Flashback: Top Ten from this week 20 years ago
Twenty years ago this week, The Top 10 was a mix of upbeat pop songs, hip-hop and syrupy pop ballads… but has it’s hard to believe it’s been two full decades since some of these songs were on the charts.
Here we go with the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the issue publiched February 12, 1994:
10. Ace of Base – “All That She Wants”
Pausing at #10 on its way down from a peak at #2 is the debut hit by Swedish pop group Ace of Base. It was their first of 7 Top 40 hits in America.
9. Michael Bolton – “Said I Loved You… But I Lied”
Ya just can’t trust that Michael Bolton, he lies!!. Long before he was annoying countless TV viewers bellowing in car commercials, Bolton had 13 Top 40 including this track, the lead single from his album “The One Thing.” It paused this week at #9 down from its peak of #6. But he should have won a special Grammy for his beautifully flowing locks of hair in this video.
8. The Cranberries – “Linger”
By far the biggest crossover pop hit for Irish alternative band The Cranberries, “Linger” was the third single and big American breakthrough from the band’s acclaimed debut album “Everybody is Doing It, Why Can’t We?” It peaked at #8 and became the first of three Top 40 hits in America, the others being “Free to Decide” and “When You’re Gone” which both hit #22 in 1996. The track “Dreams,” which was the second single from their debut album, was re-released in the wake of “Linger”‘s succes, and hit #42. The band was much more successful on the Modern Rock charts, hitting #1 twice with “Zombie” and “Salvation.”
7. Domino – “Getto Jam”
Rapper Domino hit the Top 40 twice — “Getto Jam” was his biggest hit, peaking at #7, and its follow-up, “Sweet Potato Pie,” made #27. “Getto Jam” was a #1 hit on the Billboard Rap Chart.
6. Salt-N-Pepa featuring En Vogue – “Whatta Man”
Built around an extrapolation from the 1968 hit “What a Man” by Linda Lyndell recorded for Stax Records, “Whatta Man” was the second single from the hip-hop trio’s “Very Necessary” album. It was the follow-up to “Shoop” which hit #4 (and was still on the chart this week, pausing at #15 on its way down.) “Whatta Man” would eventually peak at #3, becoming the biggest pop hit in Salt-N-Pepa’s career. They would eventually hit the Top 40 a total of eight times.
5. Ace of Base – “The Sign”
Didn’t we just hear from them a few notches back? The follow-up single to “All That She Wants” and title track (in America, at least) of their debut album, “The Sign” rocketed up the charts and spent six long weeks at #1, becoming the biggest pop hit of 1994.
4. Mariah Carey – “Hero”
The second single from her album “Music Box,” following the #1 smash “Dreamlover,” “Hero” paused this week at #4 on its way down from the top. A beautiful ballad, “Hero” remarkably was Carey’s eighth #1 pop hit in a span of only three years. She’s hit the top spot an amazing twenty-two times over the span of her amazing career.
3. Toni Braxton – “Breathe Again”
“Breathe Again” was the follow-up to the #7 hit “Another Sad Love Song,” and with its peak of #3 became Braxton’s biggest hit of her career at the time. She would top it with her duel #1’s in 1996, “You’re Making Me High” and “Un-break My Heart,” and also with “He Wasn’t Man Enough” which hit #2 in 2000.
2. Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart & Sting – “All For Love”
Co-written by Bryan Adams with producer “Mutt” Lange and Michael Kamen, “All for Love” was recorded specifically for the hit film The Three Musketeers. “All for Love” spent three weeks at #1… and perhaps the less said about this atrocity, the better. The Sting of the “Synchronicity” years never would have recorded this… would he?
1. Celine Dion – “The Power of Love”
“The Power of Love” was the first of four #1 hits in America for powerhouse Canadian vocalist Celine Dion — she also hit the top with “Because You Loved Me” (1996), “My Heart Will Go On” (1997), and her duet with R. Kelly “I’m Your Angel” (1998). “The Power of Love” already had a long history by the time Dion recorded it. It was originally recorded by co-writer Jennifer Rush, who scored massive success in Europe with it in 1984, hitting #1 in several countries including the U.K., although it stalled out at #57 in the US. The song charted again when Laura Branigan scored her final Top 40 hit with a cover of “The Power of Love” in 1987, peaking at #26.
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