TOP 10 FAVORITE CDS FROM THE 90's

[glencro]

What are yours? Here's mine

1. Compositions/ Anita Baker
2.. Urban Hang Suite/ Maxwell
3. Q's Juke Joint/ Quincey Jones & Various Artists
4. Love Jones Soundtrack/ Various Artists
5. Brown Sugar/ D'Angelo
6. Baduizm/ Eryka Badu
7. Unforgettable With Love/ Natalie Cole
8. The First Time/ Chris Walker
9. Let There Be Love/ Shirley Murdock
10. Tribes, Vibes & Scribes/ Incognito

[soulster]

It's times like this when I wonder why I am on this forum. Once again, This type of list shows that I don't just listen to R&B.

In no particular order:
Ice Cube - Death Certificate
Public Enemy - Fear Of A Black Planet
Chic - CHIC-ism
The Knack - Serious Fun
Trudy Lynn - I'll Run Your Hurt Away
Nirvana - Unplugged In New York
Pearl Jam - Vitalogy
Prince - The Gold Experience
Gin Blossoms - New Miserable Experience
The Cardigans - First Band On The Moon

I had a bit of a time recalling the new releases of this decade because this was the time I heavily bought reissues and comps of oldies. I also listened to lots of singles of new music as opposed to buying lots of entire albums. If this thread had been about a list of favorite songs of the 90s, my list would be miles long, and it still would have been very diverse, musically.

[Nothing But Soul]

"The Sky Is Crying" - Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble - Epic - 1991
"Collins Mix" - Albert Collins - Pointblank - 1993
"Ain't Enough Comin' In" - Otis Rush - Mercury - 1994
"From The Cradle" - Eric Clapton - Reprise - 1994
"Soul Fixin' Man" - Luther Allison - Alligator - 1994
"Hoodoo Moon" - Kenny Neal - Alligator - 1994
"Right On Time" - Little Buster and the Soul Brothers - Bullseye Blues - 1995
"Midnight In Memphis" - Preston Shannon - Bullseye Blues - 1996
"Baton Rouge" - Larry Garner - Evidence - 1999
"Heavy Picks: The Robert Cray Collection" - Robert Cray - Mercury - 1999

[skooldem1]

Brian McKnight- Brian McKnight
Janet Jackson- Janet
Maxwell- Urban Hang Suite
Maxwell- Unplugged
Toni Braxton- Secrets
Donell Jones- Where I wanna be
Waiting to Exhale Soundtrack- Various Artist
Lauryn Hill- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Diana Ross- Take me Higher
Kirk Franklin & the Family- Kirk Franklin & the Family

[Ngroove]

To be honest, in the nineties, when I started seriously listening to the radio, I was thirteen, and I was more of a cassette tape buyer then....did not know any better, that a few years, or overplay, may warp or wear them just like that....all I knew, was that they were CHEAPER! In no particular order: 1) Tyrese - Tyrese, 2) Monica - The Boy Is Mine, 3) Brandy - Never Say Never, 3) Usher - My Way, 4) M.C. Hammer - Please Hammer, Don't Hurt Em', 4) Jennifer Lopez - On The 6, 5) Mary J Blige - What's The 411? 6) Toni Braxton - Toni Braxton, 7) Toni Braxton - Secrets, 8) CeCe Peniston - Finally, 9) Mariah Carey - Mariah Carey, 10) 702 - No Doubt. Also was a CD Single buyer then - what happened to them?

[Kamasu_Jr]

Baduism-Erykah Badu; Ready to Die-Notorious BIG; My Way- Usher; The Score- Fugees; What's the 411- Mary J. Blige; Faith Evans- Faith Evans; Another Level- Blackstreet; Toni Braxton-Toni Braxton; I'm Ready-Tevin Campbell; Funky Divas - EnVogue.

[skooldem1]

Good choices. Reminded me of the ones I left off the list.

Mariah Carey- Mariah Carey
CeCe Peniston- Finally
Tevin Campbell- I'm ready

[thommg]

Lord! I can't remember what I was listening to last week much less what I listened to in the 90's!!!! ;-)

[soulster]

To be honest, in the nineties, when I started seriously listening to the radio, I was thirteen, and I was more of a cassette tape buyer then....did not know any better, that a few years, or overplay, may warp or wear them just like that....all I knew, was that they were CHEAPER!

Well, in the 90s, cassettes were quickly phased out! Around 1990, the labels tried a desperate attempt to save the format by finally upping the quality with Dolby S and HX pro.

Also was a CD Single buyer then - what happened to them?

The labels mostly phased them out along with cassette singles. Why? They found they made more money by forcing consumers to buy an entire CD for one lousy song. Of course, they killed the 45 RPM single, and a lot of vinyl.

I started buying CDs in 1984. I bought the vinyl when I couldn't get it on CD, and also bought a prerecorded cassette here and there, most of them in the year 1984. I mostly stayed away from prerecorded cassettes because of the lousy sound quality.

[glencro]

Soul Alone/ Darryl Hall
Miseducation of Lauryn Hill/ Lauryn Hill
Dreamland/ Black Box
Ivory/ Teena Marie
Journey With The Loney/ Lil Louis & The World
Martha Wash/ Martha Wash
Reflections/ After 7
Passion/Regina Belle
Precious/ Chante Moore
Comfort Zone/Vanessa Williams

[skooldem1]

You guys are reminding me of all the ones I forgot to list:

Chante Moore/ Precious- I played this one all the time
Vanessa Williams/ Comfort Zone- Loved this one too.

[Ngroove]

Well, in the 90s, cassettes were quickly phased out! Around 1990, the labels tried a desperate attempt to save the format by finally upping the quality with Dolby S and HX pro.



The labels mostly phased them out along with cassette singles. Why? They found they made more money by forcing consumers to buy an entire CD for one lousy song. Of course, they killed the 45 RPM single, and a lot of vinyl.

I started buying CDs in 1984. I bought the vinyl when I couldn't get it on CD, and also bought a prerecorded cassette here and there, most of them in the year 1984. I mostly stayed away from prerecorded cassettes because of the lousy sound quality.

Soulster, what I mean by nineties when I was starting to listen to radio, I meant 1998-1999. With the price of two tapes the price of one CD, I remembered buying my share of cassettes - Tyrese's "Tyrese", Monica's "The Boy Is Mine", Brandy's "Never Say Never", Michael Jackson's "Thriller", Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl", M.C. Hammer's "Greatest Hits", Bobby Brown's "Don't Be Cruel". Last tape bought to my memory, Marvin Gaye / Mary Wells / Kim Weston / Tammi Terrell's "Marvin Gaye & His Girls", early 00s, the mall in my area still had a cassette wall, before disappeared not so long after. Yeah, also occasionally bought CDs, including Usher's "My Way", Mariah Carey's "#1s", and Michael Jackson's "HIStory", as well as those CD singles; I forgot if they're $2 or $5, but love a tune enough; Jordan Knight's "Give It To You", Billie [[Piper)'s "She Wants You", Guy's "Dancin'". Gosh, through early 00s, I remember, to buy a disc in the mall, one had to carry atleast a twenty.

[soulster]

Soulster, what I mean by nineties when I was starting to listen to radio, I meant 1998-1999. With the price of two tapes the price of one CD, I remembered buying my share of cassettes - Tyrese's "Tyrese", Monica's "The Boy Is Mine", Brandy's "Never Say Never", Michael Jackson's "Thriller", Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl", M.C. Hammer's "Greatest Hits", Bobby Brown's "Don't Be Cruel". Last tape bought to my memory, Marvin Gaye / Mary Wells / Kim Weston / Tammi Terrell's "Marvin Gaye & His Girls", early 00s, the mall in my area still had a cassette wall, before disappeared not so long after. Yeah, also occasionally bought CDs, including Usher's "My Way", Mariah Carey's "#1s", and Michael Jackson's "HIStory", as well as those CD singles; I forgot if they're $2 or $5, but love a tune enough; Jordan Knight's "Give It To You", Billie [[Piper)'s "She Wants You", Guy's "Dancin'". Gosh, through early 00s, I remember, to buy a disc in the mall, one had to carry atleast a twenty.

By 1990, I was exclusively CD. I lived in a small town and only had four stores that carried CDs. Back in 1995, there was one indie store that sold a lot of Motown CDs, too. But, by 1992, it was getting hard to find oldies, so I used to drive 80s miles to a larger city. One store had tons of Motown CDs that MCA, by then, owner of Motown, went crazy releasing catalog album titles. Unfortunately, I did not have the wisdom to pick them up. I figured they would always be around.

Later, around 1994, I starred buying scads of CD compilations. I would spend about $100 a week on CDs! I remember walking into a local store one day and seeing that first Hitsville box the day it came out. They had mis-priced the CDs as the same as the cassette version. I noticed it and bought the CDs for cheap brand new! You can imagine my adrenaline when I walked in and saw right there in the rack, right after I sent a letter about wanting the mono mixes out to a stereo lover's newsletter that met with utter silence. So surprise there.

Now that I think about it, I did buy a lot of older titles on cassette in the early 90s because they were being dumped really cheap. That is how I discovered a lot of "classic" rock albums I missed the first time around like Led Zeppelin and Kiss. I eventually replaced them all with CDs, of course.

I did buy a lot of R&B CDs in the 80s and 90s, but most of them only had one or two songs I liked on them. In 1992, I bought a DAT recorder and went crazy digitally archiving stuff I wanted to preserve, then sold the CDs. When I got a computer in 1998, I quickly made CD-Rs of those DAT tapes. Good thing I got everything copied because the DAT machine eventually stopped working. It won't put out sound. I still have it, but it's worthless to spend money on it trying to fix it in this day of the DAW. I did the same with a lot of cassette singles I bought in 1988-1989. I have high-end cassette decks that I used to record to DAT with. Again, these 3-head decks got out of alignment or the transports started acting up [[Sony, all of them. But, they sounded soo good when they did work!). I still have all these decks, too, collecting dust.

Ahhh..but I digress. I just like talking about audio, and this forum doesn't get into all that. So, back to the lists...

[Ngroove]

Well, as I did mention, am well aware of differences in cassettes and CDs: perhaps sounds, yes, as newer technology, often claims for "remastering", to make it sound as clear like "sounds like it's recorded today" as possible. Also, that CDs, not only can you pick a track rather than rewinding / fast forwarding to them, they are simply more long-lasting than tapes: I remember, ten-nine-eight years ago, when re-trying my tapes after forgetting about them for some time; "Tyrese"'s voice was extremely deep and slow, "Bobby Brown" got all tangly, and "Paula Abdul" just broke, straight in the middle. Sad day, all to the trash can.

[soulster]

My purpose of transferring tracks from CDs and cassettes to DAT, then CD-R, was to preserve the sound quality as I got rid of the original CDs.

[marv2]

Although the 90's were like a blur to me now, here is my list:

Babyface - For The Cool In You
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill
Toni Braxton - Toni Braxton
Mariah Carey - Music Box
Luther Vandross - Power of Love
Anita Baker - Rhythm of Love
Luther Vandross - Songs
Sounds of Blackness - The Evolution of Gospel
Bell Biv DeVoe - Poison
Whitney Houston - The Bodyguard

[soulster]

Although the 90's were like a blur to me now, here is my list:

Bell Biv DeVoe - Poison

You just reminded me of Tony, Toni, Tone's "Revival" album.

Because I didn't buy a lot of new music albums in the 90s, I had to think long and hard. I'm sure I forgot something, but what I listed in post #2 is pretty much it.

[glencro]

Although the 90's were like a blur to me now, here is my list:

Babyface - For The Cool In You
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill
Toni Braxton - Toni Braxton
Mariah Carey - Music Box
Luther Vandross - Power of Love
Anita Baker - Rhythm of Love
Luther Vandross - Songs
Sounds of Blackness - The Evolution of Gospel
Bell Biv DeVoe - Poison
Whitney Houston - The Bodyguard

I kinda feel that way too Marv especially regarding music. I was conversing with two people in their 30's and they just thought that the greatest music ever created came out of the 90's. Me being mid 40's feels that the 70's and 80's produced the best music and I'm sure other age groups will feel the same way about their era. That conversation was actually what inspired this post. I had to think long and hard about the 90's.

[soulster]

I am 50 and say there is great music in all eras. I prefer music in all eras.