I was obsessing over this all goddamn day; I mean, how mindboggling that it's really been 21 years since a solo female artist from the U.K. -- Kim Wilde, with "You Keep Me Hangin' On" -- topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart! And thanks to all the cats who chipped in their two cents on the previous post today about this, even the Leo-tards.Anyway, in said post, I mentioned Nicki French and Donna Lewis both just missed hitting #1 here, peaking in the runner-up position in 1995 and 1996, respectively. So here are some other pop babes from Old Blighty who've sprung to mind since this morning, whose jams came close.
* Lisa Stansfield (pictured above), "All Around The World": How I loved Lisa and her kiss-curl so! I bought this cassette single one frosty Friday night in January while hanging out at the mall. I was 15-going-on-16, and completely mesmerized with Lisa's androgynous image. My friends were just getting their driver's licenses, and this track was one of the many radio hits providing a soundtrack to those weekend nights of aimlessly driving around our suburban Pennsylvania hometown. (#3, January 1990)
* Cathy Dennis, "Touch Me (All Night Long)": I wasn't monogomously- enamored with Lisa Stansfield, and I soon replaced her with Cathy Dennis. Long before Leona Lewis was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, I recall rushing home from classes one weekday in 11th grade to videotape Cathy's performance on the talk show. (#2, May 1991)
* Des'ree, "You Gotta Be": This F-ing song! I swear, I heard this for about two years solid every time I turned the radio on in the mid-'90s. I do have some good memories of dating this one hot piece for about five minutes when "You Gotta Be" first came out, and always seeing the video on VH1 at about 1 a.m. when I'd stay over at his apartment on the edge of our college campus. (#5, December 1994)I guess we can include Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten," from two years ago (#5), but that's all I got. Can anyone think of more?
ALSO SEE:
* Chart Rigger's interview with Nicki French (part one)
* Chart Rigger's interview with Nicki French (part two)