Bah. 91 was great. So many great metal albums, hiphop, pop, and rave songs. Gnr released their 2 use your illusion for God's sake. Charts always have shitty songs. That doesn't bother.
i remember, as clear as day, running onto the sports field near my parents' house and screaming BRYAN ADAMS ISN'T #1 ANYMORE!!!!!! and all my friends cheering. 16 bastard weeks.
Mark Goodier was the Radio 1 chart show host at the time... and the announcement went like this: "after sixteen weeks, Bryan Adams is down three to Number 4". The song that replaced it at the top was "The Fly" by U2. Anyway, here's the link to the Radio 1 Top 40 show from that week (27th October 1991): www.mixcloud.com/StephenTheRadioKid2000/radio-1-uk-top-40-chart-with-mark-goodier-27101991/
@@stephenemmett9753 First of all: what an upgrade. One of the worst hit songs of the '90s replaced by a track from one of the best albums of the '90s (I prefer Mysterious Ways, but The Fly is also great). Second, I'd like to imagine the first announcement being greeted like that video of the sports bar where everyone just starts jumping and screaming and waving their beers around after the team gets a goal.
After 6 weeks I didn't believe that it was still going. 16 weeks. Every music show and chart rundown ruined. For nearly four friggin' months. And how, after 14 weeks, were people still going 'Oh, I've just heard that Bryan Adams song - its quite good, I think I'll buy a copy'. What had they been doing for all those months?
@@sheldoncooper8199 I don't think that's true. Anything for Love was no1 for a while, but nothing like 16 weeks. Maybe 8-9 week? What's Up was nowhere close. Maybe a couple of weeks.
Oh my god...Midler's little grin and wide eye at the end of the song is so profoundly disturbing. This isn't a positive song! At least have the grace to look solemn, thoughtful instead of grinning at me like you're auditioning for Winifred Sanderson
The song is actually the clever tale of a woman driven to madness by her own sense of cosmic insignificance and has adopted a persona of incredibly forced happiness as a coping mechanism
Actually, now that I think about it, something about the song does seem a little bit familiar. Ever so slightly. Certainly more than "The Postman Song".
bubbaliciousfisheyes Then, how do you explain that Stevie or Stewie guy, singing about how he loves his postman, or wherever the hell it was about?! I still agree with you that this is just one of Timmy's time traveling mishaps, but how do you remember it then?
Modonna went completely over Todd's head. She was saying you should enjoy yourself during sex and not depend on your partner to get off. In hook up culture you focus on getting your own nut and less on your partners experience. It's a selfish outlook but it is very common especially with women who hook up often. As in "dont depend on him/her to get yours". The more Todd videos I watch, the more I realize just how little he understands sexual relationships outside of very basic and vanilla references.
OK, as someone who's old enough to remember 1991, I think there's one thing Todd doesn't get about that year: It was stupidly, ludicrously, incredibly *optimistic.* We had won the cold war, defeated communism, and brought peace to the ENTIRE. GODDAMN. PLANET. The nuclear doomsday clock was reset. We were safe. We spent an entire fucking year patting ourselves on the back so hard that our goddamn arms dropped off. Because it was THAT fucking amazing that we legitimately were no longer in danger of flaming nuclear doom. That's why the music has no edge. We had no edge. That's why songs like "From A Distance" and anything from Amy Grant actually charted. We really believed that the worst was behind us. Want to understand the mentality of 1991? Listen to Jesus Jones' "Right Here, Right Now." Understand that that song was 100% sincere. "Right here, right now... there is no other place I would want to be. Right here, right now... watching the world wake up from history!" For a brief moment, we BELIEVED that shit. Absolutely. Utterly. Resolutely. Reality would catch up with us. Rodney King would happen. Waco would happen. Kosovo would happen. Blowjob impeachment would happen. But for a moment, Americans were absolutely convinced that we had just saved the world, and we spent a year celebrating that shit. And THAT is why "From A Distance" charted.
...agree with all you said....but looking back it was an awesome year to be Abel to feel like that. PS August 1990 Saddam invaded Kuwait, Jan 1991 the gulf war... and that wasn't even so bad in the big picture...
@@Dilley_G45 The whole time reading that (much of which I agree with) I was thinking that we all thought we'd be drafted for the Gulf War (I was a senior in high school). Yay, no more Cold War. Oh no, we just plunged into a hot one.
Sounds about right. I remember 1991 very well. I was in high school. Don’t forget that was the year we won desert storm. 115 days. Very few people got killed on our side.
@@Hun_Uinaq The whole fall of 1990 was the buildup with invasion in January 1991. I graduated in May 1991 and most of that year we didn't know how it would turn out. You are right that we didn't lose many, but we didn't know that it would be that way until February. A few months in a high schooler's life seem like eternity and it was 6 months of wondering if we'd be drafted (yes, high schoolers are dramatic like that). It's just funny to hear my kids talk about how wonderful the 80s were and all that and I'm thinking Iran-Contra, Cold War, Dirty War, IRA, Basque terrorists, Shining Path, FARC, famine in Ethiopia, New Coke, AIDS, Just Say No, James Brady, John Lennon, etc. (yes, those are the most random things that float around in my brain when I think of the 80s). Same with 1990-1991. Some good, some bad.
Okay so basically Todd’s nemesis are as follows Bieber Chris Brown Adam Levine Bryan Adams Mike Love Peter Cetera (…and Chicago in general) All the WGWAG songs
@@alex_flamer Is it because both the douchebags of leon and chance the rhymer are both assholes? Maybe they both saw what bryan adams did, and both decided to just follow his bad idea? Proving that both the Douchebags Of Leonidas and Chauncey The Rider, are assholes who shouldn't have fans in the first place. I mean, c'mon, they did what bryan adams did in the 90's!
According to the guy who wrote The Postman Song, the postman is supposed to be God. I don't know if that tidbit makes the song better or worse but I thought it was worth bringing up.
@@searchingformyself5319 I am on the spectrum and one, fuck you, we are not an insult and two, yeah, I have no fucking idea. Cause God sends messages? Doesn't work, he doesn't relay them between people. Edit: After finding Searching for Myself in the comments randomly antagonizing people, I have come to realize they're just an aggressive little shitstain looking for attention.
What I say to that is "You're *almost* right, Todd." What it's actually saying is "God is too far away to care about anything we do; will probably only notice if we set off a nuke or do something else that could be seen from outer space." The reason Christians aren't complaining? Because Todd's definitely right about one thing: when you think about it, that's HORRIBLE theology! Even aside from being thoroughly un-Biblical, Bette Midler's message in that song is really only comforting to serial rapists, mass murderers, Hollywood movie producers, and other psychopaths: "Beat, rape, torture, and murder anyone you want! God will only notice (let alone potentially do anything about) your evil deeds if they're roughly Hiroshima or Nagasaki-sized!"
I remember Timmy T. and Stevie B., this list jogged my memory and yes these songs were huge back then. You have to remember, the early 90's was a transition phase between the synth pop of the 80's and the emerging musical styles soon to explode in the 90's. These two artists were just 80's sound run off that appealed to us back then.
i was a 4 year old hanging out on my mama’s bed and i clearly remember seeing a lot of these videos on VH1 - *especially* rico suave. but never heard of those timmy/stevie t/b
I was 14 in 1991, and I've never even remotely heard of Timmy T or that song. We have different definitions of huge lol. I'd consider every other song on this list (except Stevie B's) to be huge.
They were both part of the freestyle genre of music - which I think was fairly confined to the US coasts. (I grew up in NY so I was well aware of the genre.)
I graduated in 1991 and you are correct that both were huge and that it was just reheated pop synth from the 80s. I guess they contrasted with the likes of Vanilla Ice, C & C Music Factory, and Whitney much the way that Alicia Keys and Billie Eilish run counter to the crowd (only they had way less talent). Sometimes you need the drippy droopy ballads or depressing/depressed songs to give you a break.
#1 was even worse in Canada because radio stations are required by law to play Bryan Adams. I really hated that song back in the day but now I have softened to it over time. Probably due to Stockholm Syndrome.
@@friedchicken297 by Canadian law, radio stations are *required* to play a certain percentage of Canadian music. For the most part, I don't mind, cuz there's a wealth of actual talent in this country. But then you've got your Bryan Adams's, your Shania Twain's, and your Arkells ... they can jump off a cliff into a pit of spikes and hellfire for all I care
@@leeoliver9322 On the one hand, that could/should mean an abundance of Carly Rae Jepsen, The Band, Arcade Fire, and Joni Mitchell. On the other hand, it also means Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Nickelback, and Bryan Adams on a loop until you beg for mercy.
Here in mainland Europe it was like 12 weeks, but still a torture. It was just in the middle of my teenage years and I religious followed the charts every week. eurodance / techno was just breaking through and I also liked grunge, another new genre. And what did we get : endless Brian Adams and Mariah Carey. It took me 5 years of therapy to get rid of the nightmares
I lived through it. Bryan Adams at No1 for a third of a year. But to be fair, the top selling singles in the UK in 1991 were all unmitigated dreadfulness. Except for the surprising success of the KLF. I looked it up and the top 5 singles of 1991 in the UK were Bryan Adams, Cher with 'The Shoop Shoop Song', Chesney Hawkes with 'The One and Only', Right Said Fred's 'I'm Too Sexy' and 'Do The Bartman' by The Simpsons. Three One Hit Wonders!
nice, I heard 3am eternal that year in a car on my way to tennis practice, but didn;t know who it was. took me years to discover, but I still listen to the klf to this day.
Bette Midler doesn't even have a religious background, which explains why From A Distance doesn't truly work as a religious song and as a Christian myself, I can fully justify with Todd's opinion to put that over other religious songs from 1991 on the list.
@@lenah9027 I haven't heard the whole song , I just thought since it's the same god it wouldn't matter. Th song definitely has a very strong Hallmark movie-vibe though :D It's not as batshit insane as Christmas Shoes, but she does have that terrifying smile lol
@@mymiki3646 the lyrics from the song are: "God is watching us God is watching us God is watching us from a distance" how is that not religious? I just think it's weird because I was raised Jewish and it's not a very Jewish kind of song. Judaism doesn't believe that god is at a distance from us. It's clearly a song that was recorded for mass appeal to Christians.
Oh yea. Synths and drum machines were hard to program back in the day, so producers used the default settings a lot. And they wore out their welcome FAST.
BLACKIESBOY I know the Prodigy are great but I wouldn't exactly call Charly, Everybody into the Place or Out of Space POP! Never mind No Good {Start the Dance}, Voodoo People, Poison, Firestarter and Breathe!
When Timmy T isn’t making cheesy ballads like the one you covered, he was indeed making the Latin Freestyle stuff akin to what you described. In fact, the first two singles he released prior (Time After Time, What Will I Do) leans much closer to said style. (Sidenote: in the age of social media, Timmy T gained a new following from dabbling on the typical classic UA-cam stuff, such as short commentary, amateur film making, and comedy skits. In one of his videos, he did a piano cover of The Postman Song!)
@@FIXTREMEYes, it is. Thought I was the only one who thought that at all. That's why "Hercules" is one of my favorite disney movies. And because of how well the level was represented in the Kingdom Hearts games. Edit: I mean, fighting Cloud and Sephiroth? That's cool.
Side Note: Wayne's World got a huge boost when they did a Justify My Love parody with Madonna on SNL. It really put W.W. over the top. They probably never would've done the movie if it wasn't for that.
@@WildHeart7777 Uh, you're forgetting Wayne's World 2; as well, ma'am. Don't forget, BOTH Wayne's World movies are hilarious and worth your time. So if a crappy Madonna song, and their hilarious parody was how both Mike Myers and Dana Carvey both decided to give us, not 1, but TWO of the best early to mid 90's comedy movies ever, then I'm ok with that. I just wish we'd gotten a Wayne's World 3 though... but not saying we NEED one, but I've always wondered how a Wayne's World 3 would look. I mean; we got a 3rd Bill and Ted movie, and a 3rd Bad Boys movie, and that one was way better than the 2nd Bad Boys movie; so who knows? But even if it never happens, we'll always have the hilarious moments that both Wayne's World movies gave us.
Hey that Christian guy with a mullet is Michael W Smith. My grandmother's sister's granddaughter (so my cousin I guess?) married his son so I went to their wedding at his house (well his barn on his property) and the dude is loooooooaded. He's a huge deal in the Christian music scene apparently and is still kicking and doing very well. And now we're related by marriage. And I'm an atheist. Lol. Life is weird. *"from a distance" starts playing*
The PatriAgent my grandmother's sister's granddaughter's husband's father actually. lol I know there's no easy word for me to explain that with but that's our relation haha
Part 1 just doesn't show up at all for me. It's probably on that other hosting site Todd uses, but there's no link for it here, annoyingly Goddamn youtube and its idiotic copyright deletion shit.
It means that someone has tried to take it down withoug much justification. UA-cam will still avoid tacking it down in the U.S but must take it down in other countries for leagle reasons
Bryan Adams pretty much cannot handle criticism, which is why he threatened to sue AllMusic unless they deleted his files. I mean, if a critic reviewing site that like gives him bad reviews for some of his albums, he should've just set it aside so he could still keep making music instead of getting all butthurt and suing his critics. In fact, I don't even trust or care for critics at certain points considering how close-minded and opinionated they can be with their musical views.
1:21 I can elaborate "One more Try" was a "regional " radio hit that was really popular in the beginning of interactive tv entertainment this song was very popular on a Cable channel called "The BOX("Music Television YOU control" was their tag line),this song was still distributed on CASSETTE tape as a Single.He sometimes tours with old school Miami Freestyle Acts:Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam,Expose,Full Force,etc.the guy was kicking around as a journey musician for a lot of years."One More Try" was literally his Last Chance. Or he was going to quit..if the article I read when I was in high school is to be belived
Yep, Timmy T was a product of the cassingle era. Maybe the ultimate cassingle artist. And a whole lot of us got a whole lot of trim to that song. Good times, man. Good times.
1991 was a weird year. I mean on had alt rock bubbling up in the charts, 2Pac and Cypress Hill dropping their debut albums, RHCP hitting the big time with Blood Sugar Sex Magik, GnR dropping Use Your Illusion I and II. On the other you got the shit Todd went through plus much more.
Laughed so hard when you sprung bryan adams on us. He's a name you can just drop on people and it's guarenteed to get some sort of reaction. As a Canadian, this amuses me greatly.
So Mr. Adams was just cool n' the gang over Family Guy doing a parody of his song all the way through, even after Brain Griffin said it was the worst then he's ever heard EVER! But AllMusic cannot post ANY information about him; period. LMAO I guess he doesn't exist then....GOOD!
does it really deserve to be number #2 though? i get the lyrics are...odd, but its own musical form and her voice, its a pretty beautiful song. shouldnt be thrown on the shit list just cuz Todd thinks the lyrics are morbid.
I had scoliosis surgery and being home schooled for most of 1990 and the early months of 1991 and I remembered One More Try and Because I Love You quite well. A lot of the soft rock and adult contemporary music calmed my anxiety down during that time because of being out of school, going through a painful surgery, getting bullied when I returned by wearing a large brace, and the political stress of the Gulf War. (My father was away from home not on the battlefield but one of the people building the aircraft that was used) and the end of the Cold War so becoming aware of the world news around me for one of the earliest times in my life. So that music soothed me.
Speaking as someone in the UK, the early nineties was when music really seemed to diverge between the US and the UK. After the 80s pop thing totally burnt out, in the US it was replaced by stuff like in this video (a lot of which didn't chart in the UK), whereas the UK charts started to become filled with rave music for a year or two (none of which charted on the US hot 100)
80s UK music stations played a lot more European songs (obviously) but also had a lot more songs by Euro artists that had number 1 hits in the US but were essentially 1 or 2 hit wonders in the US but enjoyed much more success in Europe, Canada and Japan. Rick Astley's Take Me to Your Heart wasn't even released as a single in the US, nor was Kylie and Jason's duet as far as I know. Many a-ha songs were missing from US airwaves for the most part, and I once called in to a radio station and requested Julian Lennon's Too Late for Goodbyes in the US and they were like, "who's that?" Very few stations in the US near me do play "obscure" UK hits (i.e., hits in the UK but never or hardly ever played here in the US after its initial release), including a local college station that plays a eclectic mix. Other "Jill" or pop rock stations used to, as well, once in a while but they went off the air. I almost never hear Level 42, Climey Fisher and Boy Meets Girl in the US. If you do, then please point me in the right direction, e.g., station and online website, if any. Thanks in advance!
Roman Jones Yeah the whole theme of that song is mindnumbingly stupid & gets on my nerves too. However I'm also kinda annoyed with ppl using bad things happening to good ppl as an argument the God Doesn't exist.
Honestly, that Timmy T song sounds like it was intended for Milli Vanilli to perform, but we all know what happened to them, so they just got this random guy to perform it
10:10 “cause i need to watch things die, from a distaaaaance. Vicariously I live while the whole world dies” never thought a christian singer would have basically the same lyrics as a tool song.
When I saw number 1 I threw my phone in the air and went "finally someone who agrees with me" Nearly everybody I know; my wife, in-laws, my parents are all ao defensive about it and I always thought it was a massive pile of wet garbage. Screw that song and screw that movie too
I love the piano/guitar solo in the outro. Make that the entire song. Then it’s fine. But the lyrics are absolutely a pile of cold mashed potatoes with no butter or salt.
Same…parents always turn the radio up when its on, and i f*ing hate it. And for the record, i genuinely like several of his other hits like Heaven, Run to You and Its Only Love. Just cant bear Everything I do.
Michael W. Smith... Like Richard Marx inhaling helium. Michael Bolton... I've seen him in concert three times. The Time, Love & Tenderness Tour, the Timeless (The Classics) Tour, (got the t-shirts to prove it! lol) and just a few years ago I saw him again. Let me tell you, he puts on one hell of a show. It just dawned on me a few days ago that your channel's acronym is T.I.T.S. Well-played, sir!
'From A Distance' actually came out as some sort of inspirational song during the first Gulf War, which is why it sounds the way it did. We were too busy freaking out because we were fighting in a distant land again--and we still had 'Vietnam-itis' during this time.
How? How, you ask? Because bland ballads were the top trend that year. I remember HATING 99% of the hit music that year. Oh, and thank you for naming everything I DOOOOO, I do it for YOUUUUUUUU as the worst. It ruined the end of Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, and that movie was no prize.
I was born late '90, and my parents cited "From a Distance" as one of the biggest songs when I was born. I think it held a lot of sentimental value to people at the time (in USA, at least) because of the Persian Gulf War; people wanted peace, and the song speaks to that sentiment. There's a lyric in there that's like, "from a distance, you look like my friend even though we are at war" ... So that's just my response to Todd's why it got big at the time
From a distance is one of those songs like Leyla by Clapton that get real annoying really fast. Overplayed as well, and like Leyla, it's too repetitive, like why do we need the riff or hook lone more than twice in the song...? As soon as she started singing I changed stations on the radio
LOL! You know, when I was a kid, I had exactly the same problem with "From a Distance". I remember how horrified my mom, who liked the song, was when I went on a little rant about it. However, when I was a teenager I heard it again, and gave it a bit more thought. I realized that maybe the "distance" that she speaks of isn't distance in terms of space, but time. If that's so, then it means that God sees us for who we could be, given the necessary time to grow both as a species and individuals, which is actually a rather sweet sentiment. I really hope that was how it was meant, because a literal interpretation is pretty damned depressing. Of course, I've heard other Christians singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (which is one of my favorite songs, BTW) as if it were just a sweet hymn, so I think a lot of them just don't bother to think lyrics through as a general rule. :-/
Searching For Myself Since Prince died, his VEVO Channel has been uploading songs. And at least Prince allowed information about himself to be available on AllMusic, unlike Mr. Adams
@@searchingformyself5319 There's a difference between keeping your song from being on the internet and keeping all information about your career off the internet. Bryan Adams is an infected butthole piercing.
Dude, I recently subscribed and have been binge watching your vids. I like your style. Tell it like it is and no bullshit and have some fun doing it. Otherwise you wouldn't be doing it. So keep on keepin on.
I loved the music of the early 90’s. It was probably the last time we had a wide variety of sounds on Top 40 Radio. We had everything… New Jack Swing, Adult Contemporary, Hip-Hop, Hair Bands, Metal, Smooth Jazz, Alternative, Techno, Grunge, Country, Pop, Contemporary R&B, etc… damn near every genre had big name stars. Now we just have like 6 popular artists at a time, and almost every genre sounds the same 🤷♂️
"God is deeply uninformed of your current situation" Just makes you want to go to church doesn't it? Such an uplifting message. Just like I am deeply disturbed by that garbage Better Midler calls music.
This is prolly the most slept-on top 10 list he's done, the beginning had me dying of laughter holy shit Videos like this (and looking at the actual charts) really make you realize the majority of pop music in the 70s, 80s, and 90s was really awful and the stuff we all enjoy now really wasn't that popular in comparison
Given Todd’s frustration over list requests, do you sometimes hope that he eventually tackles the best and worst of as many past years in pop music as possible?
My personal bottom 10, using the same eligibility rules (had to be on the year-end Hot 100): 10) "One More Try" - Timmy T A limp want-you-back ballad that's certainly more competent than some of the other songs on this list, but still not worth listening to when so many better songs in the same vein exist. 9) "Iesha" - Another Bad Creation The production keeps this from being even lower, but the unpolished children's vocals keep it on the list. Not pleasant. 8) "Play That Funky Music" - Vanilla Ice Good job comparing yourself to some of history's greatest villains, Rob. Great idea when you're in a majority-Black genre. 7) "Rico Suave" - Gerardo I get the feeling this song was meant as a joke, but ain't shit funny about it. It's more just embarrassing. 6) "I'm Not In Love" - Will To Power The 10cc original is a transcendent piece, one of the absolute best of the 1970s. This cover... isn't. Everything that worked in the original is stripped away. Completely charmless. 5) "The Way You Do the Things You Do" - UB40 Speaking of charmless covers... UB40's success is honestly baffling. They were basically the Pat Boone of reggae. 4) "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)" - Bryan Adams Yep, not even in the bottom three. That's how awful this year was. Bryan Adams was the scourge of radio for a good decade and a half. Thank goodness the public at large ditched him before the millennium. 3) "Because I Love You (The Postman Song)" - Stevie B Not-so-fun fact: According to Billboard, this is the 79th-biggest hit of all time. Out of the entire all-time Hot 100, this may be the worst of the bunch. Awful singing, horrendous production, and a confounding title to boot. No wonder this one's been forgotten. 2) "From a Distance" - Bette Midler You hit the nail on the head with this one. The message it conveys is virtually the opposite of what was likely intended, and the song crashes and burns because of it. Of course, it doesn't help that Bette's performance is so off-putting. 1) "More Than Words" - Extreme Yep. Before Gary Cherone ruined Van Halen, he put out one of the absolute sappiest, most underwritten, and most irritating love songs of all time. Everything from the platitudinous lyrics to the sparser than sparse instrumentation to the grating vocal harmonies make this my most-hated hit of the year. Gary, Nuno, you two are great musicians otherwise, but this one is an absolute turd.
I can get behind the entire list except one. "More Than Words" absolutely bitch-slaps 98 other songs on the 1991 Top 100. I can grant you not liking a Hair Metal acoustic ballad, but even if you hate it, you can't honestly tell me that Gary and Nuno made a worse song than an all-time worst like "Everything I Do (I Do It for You)". Maybe I'm just a huge mark for Hair Metal (and particularly for Extreme), but I'd put "More Than Words" at the number two best slot. Literally the only song that beats it is "Wind of Change" by Scorpions.
I think the context of when From A Distance was released is important to remember. I mean it is overblown, the message is all over the place, and was overplayed at the time (though not as bad as Everything I Do I Do It For You or I Will Always Love You the following year). But it was released during the Gulf War, and at the time when many were anxious and worried about friends and family members going to war and so much awareness of suffering throughout the world, the song did provide comfort and semblance of faith. It It's like asking why One Sweet Day by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men was so popular in 1995. Well because it was released the same year as the Oklahoma City Bombing. People were emotionally affected by that and they turned to music to provide comfort.
I actually kinda dig "I'm Your Baby Tonight", and not just because it has a similar progression to the X-Men animated series theme. I've always liked Whitney's upbeat, energetic stuff, sometimes more than her ballads. "How Will I Know", "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)", the underrated and hard-edged "My Name Is Not Susan", her cover of "Step By Step", and the remix of "It's Not Right, But It's Okay", are all super energetic and deliver a nice shot of adrenaline. Mixing her powerful voice with some powerful instrumentation has always been a good way to get into my good books. I even like the remix of "I Will Always Love You" that was released on her Greates Hits album. I'm weird, I know.
I can hear the X-Men Theme on there. Not weird at all: I liked the Baywatch song "I'll Be Ready" by Jim Jamison because its piano part sounded like Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is" and there was another pair of songs that were like that but they escape me. (And no, it was not Ray Parker Jr.'s Ghostbusters and Huey Lewis' IWAND; it was something else.)
Between the music on this list and the Hair Bands on AOR at the time, it's no wonder that I was driven towards Thrash Metal and Alt-Rock, even before Nirvana's "Nevermind" blew up. Todd, be glad that you missed out on #s 4 and 5. And I don't know about you, but I think one thing that adds to the ickyness of "From A Distance" is that it came out during the lead-up to the Gulf War, so I associate it with that. And putting "The One And Only" at the end of the video was a stroke of genius.
Every Heartbeat isn't a Christian song though it's a love song. All her previous albums before Heart in Motion were Christian songs and she was hated by the Christian community for releasing a pop album that didn't center entirely around some god.
There is a lot of upbeat swinging Christian music in blues music such as all that southern gospel stuff such as Spirit of God by Beth Hart. It's the bland stuff that's a turn off.
I research this era quite a bit; theres a mention in SPIN Magazine from the time about how even 'serious music fans' indulged in the string of hits Amy Grant had in 1991-2. I was surprised to find out she had five top 40 singles off that album, I had never heard of them before this episode.
UB40 started life as a bunch of unemployed youths who decided to get off their asses and start a group.Their first album ‘signing off’ was true to their reggae roots. Following advice from managers, producers etc they fell into the ‘white reggae ‘ trap.
"Justify My Love" is even worse when you consider the fact that the beat wasn't even theirs - they ripped it from a Public Enemy song. If you want to hear a good version of Justify My Love go listen to "Instrumental No. 2" by My Bloody Valentine.
I heard the Postman Song in the wild at the grocery store last night and I had to hunt this video down just to confirm it is a real song that is played on the radio apparently.
0:05 "Mom can we have Phil Collins?" "We have Phil Collins at home." Phil Collins at home: Also, I love that the #5 choice comes on at exactly 5 seconds into the video.
Come on, Todd! Timmy T's "One More Try" was a staple of our Junior High dances. This was the song that would play as the guys would stand on one end of the gym, the girls on the other end. You'd have your buddy go over to the girl you liked and ask if she wanted to dance with you. If you didn't get humiliated, you'd both make your way to the center of the gym and you'd put your hands barely on her waist, she'd put her hands on your shoulders, but both too afraid to touch bodies... and you'd sway back and forth awkwardly, as the dozens of parents and teachers watched, never to make it to first base. Oh, the memories! PS - Timmy T and Stevie B were both big in the Freestyle scene. They have better known songs that are upbeat and closer to the traditional freestyle sound ("Time After Time" by Timmy T. was decent)... but as with rock, rap, and most genres in the late 80s and early 90s, it was envogue to play overly sentimental mushy ballads. PPS - "From a Distance" was the worst song for our Junior High dances... We'd be all cozy with our sweethearts, dancing, getting closer, about to get to first base... then the part at the end would come and Bette would repeatedly remind us that "God is Watching Us, God is Watching Us..." And we'd suddenly feel guilty and awkward. And, yes, I did attend a Catholic School; we had that guilt hammered into us! PPPS - And Timmy T has street cred. He guest starred in an episode of Full House!
There's a sketch from an old Scottish show called Scotch and Wry, where Rikki Fulton as Robin Hood shoots Brian Adams (played by Tony Roper) when it gets to the minor key part. It's one of my favourites lmao
I didn't know where you were going with this no.1 choice, but then it made sense, and was hilarious. I love that song actually, but yeah, you can have that one. Great video
Everything I Do is actually a very important song in Canadian History because it caused the laws around Can Con to change. Basically this song went to number one in Canada but wasn’t allowed to be considered a Canadian song because Bryan Adams only performed the song and was one of a handful of writers on the song and the rest of the writers were not Canadian. So Bryan Adams sued the CRTC over it and had them change the laws so if there was a writer or composer on a track who was Canadian it would count towards half a point on the MAPL (Music, Artist, Performance, and Lyrics) rating.
Timmy T looks like Drake ate Josh.
Poetic Abomination There’s no better way to describe Timmy T. I thought Timmy T was Timmy from The Fairly Oddparents there for a second.
LMAO 😂 😂
Or like John Cusack ate both of them
Rose Weldon Or if Kevin Costner got consumed by Timmy after he ate Drake and Josh, if he ate John Cusack.
Fun fact, Drake once played an older Timmy T
There's a reason grunge exploded at the end of '91. The music scene needed to be scoured with sandpaper.
More like it needed to be firebombed like Dresden.
Bah. 91 was great. So many great metal albums, hiphop, pop, and rave songs. Gnr released their 2 use your illusion for God's sake. Charts always have shitty songs. That doesn't bother.
@@lubenretrolletarios7901it did have many great albums, but the CHART scene needed to be scoured with sandpaper
@@lubenretrolletarios7901 then look at the charts in 92. They have some of those songs
i remember, as clear as day, running onto the sports field near my parents' house and screaming BRYAN ADAMS ISN'T #1 ANYMORE!!!!!! and all my friends cheering. 16 bastard weeks.
Mark Goodier was the Radio 1 chart show host at the time... and the announcement went like this: "after sixteen weeks, Bryan Adams is down three to Number 4". The song that replaced it at the top was "The Fly" by U2. Anyway, here's the link to the Radio 1 Top 40 show from that week (27th October 1991): www.mixcloud.com/StephenTheRadioKid2000/radio-1-uk-top-40-chart-with-mark-goodier-27101991/
@@stephenemmett9753 First of all: what an upgrade. One of the worst hit songs of the '90s replaced by a track from one of the best albums of the '90s (I prefer Mysterious Ways, but The Fly is also great). Second, I'd like to imagine the first announcement being greeted like that video of the sports bar where everyone just starts jumping and screaming and waving their beers around after the team gets a goal.
@sevendaughters
Meat Loafs I would do anything for Love was longer on the Number 1 Spot and so was The 4 Non Blondes Whats Up.
After 6 weeks I didn't believe that it was still going.
16 weeks.
Every music show and chart rundown ruined.
For nearly four friggin' months.
And how, after 14 weeks, were people still going 'Oh, I've just heard that Bryan Adams song - its quite good, I think I'll buy a copy'. What had they been doing for all those months?
@@sheldoncooper8199 I don't think that's true. Anything for Love was no1 for a while, but nothing like 16 weeks. Maybe 8-9 week? What's Up was nowhere close. Maybe a couple of weeks.
Apparently Bryan Adams got so hurt he tried to erase his music career without realizing that's not how it works. Streisand effect indeed.
Maybe we should've let him 👀
@Tom Ffrench Run to You went pretty hard too
"Fight the real enemy" made me laugh out loud. You named the right villain of 1991.
I'm not sure I got the early 90s music reference of "fight the real enemy" the first time around. Worth a Google if you're too young to get it.
Oh my god...Midler's little grin and wide eye at the end of the song is so profoundly disturbing. This isn't a positive song! At least have the grace to look solemn, thoughtful instead of grinning at me like you're auditioning for Winifred Sanderson
I read this as that part came on, and it's EXACTLY as you described it. Chilling
The song is actually the clever tale of a woman driven to madness by her own sense of cosmic insignificance and has adopted a persona of incredibly forced happiness as a coping mechanism
"God doesn't give a shit about you", Bette said, making a shit-eating grin.
@@TheImperiusv thats true though
@Esther Sparrow I apply that quote to the Newsboys' "God's Not Dead". Holy fucking shit
Just one of Timmy Turners time traveling mishaps. That's why nobody remembers. Altered timeline and whatnot.
Actually, now that I think about it, something about the song does seem a little bit familiar. Ever so slightly. Certainly more than "The Postman Song".
bubbaliciousfisheyes Then, how do you explain that Stevie or Stewie guy, singing about how he loves his postman, or wherever the hell it was about?! I still agree with you that this is just one of Timmy's time traveling mishaps, but how do you remember it then?
At least the bassline to 'One More Try' is catchy.
Because TITS told him about it
@@QJ89 because it's the same tune as "No Woman No Cry" only slowed way the fuck down and sang like a boring white dude
From a distance, Todd is watching music videos and making snarky comments.
Isn't that comforting?
Modonna went completely over Todd's head. She was saying you should enjoy yourself during sex and not depend on your partner to get off. In hook up culture you focus on getting your own nut and less on your partners experience. It's a selfish outlook but it is very common especially with women who hook up often. As in "dont depend on him/her to get yours".
The more Todd videos I watch, the more I realize just how little he understands sexual relationships outside of very basic and vanilla references.
David Abest Did you know you could comment on the video instead of a comment that doesn’t relate to your comment?
@@mymiki3646 What the fuck is it then? Cuz it seems to very blatantly be religious.
@@mymiki3646 the song literally has the lyric "God is watching you from a distance"
@@davidabest7195 What the hell kind of twisted sicko analyzes Todd in the Shadows' sexuality?!?
OK, as someone who's old enough to remember 1991, I think there's one thing Todd doesn't get about that year: It was stupidly, ludicrously, incredibly *optimistic.* We had won the cold war, defeated communism, and brought peace to the ENTIRE. GODDAMN. PLANET. The nuclear doomsday clock was reset. We were safe. We spent an entire fucking year patting ourselves on the back so hard that our goddamn arms dropped off. Because it was THAT fucking amazing that we legitimately were no longer in danger of flaming nuclear doom.
That's why the music has no edge. We had no edge. That's why songs like "From A Distance" and anything from Amy Grant actually charted. We really believed that the worst was behind us. Want to understand the mentality of 1991? Listen to Jesus Jones' "Right Here, Right Now." Understand that that song was 100% sincere. "Right here, right now... there is no other place I would want to be. Right here, right now... watching the world wake up from history!" For a brief moment, we BELIEVED that shit. Absolutely. Utterly. Resolutely.
Reality would catch up with us. Rodney King would happen. Waco would happen. Kosovo would happen. Blowjob impeachment would happen. But for a moment, Americans were absolutely convinced that we had just saved the world, and we spent a year celebrating that shit.
And THAT is why "From A Distance" charted.
...agree with all you said....but looking back it was an awesome year to be Abel to feel like that.
PS August 1990 Saddam invaded Kuwait, Jan 1991 the gulf war... and that wasn't even so bad in the big picture...
@@Dilley_G45 The whole time reading that (much of which I agree with) I was thinking that we all thought we'd be drafted for the Gulf War (I was a senior in high school). Yay, no more Cold War. Oh no, we just plunged into a hot one.
Sounds about right. I remember 1991 very well. I was in high school. Don’t forget that was the year we won desert storm. 115 days. Very few people got killed on our side.
@@Hun_Uinaq The whole fall of 1990 was the buildup with invasion in January 1991. I graduated in May 1991 and most of that year we didn't know how it would turn out. You are right that we didn't lose many, but we didn't know that it would be that way until February. A few months in a high schooler's life seem like eternity and it was 6 months of wondering if we'd be drafted (yes, high schoolers are dramatic like that). It's just funny to hear my kids talk about how wonderful the 80s were and all that and I'm thinking Iran-Contra, Cold War, Dirty War, IRA, Basque terrorists, Shining Path, FARC, famine in Ethiopia, New Coke, AIDS, Just Say No, James Brady, John Lennon, etc. (yes, those are the most random things that float around in my brain when I think of the 80s). Same with 1990-1991. Some good, some bad.
That is the best explanation I have ever heard
Timmy T is from my hometown I see him at my local Starbucks sometimes.
SociallyAccept98 Was he getting One More Latte?
My MIKI Because he was 7 when it was popular.
@@mymiki3646 Because he probably never heard it
lurch321 🎶One more chai...
The only reason I know Timmy T. was because my mom has this in her playlist.
Bryan Adams stands tall as one of the greatest enemies of Todd's Pop Song Reviews. Alongside such luminaries as Chris Brown and Mike Love
Don't forget Maroon 5/Adam Levine Todd hates him/them to.
@@RenaldyCalixte Lets be honest, Maroon 5 is just Adam levine with a band name at this point
You forgot
BIIIIIIIEBERRRRRRRRR
Okay so basically Todd’s nemesis are as follows
Bieber
Chris Brown
Adam Levine
Bryan Adams
Mike Love
Peter Cetera (…and Chicago in general)
All the WGWAG songs
Cat Stevens too
Yanno... I'm fine with Bryan Adams purging himself from the documented history of music
@Cat Egorical Damn it...
I wouldn't be surprised if his actions basically inspired Kings of Leon and Chance the Rapper to do the same thing to MTV music news in 2017.
@@alex_flamer Is it because both the douchebags of leon and chance the rhymer are both assholes? Maybe they both saw what bryan adams did, and both decided to just follow his bad idea? Proving that both the Douchebags Of Leonidas and Chauncey The Rider, are assholes who shouldn't have fans in the first place. I mean, c'mon, they did what bryan adams did in the 90's!
@@shawnfields2369 "Douchebags Of Leonidas and Chauncey The Rider" 😆
@@williamrichmond814 Thanks, you're too kind.
According to the guy who wrote The Postman Song, the postman is supposed to be God. I don't know if that tidbit makes the song better or worse but I thought it was worth bringing up.
... I'm just confused. GOD brought him a letter from the girl he loves?
+BLACKIESBOY If you can't understand why someone would use the postman to represent "God", then clearly you're on the spectrum.
+Searching For Myself
I have no idea how God relates to a postman in any way. Nice job using autism as an insult, by the way.
@@searchingformyself5319 I am on the spectrum and one, fuck you, we are not an insult and two, yeah, I have no fucking idea. Cause God sends messages? Doesn't work, he doesn't relay them between people.
Edit: After finding Searching for Myself in the comments randomly antagonizing people, I have come to realize they're just an aggressive little shitstain looking for attention.
@@searchingformyself5319 So explain if to us all
"He may as well have named this song, 'I super-duper love you more than infinity.'"
I love this 3000.
"God is deeply misinformed about your current situation..."
Todd just won the internet for me.
Apparently, the almighty, all-powerful God has astigmatism.
Bette Midler confirmed for a cultist of Azathoth the Blind Idiot God at the Heart of Existence
LOVE IT!!!!! I'm surprised some MURIKAN christian nutbars haven't threatened you with HELLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!
God this is Todd. 😇
What I say to that is "You're *almost* right, Todd." What it's actually saying is "God is too far away to care about anything we do; will probably only notice if we set off a nuke or do something else that could be seen from outer space." The reason Christians aren't complaining? Because Todd's definitely right about one thing: when you think about it, that's HORRIBLE theology! Even aside from being thoroughly un-Biblical, Bette Midler's message in that song is really only comforting to serial rapists, mass murderers, Hollywood movie producers, and other psychopaths: "Beat, rape, torture, and murder anyone you want! God will only notice (let alone potentially do anything about) your evil deeds if they're roughly Hiroshima or Nagasaki-sized!"
I remember Timmy T. and Stevie B., this list jogged my memory and yes these songs were huge back then. You have to remember, the early 90's was a transition phase between the synth pop of the 80's and the emerging musical styles soon to explode in the 90's. These two artists were just 80's sound run off that appealed to us back then.
i was a 4 year old hanging out on my mama’s bed and i clearly remember seeing a lot of these videos on VH1 - *especially* rico suave. but never heard of those timmy/stevie t/b
I was 14 in 1991, and I've never even remotely heard of Timmy T or that song. We have different definitions of huge lol. I'd consider every other song on this list (except Stevie B's) to be huge.
They were both part of the freestyle genre of music - which I think was fairly confined to the US coasts. (I grew up in NY so I was well aware of the genre.)
Stevie B is a legend in Freestyle.... Spring Love? Geez, man.
I graduated in 1991 and you are correct that both were huge and that it was just reheated pop synth from the 80s. I guess they contrasted with the likes of Vanilla Ice, C & C Music Factory, and Whitney much the way that Alicia Keys and Billie Eilish run counter to the crowd (only they had way less talent). Sometimes you need the drippy droopy ballads or depressing/depressed songs to give you a break.
#1 was even worse in Canada because radio stations are required by law to play Bryan Adams. I really hated that song back in the day but now I have softened to it over time. Probably due to Stockholm Syndrome.
I like covers of it...but not the original.
That sounds annoying lol
"Required by law to listen to Bryan Adams"
Sounds like a law enacted by INGSOC
@@friedchicken297 by Canadian law, radio stations are *required* to play a certain percentage of Canadian music. For the most part, I don't mind, cuz there's a wealth of actual talent in this country. But then you've got your Bryan Adams's, your Shania Twain's, and your Arkells ... they can jump off a cliff into a pit of spikes and hellfire for all I care
@@leeoliver9322 On the one hand, that could/should mean an abundance of Carly Rae Jepsen, The Band, Arcade Fire, and Joni Mitchell. On the other hand, it also means Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Nickelback, and Bryan Adams on a loop until you beg for mercy.
True story: “Everything I do, I Do it for You” is the BIGGEST HIT SINGLE OF ALL TIME IN THE U.K.! 16 goddamn weeks! We got off easy!
I'm so sorry to hear that.
*for consecutive weeks spent at the top of the charts
Here in mainland Europe it was like 12 weeks, but still a torture. It was just in the middle of my teenage years and I religious followed the charts every week. eurodance / techno was just breaking through and I also liked grunge, another new genre. And what did we get : endless Brian Adams and Mariah Carey. It took me 5 years of therapy to get rid of the nightmares
I lived through it. Bryan Adams at No1 for a third of a year. But to be fair, the top selling singles in the UK in 1991 were all unmitigated dreadfulness. Except for the surprising success of the KLF.
I looked it up and the top 5 singles of 1991 in the UK were Bryan Adams, Cher with 'The Shoop Shoop Song', Chesney Hawkes with 'The One and Only', Right Said Fred's 'I'm Too Sexy' and 'Do The Bartman' by The Simpsons.
Three One Hit Wonders!
nice, I heard 3am eternal that year in a car on my way to tennis practice, but didn;t know who it was. took me years to discover, but I still listen to the klf to this day.
Bette Midler doesn't even have a religious background, which explains why From A Distance doesn't truly work as a religious song and as a Christian myself, I can fully justify with Todd's opinion to put that over other religious songs from 1991 on the list.
she's also jewish, which makes it weird
@@lenah9027 Why?
@@apanapandottir205 Because it's a very Christian song, and the sort of thing most Jewish people would feel weird singing.
@@lenah9027 I haven't heard the whole song , I just thought since it's the same god it wouldn't matter. Th song definitely has a very strong Hallmark movie-vibe though :D It's not as batshit insane as Christmas Shoes, but she does have that terrifying smile lol
@@mymiki3646
the lyrics from the song are:
"God is watching us
God is watching us
God is watching us from a distance"
how is that not religious?
I just think it's weird because I was raised Jewish and it's not a very Jewish kind of song. Judaism doesn't believe that god is at a distance from us. It's clearly a song that was recorded for mass appeal to Christians.
Is that nude Gollum silhouette thing supposed to be erotic? Because I actually laughed when I saw it.
Is it just me or does most early 90s pop music sound like it uses the same synth and beat track?
+A Certain Anime Theory Making Girl A LOT of it used drum samples from 808 drum machines, maybe that's why.
chicagoakland Maybe...
Oh yea. Synths and drum machines were hard to program back in the day, so producers used the default settings a lot. And they wore out their welcome FAST.
Check out the band Prodigy. Sure, they used a lot of the same beats, but they really pioneered the way to use electronic instruments.
BLACKIESBOY I know the Prodigy are great but I wouldn't exactly call Charly, Everybody into the Place or Out of Space POP!
Never mind No Good {Start the Dance}, Voodoo People, Poison, Firestarter and Breathe!
When Timmy T isn’t making cheesy ballads like the one you covered, he was indeed making the Latin Freestyle stuff akin to what you described. In fact, the first two singles he released prior (Time After Time, What Will I Do) leans much closer to said style.
(Sidenote: in the age of social media, Timmy T gained a new following from dabbling on the typical classic UA-cam stuff, such as short commentary, amateur film making, and comedy skits. In one of his videos, he did a piano cover of The Postman Song!)
Everything I Do (I Do It For You) was nominated for an oscar *HIDES*
Luckily it lost to Beauty And The Beast
Shittier lost to shit. That shows you how bad 19991 was.
Ahh come on, Peabo is pretty good
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves happens to be my absolute favorite Robin Hood movie.
Searching For Myself C'mon, the latter isn't THAT bad.
*And* it spent *SIXTEEN* weeks at Number One in the UK.
Michael Bolton was almost in Black Sabbath in the early 80s. Imagine THAT world.
Oh God
@@SpaceCadet45sIndeed
Michael Bolton had a few hard rock albums that slapped and put out two albums with Blackjack that are early 80s treasures.
Michael Bolton also sang Go The Distance, which is one of the best songs of all time
@@FIXTREMEYes, it is. Thought I was the only one who thought that at all. That's why "Hercules" is one of my favorite disney movies. And because of how well the level was represented in the Kingdom Hearts games.
Edit: I mean, fighting Cloud and Sephiroth? That's cool.
Side Note: Wayne's World got a huge boost when they did a Justify My Love parody with Madonna on SNL. It really put W.W. over the top. They probably never would've done the movie if it wasn't for that.
And thank god they did.
that was hysterical, thanks for reminding me 😂
@@WildHeart7777 Uh, you're forgetting Wayne's World 2; as well, ma'am. Don't forget, BOTH Wayne's World movies are hilarious and worth your time. So if a crappy Madonna song, and their hilarious parody was how both Mike Myers and Dana Carvey both decided to give us, not 1, but TWO of the best early to mid 90's comedy movies ever, then I'm ok with that. I just wish we'd gotten a Wayne's World 3 though... but not saying we NEED one, but I've always wondered how a Wayne's World 3 would look. I mean; we got a 3rd Bill and Ted movie, and a 3rd Bad Boys movie, and that one was way better than the 2nd Bad Boys movie; so who knows? But even if it never happens, we'll always have the hilarious moments that both Wayne's World movies gave us.
They also had Aerosmith on WW.
@@sakbrat1 Oh, yeah... and that was awesome. Thanks for reminding me how awesome Aerosmith are.
Hey that Christian guy with a mullet is Michael W Smith. My grandmother's sister's granddaughter (so my cousin I guess?) married his son so I went to their wedding at his house (well his barn on his property) and the dude is loooooooaded. He's a huge deal in the Christian music scene apparently and is still kicking and doing very well. And now we're related by marriage. And I'm an atheist. Lol. Life is weird. *"from a distance" starts playing*
alluneedislessthan3 He's your grandmother's sister's granddaughter's husband?
*urge to make a Spaceballs reference so strong right now*
The PatriAgent my grandmother's sister's granddaughter's husband's father actually. lol I know there's no easy word for me to explain that with but that's our relation haha
So your second cousin’s father-in-law, then
"My grandmother's sister's granddaughter (so my cousin I guess?) married his son" is one of the most italian-american sentences i've ever read
My stepmother has all of his albums.
Part 1 is apparently "unavailable in my country"
Oh I'm sorry Google, I wasn't aware I was living in North Korea.
+Victor Viridian It's blocked in my country too and I am in Canada.
+BetterSkatez so am i
Part 1 just doesn't show up at all for me.
It's probably on that other hosting site Todd uses, but there's no link for it here, annoyingly
Goddamn youtube and its idiotic copyright deletion shit.
It means that someone has tried to take it down withoug much justification. UA-cam will still avoid tacking it down in the U.S but must take it down in other countries for leagle reasons
It just got reuploaded. Better go watch it fast, before it gets taken down again.
Transition song is "Here We Go" by C&C Music Factory. In case anyone was wondering.
Bryan Adams pretty much cannot handle criticism, which is why he threatened to sue AllMusic unless they deleted his files. I mean, if a critic reviewing site that like gives him bad reviews for some of his albums, he should've just set it aside so he could still keep making music instead of getting all butthurt and suing his critics. In fact, I don't even trust or care for critics at certain points considering how close-minded and opinionated they can be with their musical views.
1:21 I can elaborate "One more Try" was a "regional " radio hit that was really popular in the beginning of interactive tv entertainment this song was very popular on a Cable channel called "The BOX("Music Television YOU control" was their tag line),this song was still distributed on CASSETTE tape as a Single.He sometimes tours with old school Miami Freestyle Acts:Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam,Expose,Full Force,etc.the guy was kicking around as a journey musician for a lot of years."One More Try" was literally his Last Chance. Or he was going to quit..if the article I read when I was in high school is to be belived
Yep, Timmy T was a product of the cassingle era. Maybe the ultimate cassingle artist. And a whole lot of us got a whole lot of trim to that song. Good times, man. Good times.
I laughed at the "suing the dictionary" joke. Okay. Is it bad that I laughed at Todd's conversation with God?
I think you were meant to.
Do you have bipolar?
@@searchingformyself5319 Dude, buzz off!
When #2 popped up, I had Snake's voice in my head saying "Oh no! Bette Midler!"
I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS MIDLEEEERRRRRR...(crashes, explodes)
pronkb000 We're Americans. We deserve clean highways.
Maximum Gawnage YES!
That’s the only thing I know Bette Midler from.
lurch321 Good for her, I haven’t seen any of them.
Oy! Don't blame us for Brian Adams! We've declared him persona non grata! His music isn't even considered Canadian Content
I'm a christian and I hate christian rock, it's so cringy it hurts my ears.
As Hank Hill succinctly put it, you're not making Christianity better, you're just making rock and roll worse
@@campfortson4387I don't even like King of The Hill and I agree with you. Mainly because Beavis & Butt-Head was the better show.
*video begins*
"Number 5"
*song starts playing*
"LAAAWNMOWER TRYYY"
Hah, yes!
I grew up in Florida and Stevie B and that Timmy T joint were hot fire at the roller rink.
I was in middle school, and both tracks were fixtures at school dances. For the record, I can tolerate Timmy T, but Stevie B rapes my ears every time.
I grew up in l.a. Defo remember hearing Timmy t
1991 was a weird year. I mean on had alt rock bubbling up in the charts, 2Pac and Cypress Hill dropping their debut albums, RHCP hitting the big time with Blood Sugar Sex Magik, GnR dropping Use Your Illusion I and II. On the other you got the shit Todd went through plus much more.
You forgot Nevermind being released and Ten.
1991 was great. Shitty songs are always in charts.
Ween released “The Pod” and Swans released “White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity” that year. Those albums alone make 1991 a good year for music.
Laughed so hard when you sprung bryan adams on us. He's a name you can just drop on people and it's guarenteed to get some sort of reaction. As a Canadian, this amuses me greatly.
Stevie B. truly was ahead of his time by including an easy to remember song name in paranthesis in the title to make it easier to search up.
The section where Todd compares Stevie B with Timmy T is hilarious.
Is it bad that whenever I hear "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)", I can only picture Stewie Griffin singing it?
So Mr. Adams was just cool n' the gang over Family Guy doing a parody of his song all the way through, even after Brain Griffin said it was the worst then he's ever heard EVER! But AllMusic cannot post ANY information about him; period. LMAO I guess he doesn't exist then....GOOD!
i imagine little kuribohs naruto abridged parody (of a parody)
Yes, but not because "Everything I Do" is above parody. Far from it.
It is bad because Family Guy is just the worst.
But at least the cover was better than the original
I'd much rather listen to that version
Timmy T was totally the father of Millhouse 😆 "can I borrow a feeling"
Lol lol lol lol "Can I borrow a feeling " lol lol and there's your picture on the front lol lol". Props to anyone who gets that Simpson's reference.
So for #2, the reason God doesn't do anything is because the problem is "over there" and "over there" has to take care of itself.
kenterminatedbygoogle God is a Watcher! from marvel,not buffy.
does it really deserve to be number #2 though? i get the lyrics are...odd, but its own musical form and her voice, its a pretty beautiful song.
shouldnt be thrown on the shit list just cuz Todd thinks the lyrics are morbid.
+heartlessoni13 Yes, it definitely deserves to be #2, because it is sh*t.
Robo - Nidai *SUPERMAN!!... IS A DICK.*
so deism? (kinda?)
I had scoliosis surgery and being home schooled for most of 1990 and the early months of 1991 and I remembered One More Try and Because I Love You quite well. A lot of the soft rock and adult contemporary music calmed my anxiety down during that time because of being out of school, going through a painful surgery, getting bullied when I returned by wearing a large brace, and the political stress of the Gulf War. (My father was away from home not on the battlefield but one of the people building the aircraft that was used) and the end of the Cold War so becoming aware of the world news around me for one of the earliest times in my life. So that music soothed me.
Speaking as someone in the UK, the early nineties was when music really seemed to diverge between the US and the UK. After the 80s pop thing totally burnt out, in the US it was replaced by stuff like in this video (a lot of which didn't chart in the UK), whereas the UK charts started to become filled with rave music for a year or two (none of which charted on the US hot 100)
80s UK music stations played a lot more European songs (obviously) but also had a lot more songs by Euro artists that had number 1 hits in the US but were essentially 1 or 2 hit wonders in the US but enjoyed much more success in Europe, Canada and Japan. Rick Astley's Take Me to Your Heart wasn't even released as a single in the US, nor was Kylie and Jason's duet as far as I know. Many a-ha songs were missing from US airwaves for the most part, and I once called in to a radio station and requested Julian Lennon's Too Late for Goodbyes in the US and they were like, "who's that?" Very few stations in the US near me do play "obscure" UK hits (i.e., hits in the UK but never or hardly ever played here in the US after its initial release), including a local college station that plays a eclectic mix. Other "Jill" or pop rock stations used to, as well, once in a while but they went off the air. I almost never hear Level 42, Climey Fisher and Boy Meets Girl in the US. If you do, then please point me in the right direction, e.g., station and online website, if any. Thanks in advance!
Timmy T looks like the love child of Carl Sagan and Skull from Power Rangers.
Thank you thank you thank you for the "From a Distance" commentary. I also found it horrifying.
+Roman Jones
it's a little known fact that Midler was inspired to write the song after reading some Lovecraft.
***** THAT EXPLAINS EVERYTHING
+ColetheAero if that's the case you better hope that God doesn't look more closely because then he will decide to devour us.
Peter Loya Nah I think we're good. Why would he bother to look closely if he doesn't know there's a problem? Never touch a running system.
Roman Jones Yeah the whole theme of that song is mindnumbingly stupid & gets on my nerves too. However I'm also kinda annoyed with ppl using bad things happening to good ppl as an argument the God Doesn't exist.
" don't you see you're not making Christianity better, you're just making rock and roll worse"... Hank Hill...
Headcanon: Todd started this whole video to put "From a Distance" at #1, but the bizarre Bryan Adams/Allmusic feud was too good to pass up.
From A Distance is a mean taunt from the main witch on "Hocus Pocus" *headcanon accepted*
I don't really like that song either, so I'm with you.
If anyone wonders why Nirvana blew up everything in 1991, here's your answer. Sadly, I had to live through this shit.
Timmy T looks like if you got Elliott Smith and Chandler from Friends and mixed them together.
Along with removing Elliott Smith’s musical talent and Chandler’s humor.
Honestly, that Timmy T song sounds like it was intended for Milli Vanilli to perform, but we all know what happened to them, so they just got this random guy to perform it
10:10 “cause i need to watch things die, from a distaaaaance. Vicariously I live while the whole world dies”
never thought a christian singer would have basically the same lyrics as a tool song.
When I saw number 1 I threw my phone in the air and went "finally someone who agrees with me"
Nearly everybody I know; my wife, in-laws, my parents are all ao defensive about it and I always thought it was a massive pile of wet garbage. Screw that song and screw that movie too
I have the same thought. number 1 is possibly the worst song of all time
I hate that song but I also still like it, if someone was captured it would be a torture divise on repeat
I love the piano/guitar solo in the outro.
Make that the entire song. Then it’s fine. But the lyrics are absolutely a pile of cold mashed potatoes with no butter or salt.
Same…parents always turn the radio up when its on, and i f*ing hate it. And for the record, i genuinely like several of his other hits like Heaven, Run to You and Its Only Love. Just cant bear Everything I do.
Michael W. Smith... Like Richard Marx inhaling helium.
Michael Bolton... I've seen him in concert three times. The Time, Love & Tenderness Tour, the Timeless (The Classics) Tour, (got the t-shirts to prove it! lol) and just a few years ago I saw him again. Let me tell you, he puts on one hell of a show.
It just dawned on me a few days ago that your channel's acronym is T.I.T.S. Well-played, sir!
Jesus, he got me again...."God is deeply uninformed of your current situation"....you were on fire this episode, Todd...
'From A Distance' actually came out as some sort of inspirational song during the first Gulf War, which is why it sounds the way it did. We were too busy freaking out because we were fighting in a distant land again--and we still had 'Vietnam-itis' during this time.
Little did w know we would be fighting in a distant land for 2 decades
Man, this made me remember some truly awful songs I'd managed to forget. 1991 put me off pop music for a good 5 years.
that Timmy T song looks like it was made around 1986, but they forgot it and released it in 1991
How? How, you ask? Because bland ballads were the top trend that year. I remember HATING 99% of the hit music that year. Oh, and thank you for naming everything I DOOOOO, I do it for YOUUUUUUUU as the worst. It ruined the end of Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, and that movie was no prize.
I've never seen the movie. Largely because of that song.
@@chaos.corner Aside from Alan Rickman, you're not missing much.
@@floraposteschild4184 That's the main thing I'd want to see it for.
We got Robin Hood: Men in Tights out of it so at least some good came out of it.
I was born late '90, and my parents cited "From a Distance" as one of the biggest songs when I was born. I think it held a lot of sentimental value to people at the time (in USA, at least) because of the Persian Gulf War; people wanted peace, and the song speaks to that sentiment. There's a lyric in there that's like, "from a distance, you look like my friend even though we are at war" ... So that's just my response to Todd's why it got big at the time
From a distance is one of those songs like Leyla by Clapton that get real annoying really fast. Overplayed as well, and like Leyla, it's too repetitive, like why do we need the riff or hook lone more than twice in the song...? As soon as she started singing I changed stations on the radio
What if God was "One of Us?"
@@SayAhh god was the friends we made along the way
That South Park joke almost had me out my bed! XD
LOL! You know, when I was a kid, I had exactly the same problem with "From a Distance". I remember how horrified my mom, who liked the song, was when I went on a little rant about it. However, when I was a teenager I heard it again, and gave it a bit more thought. I realized that maybe the "distance" that she speaks of isn't distance in terms of space, but time. If that's so, then it means that God sees us for who we could be, given the necessary time to grow both as a species and individuals, which is actually a rather sweet sentiment. I really hope that was how it was meant, because a literal interpretation is pretty damned depressing.
Of course, I've heard other Christians singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (which is one of my favorite songs, BTW) as if it were just a sweet hymn, so I think a lot of them just don't bother to think lyrics through as a general rule. :-/
i fully endorse any video that criticizes bryan adams. well done todd!
What about Supertramp and Prince? You literally can't find any of their music on the internet either.
Searching For Myself Since Prince died, his VEVO Channel has been uploading songs. And at least Prince allowed information about himself to be available on AllMusic, unlike Mr. Adams
+Rose Weldon Same with Supertramp.
@@searchingformyself5319 There's a difference between keeping your song from being on the internet and keeping all information about your career off the internet.
Bryan Adams is an infected butthole piercing.
Dude, I recently subscribed and have been binge watching your vids. I like your style. Tell it like it is and no bullshit and have some fun doing it. Otherwise you wouldn't be doing it. So keep on keepin on.
I loved the music of the early 90’s. It was probably the last time we had a wide variety of sounds on Top 40 Radio. We had everything… New Jack Swing, Adult Contemporary, Hip-Hop, Hair Bands, Metal, Smooth Jazz, Alternative, Techno, Grunge, Country, Pop, Contemporary R&B, etc… damn near every genre had big name stars. Now we just have like 6 popular artists at a time, and almost every genre sounds the same 🤷♂️
"Maybe he was tricking people into thinking this was interesting" XD
"God is deeply uninformed of your current situation" Just makes you want to go to church doesn't it? Such an uplifting message. Just like I am deeply disturbed by that garbage Better Midler calls music.
This is prolly the most slept-on top 10 list he's done, the beginning had me dying of laughter holy shit
Videos like this (and looking at the actual charts) really make you realize the majority of pop music in the 70s, 80s, and 90s was really awful and the stuff we all enjoy now really wasn't that popular in comparison
Given Todd’s frustration over list requests, do you sometimes hope that he eventually tackles the best and worst of as many past years in pop music as possible?
"You're listening to me, right?" i like to think that God watches Todd's videos.
Lyla maybe god never replies cause he's as disgusted with todds distain for jet as everyone else
He watches everything. That's what He does.
God is Bryan Adams
You know what? I actually liked that Bryan Adams song a little, until this. You're right
My personal bottom 10, using the same eligibility rules (had to be on the year-end Hot 100):
10) "One More Try" - Timmy T
A limp want-you-back ballad that's certainly more competent than some of the other songs on this list, but still not worth listening to when so many better songs in the same vein exist.
9) "Iesha" - Another Bad Creation
The production keeps this from being even lower, but the unpolished children's vocals keep it on the list. Not pleasant.
8) "Play That Funky Music" - Vanilla Ice
Good job comparing yourself to some of history's greatest villains, Rob. Great idea when you're in a majority-Black genre.
7) "Rico Suave" - Gerardo
I get the feeling this song was meant as a joke, but ain't shit funny about it. It's more just embarrassing.
6) "I'm Not In Love" - Will To Power
The 10cc original is a transcendent piece, one of the absolute best of the 1970s. This cover... isn't. Everything that worked in the original is stripped away. Completely charmless.
5) "The Way You Do the Things You Do" - UB40
Speaking of charmless covers... UB40's success is honestly baffling. They were basically the Pat Boone of reggae.
4) "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)" - Bryan Adams
Yep, not even in the bottom three. That's how awful this year was. Bryan Adams was the scourge of radio for a good decade and a half. Thank goodness the public at large ditched him before the millennium.
3) "Because I Love You (The Postman Song)" - Stevie B
Not-so-fun fact: According to Billboard, this is the 79th-biggest hit of all time. Out of the entire all-time Hot 100, this may be the worst of the bunch. Awful singing, horrendous production, and a confounding title to boot. No wonder this one's been forgotten.
2) "From a Distance" - Bette Midler
You hit the nail on the head with this one. The message it conveys is virtually the opposite of what was likely intended, and the song crashes and burns because of it. Of course, it doesn't help that Bette's performance is so off-putting.
1) "More Than Words" - Extreme
Yep. Before Gary Cherone ruined Van Halen, he put out one of the absolute sappiest, most underwritten, and most irritating love songs of all time. Everything from the platitudinous lyrics to the sparser than sparse instrumentation to the grating vocal harmonies make this my most-hated hit of the year. Gary, Nuno, you two are great musicians otherwise, but this one is an absolute turd.
Good list.
I can get behind the entire list except one. "More Than Words" absolutely bitch-slaps 98 other songs on the 1991 Top 100. I can grant you not liking a Hair Metal acoustic ballad, but even if you hate it, you can't honestly tell me that Gary and Nuno made a worse song than an all-time worst like "Everything I Do (I Do It for You)".
Maybe I'm just a huge mark for Hair Metal (and particularly for Extreme), but I'd put "More Than Words" at the number two best slot. Literally the only song that beats it is "Wind of Change" by Scorpions.
I can't believe you never heard One More Try before! It was plastered all over soft rock stations and probably still is.
Fun fact: Bryan Adams co-wrote on KISS's Heavy Metal heavyweight, 1982's Creatures Of The Night
And Michael Bolton helped write their 1989/1990 hit ballad "Forever".
It's funny how both number 1s of this and 1976's list were on Arrested Development
I'm just glad somebody else remembers those songs when they were on Arrested Development. A great sitcom.
And one of Todd's videos from the Trainwreckords series is about an album by a band named Arrested Development. Damn.... so many connections !!
When did “Arrested Development” play the Bryan Adams song?
I think the context of when From A Distance was released is important to remember. I mean it is overblown, the message is all over the place, and was overplayed at the time (though not as bad as Everything I Do I Do It For You or I Will Always Love You the following year). But it was released during the Gulf War, and at the time when many were anxious and worried about friends and family members going to war and so much awareness of suffering throughout the world, the song did provide comfort and semblance of faith.
It
It's like asking why One Sweet Day by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men was so popular in 1995. Well because it was released the same year as the Oklahoma City Bombing. People were emotionally affected by that and they turned to music to provide comfort.
I actually kinda dig "I'm Your Baby Tonight", and not just because it has a similar progression to the X-Men animated series theme.
I've always liked Whitney's upbeat, energetic stuff, sometimes more than her ballads. "How Will I Know", "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)", the underrated and hard-edged "My Name Is Not Susan", her cover of "Step By Step", and the remix of "It's Not Right, But It's Okay", are all super energetic and deliver a nice shot of adrenaline. Mixing her powerful voice with some powerful instrumentation has always been a good way to get into my good books. I even like the remix of "I Will Always Love You" that was released on her Greates Hits album.
I'm weird, I know.
I can hear the X-Men Theme on there. Not weird at all: I liked the Baywatch song "I'll Be Ready" by Jim Jamison because its piano part sounded like Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is" and there was another pair of songs that were like that but they escape me. (And no, it was not Ray Parker Jr.'s Ghostbusters and Huey Lewis' IWAND; it was something else.)
"it has a similar progression to the X-Men animated series theme."
…Goddammit I can’t unhear it now. >.> Nor can I unsee Whitney Houston as Storm.
The X-Men theme is also immediately what popped into my head
I remember Timmy T and Stevie B. Those two songs got quite a lot of airplay.
Between the music on this list and the Hair Bands on AOR at the time, it's no wonder that I was driven towards Thrash Metal and Alt-Rock, even before Nirvana's "Nevermind" blew up.
Todd, be glad that you missed out on #s 4 and 5. And I don't know about you, but I think one thing that adds to the ickyness of "From A Distance" is that it came out during the lead-up to the Gulf War, so I associate it with that.
And putting "The One And Only" at the end of the video was a stroke of genius.
I understand why Todd dislikes contemporary Christian, but I can't lie - Amy Grant's “Every Heartbeat” is an ultimate guilty pleasure song for me!
I really like that song, too. I also like "From a Distance," which Todd put at #2 on the list.
Every Heartbeat isn't a Christian song though it's a love song. All her previous albums before Heart in Motion were Christian songs and she was hated by the Christian community for releasing a pop album that didn't center entirely around some god.
There is a lot of upbeat swinging Christian music in blues music such as all that southern gospel stuff such as Spirit of God by Beth Hart. It's the bland stuff that's a turn off.
Still prefer it too Mariah Carey, who sounds the same in every song she's in practically (except for the upbeat and actually catchy christmas song.)
I research this era quite a bit; theres a mention in SPIN Magazine from the time about how even 'serious music fans' indulged in the string of hits Amy Grant had in 1991-2. I was surprised to find out she had five top 40 singles off that album, I had never heard of them before this episode.
UB40 started life as a bunch of unemployed youths who decided to get off their asses and start a group.Their first album ‘signing off’ was true to their reggae roots.
Following advice from managers, producers etc they fell into the ‘white reggae ‘ trap.
More like leapt
They also played in the same clubs with an early punk incarnation of Duran Duran and The Killjoys, who later became Dexys Midnight Runners
Justify my Love's existence was made valid by Wayne & Garth on SNL. (Look at the unit on that guy! Is that Prince?)
"Justify My Love" is even worse when you consider the fact that the beat wasn't even theirs - they ripped it from a Public Enemy song.
If you want to hear a good version of Justify My Love go listen to "Instrumental No. 2" by My Bloody Valentine.
You mean sampled.
I heard the Postman Song in the wild at the grocery store last night and I had to hunt this video down just to confirm it is a real song that is played on the radio apparently.
0:05 "Mom can we have Phil Collins?"
"We have Phil Collins at home."
Phil Collins at home:
Also, I love that the #5 choice comes on at exactly 5 seconds into the video.
Come on, Todd! Timmy T's "One More Try" was a staple of our Junior High dances. This was the song that would play as the guys would stand on one end of the gym, the girls on the other end. You'd have your buddy go over to the girl you liked and ask if she wanted to dance with you. If you didn't get humiliated, you'd both make your way to the center of the gym and you'd put your hands barely on her waist, she'd put her hands on your shoulders, but both too afraid to touch bodies... and you'd sway back and forth awkwardly, as the dozens of parents and teachers watched, never to make it to first base. Oh, the memories!
PS - Timmy T and Stevie B were both big in the Freestyle scene. They have better known songs that are upbeat and closer to the traditional freestyle sound ("Time After Time" by Timmy T. was decent)... but as with rock, rap, and most genres in the late 80s and early 90s, it was envogue to play overly sentimental mushy ballads.
PPS - "From a Distance" was the worst song for our Junior High dances... We'd be all cozy with our sweethearts, dancing, getting closer, about to get to first base... then the part at the end would come and Bette would repeatedly remind us that "God is Watching Us, God is Watching Us..." And we'd suddenly feel guilty and awkward. And, yes, I did attend a Catholic School; we had that guilt hammered into us!
PPPS - And Timmy T has street cred. He guest starred in an episode of Full House!
There's a sketch from an old Scottish show called Scotch and Wry, where Rikki Fulton as Robin Hood shoots Brian Adams (played by Tony Roper) when it gets to the minor key part. It's one of my favourites lmao
Holy Jesus!!! You absolutely nailed the horror that is Brian Adams.
After Summer of 69 and Cuts Like a Knife his music was unlistenable.
Heaven wasnt that bad.
Daniel Van Dusen I like his Christmas song
All of these songs are unlistenable; it all sucks.
Just remember: Bryan Adams's own father wouldn't listen to his music.
I didn't know where you were going with this no.1 choice, but then it made sense, and was hilarious.
I love that song actually, but yeah, you can have that one. Great video
11:51. The movie that Adams was singing in can also be described using the exact same phrase Todd used to describe the song.
Timmy T & Stevie B were staples at dances when I was in middle school. Timmy T was ignorable; Stevie B's "Postman Song" was audio torture.
That Timmy T song might be the worst pop song I've ever heard. What the hell was that?
Even in the often bland terms of 'modern pop music', Timmy T is astonishing for the aural wallpaper nature of that song.
I remember reading that he recorded it in his garage.
The only reason I even remember that song is that it was one of the first things I heard on the new boombox I'd gotten for Xmas 1990.
From a Distance was basically an attempt to capitalize on Wind Beneath My Wings.
Yeah ive always gotten that impression. Same producer, again an AC ballad cover of an obscure song that hadnt been a hit.
Everything I Do is actually a very important song in Canadian History because it caused the laws around Can Con to change. Basically this song went to number one in Canada but wasn’t allowed to be considered a Canadian song because Bryan Adams only performed the song and was one of a handful of writers on the song and the rest of the writers were not Canadian. So Bryan Adams sued the CRTC over it and had them change the laws so if there was a writer or composer on a track who was Canadian it would count towards half a point on the MAPL (Music, Artist, Performance, and Lyrics) rating.
"One More Try"? Isn't that that George Michael song?
Oh. OH.
Jordan Quiles yes about 3 years earlier...
Thank you. Your discussion of "From a Distance" nails it. I could never put into words what bugged me about it, and that's it.
The entire "postman" line of questioning had me laughing so much Todd is just so good at mocking in a confused way
"The Canadian government has apologized for Bryan Adams on several occasions."
I appreciate this reference so much!!!
@@tracyveronika I ALWAYS appreciate a South Park reference. "And....it's gone!"