She is floating like a butterfly, so charming

Continuing my trip back through the 1994 album charts.

30/01/94 : Tease Me - Chaka Demus & Pliers

Our second mention ever of the duo after the last post when they were in the top five and I remember that I either find them bearable or detestable but I'm not entirely sure which - it ain't gonna take long for me to find out, I suspect.

Phew - they're bearable. I'm not a fan of that Jamaican sound, but they at least sound authentic (it feels pretty old school to my uneducated ears) and they're not in the slightest bit offensive. I can't say I love their version of "Twist And Shout" but it really could have been a lot worse - and you get ten points if you can tell me who originally recorded it. A whole album of it is far too much for me, but I accept that many, many others chose to disagree with me in '94 (and possibly still do, as much as I know). It's quite some font they've gone for on the album though...

We're at a somewhat surprising #1 in the charts this week on their second week of a twelve week run, with it also having spent the previous week at the top. Interestingly, this was their fourth run of six which happened between July '93 and September '94 with it spending 35 weeks in the chart in total.  The rest of the top five were a Diana Ross best-of (one of NINETEEN she's had in the charts over the years), ZZ Top (a new entry - allegedly), Alice In Chains (another new entry) and a D:Ream best-of (only one song, surely?) with the next highest new entry being Kristin Hersh at an incredibly high #7 - no Throwing Muses album has peaked this high. Back to ZZ Top, I say this is allegedly a new entry because it was also claimed as a new entry in my last post, so it's more than possible that officialcharts.com has got confused.

Wikipedia does have an entry for the album but it has two whole sentences which tell us it's their fourth album and had six singles released from it, all of which made the top 30 in the UK. Looking at their entry to pad things out, they were initially solo musicians but got together in '91 - it only really got big for them with this album but they'd put the effort in, so fair play to them. They seem to have retired these days but their last charting single was a cover of The Police's "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" which was on Reggatta Mondatta, a reggae tribute album to the band - which sounds like it should be awful, but actually featured some big names and has some decent versions on it. Back to CD&P's album, it was pretty well received critically (7/10 from NME) but only really did anything here and in New Zealand (#6). 

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a version for a quid, but if you want a mint vinyl copy then you can splash out £55 on it if you really want to. This album is very much not up my street, but it's hard to begrudge a couple of guys who put the effort in over the years having their moment in the spotlight.

And you get ten very well-deserved points if you knew that "Twist And Shout" was written in '61 by Phil Medley and Bert Berns and originally recorded by The Top Hats - it's interestingly different from the reworked version by The Isley Brothers which came out in '62. 

06/02/94 - Better than I was expecting