Wednesday, 31 March 2021

Corona

Corona is an Italian Eurodance act produced by Francesco Bontempi (Lee Marrow) in the 90s with Brazilan singer/model Olga Maria De Souza, the main vocalist. Sandra Chambers (Sandy) was also a vocalist up until 1998.
Corona are best known for the dance classic "Rhythm of the Night", which has been revamped and remixed a few times over the years. The song is reported to be based on the verses of Say When's "Save Me" from 1987. It made UK#2 in September 1994 and was only denied by Whigfield's "Saturday Night". It was #1 in native Italy.
The followup "Baby Baby" was a cover of Joy & Joyce's "Babe Babe" from 1991, which itself was based on the chorus of Siedah Garrett's "K.I.S.S.I.N.G". "Baby Baby" spent 3 weeks at #1 on Canada Dance Chart in June 1995.
The third single "Try me out" was their third consecutive UK Top 10 hit and "I Don't Wanna Be A Star" was heavily based on the Geraldine Hunt song "Can't Fake The Feeling".

90 Hits (Discography):
Date	   UK	Song
Sep 1994    2	The Rhythm Of The Night
Apr 1995    5	Baby Baby
Jul 1995    6	Try Me Out
Dec 1995   22	I Don't Wanna Be A Star
Feb 1997   36	Megamix

What happened next?
In 2000, Lee Marrow left the project with Francesco Conte and Paolo Dughero taking the reins on the production side. There was some controversy that Olga did not actually record "Rhythm of the Night" and is disputed to be in fact Giovanna Bersola (Jenny B) and that Olga had been doing a Milli Vanilli.

Tuesday, 30 March 2021

Cornershop

Cornershop are a British indie rock band from Preston and best known for the UK #1 debut hit "Brimful of Asha". The band was born in 1992 originally composed of Tjinder Singh and Benedict Ayres before Tjinder's brother, Avtar, joined with Anthony Saffery & DJ David D Chambers. The band name plays on the stereotype referring to British Asians often owning corner shops. Their music is a fusion of Indian music, indie rock, alternative and electronic dance music. "Brimful of Asha" initially failed to chart in August 1997. But when Norman Cook of Fatboy Slim fame got his hands on it and remixed it. It got all the way to the top for one week in February 1998.

90 Hits (Discography):
Date	   UK	Song
Feb 1998    1	Brimful Of Asha (remix)
May 1998   23	Sleep On The Left Side

What happened next?
A follow-up album, "Handcream for a Generation", which featured Noel Gallagher on guitar was released 2002. In 2008, their song "Candyman" was featured in the Nike advertisement for the LeBron James VI shoe, called the Six "Chalk" commercial. "Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast" was another album released in 2009. Further albums followed over the years and their most recent effort, "England is a Garden" was released in 2020.

Monday, 29 March 2021

Color Me Badd

Color Me Badd is an American R&B group that was formed in 1985 in Oklahoma City. The original members of the group were Bryan Abrams (Nov 16, lead singer), Mark Calderon (Sep 27), Sam Watters (Jul 23) and Kevin Thornton (Jun 17). They are best known in the UK for spending 3 weeks at the top spot in 1991 with "I wanna sex you up". In the US, that only reached #2 but follow-up singles "I adore mi amor" and "All 4 love" reached #1 there.

90 Hits (Discography):
Date	   UK	Song
May 1991    1	I Wanna Sex You Up
Aug 1991    5	All 4 Love

What happened next?
Color Me Badd broke up in 1998 before reuniting in 2010, with various lineups since. As of 2016, they operate as a trio with Abrams, Calderon and Adam Emil.

Sunday, 28 March 2021

Cola Boy

Cola Boy was a duo with Andrew Midgley and vocalist Janey Lee Grace. Midgley had previously worked with St Etienne and Grace had been a backing singer for the likes of Wham! and Eight Wonder and was also a radio broadcaser on LBC. They had success with "7 ways to love". The interesting story is that the original white label release, Sarah Cracknell sang the vocals but because for contractual reasons, the record label would not permit her to be on releases outside of St Etienne (she was lead vocalist), it had to be re-recorded and that is where Janey took over.

90 Hits (Discography):
Date	   UK	Song
Jul 1991    8	7 Ways To Love

What happened next?
Unfortunately the follow-up single "He is Cola" bombed and because they only had a two-single deal with the label, contract was not renewed and thy disbanded

Saturday, 27 March 2021

Clubhouse

Club House was an Italian house music studio group composed of Gianfranco Bortolotti, Carl Fanini, Hidalgo Serra, and Silvio Pozzoli (in Club House's early years). They first made a name for themselves in 1983 with the mashup medley of Steely Dan's "Do it again" and "Billie Jean". In the 90s, Club House scored a US Dance #1 with "Deep in my heart" (August 1991) with Silver Pozzoli as lead vocals. They are known in the UK for a couple of dance tracks, "Light my fire" and "Living in the sunshine" with Carl Fanini being the featured vocalist.

90 Hits (Discography):
Date	   UK	Song
Apr 1994    7	Light My Fire (featuring Carl)
Jul 1994   21	Living In The Sunshine (featuring Carl)

What happened next?
Unfortunately, the group quietly disbanded around 1997-1998. Gianfranco presumably focusing on managing his label Media Records as well as producing for 49ers, Anticappella and Cappella amongst others. Carl released a few dance tracks of his own and as well working with other DJs/Groups including Alex Gaudino. Hidalgo Serra has become a contemporary artist, actor, director and music producer and resides in Estonia. He is very interesting because (at time of writing) wikipedia states he was born in 1980, which would have made him still a young teenager when he was part of Club House!

Friday, 26 March 2021

Clock

Clock is a musical collaboration between Stu Allan and Peter Pritchard, that was fronted by several different vocalists, including Ann-Marie Smith, Lorna Saunders and ODC MC. The project was mostly making pop orientated commercial dance versions of old songs. Clock are best known for covers of "Axel F" and "Whoomph! There it is". They had 13 UK Top 40 hits including 4 top 10s.

90 Hits (Discography):
Date	   UK	Song
May 1994   28	The Rhythm
Sep 1994   36	Keep The Fires Burning
Mar 1995    7	Axel F / Keep Pushin'
Jul 1995    4	Whoomph! (There It Is)
Aug 1995    6	Everybody
Nov 1995   23	In The House
Feb 1996   27	Holding On 4 U
Sep 1996   13	Oh What A Night
Mar 1997   10	It's Over
Oct 1997   11	U Sexy Thing
Jan 1998   11	That's The Way (I Like It)
Jul 1998   30	Rock Your Body
Nov 1998   16	Blame It On The Boogie

What happened next?
Stu Allen owns and runs Old Skool Nation (OSNRadio). Lorna Saunders appeared in the celebrity line-up "Never mind the buzzcocks" in 2015, practicing law.

Thursday, 25 March 2021

CJ Lewis

Steven James Lewis (better known as CJ Lewis) is a British born (Feb 1) reggae singer. He is best known for the top 3 UK hit, "Sweets for my sweet". Additional vocals were performed by Samantha Depasois who sung on the tracks "Everything is Alright (Uptight)" and "Best of My Love".

90 Hits (Discography):
Date	   UK	Song
Apr 1994    3	Sweets For My Sweet
Jul 1994   10	Everything Is Alright (Uptight)
Oct 1994   13	Best Of My Love
Dec 1994   34	Dollars
Sep 1995   34	R To The A

What happened next?
After "R to the A", CJ Lewis recorded a few singles and released a number of albums but his last new single was "Roadblock" in 1997. Although a "Reloaded" album was released in 2008.