The year is 1991.
Sweden won the 36th Eurovision Song Contest, gaming giant Nintendo released the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Grease: The Original Soundtrack was available on CD for the very first time.
Over in the wonderful world of pop music Mariah Carey wanted you to feel her Emotions, Prince and the New Power Generation asked you to Gett Off and C&C Music Factory were Gonna Make You Sweat. In fact, many a brilliant pop gems had their debut in the Chinese Year of the Sheep.
As we draw a close to 2011 we thought it best to reflect on the best albums of 1991, those of which celebrate their 20th anniversary. While the critics are celebrating the re-releases of Nirvana's Nevermind and U2's Achtung Baby, we'll look at some of the less-celebrated gems in our collection...
The KLF - The White Room
Original release date: 4 March 1991
British house music group The KLF released their seventh LP after originally putting together the album back in 1989 as part of a movie soundtrack (of the same name) that never actually surfaced. The release spawned four hit singles, including the uber camp Justified and Ancient, which featured country superstar Tammy Wynette.
Lead by the single What Time Is Love (which was later remixed and re-released under the title America: What Time Is Love) the following singles Last Train To Trancentral and Justified and Ancient all peaked inside the UK top five. The groups biggest hit to date 3am Eternal hit the coveted top spot in their homeland as well as the Billboard dance chart in the US.
Throughout the groups five-year career (1987-92) The White Room stood as their most successful album.
Roxette - Joyride
Original release date: 28 March 1991
Duo Roxette, the second most successful band from Sweden (behind ABBA), produced their third and most successful album in 1991 - Joyride. Hitting the top spot in their homeland and Canada, #2 in Australia and the UK, the album produced five fairly successful singles - Joyride, Fading Like A Flower, The Big L, Spending My Time and Church Of Your Heart.
The title track, which served as the lead single went on to hit the #1 spot in multiple countries, including the US (their fourth to do so in their career). Interesting fact, the opening line of Joyride - "Hello, you fool, I love you" - was taken from a note that Per Gessle's then girlfriend (now wife) left for him at home.
Fading Like A Flower, the albums second single, was covered in 2005 by the Dancing DJs, and earned the group a UK top twenty hit in the making. Roxette were also credited as artists in the single release.
Joyride would be the band's last studio album to produce a top ten single in either Australia, the UK or the US.
Paula Abdul - Spellbound
Original release date: 14 May 1991
Abdul's Spellbound served as the then 29 year-olds sophomore album, following on from the success of her debut release Forever Your Girl three years prior. Hitting the top spot in the US and top five in many other countries the album went on to eclipse the worldwide sales of it's predecessor - selling in excess of 13 million copies.
The album's lead single, Rush Rush, was a mid-tempo ballad that gave Abdul her fifth #1 in her homeland spending five weeks at the summit. The video, featuring a very young Keanu Reeves, drew inspiration from James Dean's 1955 film Rebel Without A Cause.
Following on the album produced a further four US top twenty singles - The Promise Of A New Day (which gave Abdul her sixth US #1), Blowing Kisses In The Wind, Vibeology and Will You Marry Me.
Three years later the X Factor US judge went on to release Head Over Heels - her last and least successful studio album to date.
Dannii Minogue - Love and Kisses
Original release date: 3 June 1991
The younger Minogue delivered Love and Kisses, her international debut album in 1991 - a revamp of the 1990 Australian-only release of Dannii, with new additional tracks.
The album's title track, Dannii's debut single, peaked at #4 in Australia and served as her only top ten hit back home, whilst in the UK it was the first of many. Following singles were Success and I Don't Wanna Take This Pain (both co-penned by the starlet), Jump To The Beat and the fabulous Baby Love.
Jump To The Beat was a cover of the 1980 single, originally sung by US singer Stacy Lattisaw. The original peaked at #3 in the UK.
Interesting fact: the album contained a track co-penned by Dannii's older sister Kylie Minogue, called Love Traffic.
Martika - Martika's Kitchen
Original release date: 17 August 1991
US singer/songwriter Martika first came into the pop music scene with her eponymous debut album in 1988 and the Billboard #1 single Toy Soldiers.
Three years later, after working with the likes of DJs/producers Clivilles & Cole (of C&C Music Factory fame), the Californian native delivered one of the most famous love songs to this day, the Prince penned Love... Thy Will Be Done. The single peaked at #1 in Australia and achieved top ten status in the US and UK.
Additional singles released from the album, Martika's Kitchen (again penned by Prince) and Coloured Kisses (produced by C&C), failed to replicate the singers earlier success and would be the last time Martika saw any chart action in any of the major markets.
Whilst Martika's Kitchen was a fun pop album, it didn't achieve the global success the artist deserved. 20 years on however, it doesn't seem like that has held Martika down, as recent reports suggest that the artist in back in the recording studio and we're likely to hear something from her in 2012.
Mariah Carey - Emotions
Original release date: 17 September 1991
Carey's sophomore album served as her opportunity to be more creative after the success of her debut release the year prior. Working with a range of industry big-shots such as house music stars Clivillés & Cole, Carey co-wrote and co-produced every track on the album.
The album spawned three singles - Can't Let Go, Make It Happen and the title track. Whilst all reached top five status in the US, which includes Emotions hitting #1, the album was seen as less of a success in comparison to it's predecessor (selling eight millions copies worldwide vs fifteen million copies worldwide). Little did the world know, millions of records would be sold with Mariah's upcoming album releases.
If It's Over, co-penned by Carey and folk legend Carole King, featured on the album, with a live version later released as a single (taken from Carey's 1992 MTV Unplugged LP).
Prince & the New Power Generation - Diamonds and Pearls
Original release date: 1 October 1991
The master of name changes, Prince is no stranger to brilliant pop albums. Along with his peers at the time (George Michael, Madonna, Michael Jackson, etc) the Artist-Formerly-Known-As delivered album-after-album of pure quality - and Diamonds and Pearls was no exception.
Diamonds and Pearls, his ninth studio album at that stage, served as the artists most successful. The album spawned four official singles - six if you include Insatiable, which was released as an Urban Chart promo single; and Thunder, which was released as a limited edition 12" vinyl promo single.
Cream and the album's title track were globally the most successful, with the singles hitting #1 and #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Additionally Gett Off, the lead single from the Diamonds and Pearls campaign, faired well in the UK and Australia, peaking at #4 and #8 respectively.
Money Don't Matter 2 Night, the album's final single (and probably one of our favourite Prince tracks), had its video directed by film legend Spike Lee and depicted controversial images of a poverty-stricken African-American family.
Kylie Minogue - Let's Get To It
Original release date: 14 October 1991
Kylie's least successful (in volume of sales) and lowest charting album ever was her fourth delivery, Let's Get To It. Her last album to be delivered under the PWL record label, it moved away from the bubblegum pop we'd seen Minogue deliver in her earlier releases.
Whilst the previous album Rhthym Of Love was considered a little risque with it's sexual innuendos and flirtacious behaviour (think Better The Devil You Know and What Do I Have To Do), Let's Get To It produced it's own level of risks. With those risks, came lower chart performance.
On saying that, not all was bad news for our singing budgie - the lead single Word Is Out peaked at #10 in Australia; and Give Me Just A Little More Time peaked at #2 in the UK.
The album's "dancier" tracks included various samples, Too Much Of A Good Thing sampling Janet Jackson's Control, I Guesss I Like It Like That sampling 2 Unlimited's Get Ready For This, amoungst others; whilst the more commerical tracks saw Kylie lend a hand in the writing process, If You Were With Me, co-penned by Minogue and released as a single, was a duet with US singer Keith Washington.
Michael Jackson - Dangerous
Original release date: 26 November 1991
The late Michael Jackson had big shoes to fill when finalising his eighth studio album Dangerous, after delivering two of the biggest albums the world have ever seen - Thriller (1982) and Bad (1987) - with both albums selling in excess of 100 million records worldwide.
Whilst that may seem daunting, it certainly didn't detract, with Dangerous delivereing a whopping nine singles and selling in excess of 32 million copies worldwide.
The albums lead single, Black Or White, hit the top spot in multiple countries across the globe including all the big markets (the US, UK, Canada and Australia). The video for the single was directed by John Landis, who previously directed the clip for Thriller, and included actors Macaulay Culkin, George Wendt and supermodel Tyra Banks.
Following singles included Remember The Time, In The Closet, Jam, Who Is It, Heal The World, Give In To Me, Will You Be There and Gone Too Soon.
Interesting fact: the female vocal featured in the beginning of In The Closet was confirmed as Princess Stephanie of Monaco, however it was later re-recorded by model Naomi Campbell to coincide with her appearance in the music video.
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