1988…I would turn 25 in March, and my tastes continued to change. But it didn’t spare me from having a very strange year…more on that in a mo. First off, the third week of the year, I finally debuted a regular form that I kept my chart on, labeled the “Double T” (as in WTTL, see 1987 for an explanation on that) Power Trax 35, and I would use that form for another four years. When it came to music, after six months of not being able to stand her first two hits, I finally succumbed to Debbie Gibson’s charm in the first month. I fell so hard that she ended up having the #1 song of the year with her fourth single, “Foolish Beat” (damn that incredible sax anyway…). Rick Astley also exploded onto the scene in January as well, with the song that would launch a billion memes decades later, “Never Gonna Give You Up“. Later in the year, I fell hard for the incredible keyboards of then-Entertainment Tonight co-anchor John Tesh; he would be a frequent resident on my charts through the mid-1990s, as would Michael Bolton, who after flirting with both the TKR and Billboard charts off and on since 1983’s “Fools Game“, had begun his transformation from a rocker into, according to a mid-90s Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch column, “the world’s highest paid karaoke singer”, hitting with several singles; he would really explode a year or two later. Michael Jackson was back with a string of hits from his album “Bad“, which came out in the fall of 1987, and Cher, after focusing for several years prior on her acting career, was having her first (of…lemme see, now, FOUR?) “Renaissance” comebacks with a string of new hits. But then around June, strange things hit. Maybe not at the time, but now. I hadn’t really looked at my chart week by week for awhile, and I was STUNNED to see two songs I pretty much loathe – and always have – hit the top ten on TKR in the last half of the year. Those two songs were “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman, and “Don’t Worry Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin – the latter one made it to #2 on TKR, and I don’t even remember putting it on the chart – I have ALWAYS HATED THAT DAMN SONG!!! Or at least I thought I had…and worse yet, there are two songs that made the top 20 that I had NO IDEA what they were. Now, you have to remember, I am a huge collector, and I usually remember everything I’ve purchased, and listened to over the years; I have snippets of things I heard once at age three roaming around in my head in places. But I have absolutely NO recollection whatsoever of “I Want To Be Your Property” by UK duo Blue Mercedes, or a song called “Don’t Break My Heart” by a female-fronted “hair band” called Romeo’s Daughter. Even watching both videos on YouTube, I still don’t remember ever hearing them. Every other song I have at least a vague recollection. My tastes continued to expand into the smooth jazz and new age areas, and along with TV and movie themes they made a string of instrumentals chart. And a long-defunct band called Sheriff came roaring back to life seven years after they broke up with a reissue of “When I’m With You” late in the year; it would go all the way to the top on Billboard as well, and triggered a wave of older tracks making the chart…more on that when we talk about 1989…heh heh heh…
JANUARY 2 1988
JANUARY 9 1988
JANUARY 16 1988
JANUARY 23 1988
JANUARY 30 1988
FEBRUARY 6 1988
FEBRUARY 13 1988
FEBRUARY 20 1988
FEBRUARY 27 1988
MARCH 5 1988
MARCH 12 1988
MARCH 19 1988
MARCH 26 1988
APRIL 2 1988
APRIL 9 1988
APRIL 16 1988
APRIL 23 1988
APRIL 30 1988
MAY 7 1988
MAY 14 1988
MAY 21 1988
MAY 28 1988
JUNE 4 1988
JUNE 11 1988
JUNE 18 1988
JUNE 25 1988
JULY 2 1988
JULY 9 1988
JULY 16 1988
JULY 23 1988
JULY 30 1988
AUGUST 6 1988
AUGUST 13 1988
AUGUST 20 1988
AUGUST 27 1988
SEPTEMBER 3 1988
SEPTEMBER 10 1988
SEPTEMBER 17 1988
SEPTEMBER 24 1988
OCTOBER 1 1988
OCTOBER 8 1988
OCTOBER 15 1988
OCTOBER 22 1988
OCTOBER 29 1988
NOVEMBER 5 1988
NOVEMBER 12 1988
NOVEMBER 19 1988
NOVEMBER 26 1988
DECEMBER 3 1988
DECEMBER 10 1988
DECEMBER 17 1988
DECEMBER 24 1988
DECEMBER 31 1988
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