Debut single chart high point for Tasmin Archer

YORKSHIRE’S Tasmin Archer was a clerk at Leeds Magistrates’ Court before becoming involved in the music scene in her native Bradford. After she began working with musicians John Hughes and John Beck, she came to the attention of EMI who added her to their roster with a record deal in 1990.

‘Sleeping Satellite’, co-written by the singer with Hughes and Beck, was the dream debut single. The soulful pop ballad soared to number one in the UK charts, knocking the Shamen’s ‘Ebeneezer Goode’ from the top.

It spent four weeks at No. 1 in Ireland and was a top ten hit in many other European countries. It was also a minor hit for Archer in the US, peaking at number 32 in the Billboard Hot 100.

On the back of this success, debut album ‘Great Expectations’ reached the UK top ten and sold in excess of 100,000 copies.

Archer won a BRIT award in 1993 for Best British Breakthrough Act, but never lived up to the promise of that debut single and album. ‘Sleeping Satellite’ marked her only visit to the UK top ten and none of her subsequent singles charted in Ireland at all.

• After two weeks at the top, Archer would be dethroned by Boyz II Men’s ‘End Of The Road’, a massive seller which spent a then record-breaking 13 weeks at number one in the UK (a record broken later in the year by Whitney Houston’s version of Dolly Parton’s ‘I Will Always Love You’).

A million-plus seller in the United States, ‘End of the Road’ was the top selling single in that market in 1992 and has been ranked by Billboard as the most successful song of the nineties.

The ballad was a worldwide hit for American R&B stars Boyz II Men, reaching number one in many countries, including Ireland, the UK, Netherlands, New Zealand and Australia.

• The number six entry in our chart from this week in 1992 is an oddity - a Eurodance take on the most famous tune in the Game Boy version of the Tetris game (in turn an instrumental version of the Russian folk song ‘Korobeiniki’). It’s the only ever release by Doctor Spin, aka musicalcal theatre giant Andrew Lloyd Webber and record producer Nigel Wright, the man behind the 1980s ‘Jack Mix’ medley series and later, the UK Mixmasters.