BOBBY BROWN
(US, six Top 40 hits, three Top 40 albums)
Hell of an achievement to have six hit singles and three hit albums in
one year, but that's what this energetic ex-New Edition choirboy did in '89, and
with a good deal of style, too. Brown, complete with inflatable trousers which
crucially preceded MC Hammer, hit the ground sprinting with the athletic
soul-funk effort "My Perogative" and followed it up with a string of
instantly palatable tunes, the best of which was "Every Little Step" ("stride back! stride
back!") in the summer. A Ghostbusters II soundtrack song "On Our
Own" ("ooo ooo woooo oooooh!") gave him his highest
placing at No.4 and a couple of semi-dodgy covers later and the decade was done.
Remarkable stuff for a guy whose previous guise as a gimpy falsetto hobbledehoy
helped New Edition to a less-than-cool No.1 with "Candy Girl" six
years earlier. Fulfilled a teenage dream when he seduced, married and
impregnated the much-older Whitney Houston, but things fell through the floor in
the '90s, with formulaic and now dated minor hits like the socially
irresponsible "Humpin' Around" and the bouncy but unremarkable
"Two Can Play That Game". Brown has been arrested and incarcerated a
couple of times at least, but despite numerous threats and rumours of lawsuits,
his marriage to Houston remains strong, and we assume his lack of activity of
late means he is playing under-the-thumb house-hubby.
Biggest Hit: "On Our Own", No.4, 1989
Defining Moment: Being much more popular than fellow Edition graduate, Ralph
Tresvant.
ERROL BROWN
(UK, one Top 40 hit, no Top 40 albums)
One-off solo outing for Hot Chocolate's unmatchable crooning sex
machine, though the dippy lovefest in question, "Personal Touch", did
him far less favours than the Sheffield male stripper industry would years
later.
Biggest Hit: "Personal Touch", No.25, 1987
Defining Moment: Looking exactly the same as he did in 1973.
JOCELYN BROWN
(US, one Top 40 hit, no Top 40 albums)
Fiery, mountainous gospel vocalist who encased our eardrums in the sandpaper
soulslinger "Somebody Else's Guy" which remains a damn good (and
totally undated) listen to this day, particularly the Gladys Knight-ish minute's
worth of big build-up before the rhythm section finally did some work. Better
versed at guest vocal 'featuring' stuff, but a good hit to bequeath us all the
same.
Biggest Hit: "Somebody Else's Guy", No.13, 1984
Defining Moment: "And I reee-al-iiiiize..."
SAM BROWN
(UK, two Top 40 hits, one Top 40 album)
Buxom blonde and, by definition, extremely fit daughter of '60s cabaret
singalonger Joe Brown whose rasping throat earned her deserved hits with the
blessed "Stop" ("befooooore you go and break my hearrrrt")
and the less remarkable (and much less successful) "Can I Get A
Witness" in '89. Although a '90 hit, mention should be made of her terrific
semi-comeback song "Kissing Gate". Loads of session and backing stuff
followed, and she still does at least one live Radio 2 concert a year.
Biggest Hit: "Stop", No.4, 1989
Defining Moment: Becoming more famous than her famous dad, something which Liza
Tarbuck has also done of late.
SHARON BROWN
(US, one Top 40 hit, no Top 40 albums)
One sort of hit, no memories. You?
Biggest Hit: "I Specialize In Love", No.38, 1982
Defining Moment: No can do.
TOM BROWNE
(US, one Top 40 hit, no Top 40 albums)
Not a sausage emerges on this occasion. We assume he was Carib-US
crossover, owing to the title of his one hit and those of the floppy follow-ups,
too. Your contributions welcome.
Biggest Hit: "Funkin' For Jamaica (NY)", No.10, 1980
Defining Moment: Nothing here.
PEABO
BRYSON
(US, one Top 40 hit, one Top 40 album)
Both the single and album were duets with "Killing Me Softly"
jazzbar balladeer Roberta Flack, who teamed up with this amusingly named
bog-standard soully type for one major smoocho-pap entitled "Tonight I
Celebrate My Love" ("tonight, there'll be no distance between us"
- a reference either to being stuck in a lift or gobbling) which refrained from
reaching No.1 owing to the presence of UB40's "Red Red Wine". Bryson,
who wore a tuxedo and a daft 'tache, did nothing more of any note, and the
lovely Flack's career seemed affected by this sentimental example of spoon-fed
awfulness too.
Biggest Hit: "Tonight I Celebrate My Love", No.2, 1983
Defining Moment: "And the midnight sun is gonna come shining
through.." - blech.
LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM
(US, one Top 40 hit, no Top 40 albums)
Brief venture outdoors for Fleetwood Mac's unisexually- christened male
singer with the forgettable "Trouble" in '82. Was it any good?
Biggest Hit: "Trouble", No.32, 1982
Defining Moment: Find it in the Mac segment.
BUCKS FIZZ
(UK, thirteen Top 40 hits, four Top 40 albums)
From the moment Mike and Bobby ripped away Cheryl and Jay's flimsy
skirts at Eurovision '81, it was deliciously easy and so much fun to take as
much piss out of this little lot as possible. But the facts defy the
ejector-seat tradition of that contest, as the Fizz not only shot straight to
No.1 with the continent's fave rave "Making Your Mind Up" ("and
if you want to see some more!" - cue appearance of belt-like skirts)
but had two more toppers of equally chuckaway join-in value and did much
chart-dictating throughout the first half of the decade. In their Rainbow
outfits, Sisters' sibling Mike Nolan and the remarkably similar in facial and
trichological features Bobby Gee, along with Cockney chatterwench Cheryl Baker
and the more decorative and humpable Jay Aston clucked their way amidst
ungritted teeth through "The Land Of Make Believe" ("time to change
Superman") and "My Camera Never Lies" ("oh-oh-oh-oh
ahh-oh!") which guaranteed big turkeys and plenty of pudding for the
next two Christmases and lumbered the tut-tut connoisseurs with them for a good
while. The songs weren't exactly inspiring, but Bucks Fizz maintained a naive
charm which emphasised their whole appeal, uncomplicatedly adding the
slightly-camp voices to a succession of radio-friendly hits, which admittedly
had started to frequent the highest echelons less often by the end of '82 as
pennies began a collective drop. The British sense of fair play towards a
national institution earned them a final Top 10 curtain in '86 with "New
Beginning (Mamba Seyra)" as all four were still recovering from the mental
and emotional (and still some of the physical) scars of an horrific tour bus
crash a year earlier, which relieved Nolan of his sense of smell and broke
several of Baker's bones, forcing the public to admit gratitude for their
entertainment value and give them some respite from the pain-killers. Come the
end of '86, Aston had acrimoniously spat out her dummy and retired, to be
succeeded by a less phwoorish replacement whose name has escaped, and Baker was
carving out a successful new career in kids telly, including the honour of being
the late, lamented Roy Castle's last co-host on "Record Breakers".
They still do the odd old-times-sake reunion and will remain quite unique in the
countrywide psyche - utterly naff, limited and tepid, but canonised by the Great
British Public because they were, to put it simply, such great fun.
Biggest Hit: "Making Your Mind Up", "The Land Of Make
Believe", "My Camera Never Lies", all No.1, 1981, 1981 and 1982.
Defining Moment: Keep tearing those skirts away, fellas.
JONATHAN BUTLER
(South Africa, one Top 40 hit, two Top 40 albums)
Just the one hit for this
seated singer/axeman, the less-than- memorable "Lies". We have a copy
somewhere, but we aren't enamoured to locate it. Anything to add?
Biggest Hit: "Lies", No.18, 1987
Defining Moment: None.
B.V.S.M.P
(US, one Top 40 hit, no Top 40 albums)
Bugger. Sorry, but '88 is our big
weak spot, which we admit isn't good enough. Still, it gives you an opportunity
to add your name to our Thanks page, so is your help available?
Biggest Hit: "I Need You", No.3, 1988
Defining Moment: Nope.
GARY BYRD AND THE GB EXPERIENCE
(US, one Top 40 hit, no Top 40 albums)
It's not a good ending to the
'B' section, is it? We don't know this one either. If you have time, bang us a
mail.
Biggest Hit: "The Crown", No.6, 1983
Defining Moment: Er...
