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1994 Music Hits
“Old Blue Eyes” aka Frank Sinatra made music headlines again, this time in 1994 for receiving a Grammy Award for “Lifetime Achievement Award”. There was some controversy and drama because his speech was cut short but it still showed that the Grammys recognized the singers who set the groundwork of what performances and the industry became.
That being said, the top five songs of 1994 showed a pattern of success by having the #1 hit being a song from the soundtrack of a movie. Bruce Springsteen's “Streets of Philadelphia” not only was the top song of the year but also garnered the legendary New Jersey rocker an Academy Award. A monumental win for Springsteen who never waned in all his years of performing. The #2 spot went to a trio of legends, Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, and Sting for their “All for Love”. Third spot went to Rednex for the song “Cotton Eye Joe”. The #4 spot went to All-4-One and their hit “I Swear” followed by still newcomer at that time Mariah Carey with her chart topper “Without You”.
The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inducted a number of artists such as The Doors, Sly and the Family Stone, Etta James, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Cream, Ruth Brown, Creedance Clearwater Revival.
Other awards for music in 1994 were of course the Grammy Awards that saw another soundtrack album hit the high marks. Whitney Houston and David Foster won for Record of the Year and Whitney Houston and her crew of superstars won Album of the Year for “The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album”. Following in a movie soundtrack sort of way we have Song of the Year going to Alan Menken and Tim Rice for “A Whole New World” from Disney's “Aladdin” animated feature. Rounding things out comes Toni Braxton as Best New Artist of the year.
Other hit songs in 1994 covered a wide range of genres. Many opened new doors to new genres and saw older genres, even some a few years old start to wane. Songs that came out that year like “Amazing” by Aerosmith, Bon Jovi's “Always”, “Basket Case” by Green Day, “Big Poppa” by Notorious B.I.G., “100% Pure Love” by Crystal Waters, “Big Yellow Taxi” from Amy Grant, “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” by Elton John, “Circle of Life” by Elton John again coming from “The Lion King” soundtrack. “Creep” by TLC, and “What Would You Say” by the Dave Matthews Band.
Needless to say, the 1994 turn in music wasn't a battlefield but more of a proving ground. It was the year more people got online and more cable channels emerged. Artists who might not have been in the public eye. This caused quite a stir as the internet was stretching its muscles. Files for music were then considered huge and in .wav form. The downloading of music wasn't a major threat at the time and many didn't realize the implications of the web yet. Internet radio broadcasting, most notably presented by REAL networks via their radio broadcasting software was still on slow modems but enough for that time for radio to get a major foothold on the web.
It was just about mid decade and those musicians who were going to cut the mustard knew then and there their place in history. If they didn't have a big hit by the end of the decade they would either miss their mark or would have to start over again. Little did they know that on the horizon one of the biggest changes in music history was about to occur.