Thursday, January 12, 2023

35 Years Ago in Music

 In 1988 I pretty much spent every spare dollar I had on albums.  This should be a fun one.  Going through these years it's fun to see what albums came out and what was on the radio.  It's interesting to see how rap is suddenly at the fore.  

According to Best Ever Albums the top albums of 1988 were:

  1. Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth
  2. Surfer Rosa by Pixies
  3. Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk
  4. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back by Public Enemy
  5. ...And Justice for All by Metallica
  6. Isn't Anything by My Bloody Valentine
  7. Tracy Chapman by Tracy Chapman (I would have guessed this came out earlier though I wrote about it before here)
  8. Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A.
  9. Green by R.E.M.
  10. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son by Iron Maiden
Here are the albums that spent at least two weeks at Billboard number 1 in 1988.

  1. Faith by George Michael (12 weeks)
  2. Dirty Dancing (11 weeks)
  3. Rattle and Hum by U2 (6 weeks)
  4. Hysteria by Def Leppard (6 weeks)
  5. New Jersey by Bon Jovi (4 weeks)
  6. Appetite for Destruction (4 weeks)
  7. OU812 by Van Halen (2 weeks)
  8. Tiffany by Tiffany (2 weeks)
  9. Giving You the Best That I Got by Anita Baker (2 weeks)

The top Billboard singles of 1988 were:

  1. Faith by George Michael
  2. Need You Tonight by INXS
  3. Got My Mind Set on You by George Harrison
  4. Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley
  5. Sweet Child o' Mine by Guns N' Roses
  6. So Emotional by Whitney Houston
  7. Heaven is a Place on Earth by Belinda Carlisle
  8. Could've Been by Tiffany
  9. Hands to Heaven by Breath
  10. Roll With It by Steve Winwood

I'll finish this off with playlist for you all from 1988.  Some of the music I still listen to today. 



10 comments:

  1. Two things right off the bat:

    1. I always meant to get that Anita Baker record, and I still never have.

    2. I often drive my daughter up the wall by playing her '80s/'90s hits that I would've predicted before the Rick Astley for 2020s revival. Here, from 1991, is one of the most recent of those.

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  2. I've never connected with Metallica. They might be the most raucously and roundly celebrated act before 2000 to have never moved me. People sure love those guys, for sure.

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  3. Wow. "Everyday Is Like Sunday" ... totally forgot that one. Loved that song. I didn't exactly back in to the Smiths through Morrissey solo stuff, but the Morrissey singles certainly encouraged me to go back and give the Smiths a more earnest try. And they grabbed me more the second time around.

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  4. I did not know that Björk was the Sugarcubes' lead singer!

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  5. Well, I had totally forgotten "Alphabet Street," too! Turns out my memories of 1983 are much more present than my memories of 1988.

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    Replies
    1. It's amazing how much my life changed from 1983 to 1988. I think that was the biggest change I experience over almost any five-year period.

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  6. I really, really liked Terence Trent D'Arby. "Wishing Well" is a terrific No. 1 song. And I think Sananda Maitreya's tribute to his and Prince's friendship is pretty.

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