1992_in_British_music

1992 in British music

1992 in British music

Overview of the events of 1992 in British music


This is a summary of 1992 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.

Quick Facts List of years in British music ...

Summary

1992 was a bleak time for the UK Singles Chart, with sales at a very low level. Due to several long chart runs, only 12 singles topped the chart this year (not counting the Queen single, which was a holdover from Christmas 1991), the lowest number since 1962, which also saw 12. In addition, none of them only lasted a week – all lasted at least two, the first time this had happened since 1971.

In the album charts Simply Red had continued success with Stars which would prove to be the second best selling album of the 90's and the best of 91 and 92. Although none of its singles reached no.1, title track Stars peaked at no.8 with all others making the top 40.

Shakespears Sister's hit "Stay" was the longest chart topper of 1992, holding onto the No 1 slot for 8 weeks.

The year saw the start of the ABBA revival, though, with Erasure grabbing the top spot for five weeks in June with their Abba-esque EP, which featured covers of ABBA songs. This was followed by ABBA tribute band Björn Again releasing Erasure-ish in October, which featured covers of Erasure songs. This reached number 25. ABBA's ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits album reached No. 1 for a week in September.

September also saw the Shamen attract controversy with the rave song "Ebeneezer Goode", which, though apparently a song about a fictional character, contained many jokey allusions to the drug Ecstasy, including the chorus "Eezer Goode, Eezer Goode, he's Ebeneezer Goode" (which sounded like "E's are good, E's are good", 'E' being a slang term for Ecstasy). The controversy ensured the song reached number 1 and stayed there for four weeks.

The biggest selling single of the year, and also the only one to sell over a million, was Whitney Houston's cover of "I Will Always Love You", taken from the film The Bodyguard. Originally charting in November, the song hit number 1 later that month, and stayed there until February next year.

The Wedding Present equalled the all-time record of Elvis Presley for most UK Top 30 hits in a year (12), by releasing limited edition, 10,000-copies-only 7" singles every month from January to December. Out of this they achieved their first (and only) ever top ten single, "Come Play With Me" in May of that year.

In the field of classical music, British composer John Palmer won the City of Lucerne Cultural Prize for Music. New classical works by British composers included the Flute Concerto by William Mathias and the String Quartet No. 1 by Mathias's former pupil John Pickard. Classic FM, the first national classical music station to launch since the opening of BBC Radio 3, 25 years earlier, began broadcasting in September.

Events

Charts

Number-one singles

More information Chart date (week ending), Song ...

Number-one albums

More information Chart date (week ending), Album ...

Year-end charts

Best-selling singles

[2]

More information No., Title ...

Best-selling albums

[4]

More information No., Title ...

Notes:

  1. Reached number 3 in 1993
  2. Reached number 1 in 1991
  3. Reached number 1 in 1991
  4. Reached number 1 in 1991
  5. Reached number 4 in 1991
  6. Reached number 2 in 1991
  7. Reached number 2 in 1991
  8. Reached number 1 in 1981
  9. Reached number 1 in 1991
  10. Reached number 1 in 1991
  11. Reached number 1 in 1991
  12. Reached number 1 in 1991
  13. Reached number 2 in 1991
  14. Reached number 11 in 1991
  15. Reached number 1 in 1984
  16. Reached number 1 in 1991
  17. Reached number 3 in 1991

Music awards

Brit Awards

The 1992 Brit Awards winners were:

Mercury Music Prize

The 1992 Mercury Music Prize was awarded to Primal ScreamScreamadelica.

Classical music

Opera

Film and incidental music

Births

Deaths

See also


References

  1. "Year End Charts: Top Singles". Music Week. 16 January 1993. p. 8.
  2. Jones, Alan (16 January 1993). "Best Sellers". Music Week. p. 9.
  3. "Year End Charts: Top Albums". Music Week. 16 January 1993. p. 10.
  4. Crick, Clair (12 November 2020). "Jessica Plummer – things you didn't know about the I'm A Celebrity star". What's on TV. Retrieved 26 November 2020.

Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article 1992_in_British_music, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.