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

1. Information Society, “What’s on Your Mind (Pure Energy)”
2. Prefab Sprout, “Cars and Girls”
3. When In Rome, “The Promise”
4. The Primitives, “Crash”
5. The Church, “Under The Milky Way”
6. Sade, “Paradise”
7. The Go-Betweens, “Quiet Heart”
8. Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car”
9. Everything But The Girl, “These Early Days”
10. Hunters & Collectors, “Back On The Breadline”
11. Fairground Attraction, “Perfect”
12. Morrissey, “Everyday Is Like Sunday”
13. Leonard Cohen, “Everybody Knows”
14. Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Peek-A-Boo”
15. The Sugarcubes, “Motorcrash”
16. They Might Be Giants, “Ana Ng”
17. Yazz and the Plastic Population, “The Only Way Is Up”
18. Inner City, “Good Life”
19. Talking Heads, “(Nothing But) Flowers”
20. R.E.M., “You Are The Everything”
21. Cowboy Junkies, “Sweet Jane”
22. Talk Talk, “I Believe In You”
23. Sam Phillips, “What Do I Do”
24. Erasure, “A Little Respect”
25. Pet Shop Boys, “Left To My Own Devices”
26. Was (Not Was), “Somewhere In America There’s A Street Named After My Dad”
27. ‘Til Tuesday, “(Believed You Were) Lucky”
28. The Darling Buds, “Let’s Go Round There”
29. Roxette, “Dressed For Success”
30. The Fall, “Victoria”
31. Patti Smith, “People Have The Power”
32. Crowded House, “Better Be Home Soon”