Billboard Number One Modern Rock Hits 1988/1989

(Not that I didn't listen to any of those bands in college too, just that I had started listening to them in high school or junior high in some cases.)

I think easily the most interesting thing about the list is how many British artists are on it.

Voted Siouxsie's last worthwhile single

I remember thinking that "Mayor of Simpleton" ripped off the Moody Blues' "Your Wildest Dreams" (and was far more annoying).

Most of these acts ARE past their prime, but they're raging against the dying of the light.

"All That Money Wants" is one of my favorite new songs recorded for a comp.

"Disappointed" is the best INXS song never recorded.

I voted for "So Alive"; I don't really like anything else by Love & Rockets & I kinda hate the lead vocals too---but despite loving a bunch of the songs on this list, the groove of "So Alive" is a beast, & those backup vocals ooze sex in the way that things from when you're 14 years old seem to ooze sex twenty+ years later.

Went with Fascination Street, but this was such an important year for me musically, being that I was in sixth grade and had just been introduced to the local modern rock station, that I could have gone for about 10 of these.

Orange Crush, just ahead of Blues From a Gun. An important period for me too.

I think easily the most interesting thing about the list is how many British artists are on it.

Yeah it was that point where the most interesting or soon-to-be-important American scenes (D.C., Seattle/Portland) were either still under the big-label radar or just starting to gather steam. Fugazi had just formed, Sub Pop was just a few years old, etc. I had one hipster friend who was into all the Seattle stuff and kept going on about it, but I was way more into 120 Minutes.

Voting "Peek A Boo," though I heard "Channel Z" in the grocery store last week, and liked it more than I would have guessed.

"Blues From A Gun" over "Fascination Street."

All That Money Wants 4EVA!!!!!!

how had I never heard "All That Money Wants" before????

I'm voting one of these:

Siouxsie and the Banshees - "Peek-A-Boo" (2 weeks)
REM - "Orange Crush" (8 weeks)
The Cure - "Fascination Street" (7 weeks)
The B-52s - "Channel Z" (3 weeks)

All 4 of the songs are completely undeniable IMO.

"Channel Z" sounds great.

I remember thinking "Love Shack" was a great song, but when Cosmic Thing came out and I actually heard "Channel Z" I basically lost my mind. It's such a fucking monster of a song; I still like "Love Shack" but really "Channel Z" should have gotten the ubiquitous hold on America (I get why it didn't but I can dream).

Oh, and "Bushfire" and "Junebug" also own; I don't get how ppl can dislike that album.

and "Dry Country." and "Roam." And "Deadbeat Club."

<3 that album and all of those but espcially Roam and Deadbeat Club.

"Deadbeat Club" is the only accepted favorite that I've never really gotten; I tend to substitute "Topaz" for that one.

also, "FOLLOW YOUR BLISS"

I clicked on the radio button for Peek-a-boo then scrolled down the list to make sure I was right :)
For a lot of old Banshees fans 'Looking Glass' and 'Peepshow' were confirmation that the band had left them behind but I was delighted they were always so willing to change and occasionally experiment.

Voted Siouxsie's last worthwhile single

Objection! "The Last Beat of My Heart" takes that honour, even if I was the only person to buy it.

I know it's kind of terrible but I still love "Kiss Them For Me"

I know what you mean :)

those two are pleasant, even loveable, but not "worthwhile" imo

one of my favorite ILM threads of the last year. Every poster brought their A-game:

POLL if you want to...POLL around the world: The B-52's Cosmic Thing

I don't like "Sowing the Seeds of Love" much b/c the video was very stupid iirc & it's a very circular song which ≠ repetitive exactly but still tends to bore me. But the one on here that's the silliest is "Desire": The Joshua Tree was my first ~~~~~adult~~~~~~ album (I take it you know what I mean, I was 13, give me a break) and "Desire" seemed like such a step down at the time, like it wanted to be seedy but even nerdy new-teen me could tell it was borrowed dirt, & plus lyrically it's just a buncha cliches (musically too); also wtf at "red guitar...on fire", absolutely ghastly rhyme there for leading into the chorus. Bonus note: the "Hollywood remix" remains a mess: the beat is less corny (for 1988) but the sorta-Bomb-Squad-y sound gets ruined by the gospel-y vocals, so it doesn't cohere into anything save a bunch of noise (which admitted is better than the original song).

would rep for lots of The Joshua Tree but obv "Desire" is a fucking warcrime

I still love side 1 of The Joshua Tree (side 2 is the one that I thought was deep at the time & now I think it's mostly silly)

lol "Desire" is the only song on Rattle and Hum that I don't actively hate

maybe also the gospel "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"

thank God for Achtung, Baby! basically

naw, side 2 has lots of greatness, but specially the 1-2 punch of Exit and Mothers of the Disappeared at the very end. xp

I love "Sowing the Seeds of Love" to death, especially the big psychedelic freak-out bridge that leads into the second "Time/To eat all your words" bridge

"Pictures of Matchstick Men" is a jam btw, & I think it's having broken big, more than other songs here, foreshadowed the one-hit-wonder funfest that was "alt" radio after the year punk broke a couple years later (& I mean that approvingly; those were good disposable days on the radio)(not that I'm calling CVB disposable, & at the time it was bizarre to see them break because for once ~I was there~)

of the songs on this list I remember, I don't think there's a single one I dislike

is "Pictures of Matchstick Men" a cover of the Quo song?

Yes.

I never knew it was a cover until about five years later when I was in an electronics store and someone was playing a live clip of Status Quo doing the song a million years ago on one of the tvs.

Nobody's gonna come right out and say they're voting for "Stand?" Fine, I'll do it. You know you all secretly love it.

I not so secretly love it, but this is a GREAT list and Stand isn't the best thing on it imo.

Can be Debbie Downer for a second and say that, aside from "So Alive" and "**** (Jungle Law)", the s/t Love and Rockets album is kind of terrible?

Motorcycle is pretty rad.

basically "No Big Deal" and "Motorcycle" are my platonic ideal of everything Love and Rockets should never, ever, EVER do, whereas Earth, Sun, Moon is them at their best

love and rockets never did much for me! I like "So Alive" and parts of Earth Sun Moon but overall they don't interest me as much as bauhaus or especially the godlike TONES ON TAIL

Bauhaus, L&R, Tones on Tail and Murphy solo all have some really great moments and some extremely dire moments. It's a very hot & cold group of musicians.

tru

except I think everything Tones on Tail ever did is amazing (but their discography is the most limited of those 4)

Probably slightly derailing the thread a little, but I've only heard Ash's solo albums. Are David J's any good?

you are asking me to rate my senior year of high school and I just can't do it. i will agree that "so alive" is crushed by "no new tale to tell" and add that "charlotte anne" is crushed by "my nation underground" so neither of these gets the nod.

the david j solo stuff I've heard is terrible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZlOErCDwc4

"So Alive" can hold its own with the rest of the L&R back catalogue IMO, it's just that the other songs on that album (except for "**** (Jungle Law)", which I think is one of their best songs) really, really cannot.

lol crut I was about to say "I'll Be Your Chauffeur" isn't bad

I have hazy memories of having seen that video, but didn't remember the song. Sounds like Go-Betweens.

Can be Debbie Downer for a second and say that, aside from "So Alive" and "**** (Jungle Law)", the s/t Love and Rockets album is kind of terrible?

so rong! Side A has three great noisy guitar tracks & then the Motorcycle coda track segues into at least three or four nice moody psych tracks in the second half (SA included). Then again, this is one of those records that I could never, ever view objectively b/c of the effect it had on me at my most impressionable (musically speaking, age 12-13 or so).

See, L&R never really did it for me, and even though I love the two B-52s tracks, no band occupied as much of my mind at the time as REM did, so of those two songs, I have to go with "Stand."