Customer Reviews

Billboard Top Hits: 1990

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Early editions of the Billboard Top Hits series were godsends to archivists, as they gathered a variety of really big hits from often long out of print artists on CD. But with this and the 1991 edition, released in 2000, Rhino is coasting on it's reputation with a rather pedestrian list of artists who can, by & large, be found on CD in older & better compilations. Also, is there any excuse for a 10-track CD anymore? You could easily get 18 tracks for a buck or two more. Do yourself a favor and instead go look at the UK import series called NOW. (Search for "NOW 1990") These are double-CD with close to 40 tracks, and while some weren't huge American hits, most are well known. They sell for about $30, or $0.75/track, same as for this album.

How, for example, could Rhino justify missing hits like Nothing Compares 2U or Opposites Attract?

Go to your library and look in the December issue of Billboard for the "Hot 100" year-end chart. Look at the top 10 songs. Those are NOT the same songs as presented on this CD. Rather than give us the top 10 most popular songs, we get the mediocre songs. WHAT A [...].

This collection of 1990s top hits is missing many of the top songs of 1990 and has only ten songs. Up until the 1989 collection I used to think these were good collections of great music from every year but now I just think they are releasing bad collections. Most of these songs you can find anywhere so why buy it again?

To start off, for the most point, I love all of the billboard top hits collections. I currently have all of them from 1968-1989 (I will get all the remaining ones from the 50's & 60's eventually). However, starting with 1990, these compilations have started to lack (however, I feel 87-89 are weak as well). A major problem with this compliation and the others from the 90's is licensing issues. Some of the biggest songs had to be left off because they came from the biggest artists, some of which are still popular today: Janet Jackson's 'Rhythm Nation,' 'Escapade,' and 'Black Cat' come to mind, as does Madonna's 'Vogue,' and Mariah Carey's 'Vision of Love.'
So in this digital age, where we can now make our own compilations, what's the point of releasing these sliming collections? They are really not remasterd and most songs are edits. So, instead of shelving out to buy the lazy 90's installments, I've made me own with songs I already have and what I remember where the biggest hits of the year. Here's what I put on my 1990, some tracks are the same, but not many.

1 - Nothing Compares 2 U (Sinead O'Connor)
2 - Vision of Love (Mariah Carey)
3 - Cradle of Love (Billy Idol)
4 - Vogue (Madonna)
5 - Hold on (Wilson Phillips)
6 - Escapade (Janet Jackson)
7 - Step by Step (New Kids on the Block)
8 - Pump Up the Jam (Technotronic)
9 - It Must Have Been Love (Roxette)
10 - U Can't Touch This (MC Hammer)

So, I guess what I'm saying is, don't waste your time on the 90's installments in the Billboard series. They aren't a very accurate representation of the year like most of the 50's-80's comps.