I Love #1's - 1988

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Last week everyone's favourite Russian faux-lesbians Tatu won their battle with Bouncey & the 'Babes to claim best number one of 2003, with a whopping 46 ticks. Poor old Snedders fared as badly as his follow-up single with only 2 votes of confidence, though looking at the text box some might say Gary Jules was the greater hate figure of the year (blatantly because you all had a tenner on 'Proper Crimbo' to hit the Xmas top spot instead). Now we come to the year where SmallKat first discovered the the magical world of the pop charts - 1988!


[Poll #814293]

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Ooops, Bros placing has gone a bit wonky up there. That'll serve me right for typing all the above out last thing yesterday and copying&pasting without checking. Right, I've got to get back to werk!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

BLIMEY talk about a year of two halves - that's a catastrophic tail-off as the OLD BORES strike to take back the year from the HIP YOUNG POPSTRELS.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I loved Enya, I have to say. Her video was enchanting to TinyKat.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

indeed. this is probably my favourire yearof #1s, specifically the run from rick astley in 1987 to s'express (with only aswad spoiling the fun) is surely the best ever

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/popular/2003/09/popular_number1slist/4/

if the timelords had been a little earlier

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I know this U2 goes "a red guitar...ON FIRE...desire!" but is it also the one which goes on about "three chords and the truth!"?

Thing is when Springsteen does this kind of stuff I wuv it but U2 always sounded so puritan about it.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

but 'Desire' is more raucous than anything I can think of by Springsteen...depends if you see that as good or bad (and obv. Le Boss has other advantages in any case). This was the first U2 song I liked, having hated The Joshua Tree singles SO. MUCH. at the time.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

3 chords + truth is one of the live tracks on R&H, possibly pride, or mabe bullet the blue sky. i believe he again has his red guitar along with chords and truth, but is a different track

god, they were awful, although i did have a sneaking regard for it at the time.

[the-roofdog.livejournal.com]

I hate U2 with 1x passion, but surely Desire is one of their better efforts, in that it rocks along in a "does-what-it-says-on-the-tin" style and isn't nearly as obnoxious as most of their output.

Erm, voting for Glenn Medeiros was a mistake, but voting for Cliff WASN'T - they don't make Christmas songs like this anymore (though obv you Scroogers think this is a GOOD THING).

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I would not tick it but nor do I think Mistletoe and Wine is an awful thing - any song about Xmo that gets to #1 at Xmo is automatically good I think. Except Saviour's Day.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

they don't make christmas songs like this anymore because a memo was circulated "do not make xmas records like this anymore, thx everyone"

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

As HALF MAN HALF BISCUIT sang it is clichéd to be cynical at wobs and hooray for Sir Cliff. I agree with Tom - xmas songs at no1 on xmas is the way things should be and I am always cross when they lose out as they do EVERY SINGLE YEAR!

I suppose Grills Aloud #1 was good.

Of course sometimes they have them dressed up in furry hoods which are pretty wobs like, it worked for East 17. Anyway, had we all forgotten about Robbie and Nicole Kidman doing Somethin' Stupid? (AND THE SONG TOO HAHA) - anyway as you were.

Bros

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

It's not as good as "When Will I Be Famous".

Re: Bros

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It's still great though!

When Will I > I Owe You Nothing > Drop The Boy >>>>> rest of puny late 80s boy bands >>>>>> all other Bros records, oops.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

I'm quite glad to see Yazz getting some love, for some reason (NOW poll?) I thought the poptimists weren't feeling this fanstatic track.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It won its NOW poll! I think it got a spanking in the knockouts but it came up against something titanic.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

ah i see, 88 was your year. in that case it WAS almost as good as 81 ;)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Not quite - I said this was the year I first took notice of the charts because I definitely don't remember Tiffany at the time (being just 6 the only tapes I wz listening to was Little Grey Rabbit's Big Storybook), however from Fairground Attraction onwards I remember knowing all the subsequent ones (except Glen Madeiros) at the time. I wasn't completely obsessed by the charts until a couple of years later.

The Hollies' wiki entry:

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

'The Hollies' history began by chance with five-year-old Allan Clarke's arrival at the Ordsall Primary School in Manchester, England in 1947. He met five-year-old Graham Nash, when Nash was the only student to volunteer to let Clarke sit next to him in class.'

Awww!

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I took an interest in the charts from late 1986 (late starter!) so 1988 still seems shiny fresh and exciting to me! I love most of these, and can still sing the ones i don't like, pretty much. I was also in lust with both the first two artists in this poll having seen their videos on the chart show. Tiffany's song is sexier by miles though, I just liked the camera angle in the Carlisle video which looked down her top.

Ladies' Nite

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I should have done a "which of these popstrels did you have 1x crush on" poll?

Yazz had brilliant hair.

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

As this was my first year of listening to the charts too, I have ticked EVERYTHING because I loved it all. Well, apart from Phil Collins, naturally.

BOSH VERSION

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

... of Orinoco Flow, please.

Re: BOSH VERSION

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

There's that mediocre mash-up of Enya v Prodigy, Smack My B1tch Up The Orinoco. If my laptop was still working I'd ysi it.

Theme from S'Express

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

I remember hearing this for the first time on the chart run (new entry at number 20, or something like that), and falling in love with it. It felt like it was so exciting and different (like a lot of the early records coming out of the dance scene at the time - the only other time I've had that regular feeling was during the late 90s/early 00s R&B boom). And being a naive 13 year old who knew nothing about where the record had come from, I loved the record so much I couldn't wait to see the TV show / film that it was the Theme to...

Re: Theme from S'Express

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I thought it was something to do with rollerskating.

(Sort of) Missing No. 1

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

I remember Beat Dis by Bomb the Bass made no. 1 on the Chart Show (can't remember why it differed from the BBC one) and was very disappointed it didn't quite make it in the proper one. Nothing against Kylie (which held it off) but she had a fair run so it would've been nice for them to have a go too.

The honest truth is...

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

...that I don't think I would miss any of these songs if I never heard them again. This is a year when I was listening to Jane's Addiction and Fishbone and Prince and New Order.

That said, this is easily my favorite of the early Kylie tracks. and I think I might like "Perfect" if I heard it again, although it's totally lost to me at the moment. Yazz is quite fine (I only heard the original of this earlier this year) and the Hollies is classic but why is it charting in 1988? Oh and Glenn Medeiros was proto-BSB. Maybe I should go back and tick these but I am feeling uncharitable this morning.

Re: The honest truth is...

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The Hollies were used in a beer commercial. I think it was Miller but I could be wrong. Not my demographic, innit :-)

[koganbot]

Hah! My vote is defeating Belinda! (Let me point out again that "Heaven Is a Place On Earth" is a rip of Bon Jovi's much better "Living On A Prayer.")

Treaty of Paris revealed to be a Good Thing

[koganbot]

USA number ones, 1988

"Faith" George Michael
"So Emotional" Whitney Houston
"Got My Mind Set on You" George Harrison
"The Way You Make Me Feel" Michael Jackson
"Need You Tonight" INXS
"Could've Been" Tiffany
"Seasons Change" Exposé
"Father Figure" George Michael
"Never Gonna Give You Up" Rick Astley
"Man in the Mirror" Michael Jackson
"Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car" Billy Ocean
"Where Do Broken Hearts Go" Whitney Houston
"Wishing Well" Terence Trent D'Arby
"Anything for You" Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine
"One More Try" George Michael
"Together Forever" Rick Astley
"Foolish Beat" Debbie Gibson
"Dirty Diana" Michael Jackson
"The Flame" Cheap Trick
"Hold on to the Nights" Richard Marx
"Roll With It" Steve Winwood
"Monkey" George Michael
"Sweet Child O' Mine" Guns N' Roses
"Don't Worry, Be Happy" Bobby McFerrin
"Love Bites" Def Leppard
"Red Red Wine" UB40
"Groovy Kind of Love Phil Collins
"Kokomo" The Beach Boys
"Wild, Wild West" The Escape Club
"Bad Medicine" Bon Jovi
"Baby, I Love Your Way / Freebird Medley" Will to Power
"Look Away" Chicago

The one overlap is in bold, but "I Think We're Alone Now" and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" reached number one in 1987. Also, 1987 had this wonderful Shondellic moment:

November 7 "I Think We're Alone Now" Tiffany
November 14 "I Think We're Alone Now" Tiffany
November 21 "Mony Mony" Billy Idol

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

Aswad should be doing better.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The Ace Of Base version is better.