As always, these playlists are totally subjective and meant to collect my favorite songs of a single year rather than attempt a record of what 1988 was actually like for me or most listeners at the time. I heard a lot of Guns N’ Roses and Richard Marx on the radio in ’88, but they (mercifully) won’t appear here. Truth be told, this was the year I started to pay close attention to Top 40 radio (having received a dual cassette boombox for my 13th birthday) and MTV’s Top 20 Video Countdown, so I was newly aware of a world beyond “Weird Al” Yankovic and whatever my parents listened to in the car.
On that note, Top 40 doesn’t dominate as it did in previous years, though a few unlikely crossover hits do make the cut: Tracy Chapman’s unlike-anything-else-at-the-time breakthrough single, Erasure’s enduring danceable ballad, sublime one-hit-wonder When In Rome, the incomparable Information Society, also unlike anything else on the radio in 1988–I still marvel that this Latin freestyle techno-pop with sci-fi/Star Trek accents (from Minneapolis, no less!) reached number 3 on the Hot 100 that October. I wish Sade’s refreshing, proto-Trip Hop groove “Paradise” (far less overplayed than “Smooth Operator”, for sure) peaked higher than number 16 on said chart.
Still, other musical worlds existed beyond such mainstream confines: They Might Be Giants’ sui generis quirk-pop, Leonard Cohen’s ballsy reinvention as a sophisticated, smokey-voiced chanteur, Cowboy Junkies’ indie slowcore Velvets cover, Talk Talk’s own transformation from second-string new romantics into ambient-leaning experimenters. There was another world just beyond my reach–British pop fascinated in the late ’80s/early ’90s, from club songs that crossed over to the top of the UK charts (Yazz and the Plastic Population) to sparkling one-shots such as Fairground Attraction (also a UK #1) and The Primitives. The old guard continued to innovate (Siousxie and the Banshee’s craziest, fizziest hit), surprise (The Fall’s sardonic-yet-faithful Kinks cover) and expand its horizons (both newly solo Morrissey and Pet Shop Boys turning ever more orchestral.)
All this plus a guitar-pop triple-threat from Down Under (The Go-Betweens, Hunters & Collectors, Crowded House), early Sam Phillips (assisted by Van Dyke Parks’ super-lush orchestral arrangement), late ‘Til Tuesday and Icelandic weirdos The Sugarcubes, most notable for unleashing vocalist Bjork on the rest of the planet.
1988: What A Life
- Information Society, “What’s on Your Mind (Pure Energy)”
- Prefab Sprout, “Cars and Girls”
- When In Rome, “The Promise”
- The Primitives, “Crash”
- The Church, “Under The Milky Way”
- Sade, “Paradise”
- The Go-Betweens, “Quiet Heart”
- Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car”
- Everything But The Girl, “These Early Days”
- Hunters & Collectors, “Back On The Breadline”
- Fairground Attraction, “Perfect”
- Morrissey, “Everyday Is Like Sunday”
- Leonard Cohen, “Everybody Knows”
- Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Peek-A-Boo”
- The Sugarcubes, “Motorcrash”
- They Might Be Giants, “Ana Ng”
- Yazz and the Plastic Population, “The Only Way Is Up”
- Inner City, “Good Life”
- Talking Heads, “(Nothing But) Flowers”
- R.E.M., “You Are The Everything”
- Cowboy Junkies, “Sweet Jane”
- Talk Talk, “I Believe In You”
- Sam Phillips, “What Do I Do”
- Erasure, “A Little Respect”
- Pet Shop Boys, “Left To My Own Devices”
- Was (Not Was), “Somewhere In America There’s A Street Named After My Dad”
- ‘Til Tuesday, “(Believed You Were) Lucky”
- The Darling Buds, “Let’s Go Round There”
- Roxette, “Dressed For Success”
- The Fall, “Victoria”
- Patti Smith, “People Have The Power”
- Crowded House, “Better Be Home Soon”