Thursday, December 31, 1992

Barenaked Ladies “If I Had a $1,000,000” released as a radio single this month

If I Had a $1,000,000

Barenaked Ladies

Writer(s): Steven Page, Ed Robertson (see lyrics here)


Released: December 1992


First Charted: February 19, 2000


Peak: 37 AR, 13 CN, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.)


Sales (in millions): --


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 12.5 video, 37.82 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Barenaked Ladies formed in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, in 1988. They released about 500 copies the next year of a tape called Buck Naked. It featured the song “If I Had a $1,000,000.” It showed up again in 1990 on their tape Barenaked Lunch. 2000 copies of it were released. It showed up once again on The Yellow Tape. That sold over a half million copies and became the first independent release in Canada to be certified gold.

“If I Had a $1,000,000” got a lot of airplay on the Toronto radio station CFNY-FM and helped the band get signed to a major label deal with Reprise Records. The song saw release yet again on the band’s 1992 Gordon album, which sold a million copies. Despite never having a proper video or single release, the song became a staple in the band’s catalog. In 2005, it was ranked #2 on a list of the top 50 essential Canadian tracks as aired on CBC Radio. WK

It was released as a one-track radio single in December 1992. It reached #13 in Canada and was officially released in the UK as a commercial single in the UK. A 1996 re-release, thanks to the live album Rock Spectacle, prompted the song to hit #13 on the UK rock chart. In 2000, the song reached #37 on the Billboard Adult Top 40.

Steven Page and Ed Robertson came up with the song while counselors at a summer music camp. It became a trademark of the song for Page and Robertson to break into free-form banter, improvising eccentric purchases they’d make with a million dollars. WK The recorded version included references to Kraft macaroni and cheese dinners, the Elephant Man’s (John Merrick) remains, and exotic animals (a reference to Michael Jackson’s lavish spending habits).


Resources:


First posted 10/9/2022.

Saturday, December 12, 1992

The Bodyguard soundtrack hit #1 for the first of 20 weeks

First posted 3/25/2008; updated 12/1/2020.

The Bodyguard

Whitney Houston/Various Artists


Released: November 17, 1992


Peak: 120 US, 18 RB, 111 UK, 19 CN, 15 AU


Sales (in millions): 17.0 US, 2.14 UK, 38.5 world (includes US and UK)


Genre: pop/R&B


Tracks:

Song Title (PERFORMER) (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts.

  1. I Will Always Love You (WHITNEY HOUSTON) (11/14/92, 1 US, 1 UK, 1 RB, 1 AC, 4x platinum single)
  2. I Have Nothing (WHITNEY HOUSTON) (2/20/93, 1a US, 3 UK, 3a RB, 1 AC, gold single)
  3. I’m Every Woman (WHITNEY HOUSTON) (1/9/93, 2a US, 4 UK, 4a RB, 26 AC, gold single)
  4. Run to You (WHITNEY HOUSTON) (6/21/93, 26a US, 15 UK, #31 RB, #9 AC)
  5. Queen of the Night (WHITNEY HOUSTON) (11/6/93, 36a US, #14 UK, #47a RB)
  6. Jesus Loves Me (WHITNEY HOUSTON)
  7. Even if My Heart Would Break (KENNY G/ AARON NEVILLE)
  8. Someday (I’m Coming Back) (LISA STANSFIELD)
  9. It’s Gonna Be a Lovely Day (S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M.)
  10. What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love and Understanding (CURTIS STIGERS)
  11. Waiting for You (KENNY G) *
  12. Trust in Me (JOE COCKER/ SASS JORDAN)
  13. Theme from ‘The Bodyguard’ (ALAN SILVESTRI)
* not on U.S. album


Total Running Time: 57:44

Rating:

3.499 out of 5.00 (average of 15 ratings)


Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album:

“Few observers expected that Whitney Houston’s first big-screen role in 1992’s The Bodyguard would generate a phenomenon. Not that the film itself was a phenomenon – it was a healthy success, due not only to Houston, but to her co-star Kevin Costner's drawing power – but the soundtrack’s success was astonishing. The Bodyguard followed Houston’s cover of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You to the top of the charts, and once they got there, neither the single nor the album budged for weeks. ‘I Will Always Love You’ spent a record-shattering 14 weeks in the top slot, while The Bodyguard spent 20 weeks at number one, eventually selling over 15 million copies and winning the Grammy award for Album of the Year.” STE

“Like many phenomena of that magnitude, it’s hard to see, in retrospect, what triggered such a massive public response. True, The Bodyguard isn’t a typical soundtrack in that its first half plays like Houston’s sequel to I’m Your Baby Tonight, but its second half is filled with the flotsam and jetsam typical for a big-budget soundtrack – an excerpt from Alan Silverstri’s score, some flavorless but pleasant Kenny G instrumentals, dated pop and dance numbers, and a cover (Curtis Stigers’ take on (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding, which is notable in some circles as the recording that made the song’s author, Nick Lowe, a millionaire).” STE

“Then again, nobody really paid attention to anything outside of the first six songs, all of which rank among Houston's best efforts, demonstrating progress from the somewhat stilted I’m Your Baby Tonight. It’s not startling enough to justify the phenomenon, but I Have Nothing, Queen of the Night, Run to You, and especially her cover of I’m Every Woman are all first-rate urban pop songs that skillfully capture Houston at her best. In a sense, the album is no different than any other album Houston recorded.” STE

“It may seem odd that a soundtrack is Houston's biggest-selling album to date, but consider this – even her best records had five or six great songs surrounded by well-constructed filler; the same is true here, only the filler is recorded by other artists.” STE

Resources and Related Links:

Tuesday, December 1, 1992

Life Magazine "40 Years of Rock & Roll": The Songs

Life Magazine:

40 Years of Rock & Roll: The Songs

In 1992, Life magazine devoted a special issue to celebrate rock & roll, using the Moondog Coronation Ball held on March 21, 1952 in Cleveland as their starting point for rock & roll. They picked five songs to represent each year from 1952 to 1991. They also picked one album for each year from 1955 to 1991.

Click here to see other lists from publications and/or organizations. 1952:

  • The Dominoes “Have Mercy, Baby”
  • Lloyd Price “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”
  • Johnny Ace “My Song”
  • The Clovers “One Mint Julep”
  • Jimmy Forrest “Night Train”

1953:

  • Willie Mae Thornton ““Hound Dog
  • The Clovers “Money Honey”
  • The Orioles “Crying in the Chapel”
  • Ruth Brown “Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean”
  • Bill Haley & His Comets “Crazy Man Crazy”

1954:

  • The Chords “Sh-Boom
  • Johnny Ace “Pledging My Love”
  • Hank Ballard & the Midnighters “Work with Me Annie”
  • The Drifters “Honey Love”
  • Big Joe Turner “Shake, Rattle and Roll”

1955:

1956:

1957:

1958:

  • Dion & the Belmonts “I Wonder Why”
  • Little Anthony & the Imperials “Tears on My Pillow”
  • Chuck Berry “Johnny B. Goode
  • Jackie Wilson “Lonely Teardrops”
  • Eddie Cochran “Summertime Blues”

1959:

  • Dion & the Belmonts “A Teenager in Love”
  • Wilbert Harrison “Kansas City”
  • The Drifters “There Goes My Baby”
  • Ritchie Valens “Donna” / “La Bamba
  • The Crests “Sixteen Candles”

1960:

  • Brenda Lee “I’m Sorry”
  • Mark Dinning “Teen Angel”
  • Percy Faith “Theme from ‘A Summer Place’”
  • Roy Orbison “Only the Lonely”
  • Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs “Stay”

1961:

1962:

  • The Four Seasons “Big Girls Don’t Cry
  • The Crystals “He’s a Rebel”
  • The Miracles “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me”
  • Gene Chandler “Duke of Earl
  • The Isley Brothers “Twist and Shout”

1963:

1964:

1965:

1966:

1967:

1968:

1969:

1970:

  • The Kinks “Lola”
  • The Miracles “The Tears of a Clown”
  • James Taylor “Fire and Rain”
  • Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young “Woodstock”
  • Van Morrison “Moondance”

1971:

1972:

1973:

  • Edgar Winter Group “Frankenstein”
  • Lou Reed “Walk on the Wild Side
  • Gladys Knight & the Pips “Midnight Train to Georgia”
  • The Rolling Stones “Angie”
  • The O’Jays “Love Train”

1974:

  • Lynyrd Skynyrd “Sweet Home Alabama
  • Bachman-Turner Overdrive “Takin’ Care of Business”
  • Steely Dan “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”
  • Eagles “Best of My Love”
  • Joni Mitchell “Help Me”

1975:

  • Eagles “One of These Nights”
  • Linda Ronstadt “You’re No Good”
  • Queen “Bohemian Rhapsody
  • David Bowie “Fame”
  • Bob Marley & the Wailers “No Woman, No Cry”

1976:

  • Peter Frampton “Show Me the Way”
  • Paul Simon “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”
  • Heart “Crazy on You”
  • Daryl Hall & John Oates “She’s Gone”
  • Boz Scaggs “Lowdown”

1977:

1978:

  • Talking Heads “Psycho Killer”
  • Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers “Breakdown”
  • Billy Joel “Just the Way You Are
  • Elvis Costello “Watching the Detectives”
  • Meat Loaf “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”

1979:

  • The Police “Roxanne
  • Dire Straits “Sultans of Swing”
  • Donna Summer “Bad Girls”
  • The Doobie Brothers “What a Fool Believes”
  • Joe Jackson “Is She Really Going Out with Him?”

1980:

  • Blondie “Call Me
  • The Pretenders “Brass in Pocket (I’m Special)”
  • Pink Floyd “Another Brick in the Wall Part II
  • Bruce Springsteen “Hungry Heart”
  • Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band “Against the Wind”

1981:

  • Kim Carnes “Bette Davis Eyes
  • The Cars “Shake It Up”
  • The Go-Go’s “Our Lips Are Sealed”
  • The Pointer Sisters “Slow Hand”
  • REO Speedwagon “Keep on Loving You”

1982:

  • Joan Jett & the Blackhearts “I Love Rock and Roll
  • Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes “Up Where We Belong”
  • The Clash “Rock the Casbah”
  • Human League “Don’t You Want Me?
  • Men at Work “Who Can It Be Now?”

1983:

1984:

1985:

1986:

  • Bruce Hornsby & the Range “The Way It Is”
  • Robert Palmer “Addicted to Love”
  • Prince “Kiss
  • Whitney Houston “How Will I Know”
  • Steve Winwood “Higher Love”

1987:

1988:

  • Tracy Chapman “Fast Car
  • INXS “New Sensation”
  • Terence Trent D’Arby “Wishing Well”
  • Guns N’ Roses “Sweet Child O’ Mine
  • Def Leppard “Love Bites”

1989:

  • Paula Abdul “Straight Up”
  • Public Enemy “Fight the Power”
  • Bonnie Raitt “Thing Called Love”
  • Fine Young Cannibals “She Drives Me Crazy”
  • Tone Loc “Wild Thing”

1990:

  • Sinéad O’Connor “Nothing Compares 2 U
  • Faith No More “Epic”
  • Mariah Carey “Vision of Love”
  • Chris Isaak “Wicked Game”
  • Technotronic “Pump Up the Jam”

1991:


Resources/Related Links:

First posted 4/9/2021.

Monday, November 30, 1992

Nirvana released “In Bloom”

In Bloom

Nirvana

Writer(s): Kurt Cobain (see lyrics here)


Released: November 30, 1992


First Charted: December 12, 1992


Peak: 5 AR, 28 UK, 73 AU (Click for codes to singles charts.)


Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.2 UK, 0.2 world (includes US + UK)


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.131 radio, 135.8 video, -- streaming

Awards (Nirvana):

Awards (Sturgill Simpson):

About the Song:

Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain wrote “In Bloom” after their debut album, Bleach, was released on Sub Pop. The song was an attack on those outside the underground music community who started showing up at Nirvana’s shows, but didn’t understand the band’s message. WK Cobain said the song was an attack on “rednecks, macho men, and abusive people.” SF He told Melody Maker magazine, “I didn’t like the cheerleader type of girl or want to hang out with the jock boys. I chose to live the life of a recluse. I didn’t hang out with anyone else because I couldn’t handle their stupidity.” SF

The band first recorded the song in April 1990 for what was then intended as their second album for Sub Pop. They even recorded a video for the song. When Nirvana signed to DGC Records, they started work on Nevermind in May 1991 and “In Bloom” was one of the first songs they revisited. It ended up as the fourth single from Nevermind, released over a year after the album first dropped.

A new video for the song was shot which parodied variety shows from the 1960s, like The Ed Sullivan Show. The host introduces the band as “thoroughly all right and decent fellas” and mispronounces their name. A crowd of teenagers screams throughout the song and the band destroys the set and their instruments by the song’s conclusion. Two different versions were shot, one in which the band performed in dresses and another where they play in Beach Boys-style outfits. A third version combined elements of both videos and won Best Alternative Video at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards. It was also named top music video by critics in Village Voice. WK

Sturgill Simpson, a country artist, recorded the song for his 2016 A Sailor’s Guide to Earth album. A “swirl of strings and horns” SF made the song “completely unrecognizable.” SF Simpson said he was in seventh or eight grade when the album ame out and it “was like a bomb went off.” SF He explained that “In Bloom” “summed up what it means to be a teenager, and I think it tells a young boy that he can be sensitive and compassionate – he doesn’t have to be tough or cold to be a man. So I wanted to make a very beautiful and pure homage to Kurt.” SF


Resources:


Related Links:


First posted 5/7/2020; last updated 9/22/2022.

Saturday, November 28, 1992

Whitney Houston hit #1 with "I Will Always Love You"

I Will Always Love You

Dolly Parton

Writer(s): Dolly Parton (see lyrics here)


Released: March 11, 1974


First Charted: April 6, 1974


Peak: 53 US, 12 CW (Click for codes to singles charts.)


Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.2 UK


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 10.0 radio, 20.8 video, 84.55 streaming

I Will Always Love You

Whitney Houston


Released: November 3, 1992


First Charted: November 13, 1992


Peak: 114 US, 17 RR, 1511 RB, 110 UK, 18 CN, 110 AU, 2 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.)


Sales (in millions): 10.0 US, 2.0 UK, 20.0 world (includes US + UK)


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 10.0 radio, 1212.9 video, 499.88 streaming

Awards (Parton’s version):

Awards (Houston’s version):

About the Song:

Considering that this song has topped six different U.S. charts for a combined total of 55 weeks, it could be declared the most successful chart single of all time. On the U.S. pop charts, Elvis Presley’s double-sided single “Don’t Be Cruel”/“Hound Dog” held the record for most weeks (11) atop the Billboard Hot 100 for 36 years before Boyz II Men grabbed the pinnacle for 13 weeks with “End of the Road.” However, the Boyz didn’t hang on to the record quite as long as The King. A mere two weeks after “Road” finished its reign, the song that would dethrone it slid into the #1 spot.

Dolly Parton’s original was a #1 country song in 1974 and 1982. It was a re-recorded version for the film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Dolly even hit the country charts with it a third time when a 1995 duet version with Vince Gill went to #15. However, it was Whitney’s version that exploded. It hit on the UK charts, Cashbox, and Billboard’s pop, R&B, and adult contemporary charts.

Whitney’s version was featured in the movie The Bodyguard. It had to illustrate Kevin Costner’s character’s background when it plays on a jukebox at a blue-collar bar and show Houston’s glamorous, superstar singer lifestyle when she sings it to him later as a tribute. FB

Plans to record Jimmy Ruffin’s “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” were scuttled when the movie Fried Green Tomatoes got first dibs. Costner brought a 1975 Linda Ronstadt version of “Love You” to Houston, who re-arranged it as a soul ballad. WK

It goes without saying that this was 1992’s biggest pop hit, WHC but it also was the first triple-platinum-selling single by a woman BB and propelled The Bodyguard soundtrack to 17 million sales. It is also a hit at funerals, being the most requested record for those solemn occasions. KL


Resources:

  • BB Billboard (9/08). “All-Time Hot 100
  • JA David A. Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 89.
  • KL Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh (2005). 1000 UK Number One Hits: The Stories Behind Every Number One Single Since 1952. London, Great Britain: Omnibus Press. Page 382.
  • WHC Joel Whitburn (1999). A Century of Pop Music. Menomonee Falls, WI; Record Research, Inc. Page 123.
  • WK Wikipedia


Related Links:


First posted 11/28/2011; last updated 8/26/2022.