Into 1992 we go, then. A year that it won’t take us long to get through, as it only has twelve #1s – the lowest turnover of chart-toppers for thirty years. Why the charts slowed down so much as we move towards the mid-‘90s is something we might chat about in the coming posts…
Goodnight Girl, by Wet Wet Wet (their 2nd of three #1s)
4 weeks, from 19th January – 16th February 1992
We kick off with Clydebank lads Wet Wet Wet, last heard four years ago singing a peppy cover of ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ for charity. Since then they’ve grown up: the hair is longer, the mood much more serious… Was this the original boy-band to man-band transition, a path since followed by Take That, Westlife and more…?
It’s a nice enough ballad. Lots of strings, a bit of piano, and an almost a cappella feel to the vocals. Marti Pellow takes the lead of course, but the three others whose names I don’t know weave themselves around him. It could have crumpled into bland, MOR mush; but the chorus is an earworm, with real purpose to it: Caught up in your wishing well, Your hopes inside it…
The video is very 1992, and not nearly as clever as it thinks it is. Why is there a priest swinging on a pendulum? Why indeed? The same applies to the lyrics, really, but if you allow them to just wash over you then the melodies, and Pellow’s voice, are enough to make this an enjoyable, if low-key, start to the year. It seems that Wet Wet Wet had managed to grow old(er) gracefully. It was also my 6th birthday #1, and perhaps that means I give it extra fondness points.
‘Goodnight Girl’ is a bit of an anomaly in the Wet Wet Wet discography. As well as being their only self-penned number one, it was the only Top 10 hit the band managed between 1989 and 1994. It’s pleasant enough, but I’m not sure I can explain why it so spectacularly broke their slump. Was it as simple as it being released in January, traditionally the quietest time for new singles? Anyway, they’ll come back properly in a couple of years, with an (almost) record-breaking mega-hit that will set them up for the rest of the decade, and beyond.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Admittedly, while it’s on the lush side, I’m a sucker for catchy melodies and neat harmony singing. The one Wet Wet Wet tune I really dig also happens to be their biggest hit: “Love Is All Around”.
Yes, this is a tune that I might not usually have liked, but there is something appealing in its harmonies. It also feels like a forgotten track, compared to ‘Love Is All Around’, which was such a massive hit
I’ve heard of Wet, Wet, Wet but, not much has charted in the US. This is completely new to me but, that lead singer has an amazing voice.
Yeah they were pretty big in the UK in the late 80s-late 90s, especially their next number one. Marti Pellow has a very soulful voice, I agree, especially for a skinny Scottish guy 🙂
LOL!
I don’t remember this but I do remember their cover of the Trogg’s hit Love Is All Around…I like that one.
That’s a decent cover version, though it did a Bryan Adams and stayed at number one for months and months…
Wow…I didn’t know that. I wouldn’t have ever thought that. REM covered it also.
Oh I didn’t know REM had covered it, I’ll have to check that out
Mike Mills the bass player is doing the vocals I believe….I love the Troggs version as well.
I was a convert for this one, very Radio 2 MOR and all that, but quite sweet and Marti was more restrained vocally. His tendency to warble on a bit, and that awful Beatles cover had put me off them for the most part, bar the odd gospel-flavoured track, since their fabulous debut with Wishing I Was Lucky, a fantastic pop single and the band looking all cute and fresh. It was all downhill after that, apart from these occasional pleasant bumps along the way. Nothing awful, bar the covers, but just falling under the “pleasant but forgettable” tag…