Greatest Billboard Top 40(-ish) Ballad (1988 edition)

I broke down and voted 'Kissing a Fool'. Anita and Al B. were very, very close to getting the nod. Sad to see that Taylor was locked out. 'I'll Always Love You' is up there with 'Love Will Lead You Back' in her amazing ballads canon.

balls, I think you mean Timmy T. Dope ballad.

I was about to stay

*say even

FUCK how did i confuse timmy t's 'one more try' w/ stevie b's 'because i love you'?????? WHYYYYY???

http://media.giphy.com/media/3GhNj6yQzOCs0/giphy.gif

wondering if there's a timy t's pizza now

it's awesome how Timmy got a freestyle ballad #1 in spring '91 with a drum machine and synth sound that were outdated when Expose scored their first top forty.

was trying to remember which one was 'the postman song'. the answer is stevie b.

the Milton of Miami, the Robert Smith of freestyle, quivering with unrequited feelings and the weight of makeup and Pizza Hut runs.

Freestyle ballads would be a pretty sweet poll unto itself.

ooh!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug53v_7HJqk

Sa-Fire gave me a special feeling in my twelve-year-old heart.

whenever i think of how cool john leland era spin magazine was i think they put sa-fire, nick cave, and binky the rabbit on the cover

Sure, The Church songs is one of the better songs here, but I thought it would have plenty of votes, and I would rather vote for something different.
so it came down to INXS, Aerosmith, Belinda, & George Michael for me. I keep thinking I'll vote for a Belinda song in one of these, but this one is just second-rate 80s Heart (and I would have voted What About Love in a flash), so maybe Heaven Is A Place On Earth shows up one day. Never Tear Us Apart is not as great as I remembered, a great guitar hook, and bedroom Michael Hutchence, but I need more drama in my ballads. If push came to shove, I could have gone Father Figure based on that super noirish verse, but that chorus is horrifying.

On the other hand, Aerosmith lays it all on the line in Angel, spending a ton of money and time on this, and even bringing 80s Michael Clayton-song fixer Desmond Child. The post-rehab version of the band needed a hit, and bad ('C'mon Joe if you just let us use the harmonizer on the intro, we'll let you play the solo clean'). Steven Tyler's country record is a bit of a joke, but it's not too hard to picture this song making a few minor Music Row tweaks and topping that chart too. Hell I can play it on an acoustic right now and it sounds great.

Unrelated: A friend dragged me to see them in 1998, and given that the Afghan Whigs were opening, I went expecting to hear one of my favorite bands and then maybe get to hear Draw The Line. And as you might expect, the Whigs were just a train wreck, Greg's schtick not playing at all in arena, the band pretty much mailing it in on an uneven album anyway. Plus Greg must have been about 225 pounds at this point, he looked like shit. I kind of picture Tyler backstage chuckling. In any rate, Aerosmith comes out and just plays an insane set that blew me away. life's funny that way sometimes.

'I Get Weak' is 'second-rate 80s Heart', gtfo. I got weak when Belinda told me how weak she got when she looked in my eyes! In a way that pre-adolescent me only otherwise experienced regarding the excessive number of walls that had been built between me and Cathy Dennis.

If "Too Many Walls" shows in one of these polls, I don't know what I'll do.

sorry old lunch. Belinda's solo career is further testament to the fact that Jane Wiedlin was the Gene Clark of the 80s.

Tracy Chapman - 'Baby, Can I Hold You'

Where is it, goddammit.

Mods, delete poll so I can start over plz.

I'm so sorry, everyone.

thought this would be a blog link-related bump lol

"father figure" and "one more try" are so terrific ugh. it's not a classic by any means, but i strangely enjoy bardeux's "when we kiss" too. i'm pretty sure that song is almost entirely forgotten now.

Not by me, friend. Not by me.