The hero is exposed when his crimes are brought to the light of day
Continuing my trip back through the 1990 album charts.
01/07/90 : Greatest Hits : The Bangles
Well, I warned you this might happen! Twice in two days though makes it feel like I've given up following my own rules - I'd have to say the quality of the albums from this year really hasn't helped matters though! Like the previous album, this is another fine collection of tracks that don't have quite enough to get over the cultural relevance bar but if Talk Talk got away with it, then I think The Bangles have to be given a fair crack of the whip as well. And, for the first time in quite a while, this is one I owned (7/27).
As I said, it's a fine collection of tracks and there's considerably more variety on here than you'd expect if you only know them from "Manic Monday" and "An Eternal Flame". My favourites are "Hero Takes A Fall", "Going Down To Liverpool" (originally a Katrina And The Waves number and it somewhat bizarrely had Leonard Nimoy in the video), "If She Knew What She Wants" (also a cover, being originally by Jules Shear) and "Following" (which is actually quite creepy if you listen to it) but, once again, it's got a high quality bar throughout and if you've not checked it out, then you should do so.
We're at #5 in the charts this week on their fifth week of a nineteen week run, with it peaking at #4 in its third week - their only album that did better than this was Different Light, which got to #3. The rest of the top five were Pavarotti, Elton John (just starting an eleven week run in the top three), NKOTB and The Beach Boys and the highest new entry was a Rolling Stones best-of (#7). Other best-ofs in the top twenty include Talk Talk, The Carpenters, Big Country, Barry Manilow and Dusty Springfield - everyone was at it.
Wikipedia tells us this is another best-of released without input from the group - this time because they were on the verge of splitting up. Apart from that, it's very light on details of interest - the only thing that caught my eye is that, despite selling a million copies in the US, it only reached #97 in the charts. Which feels kinda weird.
"Customers also listened to" The Go-Go's, Cyndi Lauper, Tiffany and Roxette - unsurprisingly a female-heavy sound there! But for me, The Bangles are up there with the best of such things and this greatest hits gives you a very good idea of the sort of thing they did - maybe one day I'll listen to one of their other albums!
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