Enlightenment was Van Morrison's 1990 album, desperately similar to every other album he'd made in the previous ten thousand years. The album's standout track was In the days before rock 'n' roll; the title track was the only single taken from the album, and sounded exactly like every other Van Morrison song of the previous ten thousand years.

This week, we can finally start looking at some of the 1991 new releases. Fifteen new entries into the top 75, beginning with three in the bottom places: Deep C had African reign at 75, Power of Dreams put American dream at 74, and Kim Carnegie's Jazz rap made 73. Power of Dreams was an Irish rock band, the subjects of a major-label bidding war in late 1989. This track was taken from their politically-astute first album, Immigrants, Emigrants and Me, and became the first release to crack the top 75. The group had further albums in 1992 and 1994, before splitting. They appear to have re-formed for a short tour in 2007.

Back to the chart, and Dream Frequency climbed a place to 71; they'll have a couple of top 40 hits in 1992. Chubb Rock implored us to Treat 'em right at 67, and Stex could Still feel the rain at 63. More cheese-rock from Winger, Miles away is in at 58. So far as the UK is concerned, they're a one-hit wonder, and this is the hit. Over in the Americas, this was the biggest of six hits for the poodle-rockers.

More dubious records above them: Gazza at 57, Cliff at 56 (his single run ends 1-3-20-56), and new at 55 it's the return of the London Boys! Edem and Dennis were rollerblade dancers, who had top 5 hits in 1989 with Requiem and London nights. The big comeback rather stalled - Chapel of love spent one week at number 75, Freedom! is new at 55, and that's going to be it for the lads. The duo continued to release records on independent labels, but their career was curtailed when both members were killed in a car crash in early 1996.

We should mention George Michael's song called Freedom (without the !) at 54. Maureen had been a session vocalist who hit it big in the early summer 1990, when her version of Thinking of you hit number 11. The direct follow-up was a version of Talk Talk's It's my life, latterly covered by No Doubt. Third single Where has all the love gone was up 24 to 51, but that would prove to be it for her solo career.

Here's something you don't see often enough: a Blue Nile single. Indeed, it's the high-water mark of the band's UK singles chart career. Paul Buchanan, Robert Bell, and Paul Moore had formed the band while at university in 1981, and released their first full album A Walk Across the Rooftops in 1984. Though it only sold modestly, it set the scene for their second album, 1989's Hats. Songs of love, songs of honesty, songs that will turn up in twenty years on Michael Gove's MP3 player. There were three singles from this album: The downtown lights (67 in 1989), Headlights on the parade (72 in 1990), and Saturday night, new at number 50. Another five year wait followed until the group's third album, Peace at Last (1996), and High came out in 2004; from the latter album, single I would never peaked at 52. Four albums in twenty years is a frustratingly slow pace, but they are of such high quality that the wait is worth it.

Two songs that crept into the Scot40: Donna Summer's Breakaway rises 10 to 49, and the Black Crowes' Twice as hard is the fastest climber, up 24 to 47. The Black Crowes was utterly po-faced blues rock, this song was as good an example as any. They preached their message that it's not all about the money, and raked in as much as they could from commercial endorsements.

Between them is the final release from Brother Beyond, The girl I used to know. Ver Beyond had risen to the dizzy heights of fame in summer 1988, after employing the hit factory of Stock Aitken Waterman to record The harder I try, a number 2 hit. Three more singles followed from Get Even, with diminishing results - we never could tell the difference between He ain't no competition and Be my twin, and recall Can you keep a secret? only because it was the theme to the Scot40 during Craig White's tenure in early 1990. By then, Brother Beyond had released their second album, Trust, but lead single Drive on had stalled at 39 and their cover of When will I see you again made 43. This was the group's final single, and though lead singer Nathan Moore went on to be part of Fort Boyard faves Worlds Apart, the greatest success went to drummer Eg White, who has written Leave right now for Will Young, Shiver for Natalie Imbruglia, and other only slightly less fab records.

LA Mix came in at 46 with Mysteries of love: this was a cheap 'n' cheerful handbag-dance act who had had a top 10 hit in 1988. Deborah Harry and Iggy Pop's Well did you evah! climbed 7 to 42, top weight for that track. The Big Dish went up 18 to 40, more on them next week, promise. Will to Power's tedious re-tread of I'm not in love climbed 10 to 36. New at 35 came Orbital, performing Satan. It's the group's third single, second top 40 hit, and pretty much forgotten by all concerned.

Oleta Adams's Get here was up 17 at 34, and David Lee Roth climbed 8 to 32 with A little ain't enough. Roth had been the lead singer with hair-bad Van Halen, and had twice tried - and failed - to make a hit out of his rubbish version of California girls. He had had one top 40 hit before now, Just like paradise made 27 in March 1988. Roth was long on bluster, long on slick guitar solo, and was about as plastic as they came. We've not seen him since, which must be A Good Thing. New at 31 was Tongue 'n' Cheek's Forget me nots, an almost-straight cover of Patrice Rushen's hit from nine years earlier. The group had had a top 20 hit the previous spring with Tomorrow, but won't be darkening our turntables again.

The Stranglers were promoting their greatest hits collection by re-releasing one of their more melodious singles, Always the sun. Originally a number 30 hit in autumn 1986, the re-release climbed three places to make number 29. In promoting this single first time round, the group had appeared on the BBC's new Saturday night light entertainment show, Roland Rat: The Series. This conjunction led, slightly inaccurately, to the title of a 2007 documentary about pop music on children's television, When Roland Rat met The Stranglers.

Up 8 to 28 went High, one of the more rubbish bands to come out of the 1990 Manchester scene. Er, we didn't mention this at all last week, did we? After the success of the Happy Mondays and Stone Roses in late 1989, the country's A&R men moved en masse to Manchester, a dismal swamp to the west of the Pennines. They signed anyone who could sing or perform, and then signed anyone who looked like they could sing or perform, and then signed High. Two mediocre singles stalled in the mid-50s during the second half of 1990, and a re-release of the insipid Box set go make the top 40 this week. What's this nonsense about? We never knew; after this week, we never really cared.

New at 27 came A Tribe Called Quest with Can I kick it?, and new at 26 for Soho's Hippy chick; the first top 40 hit for both acts, and we'll discuss them in future weeks. Belinda Carlisle's Summer rain went up 14 to 25, Sting climbed 4 to 22 with All this time, Ralph Tresvant went up 21 to 21 with Sensitivity, Bananarama's Preacher man went up 9 to 20, and Alexander O'Neal's All true man climbed 6 to 18. Only Belinda and Ralph had more climb in them. Out of the top 10 went the Righteous Brothers (7-19), Snap! (9-17), and MC Hammer (8-16).

While the record companies had been snouting around in Manchester, they'd ignored the flourishing talent in the West Midlands. Pop Will Eat Itself built their reputation in the late 1980s through bizarre samples, similar to the work done by the KLF. They'd released five singles during 1989 and 90, each peaked in a narrow range between 45 and 28; the latter was for Touched by the hand of Cicciolina, a version of New Order's Touched by the hand of god but invoking the Italian porn-star turned MP. Released to coincide with the 1990 world cup, the Poppies had invented the genre of Unofficial Football Song. 1991's X, y and zee was the group's biggest hit to date, this week rising three to 15. It was more deliberately groovy than the rest of their work, and some have interpreted it as a veiled attack on the rubbishness of Madchester. Parent album Cure for Sanity remains one of the better disks of the year, and has perhaps proved longer-lasting than their critically-lauded This Is the Day ... This Is the Hour ... This is This! (1989). The group would be dropped by RCA after 1992's The Looks or the Lifestyle; third single Get the girl, kill the baddies would become their biggest hit, reaching 9 at the start of 1993. Afterwards, Richard March would form Bentley Rhythm Ace.

No move at 14 for Patsy Cline, and Whitney Houston climbs 4 to 13 with All the man I need. Fastest climber for Robert Palmer's Mercy mercy me / I want you, a mash-up of two old Marvin Gaye numbers. It's up 18 to 12. Off-Shore screeched I can't take the power, up 16 to 11. Medley and Warnes put (I've had) the time of my life back into the top 10, up 3 places. Last week's number one is this week's number 9, as Iron Maiden have a plummet any Cliff Richard christmas single would be proud of. Only two songs had ever recorded bigger falls: the Flying Pickets's Only you fell 1-10 at the start of 1984, though this followed a week when the chart was frozen for christmas. Harry Belafonte's recording of Mary's boy child went 1-12 in early 1958, again after a frozen week. The Farm dipped two to 8.

Up 8 to 7 went Jesus Jones, with International bright young thing. The group formed in 1988, and rather rush-released their first album the following year. By the time of the second album, Doubt, there was a tremendous buzz around the group - we recall a piece in Select magazine that said they were so new, you could still smell the cellophane around them. Two singles the previous year had easily made it into the top 40, and the album's immediate precursor would go on to be their biggest hit single. Two more singles were plucked from the album, the band had another top tenner with The devil you know from 1993's Perverse, and an attempted comeback in 1997 would only have been more flat if it had been run over by a steam-hammer. In North America, Right here right now was the group's signature hit; in the UK, they're remembered - if at all - as International Brit Young Things.

Down a place to 6 for Vanilla Ice, now out-selling two of his successors at number 1. Highest new entry at 5 for the KLF's 3am eternal, about which more in two weeks. Revolting and Neutron-Bomb dipped a place to 4, pushed down by C&C Music Factory's Gonna make you sweat. The producers - Robert Clivilles and David Cole - had assembled the track from hip-hop and club beats, married to a simple but effective pop song, helped more than a little by vocalist Freedom Williams, and on this track by Martha Wash. It's another act with a tragic ending: the duo's career stretched to three promising albums but was cut short after David Cole died of spinal meningitis in early 1995.

Up two at 2 went Seal's debut hit, Crazy. He'd risen to fame as the vocalist on Adamski's 1990 number one Killer, and this first solo release was the biggest chart success of his solo career. As we'll see during the year, Seal has only ever found success in patches: his other well-known hit, Kiss from a rose, became a top five smash second time around, and he's not graced the top 20 in the UK since Easter 1997. In Europe, Seal has found more constant success, reaching the top 5 in Germany and France with Love's divine (2003) and the German top 10 with the entirely-decent Amazing (2007).

A one-place climb for Enigma took Sadeness part one to the top spot, which it had already reached in France and Germany. The group - the brainchild of Michael Crétu - was an exotic combination of Gregorian chant, new-age beat, and restrained techno thump: the closest analogy was the offspring of Enya and the KLF. By rights, this should have been a one-hit wonder, but Enigma managed to spin out three more top ten albums, and the 1994 chill anthem Return to innocence made number 2. (Is it logically possible to have chill anthems? Let's not go there...) By the late-90s, the inspiration was clearly coming from such contemporary classicists as Anne Dudley, and flowing to many cheap-and-grubby faux-spiritual groups, of which Bond was the first, and Libera the most shameless. By 2006, Enigma was restricted to their committed fans, the last two albums had only been available as new age imports. The part one designation on Sadeness comes from its position of the album MCMXC AD - it's the first four-and-a-bit minutes of a 12-minute track called Principles of lust.

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