Twostepcublog

" Baby Hold On To Me " - Gerald Levert with Eddie Levert from the album Private Line (1991) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #37 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 1 Today's song of the day comes from Gerald Levert , who had fronted the R&B trio Levert during the 1980s with his brother Sean and friend Marc Gordon, and scored a top ten pop hit in the fall of 1987 with " Casanova ". That single was from the group's third album The Big Throwdown , and even though they had landed eleven top ten R&B hits up to 1991, including five #1's, only that one had even made a dent on the pop Hot 100. Even though Gerald kept Levert active, he also started his own solo recording career, releasing his first album Private Line in October of 1991. The first single from the album, the groovy title track " Private Line ", spent a week at #1 on Billboard 's R&B chart, but missed the pop list completely. The second release from the record paired Gerald w...

" Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg " - TLC from the album Ooooooohhh...On The TLC Tip (1992) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #6 (two weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 17 Today's song of the day comes from the R&B/HipHop trio TLC , who came together in the early 1990s, with Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes being put in with Damian Dane dancer Rozanda "Chilli" Thomas (replacing ousted original member Crystal Jones, who started the act) when they were helped by singer Pebbles (Perri Reid) to get signed to her husband L.A. Reid's label LaFace. They released their first single "Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg" in the fall of 1991, and the combination of smooth soul singing and rap beats and verses, much like the then-hot Bell Biv Devoe, was an instant success. Written by Dallas Austin with Left-Eye's rap interlude and a truckload of samples, the song hit the pop and R&B charts like a train... "Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg...

" Human Touch "/" Better Days " - Bruce Springsteen from the albums Human Touch and Lucky Town (1992) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #16 (two weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 9 Today's song of the day comes from rock legend Bruce Springsteen , who we had last seen with his somber and thoughtful look on a crumbling marriage, Tunnel Of Love . That record from 1987 spun off three top-40 pop hits with " Brilliant Disguise ", " Tunnel Of Love ", and " One Step Up ".  After touring behind the record, it took a long four years before he re-emerged with new material. Possibly taking a cue from the successful separate-but-double album release of Use Your Illusion by Guns N' Roses, Springsteen put down two individual albums on the same day in March of 1992, though Bruce named them differently instead of I & II. He also used studio musicians, saving only Roy Bittan from the E Street Band. The lead single released from them would be a ...

Friday's here, and it's time to run down my top 100 tunes from the previous week. After ten weeks we finally have a new #1 from Portugal, The Man, while MAX (pictured above) climbs two notches within the top ten. Songs from MK, Camila Cabello, and lovelytheband make the biggest jumps (moves of 10+ places highlighted in red ), while former big hits from Kesha, Axwell & Ingrosso, Russell Dickerson, and LANCO drop off my list. Happy tenure, Doc! This Week                Song/Artist (last week's position in parentheses) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Live In The Moment - Portugal, The Man (3) 2. Finesse - Bruno Mars f/Cardi B (2) 3. Beautiful Trauma - Pink (1) 4. You Worry Me - Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats (4) 5. Sit Next To Me - Foster The People (7) 6. Whatever It Takes - Imagine Dragons (6) 7. Lights Down Low - MAX...

" Too Much Passion " - The Smithereens from the album Blow Up (1991) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #37 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 5 Today's song of the day comes from the retro-rock band from Central Jersey, the Smithereens , who had landed their first top-40 pop hit in the spring of 1990 with " A Girl Like You ". The following year, the group released their fourth album Blow Up . The lead single, " Top Of The Pops ", missed the pop chart in America, but climbed all the way to #2 on Billboard 's Modern Rock radio chart (and crossing over to #19 on their Mainstream Rock format list). A second cut from the record, " Tell Me When Did Things Go So Wrong ", peaked right under the top ten there at #11 (and #28 Mainstream Rock). That would be followed by what would become the most successful single from the set, the power-pop gem "Too Much Passion". Written by lead singer Pat DiNizio, the track would be melodic yet soft enough ...

"Romeo & Juliet" - Stacy Earl featuring The Wild Pair from the album Stacy Earl (1991) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #27 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 8 Today's song of the day comes from dance-pop singer Stacy Earl , who had cracked the American top-40 pop chart for the first time with the lush lite-house ditty " Love Me All Up " in the beginning of 1992. Her second single would pair her with an act who went all the way to #1 though most of us would have forgotten it. "Romeo & Juliet", written and produced by Oliver Lieber, featured "The Wild Pair", two former members of the Prince-adjacent funk band Mazarati (Bruce DeShazer and Marv Gunn) that played and sang on multiple tracks of Paula Abdul's Forever Your Girl album. That included her chart-topping single " Opposites Attract ", which they were credited on the charts for (I mean, it's a "duet" even though on the video she's singing with "M...

" Hazard " - Richard Marx from the album Rush Street (1991) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 16 Today's song of the day comes from pop singer/songwriter Richard Marx , who started out the 1990s with his tenth consecutive top-20 pop hit " Keep Coming Back " in the winter of 1991. The second single from his Rush Street album would be his most lyrically ambitious ever - the sad story-song of a romance gone wrong in "Hazard". Like similar-themed classics like "Ode To Billy Joe" from Bobbie Gentry and "Where The Wild Roses Grow" from Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue, "Hazard" explores yet another homicide that happens at a river, this time with Richard being the accused but yet insisting on his innocence... "Hazard" returned Marx to the American pop top 10 in April of 1992. The single also spent a week at #1 on Billboard 's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radi...