Ace of Base “The Sign” hit #1

The Sign Ace of Base

Writer(s): Jonas “Joker” Berggren (see lyrics here) Released: December 21, 1993 First Charted: January 1, 1994 Peak: 16 US, 113 BA, 13 CB, 13 GR, 19 RR, 2 AC, 2 UK, 15 CN, 14 AU, 14 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.1 US, 0.4 UK, 2.15 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 3.0 radio, 125.40 video, 241.07 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Ace of Base hit #1 on four U.S. pop charts with “The Sign.” On February 11, 1994, they reached the pinnacle on the Radio & Records chart and followed suit a week later on the Gavin Report. On March 12, the song ascended to the throne on the Billboard Hot 100 and accomplished the same feat on the Cashbox charts a week later. The song also spent thirteen weeks at #1 on the Billboard radio airplay chart. It ended up the song of the year on Billboard’s year-end chart. Idolator ranked it the best pop song of 1994. WK The song experienced international success as well, going to the top slot in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Spain, New Zealand, and Zimbabwe. WK Interestingly, the Swedish group did not top the Swedish charts or the UK charts, stalling at #2 in both cases. “The Sign” “featured a disco-esque beat and harmonies reminiscent of the earlier Swedish pop sensation, Abba,” DJ another group comprised of two female singers alongside two male musicians. However, a People magazine reviewer said that “The Sign” proved Ace of Base was more than just an Abba clone. WK Their debut album, Happy Nation, came out in 1992 but American labels weren’t interested until iconic record executive Clive Davis heard “All That She Wants” while on a yacht on vacation. That song was the group’s first single released outside of Scandinavia FB and went to #1 in multiple countries and reached #2 in the United States. Davis signed the band and revamped the album with three new songs, including “The Sign,” and a new album title – also The Sign. TB The album sold nine million copies in the United States. “The Sign” is about “a couple contemplating the state of their relationship and deciding to split up as a result.” WK As singer Jenny Berggren said, “You see signs in your life, and that’s why you change direction.” WK Musically, “the song has a simple, memorable, endlessly catchy chorus.” TB It “sounded like some streamlined, futuristic version of pop music.” TB Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Ace of Base FB Fred Bronson (2007). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (4th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 826. DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 173. SG Stereogum (2/28/2022). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 8/11/2023.

Marillion Brave released

Brave Marillion

Released: February 7, 1994 Peak: -- US, 10 UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- Genre: neo-progressive rock

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Bridge [2:52] Living with the Big Lie [6:46] Runaway [4:40] Goodbye to All That [12:26] i. Wave ii. Mad iii. The Opium Den iv. The Slide v. Standing in the Swing Hard As Love [6:41] The Hollow Man [4:08] (3/21/94, 30 UK) Along Again in the Lap of Luxury [8:12] (4/15/94, 53 UK) i. Now Wash Your Hands Paper Lies [5:49] Brave [7:54] The Great Escape [6:29] (1/10/94, --) i. The Last of You ii. Fallin’ from the Moon Made Again [5:01] Lyrics by Steve Hogarth and John Helmer; music by Marillion (Hogarth/ Kelly/ Mosley/ Rothery/ Trewavas). The Players: Steve Hogarth (vocals, percussion) Steve Rothery (guitar) Pete Trewavas (bass) Mark Kelly (keyboards) Ian Mosley (drums)

Rating: 3.804 out of 5.00 (average of 23 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “In a climate of constantly evolving trends in popular music, [Marillion] has maintained an identity as leaders in the echelon of progressive rock…Brave is a distillation of everything special about the band.” MB “With all of their recordings, Marillion have offered consistently effortlessly expressive rock-pop of the highest caliber. More intricate and emotionally willing than previous recordings, Brave is an unashamed concept album that works on numerous levels. A return to the roots tempered with maturity and hindsight. The songs shine with a new vitality, as breathtaking as any previous release by the band.” MB “Recorded at Miles Copeland's 14th-century chateau in Bordeaux in a block of two months of intensive work, Brave grew in body and wealth. Produced by Dave Meegan, the startlingly powerful and evocative recording addresses the concept of truth and the fact that truth has become more difficult to unravel than ever before. Vocalist and principal lyricist Steve Hogarth explains, ‘…I think we're in more danger than we ever were of losing faith in everything. Brave is about a loss of faith.’” MB “The story which unfolds within Brave is fictitious, but it is based upon the real-life event of a teenage girl with amnesia found wandering on the Severn bridge, and her subsequent search for a past. The album is about how we get here, what we're doing here, what we're doing with our lives, and how the crumbling of the edifices on which we construct our sense of reality can radically alter our perception of life. Musically, the band mirror the uncertainty and confusion that dog the central character's trawl through her subconscious with baffling agility.” MB “Within this soul-searching journey for identity, the album hits some timeless highs, especially in the gentle The Slide, the elegiac Now Wash Your Hands, and the heart-stopping The Great Escape,” MB the latter being “one of the most dynamic showcases for vocalist Steve Hogarth and guitarist Steve Rothery.” AMG Brave “is a solid mix of symphonic tracks with a pronounced rock edge.” AMG It “is moody, ambient and graceful all at once. Certainly too much for a solitary listen, reveling in the reality that it is an album made without boundaries, rules or concern for fashionable acceptability.” MB It “remains the most complex Marillion release to date, with layers and layers of sound.” AMG “On the question of being out of touch, guitarist Steve Rothery acknowledges, ‘Oh, we are totally! But then being in touch means having to immerse yourself in what's trendy that week. We don't chase fashionability.’ Keyboardist Mark Kelly added, ‘People don't like the fact that we're still around. We never set ourselves up to be trendy for five seconds. We exist outside of the scene. But we can laugh at ourselves.’” MB “Be brave. It's okay to like Marillion.” MB Notes: A 2-disc reissue includes non-album cuts "Marouatte Jam," "Winter Trees" (instrumental), and "Dream Sequence" as well as alternate versions of "The Great Escape" (2 versions – one of which is more than 32 minutes long), “The Hollow Man," "Along Again in the Lap of Luxury” (2 versions), “Runaway,” “Hard As Love,” and “Living with the Big Lie.” Also, “a full-length movie of Brave, directed by Richard Stanley, was released in Europe in conjunction with the album.” AMG In 2018, Brave was reissued as a box set with the original Dave Meegan album mix, the 2018 Steven Wilson remix, and a two-CD live set recorded on April 29, 1994 at La Cigale.

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Marillion AMG All Music Guide review by Dale Jensen MB Music Boulevard review by Stu Hasic Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/14/2008; last updated 3/6/2022.

Bruce Springsteen released “Streets of Philadelphia”

Streets of Philadelphia Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen (see lyrics here) Released: February 2, 1994 First Charted: February 12, 1994 Peak: 9 US, 6 CB, 2 GR, 10 RR, 3 AC, 25 AR, 2 UK, 11 CN, 4 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.6 UK, 2.66 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 227.22 video, 345.33 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Movie director Jonathan Demme met Bruce Springsteen in 1985 on the video shoot for “Sun City.” They hadn’t seen each other since, but Demme reached out to Springsteen when he needed a song for Philadelphia, his 1993 movie starring Tom Hanks as a lawyer dying of AIDS. Springsteen told him “I’m interested so I’d like to come up with a song for you…but I can’t promise…I’m not very good at scores.” WK He had, in fact, never written a song specifically for a movie SF although he had given the song “Light of Day” to director Paul Schrader for his 1987 movie of the same name. SF Demme wanted “the kind of soaring guitar-driven anthem for which the Asbury Park-bred artist was best known. What he got was better still: a profoundly reflective acoustic ballad from the perspective of the Hanks character, calmly recounting what is happening to him in an almost documentary-like fashion.” SS Springsteen reworked some lyrics he’d written about the death of a friend, but couldn’t get the song to work with a rock beat. SF He sent what he considered a demo to Demme. He and his wife sat and listened to it “and we were literally weeping by the end.” WK Demme thought it was perfect just the way it was. SF Springsteen said, “I hope that this film, and in some smaller way the song, might take a chip out of the fear and intolerance and lack of compassion that we show one another.” HL Writer Christopher Sanford called it “the saddest track cut this decade.” WK The “moody ballad” AMG was “a surprising commercial comeback for Springsteen.” AMG It was his first top 10 hit since 1987’s “Tunnel of Love” and first gold single since 1985’s “My Hometown.” The song was a top 10 in the U.S. and hit #1 in Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, and Norway. WK “Streets of Philadelphia” won the Oscar for Best Original Song and Grammys for Song of the Year, Best Rock Song, Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television. Springsteen performed it at the Academy Awards in March 1994, the MTV Video Music Awards in September 1994, and at the Grammy Awards in March 1995. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Bruce Springsteen AMG All Music Guide review by William Ruhlmann HL Michael Heatley and Spencer Leigh (1998). Behind the Song: The Stories of 100 Great Pop & Rock Classics. Blandford Books: London, UK. Page 154. SF Songfacts SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Page 150. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 2/27/2021; last updated 4/30/2024.