Looks like the ARIA singles chart caught a dose of Olympics fever this week as the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona got underway because we got disruption to at least the lower half of our top ten thanks to the Olympics Opening ceremony so let's begin with that because right at the very top nothin changed with "Hazard" by Richard Marx maintaining the top spot...now it's not clear just whether or not it will keep the number one in the weeks ahead.
However it did thankfully hold up over "Please Don't Go" by K.W.S which remains stuck at number two...thank goodness and it's facing a challenge from "Too Funky" by George Michael which rose one spot to number three.
Although that might be because "Save The Best for Last" by Vanessa Williams weakened enough to slip to number four and might slip further in the weeks ahead thanks to "As Ugly as They Wanna Be" by Ugly Kid Joe rising two places to number five as it got a disturbing amount of sales momentum behind it.
This pushed "Sexy MF" by Prince and the New Power Generation down one spot to number six as its sales fell away.
There's a new entry at number seven and the first impact of the opening ceremony of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona with "Amigos para siempre (Friends for Life" by Jose Carreras and Sarah Brightman debuting at number seven and it's got some huge momentum going forward thanks to the Olympics going on in Spain right now, this song is going to be huge...mark my words.
There was a one place gain for "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover" by Sophie B. Hawkins to number eight while somehow "This Used to Be My Playground" by Madonna climbing three spots to number one...just what we need...more blandness in the top ten.
Finally "Heaven Knows" by Rick Price remains steady at number ten.
Gains
I'm not so sure about the quality of our gains this week especially as proven by "Rhythm is a Dancer" by Snap which rose eight places to breach the top twenty at 18 however at least Guns 'n' Roses cover of "Knockin' On Heavens Door" climbed from 36 to 28 this week.
On the pretty awful side though there's Teen Queens cover of "Be My Baby" up from 40 to 32 as it somehow regained ground or "Deeply Dippy" by Right Said Fred rising from 46 to 38...Not good signs ar all.
Losers
We've a long list of losers this week starting with "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica down six to 47 while "Take It From Me" by Girlfriend just completely collapsed down from 28 to 42.
"The Disappointed" by XTC fell from 34 to 41 this week as "Twilight Zone" by 2 Unlimited disappointed itself by slipping from 32 to 39 ad "You Won't See Me Cry" by Wilson Phillips cried down six to 31.
Sadly "I Don't Care" by Shakespears Sister tumbled from 18 to 30 while "Clunk EP" by Frente slithered down from 16 to 23 and "I Can Feel it" by Radio Freedom slipped six places to 19.
Finally "Cry" by Lisa Edwards suffered a fall to make me wanna cry as is her hit fell five places to number 11.
New Entries
Five new entries and we begin with...
48. "Barcelona" by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe.
So here's an appropriately titled song given the eyes of the world are on Barcelona right now to get us started though to explain this song is the lead single as part of a collaborative album that Mercury and Caballe worked on called "Barcelona" and boy, you can tell that Mercury has a love of opera here because this song has the full orchestral backing that combines pop with opera and is Mercury co write and was supposed to be the theme for the 1992 Olympics until organisers chose another song we'll get to shortly at the last minute to avoid any controversy following Mercury's death in 1991.
This song is also incredibly dramatic as well which kind of makes sense given the song is about meeting a lover in a beautiful city like Barcelona and yeah,while this is not my cup of tea, I can definitely appreciate how absolutely beautifully this track is written and arranged, it's breath taking. Check it out if you are curions.
45. "Tear Me Apart" by The Angels
Can't help but think that it's jarring to go from a pop opera track to a blatant hard driving Aussie rock song from The Angels and yeah this feels a little predictable, strum by numbers love song here suggesting this lover can tear him apart and yeah this comes across as pretty flat in the vocals. Not precisely bad but nothing anything I am going to remember going forward so yeah...next!
40. "How Do You Do" by Roxette
I am going to be upfront here. "Joyride" is one of my favourite hit songs of 1991 so I was keen to hear whatever Roxette had up their sleeve for 1992 with this song being the lead single for the duo's fourth album called "Tourism", it got play time during the UEFA Euro final and I'm not surprised because this is pretty standard bright and very colourful from Roxette with Marie Fredriksson absolutely shining on the hook here, her enthusiasm makes "How Do You Do" incredibly catchy with Per Gessle providing the grounding on the verses that allow. This is just such a fun little pop song...I like this. Glad to have Roxette back.
29. "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot
Ahh here we go...American rapper Sir Mix A Lot lands a charting single from his album called "Mack Daddy". Now this song has caused controversy with talk that the song objectifies women sexually and references to butts (boy...try living in 2014..the year of the BUTT in song writing especially in hip hop) but I am generally not bothered by that stuff so why is it that this song does nothing other than annoy me? Well for me, it comes down to the way the lyrics of the song and it comes across as incredibly douchey...like dude, we get it...you like big butts and you can't lie about it but there's no reason to come across like douchebag, factor in the production and no, I ain't a fan of this...next!
7. "Amigos Para Siempre (Friends for Life)" by Jose Carreras and Sarah Brightman
So here's the theme song for the Olympics in Barcelona and as it turned out it was one of two theme songs for the Olympics with "Barcelona" by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe being the other however this song brings together British soprano Sarah Brightman and Spanish tenor Jose Carreras with the end result being a cute song about being friends forever even if I think the vocal reverb here is too heavy but that instrumentation sounds magical here and Brightman and Carreras have enough chemistry vocally to make this song worth engaging with. Yeah, this is worth checking out it's not bad.
However it's not the best of the week, that's going to "How Do You Do" by Roxette...it's a simple pop song that does its job for me while the worst of the week goes to "Tear Me Apart" by The Angels, a song I doubt nobody will remember in a few weeks.
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