Music of 1990: May

United States

I already wrote about Madonna's "Vogue," but needless to say, it was the biggest hit in the U.S. in May 1990, spending 3 weeks at #1 on the Hot 100. The month's second-biggest hit was Heart's "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You," which tells the story of a woman so desperate to get pregnant that she has a one-night stand. As a kid, I didn't like this song, as I thought it was morally corrupt. But now I actually quite enjoy it. After their #1 hits "These Dreams" and "Alone," this was the band's third biggest hit (go about halfway through the video below to see it).



More one-hit wonders abounded in May 1990. Calloway, named not for Cab Calloway but the surname of the band's two members, hit #2 with "I Wanna Be Rich" (incidentally, around this time Cab Calloway did show up in the pop music world, appearing in the video for Janet Jackson's "Alright"). It was a decent, although by-the-numbers pop hit, and I was surprised they couldn't follow it up with another. Latin pop band Linear and their only major hit with "Sending All My Love," a top 5 single that I remember rather liking at the time.



Michael Bolton continued his early '90s hit streak, following up his #1 "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" with a #3 hit, "How Can We Be Lovers." Aerosmith also followed their recent top 10 hits "Love in an Elevator" and "Janie's Got a Gun," with another, "What It Takes." Desmond Child co-wrote this song and it's one of my favorites from them. Their were two videos for this, one is documentary style, featuring the band in the studio, while the other is more theatrical. As I recall, the studio version came out first, as the standard video wasn't ready, but ultimately, the studio one was the more popular of the two.



United Kingdom

"Killer" ruled the UK singles chart in May of 1990, hitting #1 the second week of the month and staying 4 weeks at the top. It was the biggest hit by British dance music producer Adamski, and the first single by its featured vocalist Seal. Seal, of course, would go on to be a big star on his own all over the world, most notably with his hits "Crazy" and "Kiss from a Rose." Today he's probably best known as Project Runway host and former model Heidi Klum's husband. For his debut album, Seal, Seal re-recorded "Killer," sending it back into the UK top 10 at #8. Then a few years later, George Michael remade it as a medley with Queen's "Papa Was a Rolling Stone."



Other dance pop singles were also quite popular that May. Kylie Minogue hit #2 with "Better the Devil You Know," the first single from her third album, Rhythm of Love. The Stock/Aitken/Waterman-produced single marked a slight change in Minogue's sound, toward a more mature dance pop (not unlike what Cathy Dennis was doing at the time). Among her singles released during the '90s, this is my favorite, and the song has become a longtime favorite among many Kylie fans. Nine years later, a remake of this song by Steps hit #4.

The Adventures of Stevie V also had a #2 hit with "Dirty Cash (Money Talks)." Later in the year this would be a minor hit in the US, and I remember really loving it. The song had quite a re-emergence recently, due to Dizzee Rascal. First, his mostly remake version of the song, "Dirtee Cash," hit #10 last year. And then early this year, he teamed up with Florence and the Machine on "You've Got the Dirtee Love," a mash-up of "Dirtee Cash" and Florence's "You've Got the Love," itself a remake of an early '90s dance hit.



Other hits in Britain in May included Paula Abdul's recent US #1, "Opposites Attract," which hit #2, the New Kids on the Block's "Cover Girl," which hit #4, and the debut single from En Vogue, "Hold On," which hit #5.