Popdose - Latest Comments in CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

Treavy — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 19:20:22 -0000

Mariah was so nervous. Check out her "If It's Over" performance at the Grammy's the next year. Total turnaround.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

what the what — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:56:05 -0000

Bwahahaha, I just read these last comments..."He's so deafening! He's the bomb-digger, Eeyore! Word is bones!", "Yeeaaahhhh, Boy-ar-deeee!!!!!" and "Worms to your mommy." I just about fell on the floor...I may have to work them into conversations.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

DwDunphy — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:52:50 -0000

Worms to your mommy.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

kingofgrief — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:39:00 -0000

I just found this: http://www.monkeychicken.co...

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

kingofgrief — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:33:49 -0000

Yeeaaahhhh, Boy-ar-deeee!!!!!

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

DwDunphy — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:14:33 -0000

Actually, the parents should have told their kids, "Wow. Hammertime is so much better than the Chi-Lites original! He's so deafening! He's the bomb-digger, Eeyore! Word is bones!"

Those rebellious kids would have dropped Hammer in a heartbeat's fit of reverse psychology.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

kingofgrief — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:53:15 -0000

My top reason why "Have You Seen Her" sucks is an expansion on your second reason: HE CHANGED THE LYRICS IN THE FIRST PLACE. The original is one of the records I point to when I tell people the early '70s was my favorite era for R&B. You hear it and you don't need a video: you see the protagonist on a park bench, joking with the neighbor kids while silently moping for his girl. It's a frickin' masterpiece. And yet it wasn't too good for Hammer (who I usually defend) to screw with. I can only hope that parents nationwide, upon witnessing their children raving about the Hammer version, went to their old 45 case, dusted off the Chi-Lites original and said, "Come here, fool, and hear how it's done," thereby piquing their curiosity about the other 45s in that box...

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

kingofgrief — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:42:25 -0000

The story I heard (back in '90) was that the lead singer started taunting the audience at a club gig after finding out the club catered mostly to gay clientele. The assistant manager at the record store I worked at was a DJ at a few gay clubs and jettisoned the few Snap! records he had from his collection as a result.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

:::theroux — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 21:38:32 -0000

I think we can credit Whit with popularizing the vocal gymnastics. MTV used to air the live clip for "Didn't We Almost Have it All," and damn if she did just mangle a pretty song. Curly-Q's for days. A friend who had actually seen her concert in its entirety, said the whole show is like that. Sweat and improv.

10 years later Christina arrived on the scene and...well, I guess she saw those concerts too. She even does the Whit microphone-tap. They all do.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

maxx40 — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:31:56 -0000

At least Janet's cultural relevancy survives in the form of legacy: Ciara, Beyoncé, Justin, Britney, and on and on owe a huge debt to Janet as dancer/singer. Her own catalogue stands the test of time. Surely Mariah will never write something like The Velvet Rope.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

Bob — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:40:33 -0000

While I agree that Houston's singing could be, ummm, "theatrical," I seem to remember her showing more control and restraint than Carey ever could.

Maybe my memory is just failing me and that wasn't the case at all -- these things can happen when you hit your late 40s!

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

jasonhare — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 10:37:20 -0000

I don't have any specific problem with "We Belong Together," but I'd be willing to bet that far more studio tricks were used in the production of that song than "Vision of Love." Plus, I think there are many singers who could have sung "We Belong Together," and far less who could have sung "Vision of Love."

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

DwDunphy — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 07:42:19 -0000

Nothing says "good marketing" like attacking your primary audience.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

DwDunphy — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 07:40:31 -0000

Well, during those first couple weeks of release, "Vision Of Love" wasn't seen as the harbinger it was. We had Whitney grinding notes like sausage, but with Mariah on the scene the melisma-proliferation race was on. So the first few times I heard it, the song was actually kind of impressive.

Y'know, it's kind of like those first few days when you start dropping weight and you think, "Hey look who's getting sexy all of a sudden!" Then the other effects of the Bubonic Plague kick in...

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

:::theroux — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:26:44 -0000

In addition to their lawsuit woes, Snap! had a fatwah put on their heads by the angry gays.

You wont find much on Google about this. In an interview with some magazine, some Snap! member snapped. He said (paraphrasing here), he 'didn't want no fags coming to Snap! shows' (Oh snap!)
A minor boycott followed, and gay clubs refused to play Snap!'s brand of cut-n-paste techno tomfoolery.
I'm not making this up. I saw a drag queen who looked like Carol Channing snap a Snap! record before a cheering audience. Snap!

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

jasonhare — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 01:32:37 -0000

Yeah, it makes sense. And it's fascinating. We were just talking about this seemingly impossible situation at dinner, and now I have an answer. Thanks, Joel!

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

Bob — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 23:57:41 -0000

I'm usually with you on the song critiques, Jason, but not on "Vision Of Love". I find the song nearly unlistenable, in part because I blame Carey for opening the floodgates to all the female note-bending, over-souling, and melismatic histrionics that went on in '90s popular music. For many of us old folk, those were dark times.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

Joel — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 22:07:32 -0000

I can explain why "U Can't Touch This" didn't chart as high as "Have You Seen Her".

The only way you could purchase the "U Can't Touch This" single was if you bought it as a vinyl 12" single. In 1990, most single sales were on cassette single (there were still a few 45 RPM buyers, but...). The song got a lot of "airplay points" on the Billboard chart, but not a lot of "sales points". Because of this, the song didn't place as high on the chart as it should have.
To qualify for a place on the Billboard Hot 100 a song had to be available as a single (12", 45, cassette or cassette maxi single). Cassette singles were the most popular format in 1990.

Does that make any sense?

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

mjheyliger — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:33:38 -0000

I take it no one saw the "Pumps and a Bump" video, in which Hammer revisited the banana hammock...only this time it was for most of the video and he was facing the camera. Yikes!!

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

DwDunphy — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:51:14 -0000

I liked "Vision Of Love" the first ten times I heard it. It was the subsequent 1000 times (that week) that ruined it for me. Was Tommy Mottola hot for Mariah's stuff or what to have radio crank her out like that?

I suspect "unskinny bop" was something one of the Poison boys said while really, really, REALLY drunk. While that's usually not a good thing, apparently intoxication worked for the band, so three cheers and bottoms up.

Where are Hammer pants when you need 'em? Please Hammer, don't flash 'em! Stop scaring the Chi-Lites away!!

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

eddie_w — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:56:44 -0000

Appreciate the heads up on "futurenow"...didn't realize GW had a new album. Always liked them, so I may need to try and track that one down myself.

Great job as usual this week Jason. Not sure if "Hammer's ass in a banana hammock" or "warm September rain!" made me laugh out loud more (although hands down Hammer's ass *disturbed* me much more).

And, count me in as one of those white dudes your age who knows every word to "Do Me!" (and "Poison") and is more than happy to demonstrate/embarrass myself whenever it's playing.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

Gigi — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:17:04 -0000

Ugh. Alicia Keys. Amateur. Send her back to school for a few years and maybe she'll come up with something. Absurdly overrated.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

DwDunphy — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:04:16 -0000

I... I gotta say this... Sorry, Gigi, but I have to. "We Belong Together" is the best Alicia Keys impression ever put to the recorded medium.

Sorry.

Call me?

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

Gigi — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:35:57 -0000

Omigod. This could get long. No, I'm gonna keep it brief. I have to.

10. I love "We Close Our Eyes" - both the song and the completely amazing video (long live Godley and Creme!). I guess "We are tigers in the dark" was too literary for America, so the band dumbed it down to "I'll get over you, I know I will."

9. God made Billy Idol's accident happen so that James Cameron's horrible casting mistake would be averted.

8. No, Jason. "Have You Seen Her" doesn't suck. In fact it may be the greatest recording of Hammer's entire career. Listen to it again. It's subtle.

7. I know a guy who used to entertain his infant son by singing "Do Me!" Kids love new jack swing. Ah, Jimmy hats: see "Jimmy" by Boogie Down Productions (http://www.lyricstime.com/b....

4. The song puts me instantly back in my high school gym, where my friends and I would simultaneously dance and laugh our asses off whenever it was played.

1. Yes, I often think back to the pre-hoochie Mariah, but she always seemed shy and unsure of herself back then. When she got permission to be a skank, she became the Mariah she really wanted to be. And you're not telling me you think her vocal on "We Belong Together" is weak, are you? It's a masterpiece, in the same category as "I Will Always Love You" (yeah, I said it).

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 8/18/90

David_E — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:07:42 -0000

... “We believe that a tribute band experience should be as authentic as possible which is why we put 150% effort into every show we play.” I think this makes a really grand assumption about Poison in the first place.

(Snicker)