Wednesday, March 30, 2011

20 years on: March 30, 1991

As modern rock enters its (gulp) third decade, we're taking a look back at the charts of two decades ago.

This week in 1991: The #1 song in modern rock for the 3rd straight week was R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion." The charts for March are interesting to me because they contain four songs that are destined to turn up on pretty much any "best of the '90s" boxset in the future: "Losing My Religion," "I Touch Myself," "Unbelievable," and "Right Here, Right Now." But arguably, none of those songs reflect the direction modern rock radio would take in less than a year.

The top 10:

1. REM, "Losing My Religion"
2. Divinyls, "I Touch Myself"
3. EMF, "Unbelievable"
4. Material Issue, "Valerie Loves Me"

5. Morrissey, "Our Frank"
6. Havana 3 a.m., "Reach the Rock"
7. Daniel Ash, "This Love"
8. Simple Minds, "See the Lights"
Bet you didn't realize Simple Minds had a career beyond the Breakfast Club soundtrack, did you?
9. Jesus Jones, "Right Here, Right Now"
10. The Godfathers, "Unreal World"
Here's another band I'd never heard of. A British group whose sound was somewhat of a bridge between U2 and INXS and the later Britpop groups, this was the third (and final) charting single of their careers. They broke up not long after, though various members would use the Godfathers name to record throughout the '90s, with little success.


Don't you love the John Lennon sunglasses and mullet look that drummer's rocking?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Check out page 9 of this Spy Magazine from August 1991. Amazing Jesus Jones' ad.

http://books.google.com/books?id=NksQcB4T4nIC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA9#v=onepage&q&f=false

=Edward

essaykings.co.uk said...

Extremely fond of sunglasses that John Lennon is wearing - they rock! Let me express gratefulness for the beautiful post! It was of a use!

Yang Kuo said...

Check out page 9 of this Spy Magazine from August 1991. Amazing Jesus Jones' ad.


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