MC Hammer charted with “U Can’t Touch This”

U Can’t Touch This M.C. Hammer

Writer(s): Stanley Burrell/Rick James/Alonzo Miller (see lyrics here) Released: January 13, 1990 First Charted: March 30, 1990 Peak: 8 US, 4 CB, 11 RR, 11 RB, 3 UK, 8 CN, 15 AU, 3 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.4 UK, 1.09 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 583.52 video, 353.55 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: When Stanley Burrell emerged from the West Coast rap scene in the late ‘80s, he took on the name MC Hammer in celebration of a nickname from his youth. As a bat boy for the Oakland A’s baseball team, he was nicknamed “Hammer” because of his similarity to baseball legend “Hammerin’ Hank” Aaron. After the 1987 independent release of Feel My Power and his major label debut with Let’s Get It Started in 1988, Hammer made it big with his third album, 1990’s Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em. To market the album’s first single, “U Can’t Touch This,” the record company sent out cassette singles to 100,000 kids asking them to request MTV to play the video. It worked – viewers embraced his dance-oriented performance in outrageously baggy pants and made it the network’s most-played video of 1990. SF It also won the network’s 1990 video awards for Best Rap Video and Best Dance Video. The song, which won Grammys for Best R&B Song and Best Rap Solo Performance, was also the first rap song to be nominated for Record of the Year. WK Despite the huge success of the video, the song only reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100. This was before the company developed technologies to track actual sales and airplay and relied on figures given to them by record stores and radio stations. While audiences clearly embraced the song, the music industry wasn’t quite ready to accept the commercial viability of rap music. However, there was no denying the song’s impact. Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em spent 21 weeks atop the Billboard album chart and spawned two more top-ten pop hits with “Have You Seen Her?” and “Pray.” The song is “the perfect good-time song for nostalgia parties or mere reminiscence of the era that brought us In Living Color and Vanilla Ice.” AMG Hammer “borrowed the monster hook from Rick James’ ‘Super Freak’ and layered a few solid rhymes over it, his somewhat gravelly voice and supreme confidence covering up any deficiencies in lyric or delivery.” AMG James had consistently turned down rappers who wanted to sample his music. According to James, his lawyers authorized the use of “Super Freak” without his permission. SF He sued for copyright infringement and received millions in royalties when the case was settled out of court and Hammer agreed to credit James as a songwriter. Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for M.C. Hammer AMG All Music Guide SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 3/23/2020; last updated 6/18/2023.

Alannah Myles hit #1 with “Black Velvet”

Black Velvet Allanah Myles

Writer(s): David Tyson, Christopher Ward (see lyrics here) Released: July 1989 First Charted: December 9, 1989 Peak: 12 BB, 12 CB, 11 GR, 2 RR, 7 AC, 12 AR, 2 UK, 10 CN, 3 AU, 2 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.6 UK, 2.54 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 4.0 radio, 47.5 video, 288.35 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Myles was born Alannah Byles in Toronto, Canada, in 1958. She started performing solo gigs in Ontario at age 18. She met songwriter and recording artist Christopher Ward and formed a band with his help. In 1987, she signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records. With help from Ward and producer David Tyson, Myles recorded her self-titled debut album, which was released in 1989. It became the first album in Canada certified for sales over a million and went on to become the top-selling album in Canadian history. RC It has reportedly sold six million copies internationally. The album produced three top-30 singles in Canada. The most successful was “Black Velvet,” which #1 hit in the U.S. and sold a million copies in Canada. SF The song won a Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and the Juno Award (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys) for Song of the Year. The song is an ode to Elvis Presley; the title references popular black velvet paintings of “The King.” As music historian Steve Sullivan says, they “all stand in the shadow of ‘Black Velvet.’” SS Wad was inspired to write the song by the 10th anniversary of Elvis’ death. As a VJ for Much Music, a Canadian video television channel, he was sent to cover the event in Memphis. He explained that he and a camera operator were “on a tour bus with 40 Elvis fanatics…I came to understand what the incredible passion was that these people had for this man.” FB Interestingly, the song never mentions Elvis, but a detailed breakdown of the lyrics from Songfacts.com explains references to Jimmie Rodgers, his adoring female fans, his famous hip swivel, his first recordings at Sun Studios in Memphis, the song “Love Me Tender,” and his sudden death in 1977. SF He finished it with Tyson and they presented it to Myles. She thought the song was so good that it would be given to another artist and she wouldn’t get a chance to record it. FB Of course, she did record it and hers is the definitive version. Sullivan said, “Her powerful vocal (which becomes spine-tingling by the final verses) matches the richly atmospheric mood of the song; sultrym steamy as a summer day in Memphis; settling into a slow, intoxicating blues-rock groove.” SS It was one of the three songs on the demo she pitched to Atlantic which got her signed to the label. Resources: FB Fred Bronson (2007). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (4th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 753. RC Rod Couch (2015). The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era: 1955-2015. Pages 226-7. SF Songfacts SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Page 720. Related Links: First posted 1/12/2025.

Sinéad O’Connor “Black Boys on Mopeds” released

Black Boys on Mopeds Sinéad O’Connor

Writer(s): Sinéad O’Connor, arranged with Karl Wallinger (see lyrics here) Released: March 20, 1990 (as album cut) First Charted: -- Peak: 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 1.40 video, 3.41 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Sinéad O’Connor emerged in 1987 with The Lion and the Cobra. The singles “Troy,” “Mandinka,” and “I Want Your Hands on Me” suggested she could be a darling of the alternative-rock scene. No one could have anticipated the monster success that came with her sophomore album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. It became a multi-platinum #1 smash, thanks to her heart-wrenching (and chart-topping) iconic cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.” It would be her only top-40 success in the United States, although she became an unforgettable presence because of her troubled life and using “her platform to shine a light on important issues” OP by “making her art a powerful vehicle for change.” OP “Her powerful social commentary was evident in ‘Black Boys on Mopeds,’” OP from the I Do Not Want album. It was “a clear demonstration of her activism” MM standing as one of her “starkest and most unshakeable protest songs” BB. It is “a devastating ballad of just her and multi-tracked acoustic guitar” BB marked by her “politically-charged lyrics and passionate performance.” MM The “devastating wake-up call” YH was “a powerful critique of British police brutality and systemic racism.” MM “She laments the hypocrisy of a U.K. government that decries murder in foreign lands while its police enact racist killings on home turf.” BB She wrote the “haunting ballad after two teenage boys, riding borrowed mopeds that police assumed they’d stolen, were chased by law enforcement and fatally crashed.” RS Sadly, the message has remained relevant “as Black Lives Matter uprisings have brought increased awareness to the very type of police killings O’Connor wrote about more than three decades ago.” RS “With its starkness, poignant message, and delicate melody, not only is it an essential Sinead O’Connor song, but a track that is essentially Sinead O’Connor.” YH The song has been covered by Phoebe Bridgers, Sharon Van Etten, and alt-metal band Chevelle. Resources: BB Billboard (7/26/2023). “Sinead O’Connor’s 10 Best Songs: Staff Picks” by Andrew Unterberger et al MM MagneticMag.com (7/26/2023). “Sinead O’Connor’s Best Songs: Remembering the Late Singer’s Legacy Through Her Work” OP Opoyi.com (7/26/2023). “5 Best Sinead O’Connor Songs…” by Rohit Yadav RS Rolling Stone (7/26/2023). “Sinead O’Connor: 10 Essential Songs” YH Yahoo.com (7/26/2023). “10 Essential Sinéad O’Connor Songs That Aren’t ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’” by Jonah Krueger et al Related Links: First posted 7/26/2023.

Robert Plant Manic Nirvana released

Manic Nirvana Robert Plant

Released: March 19, 1990 Peak: 13 US, 15 UK, 11 CN, 26 AU Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.06 UK Genre: rock

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Hurting Kind (I’ve Got My Eyes on You) [4:04] (3/17/90, 46 US, 1 AR, 45 UK, 14 CN, 63 AU) Big Love [4:24] (4/7/90, 35 AR) S S S & Q [4:38] (8/18/90, 47 AR) I Cried [4:59] (4/7/90, 39 AR) She Said [5:10] Nirvana [4:36] Tie Dye on the Highway [5:15] (3/31/90, 6 AR) Your Ma Said You Cried in Your Sleep Last Night [4:36] (6/9/90, 8 AR, 90 UK) Anniversary [5:02] Liars Dance [2:40] Watching You [4:19] Total Running Time: 49:43

Rating: 3.237 out of 5.00 (average of 17 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “A disingenuous Robert Plant began the ‘90s with his heaviest rock album yet. His trick was to balance the big riffs with some nouveaux quirks, as heard on SSS&Q, a song that sounded like Led Zeppelin, James Brown and Malcolm McLaren’s ‘Buffalo Gals.’ Tracks such as Liars Dance were more restrained, but overall this was Robert Plant as supposedly self-parodying rock star; a too-subtle distinction that went over the heads of those Cult and Guns N’ Roses fans who helped put it into the UK and US Top 20 anyway.” Q The album failed to produce a top-40 hit on the pop charts, but Plant continued to be embraced by album rock radio where he landed at #1 with Hurting Kind and had two more top-10s with Tie Dye on the Highway and Your Ma Said You Cried in Your Sleep Last Night. Still, the album fell fall short of the commercial success of its predecessor, 1988’s Now and Zen. That album reached the top 10 in the U.S. and sold 3 million copies. Manic Nirvana peaked at #12 and stalled at half a million in sales. It faced a similar fate in the UK, missing the top 10 and falling short of gold status – both accomplishments which Now and Zen achieved. Notes: A 2007 reissue added bonus tracks “Oompah (Watery Blint),” “One Love,” and “Don’t Look Back.”

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Robert Plant Q Mark Blake, Q magazine, Sept. 2010, p. 133. WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 9/27/2010; last updated 8/28/2021.