Iggy Pop and Deborah Harry – Haunted Jukebox

A brand-new decade, even though many paint this as a liminal period, a bridge between 1980s flash and what we would come to know as 1990s bellwethers (grunge, alternative rock, gangsta rap, etc.) Roughly two-thirds of these songs were favorites at the time (mostly anything here that made the top 40); I became familiar with the rest over the ensuing decade, the tellingly named “Obscurity Knocks” being of the few exceptions (my husband introduced it to me not long after we first met.) You can already detect the budding Anglophile within, as more than half of these tracks are from UK-based artists; the Americans run the gamut from superstars (Madonna) to, at the time, super-obscure (Yo La Tengo long before MTV ever played ’em).

You wouldn’t expect Iggy Pop, of all people, to secure two slots on a 1990 playlist, but here he is with “Candy”, his sole top 40 hit/duet with The B-52’s Kate Pierson, and “Well Did You Evah!”, a gleefully irreverent Cole Porter cover with perfectly acidic support from Debbie Harry which appeared on the wonderful Red Hot + Blue tribute album (an early candidate for my 100 Albums list that missed the final cut). I could’ve ended and started the mix with Iggy but instead chose Deee-Lite’s immortal “Groove Is In The Heart” for an opener (it arguably sounds fresher today than anything else on this list) and The La’s deathless “There She Goes” to go out on—like Squeeze’s “Tempted” in ’81, can you believe it never made the American Top 40?

In addition to finding room for good artists who never made what I’d consider a great, timeless album (INXS, Sinead O’Connor (both of whom came close)) and quirky one-hit wonders such as Soho, who scored with a genius-dumb lament built upon a Smiths sample, this format gives me an excuse to spotlight weird one-offs that don’t fit anywhere else: Was (Not Was)’s hilariously cruel and cold character sketch (it’d be unimaginable post 9/11), Prefab Sprout’s beguiling bossa nova/samba/end-of-the-world party anthem, DNA’s infamous/genius surprise hit remix of a three-year-old a cappella Suzanne Vega album track, Urban Dance Squad’s leftfield Beck-anticipating earworm.

As with most of these mixes, I posted a putative version long ago that stopped at 25 songs; upon reappraisal, I had difficulty limiting it to 11 more. Among the most notable additions: George Michael’s career-torching but supremely catchy manifesto, Living Colour delving into Afrobeat as if making their own Graceland, Information Society’s inspired, sample-heavy nonsense, and proof that as late as 1990, Brian Eno and John Cale could join forces to produce perfect pop that should’ve topped the charts instead of all those drippy ballads that did from the likes of Michael Bolton, Taylor Dayne and Mariah Carey.

1990: What A Swell Party This Is

Deee-Lite, “Groove Is In The Heart”
DNA feat. Suzanne Vega, “Tom’s Diner”
Iggy Pop and Kate Pierson, “Candy”
Yo La Tengo, “The Summer”
Teenage Fanclub, “Everything Flows”
The Sundays, “Here’s Where The Story Ends”
Sinead O’Connor, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”
They Might Be Giants, “Birdhouse In Your Soul”
Jellyfish, “That Is Why”
Prefab Sprout, “Carnival 2000”
Was (Not Was), “I Blew Up The United States”
Soho, “Hippychick”
The Darling Buds, “Crystal Clear”
Happy Mondays, “Kinky Afro”
A Tribe Called Quest, “Can I Kick It?”
Madonna, “Vogue”
Cocteau Twins, “Heaven Or Las Vegas”
Michael Penn, “No Myth”
Trashcan Sinatras, “Obscurity Knocks”
Concrete Blonde, “I Don’t Need A Hero”
Pet Shop Boys, “Being Boring”
INXS, “Disappear”
Depeche Mode, “Enjoy The Silence”
Electronic, “Getting Away With It”
Urban Dance Squad, “Deeper Shade of Soul”
George Michael, “Freedom! ‘90”
Stereo MC’s, “Elevate My Mind”
Information Society, “A Knife and a Fork/R.I.P.”
Brian Eno and John Cale, “One Word”
Living Colour, “Solace of You”
Kylie Minogue, “Better The Devil You Know”
Social Distortion, “Ball And Chain”
Iggy Pop and Deborah Harry, “Well Did You Evah!”
Midnight Oil, “Blue Sky Mine”
The Lightning Seeds, “Pure”
The La’s, “There She Goes”