Which year was best for Hard Rock in the late 80’s golden age? Was it 86? ’87? or 88? I must admit for me at least the best two years for the type of music I love were 1989 (that’s the year I looked at last year and started me off on this train of thought) and 1990. Both years produced more than their fair share of classic albums that have more than stood the test of time. So this year I’m looking at 1990 and hope over the coming months to have a series of interviews with some of the major players in the list.
As far as the music charts go the best selling albums of 1990 were, in general, pretty dire both in the US and the UK and here in Australia it was especially awful. There were some great sellers though in our genre – globally both Aerosmith’s Pump and Motley’s Dr. Feelgood (both released the previous year) were in the Top 10 best sellers but that list was topped by Janet Jackson and included the likes of the tepid Phil Collins, Michael Bolton and M.C. Hammer!
Rock fans like us of course have always been the underdog and you’ll be hard pushed to find any of the albums I’ve listed topping Top Seller charts anywhere. I would just like to point out two things though. Firstly my list is standing up pretty well musically thirty years later and secondly three quarters of the bands are still playing in some capacity.
When you look at the best selling Pop records of 1990 you’d be hard pushed to remember half the names these days and there’s very little longevity, and that seems to be the story of Pop. I looked at 2020’s charts yesterday and was so proud that I’d practically heard of nothing in the US Top 100.
So here it is – my Top 30 Hard Rock albums of 1990. There were of course many more great releases but these are the ones I’d readily recommend to anyone and add to that I’ve deliberately not included Metal releases of which there were also some great ones in 1990.
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- The Black Crowes – Shake Your Money Maker
- Love/Hate – Blackout in the Red Room
- Little Caesar – Little Caesar
- Thunder – Backstreet Symphony
- Warrior Soul – Last Decade Dead Century
- Electric Boys – Funk-O-Metal Carpet Ride
- Nelson-After the Rain
- Trixter – Trixter
- Firehouse – Firehouse
- Every Mother’s Nightmare – Every Mother’s Nightmare
- Quireboys – A Bit of What You Fancy
- Salty Dog – Every Dog Has Its Day
- Jagged Edge – Fuel For Your Soul
- Hericane Alice – Tear the House Down
- Sweet F.A. – Stick to Your Guns
- Spread Eagle – Spread Eagle
- Living Colour – Time’s Up
- Lynch Mob – Wicked Sensation
- Steelheart – Steelheart
- Winger – In the Heart of the Young
- Queensrÿche – Empire
- Extreme -Pornograffitti
- Heart – Brigade
- Damn Yankees – Damn Yankees
- Riverdogs – Riverdogs
- Slaughter – Stick It To Ya
- Cinderella – Heartbreak Station
- Heaven’s Edge – Heaven’s Edge
- Y&T – Ten
- Bad Company – Holy Water
As I write this and skip through the collection I realise that there’s a whole host of CD’s I have from 1990 that I still play so bubbling under that Top 30 I’d also recommend (in alphabetical order):
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- Rhino Bucket – Rhino Bucket
- The Bang Gang – Love Sells
- Child’s Play – Rate Race
- Cold Sweat – Break Out
- Cry Wolf – Crunch
- Fastway – Bad Bad Girls
- House of Lords – Sahara
- Richie Kotzen – Fever Dream
- Krokus – Stampede
- Frank Marion – From The Hip
- Yngwie Malmsteen – Eclipse
- Manitoba’s Wild Kingdom- … And You?
- Talisman – Talisman
- Tigertailz – Bezerk
- Steve Vai – Passion and Warfare
- Stryper – Against the Law
- Vow Wow- Mountain Top
- WWIII – World War III
There were also a few big name releases that I felt let down with after their previous outings – notably Warrant’s ‘Cherry Pie’ which came between the wonderful ‘Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich’ and the excellent ‘Dog Eat Dog’ as well as Ratt’s ‘Detonator’ which was poppier than the previous release ‘Reach For The Sky’ and just didn’t hit the spot. Similarly Saxon’s ‘Solid Ball of Rock’ was just OK, though it was the start of a return to form after years of fruitlessly chasing a radio rock sound that would make them big in the US. The biggest disappointment though for me of the year was Poison’s ‘Flesh and Blood’ which hit new lows with tracks like the vacuous ‘Unskinny Bop’ and in my eyes at least was far more responsible for the demise of late 80’s Rock than the likes of Nirvana ripping off the riff to Boston’s ‘More Than a Feeling’. But that’s another story…
There were of course many other great albums in 1990 and I guess I’ve deliberately left out some of the bigger names like AC/DC who put out – ‘The Razor’s Edge’, Black Sabbath who released ‘Tyr’ along with Iron Maiden’s ‘No Prayer for the Dying’; Judas Priest’s ‘Painkiller’ and Scorpions ‘Crazy Word’. In addition some big time vocalists like Jon Bon Jovi (‘Blaze of Glory’), Don Dokken (‘Up From The Ashes’) and Bruce Dickinson (‘Tattooed Millionaire’) put out their first solo releases.
On the other edge of Rock things were starting to move in unexpected directions – Alice in Chains put out Facelift – an album I love now but had been disappointed with at the time, Jane’s Addiction also released ‘Ritual De Lo Habitual’ which also wasn’t really my thing back in the day. Then there was Kings X who I never really got into who released ‘Faith Hope Love’
There were also some great Live records and EP that again I’ve not included but which are definitely worth a mention most iconic of which perhaps being Tesla’s ‘Five Man Acoustical Jam’ along with John Norum’s ‘Live in Stockholm EP’ and Monster Magnet’s self-titled EP.
1990 was also a weird year for me as it was sort of the last year I bought vinyl buying everything on this list primarily on vinyl and later backing them up with a CD copy.
In the word of Rock things were starting to close in on our time in the sun – Metal was rising with Metallica landing a Grammy for ‘One’ and the inaugural ‘Clash of the Titans’ tour kicking off in the US. In the news Judas Priest were also embroiled in lawsuits as their last minute cover version of Spooky Tooth’s ‘Better By You, Better Than Me’ was accused of including the subliminal message “Do It” which allegedly didn’t mean’ buy our records’ but was argued by lawyers was meant as an enticement to suicide. I know bands were selling lots of records in those days but surely encouraging fans to kill themselves would have been rater counter productive.
Biggest singles of the year depending on where you were in the world were probably Extreme’s ‘More Than Words’; Aerosmith’s ‘What It Takes’; Damn Yankees ‘High Enough’; Poison’s ‘Unskinny Bop’; Bon Jovi’s ‘Blaze of Glory’; Billy Idol’s ‘Cradle of Love’; Kiss’ ‘Forever’; INXS’ ‘Suicide Blonde’ ”Epic’ by Faith No More; Warrant’s ‘Cherry Pie’; ‘All I Want To Do Is Make Love To You’ by Heart; Nelson’s ‘(Can’t Live Without Your) Love and Affection’ and The Black Crowes ‘Hard To Handle’.
