What song held the number one spot for the longest in 1990?
When it comes to music, time works a little differently than what we’re used to, best evidenced when it comes to examining decades. In music, a decade doesn’t begin on January 1st of whatever year ends with zero.
Musically, at least the first year of any new decade is just the dying embers of the previous decade, or, in some really worrying cases, it’s the first two years. Then the music that really defines the oncoming decade starts rearing its head. The best way of illustrating this is with the 1990s.
The decade as we know it, with a little over 30 years of hindsight (yes, 30), began with Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ climbing up the Billboard charts in winter 1991. So, looking at the number one hits of 1990 on both sides of the Atlantic is a very interesting experience, with more highs than you’d expect, but some truly distressing lows. I mean, the UK singles charts that year was topped by Band Aid II and Partners in Kryme. Go figure.
Yet, the biggest hits on either side across the ocean are beloved classics that still get pretty major rotation to this day. Not in all cases, obviously. ‘Because I Love You (The Postman Song)’ by Stevie B topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks, while a truly bizarre, Andrew Lloyd Webber-produced version of ‘Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polkadot Bikini’ sung by Timmy Mallett topped the UK charts for three human weeks. Just in case anyone still thinks music was inherently better in the 1990s.
However, the biggest hits truly speak for themselves. Madonna’s ‘Vogue’ is one of the best songs of the decade, and the only confusing part is how it didn’t top the charts for longer, spending three weeks at the peak of the US charts and four at number one in the UK. It was a banner year for female singer-songwriters as a matter of fact, because Madge’s reign at the top of the charts came once a fellow icon had relinquished a month-long reign of her own.
Who had the biggest hit of 1990?
For a whole month, both in the US and the UK, the biggest name in music was Sinéad O’Connor. Her deathless Prince cover ‘Nothing Compares 2 U‘ spent four weeks on top of both charts, and one can’t help but think that’s a rare case of the charts rewarding a song for its quality. Hopefully, we can see someone match her firebrand spirit and astonishing voice sometime soon, but since she was a once-in-a-generation presence in pop, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
In terms of sheer numbers, the artist with the biggest chokehold on the year was another female singer-songwriter. If we were going with the artist with the most weeks spent at number one, in total, then Mariah Carey would win this handily. ‘Vision of Love’ matched the four weeks ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ spent at the peak of the Billboard Hot 100, which is one hell of an achievement in its own right.
However, she also had another hit in November, when ‘Love Takes Time’ topped the US charts for a further three weeks. At seven combined weeks at the top of the charts, Carey nearly doubled the numbers her rivals were putting up. If anything, it’s just a pity she wasn’t able to replicate those numbers in the UK. She would have been an improvement on the likes of…y’know, Vanilla Ice and Snap!
However, if we’re going by numbers alone, then there was only one artist on either side of the Atlantic to have a song spend five weeks at its summit. It may not be a female singer-songwriter, but he sure as hell is a queen; it’s Elton John with ‘Sacrifice’.
All this just goes to show that the charts have always been barren wastelands with brief flashes of quality. It’s on us to recognise that quality when we see it.
