The Ultimate Other 90s Girls P4: Tamia Takes It All!
(Graphics courtesy of Satan!)
Yes girls, it's that time again!
Before we enter into 00s and 10s other girldom, we have to "close" out the 90s! Don't know any of the girls in the banner? That's why I'm here - so we can rate them all! Consider this a crash course in all of the amazing ladies you're vaguely familiar with - the soundtrack to your childhoods!
Who's ready to learn?
Songs in play:
100% Pure Love
Absence of the Heart
All My Life
As I Lay Me Down
Baby Now That I've Found You
Believe Me Baby (I Lied)
Black Pearl
Blue
Commitment
Damn! I Wish I Was Your Lover
Do You Miss Me?
Down at the Twist and Shout
Free
Glass House
Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)
He Thinks He'll Keep Her
How Can I Ease The Pain?
How Do I Live (L. Rimes)
How Do I Live (T. Yearwood)
I Feel Lucky
I Love Your Smile
I've Been Thinking About You
If You Could Read My Mind
It's All About You (Not About Me)
Imagination
A Little Bit of Ecstasy
Little Plastic Castle
Makin' Happy
Man Behind the Music
Maybe It Was Memphis
Missing You (with Brandy, Gladys Knight, and Chaka Khan)
Mi Vida Loca
One More Night
One Way Ticket (Because I Can)
Party Ain't a Party
Party Girl (Turn Me Loose)
Passionate Kisses
Quittin' Time
Right Beside You
Save Me
Save Your Love
Saving Forever for You
Sexual (La Da Di)
Shake The Sugar Tree
She's in Love with the Boy
Show Me
Shut Up and Kiss Me
Shy
Silent Prayer
So Intense
So Into You
Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart (with Shenandoah)
Spend My Life With You (with Eric Benet)
Strawberry Wine
Tender Kisses
The Bonnie and Clyde Theme (with Ice Cube)
The Light in Your Eyes
Thinkin' About You
This House
This is Your Night
Walkaway Joe (with Don Henley)
We Danced Anyway
When I Close My Eyes
When You Say Nothing At All
Wishin' and Hopin'
Wrong Side of Memphis
XXXs and OOOs (An American Girl)
You Can't Play with My Yo-Yo
You Put a Move on My Heart (with Quincy Jones)
Really wanted to bring everyone together with this rate. We'll be going back to our dance roots, touch on some indie/AC faves, and finally venture into the world of country!
Oh wow, do my eyes deceive me or do I see Alison Krauss, Ultra Naté, Sophie B. Hawkins, Shanice, Lisa Fischer, Tamia, Crystal Waters, and Tracie Spencer??
This is gonna be so good
I'll be sure to give a certain Miss Cibrian a bunch of zeros and ones
Oh wow, do my eyes deceive me or do I see Alison Krauss, Ultra Naté, Sophie B. Hawkins, Shanice, Lisa Fischer, Tamia, Crystal Waters, and Tracie Spencer??
This is gonna be so good
I'll be sure to give a certain Miss Cibrian a bunch of zeros and ones
Crystal Waters? Whew can't wait for 100% Pure Love to get its deserved 11.0 average.
So, for the past year or so, I've been really into country. So much so that I spent Friday night in, recovering from bronchitis and listening to Crystal Gayle!
But that's a story for another time.
It's fascinating to see how country fights itself; how it goes too 'pop,' and how it reacts to/against that.
It's also fascinating to see who dominated when - which girls were so big they dwarfed the others.
The first half of the 90s picked up where the last half of the 80s left off, with Nashville suffering from a case of Reba Fever. From 84 - 95, there was no bigger woman in country music than Ms. McEntire.
Of course, if you know anything about country in the latter half of the 90s, a hurricane (Shania), tornado (Faith) and tropical storm (Martina) came to 1-2-3 piece her out of the game for a minute.
So we won't feature any of those women! They were simply too major.
Unlike, say, the Beyoncitiis of 2003 - now, they did allow other females to get their shine on.
Let's start with Pam Tillis. Born in 1957, to famed country singer Mel Tillis, Pam moved to Nashville in the late 70s to make it. (At this time, she also was in a pretty bad auto accident and required multiple surgeries to heal. What a survivor!)
It didn't take. She released a few albums in the 80s, and flopped spectacularly. She turned her attentions to songwriting, and wrote a top 5 hit for Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt. That would be enough for most women, but Pam wanted to be a solo act. She signed with Arista Nashville in 1990, and released another album. The first single, Don't Tell Me What to Do, became her first hit.
Her breakthrough, and perhaps her signature, song came a few singles later. Maybe It Was Memphis was thought by Pam to be too "pop," and she fought with her label to release it later on in the album's run.
Oh, this looks amazing. I see a lot of familiar faces in the banner and a few not-so-familar ones, but I'm always up for a little education. I've been waiting for a chance to get into 90's country.
I checked out the Pam Tillis tracks, I REALLY liked Shake The Sugar Tree!
EDIT : I know it's not part of the rate, but I just listened to Let The Pony Run and I'm feeling some type of way.
Let's focus now on another daughter of a country singer who did not gain access to immediate success - Deana Carter.
She shot for success when she was 17, but it didn't take - so she went to college! Imagine that. When she was 27, Willie Nelson heard a demo she had done and invited her to perform at Farm Aid. She signed a contract with Capitol Records later on that year. Her debut album, Did I Shave My Legs for This?, was released in 1995 in the UK - but then the label folded! She kept three tracks for the American release the year after, and, after all this, her first single went to number one.
It didn't hurt that it was co-written by Matraca Berg, one of country music's best songwriters. The song, Strawberry Wine, became her definitive release.
The album produced two other number ones, including We Danced Anyway.
Deana was 1997's hot new thing in country - but as soon as she was in, she was out. The first single off of her second album struggled to go top ten, and everything else barely went top 40 on the country charts. By 2001, she had left Capitol.
Strawberry Wine
We Danced Anyway
Absence of the Heart
Strawberry Wine is one of the most beautiful songs ever.
Love Maybe It Was Memphis, too.
When You Say Nothing At All is gonna be the best song in this rate, though.
It's the most romantic song of all time.
So glad you're here baby.
I was listening to a podcast Friday and one of the callers asked if Audra McDonald was a "who."
I was immediately upset and chagrined. Audra? AUDRA??!??! The biggest winner in the Tonys history? The best voice of the past thirty years?
The hosts agreed that she was off-Broadway.
I wanted to vomit.
But then I remembered that philistines wouldn't know of her accomplishments - just like they don't of the biggest female winner in Grammys history - Alison Krauss.
