Dan Hill - "Never Thought"

(Not Available on iTunes)

(Debuted December 12, 1987, Peaked #43, 19 Weeks on the Chart)

On the heels of his "comeback" hit with Vonda Shepard "Can't We Try" (reviewed here last year), Dan Hill's next single struck the same chord. A devotional song, Hill uses the same smooth vocal style he used on the earlier hit. He peppered it with compliments about how the lady was "too beautiful for the human eye," which sounded great on the radio but not so great when this 15-year old used then as a line.

"Never Thought" reached the same peak position of #2 on the Adult Contemporary Chart, but oddly enough missed the pop Top 40. While the AC-leaning station sure played it a lot, it wasn't nearly as ubiquitous as "Can't We Try" was the summer before. Whether it was the interaction with Shepard that made that record a bigger hit or a sense that it was something that had been heard already, it simply slid off the chart.

The Cure - "Just Like Heaven"

(Debuted October 10, 1987, Peaked #40, 18 Weeks on the Chart)

I was never really a big fan of The Cure. That said, I went to high school with some people who were a little bit scary when it came to their devotion to the band. Though I didn't realize that "Close To Me" was by them, it was "Just Like Heaven" that was my first taste of the band after I found out who they were.

It was a very good song, with a great introduction to the work of Robert Smith and company. However, the pop-laden hooks of the song weren't enough to overcome the fanatics of the group for me to look deeper into their material. Had I grown up a couple of years earlier or fell in with a different crowd, the story may have been different and I'd be here expounding how "Killing an Arab" and "Boys Don't Cry" were underappreciated classics. But I'm not.

That said, "Just Like Heaven" was the band's finest pure pop song. Even if "Lovesong" and "Friday I'm in Love" would surpass it on the charts.

Elton John - "Candle in the Wind"

(Debuted November 7, 1987, Peaked #6, 20 Weeks on the Chart)

"Candle in the Wind" wasn't a new Elton John song when he released it as a single in 1987. Originally a part of his 1973 double LP Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, it was one of several tracks from the album that failed to get tagged as a single in the U.S. despite being a standout track. The problem was than John was putting out so much music, his record company was limited when it came to singles,. Despite that, the tribute to Marilyn Monroe was still popular as an album track and lived on through repeated radio airplay.  

In 1986, John gave a concert in Melbourne, Australia that was recorded for posterity as the LP Live in Australia With the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. At the time, John was scheduled for throat surgery in January '87 and was unsure if he'd ever perform again. Fortunately, it worked out for him and he was able to enjoy a career resurgence afterward. And what better song to bring him back than a golden oldie that had served him well for nearly 15 years? It became his first Top 10 in two years.

John wasn't finished with the tune, either. After the untimely death of Princess Diana in 1997, he and co-writer Bernie Taupin reworked the lyrics into a tribute to her called "Candle in the Wind 1997." John performed that song at her funeral, and the single became one of the best-selling records of all time, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for 14 weeks. Not bad for a song that was originally written out of nostalgia on the 10 anniversary of a screen star's death.

Van Halen - "When it's Love"

(Debuted August 6, 1988, Peaked #5, 19 Weeks on the Chart)

A few weeks ago, I featured a song by David Lee Roth as he transitioned from the Van Halen frontman to a solo artist. Today, here's Van Halen two albums later, after Sammy Hagar filled in the space at the microphone. Hagar wasn't exactly an unknown entity before joining the band; he was a solo artist before that and also the singer of Montrose. However, he was no "Diamond Dave." Some of the group's fans weren't impressed with the change from a showy singer to a more technically correct one and referred to the band as "Van Hagar," but many fans embraced the change.

The album that included "When it's Love" was OU812, which was a sly reference to Roth's full-length solo LP Eat 'em and Smile. Written by Hagar after the Van Halen brothers provided him with a rhythm track, it was the last Top 10 pop single Van Halen ever achieved. Though there were several big Mainstream Rock hits after that and all of their Hagar-era LPs topped that chart, they began to decline on the bigger chart from that point.

Say what you want about the band's lead singer drama over the years. But "When it's Love" represents when they were still at their peak.

Midnight Oil - "The Dead Heart"

(Debuted August 6, 1988, Peaked #53, 10 Weeks on the Chart)

In the late 1980s, I was still a teen and still trying to figure out where I fit in. That said, I did know what I liked when it came to music, and became a big fan of Midnight Oil when I first heard "Beds Are Burning" on the Top 40 radio station. So when "The Dead Heart" was released as a followup, I was pretty much predisposed to like that as well. After hearing that song, I picked up the cassette for Diesel and Dust and even "discovered" the band's earlier LPs Red Sails in the Sunset and 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 (which I simply called "Countdown").

At that age, I knew the group was into politics but I really didn't care about that. The beat was solid and the group's material (on Diesel and Dust) was skewed toward the pop side. As a 16 year old American, I wasn't really bothered by the plight of the Australian aboriginals but I liked the noise. I'm guessing the group and frontman Peter Garrett knew that too, since the message was tempered somewhat on the album: still present, but shifted more into the background than it was on previous records.

"The Dead Heart" was certainly a political song. The title was a reference to the sparsely populated center of Australia, and it directly addressed the treatment that Aborigines received after the English arrived and founded the nation. It was right there, and evident to anybody who wanted to hear it. That's a bold topic for a single, and probably why it stopped at #53 on the Hot 100. But enough teens and college-age kids dug it sufficiently to take it to #11 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. To this day, I'm unsure whether that proved their point or not.

Randy Newman - "It's Money That Matters"

(Debuted November 5, 1988, Peaked #60, 11 Weeks on the Chart)

Randy Newman has often written his songs with a tongue planted firmly in his cheek, so it's often hard to tell whether he's being sincere...or just being a smart-ass. He wrote Three Dog Night's 1970 #1 hit "Mama Told Me (Not To Come)," which was about an out-of-towner experiencing a Los Angeles party. His 1972 song "Sail Away" was a sales pitch to prospective slaves in Africa. And his biggest hit, 1978's "Short People," lampooned the idea that there was discrimination by taking the side of the person doing the discriminating to a ridiculous extreme. So...20 years into his career, it's easy to be jaded when listening to what he was writing.

That said, it's hard to listen to "It's Money That Matters" and not remember the way it was at the end of the Reagan Era. It was a high-powered time, a year after a stock market crash, an era where films like Wall Street and The Secret of My Success lauded the "win at all costs" business atmosphere of the Go-Go 1980s. At the same time, there was definitely a different feel for the working class.

In the song, the lyrics mention that there are people who are incredibly smart and barely eke by, and there are also successful men who do well despite the fact that they might not conform to the ideal. The big difference? The fat guy in the jumpsuit with a trophy wife had money. All the while, Mark Knofler lends his distinctive guitar riff in the background.

Crowded House - "Better Be Home Soon"

(Debuted July 9, 1988, Peaked #42, 11 Weeks on the Chart)

When Crowded House recorded the followup LP to their successful self-titled debut, chief songwriter Neil Finn dug a little deeper into his emotions and his moodiness. Unfortunately, he kept that feeling in the songs rather than glossing them over with the catchy hooks he used on that first album, as well as his earlier material with the band Split Enz. As a result, the material fared moderately well in the U.S. and U.K. even as it hit big in their native Australia and New Zealand.

The first single taken from Temple of Low Men was the record's finale, "Better Be Home Soon." Since moody reflection rarely results in commercial success at a time when pop and dance songs are the vogue, it fell short of the Top 40 and would be the only Hot 100 listing from the album. That said, it's definitely worth a listen if you're not familiar with it.

Terence Trent D'Arby - "Sign Your Name"

(Debuted May 28, 1988, Peaked #4, 21 Weeks on the Chart)

One of 1988's best new artists was Terence Trent D'Arby. Born in New York but raised in Orlando, he was sent to West Germany while serving in the U.S.Army. While there, he began his musical career, staying after his discharge. By 1986, he moved to London, where he signed a record deal.

He wrote most of the material and played several instruments on his solo debut, Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby, and saw two songs reach the Top 10 in the U.S. The second of those hits was "Sign Your Name," a slow, deliberate burner. However, D'Arby's claims that the album was as important as Sgt. Pepper rubbed critics the wrong way, and his later LPs -- while definitely pushing limits -- were largely ignored.

D'arby changed his name to Sananda Maitreya in 1995 and has been releasing music under that name ever since. He currently lives in Milan, Italy.

Vixen -- "Edge of a Broken Heart"

(Debuted September 17, 1988, Peaked #26, 20 Weeks on the Chart)

What did the 1984 T&A classic Hardbodies have to do with the group Vixen? An early lineup of the band appeared in that film as Diaper Rash, the all-female band that played at the house party. At the time, they were moving from St. Paul, Minnesota, a different scene altogether, to the L.A.-based circuit that was breeding harder-edged rock acts.

By 1988, however, EMI downplayed any connection to the film and targeted the band as a more rocking version of The Bangles. It was a good move on paper, coming the same year that Guns 'n' Roses broke out. Poison, Cinderella and Bon Jovi were poised to issue their new albums and the L.A. hard rock scene was producing dozens of new acts at the time. To give Vixen an air of authenticity, Richard Marx was called in to help with their first single for the label.

That song was "Edge of a Broken Heart." Marx co-wrote it with Fee Waybill of The Tubes, played keyboards on it and even produced the song and made a cameo in the video. It definitely gave them a kick-start, making the Top 40 and establishing them as an all-female alternative in the male-dominated "Hair metal" genre.

Billy Idol -- "Hot in the City"

(Debuted December 12, 1987, Peaked #48, 10 Weeks on the Chart)

If the peak position listed above surprises you, or if you distinctly remember Casey Kasem debuting "Hot in the City" on his American Top 40 radio countdown, you're not having what our parents call a "senior moment." Actually, the song was originally a #23 hit in 1983 when it was taken from Billy Idol's self-titled debut solo LP. In 1987, it was included -- as a different mix -- as part of his compilation album Vital Idol. That second time, it fell short of the Top 40 after MTV refused to air the video (shown below) due to some religious imagery involving actress Perri Lister nailed to a cross.

The re-release was a remixed version of Idol's first Top 40 hit, extending the track to a five-minute "dance mix" but without speeding its tempo. The single version reduced the song back down to its original three-and-a-half minute length.

Stevie B - "Spring Love (Come Back to Me)"

(Debuted July 9, 1988, Peaked #43, 18 Weeks on the Chart)

Stevie B was the stage name of Steven Bernard Hill, a freestyle dance artist from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. He crossed over from the dance chart to pop in 1988, and his second hit just missed the Top 40. While the big hits were ahead for Stevie B (he had eight Top 40 hits between 1989 and '95 including the #1 "Because I Love You"), "Spring Love" was a large breakthrough for him.

A song where the singer is remembering a past love that slipped away, it's ironic to think that there are people sitting back and reminiscing about the "good old days" when songs like this drift into the air. 

When in Rome - "The Promise"

(Debuted September 3, 1988, Peaked #11, 24 Weeks on the Chart)

When in Rome was a three-man synth-pop group from Manchester, England. Since 1988 was a very good time to be a syth-pop act, their sound was welcome on hit radio. Their debut single was "The Promise," a song that just missed the pop Top 10 but got more exposure than its peak position showed. Although the synthesizer was pretty much de riguer, it came off as both familiar and multi-layered. For instance, it was a #1 dance hit even while it had a slower beat than what most people want to hear when they hit the clubs.

However, the band failed to get another single to sustain the momentum; the follow-up single "Heaven Knows" only reached #95. The band eventually had the dreaded internal strife and broke up in 1990 without recording a second LP. Years later, two reformed line-ups of When In Rome appeared that were fronted by former members of the original trio. In the U.S., the group featured Michael Floreale (who held the trademark). When his former bandmates Clive Farrington and Andrew Mann formed their own version of the reformed group in the U.K., the lawyers got involved. 

"The Promise" was also used at the end of the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite, bringing it to another generation of listeners.

Was (Not Was) - "Spy in the House of Love"

(Debuted October 1, 1988, Peaked #16, 16 Weeks on the Chart)

Was (Not Was) was a group formed and led by two friends from Detroit. David Was (or Weiss, as he was born) was the keyboard player, and Don Was (whose real last name was Fagenson) played the bass guitar, and both would take up a place behind the glass as producers. The rest of the "group" was largely studio musicians, with Sweet Pea Atkinson and Sir Harry Bowens as the primary singers by 1987-'88. "Guest stars" were known to pop up on their records, such as Elvis Costello and Frank Sinatra, Jr, who appeared on a song featured on their LP What Up, Dog?

That album was released in 1988 but included material that had been recorded as early as 1984. With four years' worth of studio time putting together a record and having solid studio musician support, it is hard to imagine much of it being bad. In the end, the album was the group's breakthrough and helped usher both of the Was "brothers" into positions as producers.

The group's first hit on the pop chart was "Spy in the House of Love," which had originally appeared as a single in 1987 but took a year and a half to chart. The song featured slickly-produced but hook-laden R&B/jazz-influenced elements and came up with a nice pop confection that shows its age today but sounded pretty bright when it came out.

The Church - "Under the Milky Way"

(Debuted April 9, 1988, Peaked #24, 15 Weeks on the Chart)

Released during the hail of dance-mix hits, non-offensive AOR-friendly singles and synth-pop tunes that were common during 1988, "Under the Milky Way" might have come across as a refreshing change of pace. The Church had been a major act in Australia and was helped by a rising interest in rock bands from Down Under around that time (Midnight Oil, INXS, Icehouse). Signed to Arista, they went to Los Angeles to record their LP Starfish.

By all accounts, the band hated their experience in California. They were ill-suited to deal with the L.A. studio heads and producer Waddy Wachtel. They felt homesick, and the sights and sounds of the unfamiliar country really grated on them. Ironically, the result was the band's best-known LP in the U.S. and their only Top 40 hit. While much of the album's material was either a response or reaction to their "fish out of water" experience making the record, "Under the Milky Way" wasn't one of them. Inspired by a place in Amsterdam, Holland, the song was written by group leader Steve Kilbey and his then-girlfriend Karin Jansson.

Many of the group's songs are known for their obtuse lyrics; in the case of "Under the Milky Way," the message was clearer. It made for a decent shot at a hit, even if it really wasn't an example of what the group's other material sounded like. The "hook" in the tune was caused by using a device called an EBow on a guitar, which made the notes resemble the sound of bagpipes.

Depeche Mode - "Strangelove 88"

(Debuted September 1, 1988, Peaked #50, 9 Weeks on the Chart)

There were actually two versions of "Strangelove" that charted on Billboard's pop chart. The first was the 1987 recording that appeared on the band's LP Music For the Masses. It reached #76 and was a #1 single on the dance chart. Considered a little too sonically "bright" when compared to the rest of the music on that album, it was remixed and made a little slower and darker. The "new" version returned to the chart and reached #50, making it the highest-peaking of the three singles the group had from the album.

While having three songs fail to hit the pop Top 40 may seem like a disappointment, Depeche Mode was slowly building a small but rapid fan base in the U.S. as well as their home in the U.K. By the time the next decade rolled around, they found the success that had largely escaped them in the 1980s.



Depeche Mode - Strange Love 88 (88 Version) by Dmode59

Cher - "Skin Deep"

(Debuted July 30, 1988, Peaked #79, 4 Weeks on the chart)

Cher was already an icon long before the 1980s, but spent much of the decade focusing on other pursuits beyond singing. Her main priority revolved around acting in films, and she was about to get her Oscar when she returned to the recording studio and released Cher, her first album in more than five years. Using a revolving door of producers including Michael Bolton, Desmond Child, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, the record represented her comeback and showed that -- given the right material -- she was as capable as ever of doing what earned her fame in the first place.

The album's first two singles ("I Found Someone" and "We All Sleep Alone") were Top 40 hits, but the third -- "Skin Deep" -- missed the Top 40 entirely. That may have been a surprise, given how popular dance-related music was in 1988. It was quickly forgotten in the wake of her future hits like "If I Could Turn Back Time," "Just Like Jesse James" and her Peter Cetera duet "After All."

Taylor Dayne - "Tell it to My Heart"

(Debuted October 10, 1987, Peaked #7, 24 Weeks on the chart)

"Tell it To My Heart" pretty much exemplifies the brand of dance-pop that ruled the pop charts during the late 1980s. Although her big voice is front and center in the performance, there is also a wall of synthesizer sound, drum machines and sequenced rhythms.

"Tell it To My Heart" was the first single and lead track of Dayne's major label debut LP, also called Tell it To My Heart. Straddling the line between pop and R&B, it was quite a first impression. It was also the first of the four Top 10 pop singles Dayne racked up on the album.

Heart - "There's the Girl"

(Debuted November 7, 1987, Peaked #12,18 Weeks on the chart)

When the group Heart gets brought up, most of the focus is given to the Wilson sisters: Ann on vocals and Nancy on the guitar. However, that totally discounts the fact that Nancy is also a very good singer in her own right. She handled the vocals on Heart's first #1 single "These Dreams" and does them again on "There's the Girl."

Nancy Wilson also co-wrote "There's the Girl" with Holly Knight, who had previously penned the songs "Love is a Battlefield," "Better Be Good to Me" and others. It was the only single released from the Bad Animals LP that one of the Wilson sisters had written, which was unusual for them.

While infused with the sythesizer lines that seemed to be de riguer by 1987 and the hard-edged guitar that found its way into a lot of that era's music, "There's the Girl" is a song that seems to have aged really well regardless.

Squeeze - "853-5937"

(Debuted December 19, 1987, Peaked #32, 11 Weeks on the Chart)

The telephone has been a popular device for song lyrics throughout the years. Whether the telephone line itself, the operator, telephone servicemen, numbers and even answering machines have been included in popular songs throughout the years. It's even been used in songs to heighten a sense of anticipation, as well as fear and paranoia.

In the case of "853-5937," the song began as a message for an answering machine, which can be heard in the refrain. That refrain also includes the English colloquialism "she'll give you a ring when she gets home," a term few Americans are ever heard saying. A lady named Angela, it seems, isn't able to answer the phone after several tries (this was before Caller ID was widespresad), but her failure to pick up is only making the narrator worried that she is no longer interested in him.

"853-5937" was the secong single from Squeeze's LP Babylon and On, a pun that could also be applied to a telephone conversation. Following the group's biggest American hit "Hourglass," it reached into the Top 40 briefly. They never made the U.S. pop chart again.

The Georgia Satellites - "The Hippy Hippy Shake"

(Debuted October 22, 1988, Peaked #45, 13 Weeks on the chart)

"Hippy Hippy Shake" was a tune that was originally recorded in 1959 by Chan Romero and had been a hit in 1964 by The Swinging Blue Jeans. In 1988, it was re-recorded by The Georgia Satellites and included in the soundtrack for the Tom Cruise film Cocktail. How that soundtrack saw both "Kokomo" and "Don't Worry, Be Happy" go to #1 while this song and The Fabulous Thunderbirds' "Powerful Stuff" both stiffed is an unfortunate commentary on the music business as it was in 1988.

While the 1988 hit single was performed by Dan Baird, the original lead singer of The Georgia Satellites, the video below is from a performance of the band after they reformed in 1993. Rick Richards handles the vocals here, but it matches up with the original hit quite nicely. As a straightforward rock tune that features the basic instruments, there really isn't a bad way to do the song.