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I'd been meaning to do one of the 1994 albums for a while, both because it's an interesting pop year and as a tribute to AcerBen's fascinating Pop Unlimited 1994, which offers us a week-by-week snapshot of charts and Top Of The Pops. And his most recent post at time of writing also embeds the original TV commercial for the album, so I've borrowed it here. It goes without saying that this will contain some spoilers as to which other tracks feature on the album.
Swedish foursome Ace Of Base have sold millions of records in the last year all over Europe... They recently had 2 American Top 10 singles at the same time - 'The Sign' (which had reached No.2 in the UK by 27/2/94) & 'All That She Wants'.
A nice informative note there, which omits only to mention that this track ultimately topped the US chart for six non-consecutive weeks; a level of success which surely vindicates the decision to record extra tracks for the North American version of their debut album. Whilst the single didn't perform quite so well over here, it was a big hit and helped a re-issued album to outperform its original incarnation (it finally topped the chart after the next single, but that's another story).
All the rest of this might make it more surprising that I have no memory at all of hearing this song at the time. Perhaps I should explain that 1994 was a year when I (re)connected with pop music: I must have restarted listening to music radio (well, Capital FM) around the start of the year, then shifted to our local BBC station GLR when I helped decorate my new bedroom later in the year. In the autumn we got cable TV for the first time and as MTV Europe was broadcast in the UK at the time I became quite familiar with their hits from 1995-6 but somehow this particular one passed me by, and I've only more recently become acquainted with it.
It'd make good copy to say that this had quickly become one of my all-time favourites, but sadly they're not a group I've ever been able to warm to and this one's no exception. There's something a bit too happy-clappy about them that seems to get on my nerves although I'd be at a loss to say why when other insubstantial acts don't bother me so much. Perhaps it treads the tightrope between seriousness and silly too awkwardly (the song and video have been interpreted by some as depicting a woman who joins a religious order to escape an abusive relationship) or maybe it's just this particular era's dance-pop sounds I don't like. Still, I have to admit this is better than a lot of Now 50.
Also appearing on: Now 25, 28, 33, 41, 42
Available on: Happy Nation
For me, 1994 was determined musically (at the time anyway) by Long Wave Radio Atlantic 252 (was it as popular in England as it was in Ireland?). In my teen years I cursed the station for ignoring the grunge and alternative music that was genuinely invading the charts and therefore stalling my credibility by a good five years. Now that I grown out of that, I look forward to these postings to see how many of the songs still hold up.
ReplyDeleteThis one doesn't.
I do sort of remember people listening to Atlantic 252 then, although I don't think it was a very good signal down here in the South-East.
ReplyDelete