Like 1990, this year saw 17 songs at number 1 in the UK Singles Chart.
The first number 1 of the year surprisingly came from heavy metal band Iron Maiden, scoring their first and only number one “Bring Your Daughter… to the Slaughter” which stayed at the top for 2 weeks. It’s their 7th top ten single.
The song is recorded by singer Bruce Dickinson for the film Nightmare On Elm Street 5, but is rerecorded for ninth LP No Prayer For The Dying, from 1990.
It is the only UK number-one single for the band to date, in spite of the fact that it received very little airplay on the BBC. The song also topped the Finnish Singles Chart and reached number six in Ireland.
Bruce Dickinson said “We’re going to release this as a single on Christmas Eve to scare the living daylights out of Cliff Richard.”
It went straight to number one on the UK Singles Chart on 30 December 1990 and stayed there for a single week in January 1991. This was in spite of a ban by the BBC, who refused to play the song on Radio 1 and showed only two minutes of the live clip on Top of the Pops.
The next January 1991 number one was a track right at the opposite end of the musical spectrum—Enigma, with the calm and hypnotic “Sadness Part 1.” Known as “Sadeness Part 1” almost everywhere else, with its strong references to Marquis De Sade, Enigma redefined the new age, chill-out genre.
Romanian-German producer Michael Cretu mixed repeated trance-like dance beats with Gregorian chants and whispered, erotic vocals provided by his wife, Sandra, who was also a popular artist in her own right at the same time throughout most of Europe, but never managed to crack the UK market.
Sandra (pronounced Zandra) gained international success in 1985 with the song “(I’ll Never Be) Maria Magdalena,” which topped the charts in 21 countries[9] and reached the top 10 in another five. Her first album, The Long Play (1985), reached number 12 in Germany and number 2 in Sweden. The follow-up single, “In the Heat of the Night,” reached number two in Germany and the top 10 in many European countries.
I must admit to having the hots for the very popular in South Africa, Sandra, back in the day. Here she is below.
Enigma’s debut concept album MCMXC ad also went straight to the top of the UK Album Chart in January.
How many of these do you remember?
27 January 1991 – 2 February 1991
- 3am Eternal by The KLF
- Innuendo by Queen
- Do the Bartman by The Simpsons
- Wiggle It by 2 in a Room
- Crazy by Seal
- Sadeness Part 1 by Enigma
- Cry For Help Rick Astley
- Hippy Chick by Soho
- I Believe by EMF
- Gonna Make You Sweat by C & C Music Factory
- What Do I Have to Do by Kylie Minogue
- I Can’t Take the Power by Off-Shore
- Mercy Mercy Me by Robert Palmer
- (I Wanna Give You) Devotion by Nomad
- Can I Kick It? by A Tribe Called Quest
- (I’ve Had)The Time of My Life (1990) by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes
- Play That Funky Music by Vanilla Ice
- Sensitivity by Ralph Tresvant
- Only You by Praise
- Get Here by Oletta Adams
There are a few I don’t think I know in the above chart. Not many that I particularly like either. I suppose only “3am Eternal,” “Sadeness,” “Hippy Chick,” “I Believe,” and “Mercy Mercy Me,” in VERY small doses would pass muster on the ‘Mark-o-meter’
The
Biggest International
in January 1991 is
American singer songwriter Madonna has her ninth US #1 single with “Justify My Love” #2 UK. The song is a new track from The Immaculate Collection, a greatest hits compilation #2 US, #1 UK.
The racy video for the song is banned by MTV. Watch it below before the YouTube trolls remove it from my magazine.
For What It's Worth 
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