absolutely dire. I have a vague recollection of enjoying Prince’s “Cream” and its sexy swagger, so I went with that. [/QUOTE] > [@Eddie\_F](#): > > I consider this time to be near the beginning of his wilderness years. And to me, it’s a damned shame that this pretty generic 4/4 pop-rocker reached number one while the likes of “Gett Off” and “Money Don’t Matter 2 Night” from the same album didn’t make it as high. I also picked “Cream” but not so much because it was a song I really liked but rather the one I could best tolerate if it was playing in the background. That said, one of the first things I noticed about the song when it came out was it seemed to owe a lot to T. Rex’s “Bang a Gong (Get It On)”. Anyway, by 1991 I had long lost interest in the songs that usually made the Top 40 and only glanced at the weekly Top 10 chart by force of habit (which is pretty much the same reason why I’m still participating in these polls). ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/50 "2014-10-30T19:46:52Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > If I see Sampti around anywhere, I’ll let him know, but we’re not getting off this horse until we catch up to the present day. > > Besides, we haven’t even gotten to the Age of Crunk yet. I agree. Plus it’s not as if NO rock songs continued to get to #1 after this point, it was just rare. Because grunge sucks ass and ruined everything.😃 Anyway, I went with Good Vibrations. There are no songs on this list that I really love, even though I still liked a lot of the pop music at the time, and I generally hate Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. But this song is actually kinda cool. “Drug free, So put the crack up!” ---
**Author:** ![SaharaTea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/51 "2014-10-30T20:03:49Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > “Drug free, So put the crack up!” Donnie D’s on the backup! ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/52 "2014-10-30T20:14:41Z")
And the person who attacked Michael Bolton as talentless… The man’s an amazing vocalist. He may have sung crap ever since Soul Provider, but he sings the crap well. Same for Mariah Carey. One of the best vocalists, ever, IMO, but I can count the songs worth listening to on one hand and still have at least two fingers left over. Pop music is actually littered with amazing vocalists wasting their talents on forgettable songs, so forgettable that they don’t even play many of their #1 hits in concert anymore and their own fans don’t miss it. ---
**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 30, 2014, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/53 "2014-10-30T21:47:38Z")
> [@SirRay](#): > > OK, OK, I’ll relent for now, out of respect for Spumanti. > > BTW, why did you pick 2005 as the end of lameless of the top #1 category? I looked ahead to 2007-2011, and as usual there was 2-3 good songs (yes, yes, my opinion) and the rest kinda meh. My mistake – I was just hazarding a guess. Someone mentioned that things seemed to get better around 2009, in their opinion, of course. ---
**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 30, 2014, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/54 "2014-10-30T22:16:06Z")
Ah, 1991. Fuck that year. That’s the year I started going in and out of the hospital. Hate that year. And “Baby, Baby,” too, also known as the bane of all middle school choruses throughout the 90’s. We sang that song \*far \*too many times. I love Roxette, though, as I believe I’ve mentioned before so I’m voting for “Joyride.” That was one of the first cassettes that was all mine mine mine and not my sister’s. ---
**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 30, 2014, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/55 "2014-10-30T22:27:49Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > Dead-ass last place belongs to that no-talent ass clown Michael Bolton with “When a Man Loves a Woman.” I think you’re being too kind to Mr. Bolton. I have met many no-talent ass clowns who can sing circles around him. I missed the edit window before I could say that my second-place choice is PM Dawn. “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss” is still one of my favorite songs. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/56 "2014-10-30T23:06:49Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > My mistake – I was just hazarding a guess. Someone mentioned that things seemed to get better around 2009, in their opinion, of course. That was just **Ponch8** doing his (relentless) Ke$ha schtick. Ke$ha had her first #1 in 2009. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/57 "2014-10-30T23:09:57Z")
I recognize TWO of those songs! And they suck. No vote. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/58 "2014-10-30T23:11:30Z")
Wow, nearly forgot about PM Dawn. Over of the first singles I ever bought myself. I picked C+C Music Factory over Michael Jackson. ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/59 "2014-10-30T23:57:23Z")
I went with Amy Grant’s “Baby Baby” since I have loved that song since age 5, and continue to do so. I also like her other singles from that album, as well as her Christmas covers. I also like “Someday” by Mariah Carey, “I Adore Mi Amor” by Color Me Badd, Wilson Phillips, EMF, Londonbeat, Marky Mark, PM Dawn to name a few. None of these songs are great, only good. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998/60 "2014-10-31T00:37:25Z")
Looking up some of these songs because I can’t remember them… Surface, “The First Time” - no memory until I heard the chorus. Oh, yeah, that song. Is this sung by Nerdy DeBarge? Whitney, “All the Man that I Need” - again, I remember the chorus. Rather banal. Timmy T, “One More Try” - ??? When did turtlenecks ever go with sport coats? Don’t remember this one _at all_ and it just RIPPED that banality trophy away from Whitney. Gloria E, “Coming Out of the Dark” - No memory at all. Didn’t particularly care for it. Londonbeat - “I’ve Been Thinking About You” - The early part of the video could be the most early-90s thing I’ve ever seen. Wilson Phillips - “You’re In Love” - Uh, is the blonde’s voice auto-tuned? Or does she just suck. Amy Grant - “Baby Baby” - I actually remember this one! 😃 Not enough to vote for it, though. Roxette - “Joyride” - Roxette had a male singer? Why was I not told about this? Oh, yeah… I didn’t care. Hi-Five - “I Like the Way (The Kissing Game)” - if half of these kids aren’t gay, I’ll eat my hat. Extreme - “More Than Words” - What the hell?!? The YouTube video has **59,000,000 views**! For a song released in 1991! (and uploaded 18 years later.) That alone may get my vote. :eek: EMF - “Unbelievable” - Oh, yeah, this song. Color Me Badd - “I Adore Mi Amor” - Oh, yeah, that song. Karyn White - “Romantic” - Janet Jackson called, she wants her sound back. P.M. Dawn - “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss” - Remember when black men could wear neon blue and purple and rap to the backing track of “True”… and be considered cool? Ladies and gentlemen, the Early 1990s! Gonna have to go with that Extreme song - 59mm views is simply amazing for a 23 year-old song. Are there any similarly-aged tracks/videos that are that popular on YouTube? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1991/702998.md?page=4)