As with 1990, I tended to enjoy my listening for singles in 1991. I dig the early-‘90s up-tempo, dance-oriented R&B and its electronic leanings. The treacly ballads I prefer to skip, with a few exceptions. (The Billboard Top 100 tracks for the year seems a bit more laden with these than 1990 was.) Sorry, Whitney Houston and Luther Vandross and Mariah Carey and Michael Bolton fans—ain’t none of that shit here.
Otherwise, whether you’re in the mood to contemplate the philosophical differences between Tarzan and Superman, you’d rather groove to the idea of sexing up other people’s privates, or you just want to dance, 1991 has the songs for you.
1991, The Singles
The playlist is roughly chronological, according to release date, with some accommodations for listenability. Songs for which I could find no specific release date tend to be clustered toward the middle of the playlist.
Playlist Notes:
- “P.A.S.S.I.O.N.” by Rythm Syndicate (their misspelling, not mine) does not appear to be available in Spotify. It was chronologically planned to be situated between “Progen 91” and “Just Another Dream.” I found a cover version that was reasonably good yet still lacked just the right oomph. So I didn’t include it.
About My Singles Playlists
Please note these singles playlists are not necessarily a compilation of all of the year’s best singles!
Rather, they only compile prominent singles that were not from any album featured on any of No Hype No Trends Music’s album playlists. (This includes the Best Albums of the Decade playlists, Year in Review album playlists, and Further Listening album playlists.)
So, many of the best singles of each year have already been included in the other album playlists on this site. And any single from these albums that didn’t make the cut for its corresponding album playlist is disqualified from appearing here. (I want to include everything but have to draw the line somewhere! If I didn’t consider it one of the three best songs on the album, it won’t be on the singles playlist, period, even if it’s supposedly the best song of all time!)
Also, keep in mind that I typically designate a non-album single according to the artist’s home country. Many a non-album hit single in the UK, for example, was subsequently included on the US repackaging of UK album release. Thus, a US album track may be considered a non-album single here, so you might find it on a singles playlist instead of the album playlist where you expected to find it.
You will also find songs from EPs on this singles playlist if I choose to represent the EP with only a single song. (An EP I choose to represent with two or three songs will appear on the the Year in Review playlist.)
You might also find a single released in one year included in the Year in Review playlist of the following year, if the album it appears on was released later (as it often is).
More Singles of the 1990s…
[in development, as I work my way through the decade…]
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