Billboard Number One Modern Rock Hits 1988/1989

where DID you get those eyes?

actual conversation between 13 year old me and my dad, 1988, "peek-a-boo" playing on the radio.

me - "i think they play this type of music at the 40 watt club (rock club in town)"
dad - "i think they recorded this in the 40 watt bathroom" *changes station*

xpost - them = pfurs

voted "love shack"

HA THAT LITTLE GUY! :D

MTV had promos at the time that would play the fuck out of peekaboo iirc

I wasn't allowed to watch MTV at that time. ;_; but I do remember dancing around to it on the radio in my friend Phoebe's room.

looking at this, several bands i had liked disappointed me with shitty sounds in 88/89- b52s, gurus, replacements, xtc.

peekaboo is great, thanks for that.

this is actually a really hard choice for me. Watching 120 minutes (& its short-lived weekday version 'Postmodern MTV') & listening to my local college FM station at the time - this was pretty much the music I discovered when I started 'discovering music.' Tho if 'Head On' by JAMC were on here it would be no contest. How the hell did BFAG (lol) make it to #1 but not HO?

Head On is probably in my top three fav songs of all time so if that were on here there would be no contest for me either.

i may be wrong but i think we will actually be getting a chance to revisit that julian lennon hit (best post-peckinpah imo) on a future album rock poll.

Through the Looking Glass was my first Siouxsie album, so by the time Peepshow came out the next year I was fully prepared to be knocked over by it. And I was. "Peek A Boo" is probably still one of my favorite three tracks they ever recorded.

I love several of these, but voting this one because it needs at least one vote.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Sg35MkDxts

<3 camper van too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAkcSd5l9Qg

How the hell did BFAG (lol) make it to #1 but not HO?

iirc "Head On" was the third (?) single from Automatic, so it probably came around in 1990.

looks like they wore their nice dress shirts for that video

Camper Van Beethoven was an answer on Jeopardy once. I wish I could remember the question but unfortunately all I remember was it being really strange and the contestants were all stumped.

looking at this, several bands i had liked disappointed me with shitty sounds in 88/89

maybe not shitty but yeah, several 80s favs seem to be losing steam here

oh man Love And Rockets So Alive too, fuck

that video was monumentally sexy as a 9 year old iirc

^^ leaning toward that, myself.

Love and Rockets > Bauhaus
Camper Van > Cracker

otm on both counts

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

I went with "Fascination Street", but only slightly ahead of at least half its competition.

x-post to WGW re: Love and Rockets

RIGHT? I love that song so much.

I think I have to vote Fascination Street though because Disintegration was the first CD I ever bought (along with Wilson Phillips at the same time - waht? I was like 12!) and, at the risk of sounding completely lame, it sort of changed my life.

L&R s/t is easily their best LP imo

"No New Tale To Tell" is as good as they get, though.

otm

re: "NNTTT" that is. I actually think Express is the best L&R lp.

My L&R opo would be "haunted when the minutes drag"

"no new tale to tell" was the "things that make you go hmm" of 87.

I love express too, but it is sometimes hard to look past the canny production

A lot of these bands are well past their artistic prime here but the biggest exception to that has to be So Alive (many xposts), which is really subtle and full of low-key attitude.

Fascination Street gave me brief pause too but I started looking at the length of stays at #1, and was blown away that (a lesser REM song like) Orange Crush beat out Love Shack which seemed in constant rotation for a good year.

sorry but can I just . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFObRusJt24

Lo, I liked that Lou Reed song at the time but now I just see he was on a Johnny Cougar goes to the LES trip.

lotta stuff i love here: "peek-a-boo", "orange crush", "love shack", "so alive", the "pictures of matchstick men" cover, "blues from a gun". gotta be siouxie though.

The first Ian McCulloch solo joint was pretty great too - a suitable counterpart to the E&B s/t LP that came out a year prior.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnK5aqbwkZA

Yeah, I've always viewed those albums as two sides of the same coin.

"charlotte ann" is lovely, but i struggle with the arrangement/production

So what is the worst song here...

Tears for Fears maybe?

no way

They most definitely WERE past their prime by this time.

Pysch Furs track is not among their best

perhaps BAD vs. PiL for battle for the basement?

Of the 75% I recognize, maybe Channel Z.

fuck no, disappointed is an awesome track

xp

I like that PiL track. Surprised the BAD song here isn't "Free" though.

At first glance it seems like a lot to choose from, but on looking at the list more closely, maybe it's not. It is striking to see some of these acts appearing in the charts this late in the 80s (but then it took a while for British post-punk/new wave to make it into the U.S. charts--and they were generally past their prime by the point they made it).

I was out of college and all these bands I had listened to in high school were now a little better known, and meanwhile I was thinking: rap is getting really interesting and "what's acid house?" I voted "Orange Crush." I've never particularly liked REM, but I briefly listened to that album a lot.

(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.)

ok listened to more of this album uh just never mind

lol

I had forgotten this Furs song and it is pretty good.

holy sh!t these are all untouchable

Siouxsie and the Banshees - "Peek-A-Boo" (2 weeks)
Psychedelic Furs - "All That Money Wants" (3 weeks)
The Replacements - "I'll Be You" (1 week)
The Cure - "Fascination Street" (7 weeks)
Love and Rockets - "So Alive" (5 weeks)
Tears For Fears - "Sowing the Seeds of Love" (1 week)
The Jesus and Mary Chain - "Blues From A Gun" (3 weeks)

The only possible way to choose between these is to narrow it down to "songs that are superb and that I'm worried won't get votes," so it's "Stand" or "Come Anytime" for me. But which? The Hoodoo Gurus are way more forgotten and ignored (not even mentioned on this thread, I think!) and they represent very well this weird genre of straight-ahead rock record that was "alternative" only by virtue of being kind of unpopular (see also: The Smithereens) On the other hand, "Stand" is a masterpiece which is wrongly hated by everyone from REM themselves on down. That chugging run of decending open-E bar chords under "If wishes were trees..." -- amazing!

But I'm not going to change anybody's mind about "Stand" so I'll vote for the Gurus.

It might actually be the case that "Love Shack" is the song I most admire here.

Charlotte Anne

my Top 5 would look something like this:

The Cure - "Fascination Street" (7 weeks)
Love and Rockets - "So Alive" (5 weeks)
The Jesus and Mary Chain - "Blues From A Gun" (3 weeks)
Siouxsie and the Banshees - "Peek-A-Boo" (2 weeks)
The B-52s - "Love Shack" (4 weeks)

Screw you guys, I love "Just Play Music" (Don Letts amateur deejaying and all) and "James Brown" (West Side Story sample is genius) and "Around the Girl in 80 Ways" (Prince ska)! But not "The Globe" or "Rush." P.S. I also wore spandex shorts in 1988.

How did a boring CVB cover of "Pictures of Matchstick Men" make it to modern-rock No. 1? We will agree to disagree. "The Mayor of Simpleton" is nice but to me this list epitomizes the dullness of late-'80s "modern rock" MOR college crap except the B-52 singles, which are transcendent, and maybe "Peek-A-Boo." The rest is just the sound of programmers strenuously ignoring hip hop, metal, house, or punk. "Orange Crush" is timeless, I guess, but it's opaque to the point of seeming pro-war... which was just great for the late '80s.

Pro-war? It's a dude who got poisoned in Vietnam! (I think.)

Then, now, forever: Love Shack. As I said on the Cosmic Thing thread, I've adored them since their first van tour to Minneapolis in 1979. The very idea that a tacky little dance band from Georgia could parlay that first DB Records single into cult success on a major label, lose their founding member to AIDS, regroup a decade later and release a GAZILLION-selling worldwide hit still completely boggles my mind. Time (and wedding receptions) have not dimmed its luster for me. Anyone who hates Love Shack, well, I'll make like Fred and just holler "I can't HEAR you!!!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLGsT_dEQ8U

Sund4r, I can't believe it, I was thinking of that exact Beavis & Butthead clip. I was even thinking of looking for it, although I'd forgotten it was for that particular song (but I figured it had to be from close to the same time).

I was once told I sing like Fred Schneider, which saddened me because I thought I was going for a Jello Biafra style.

Now I can't hear one without thinking of the other (PS: I've long stopped singing in public.)

Aw man, don't let that stop you singing! Fred, Jello, Dylan, Mark E. Smith-ah... if it's in you, work with the voice you got.

Haha, thanks Dan. I really stopped singing in public because I'm a homebody now. Trust me, the family gets the full brunt of my vocal stylings on a nightly basis.

But really, try to listen to "Holidays in Cambodia" and picture Just Fred.

Hm, that might actually help me hate the B-52s a little less.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Inspired by this (and other) threads, I busted out Channel Z instead of the obligatory Love Shack at a Christmas party I DJ'd on Saturday. Sounded awesome, and crowd loved it.

FWIW, segued into Voodoo Cadillac Blues by Southern Culture On The Skids and the place erupted. I've never spun it at a DJ gig. Love this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYoLGS6uzao

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Totally agree with this top 2.

wow i didnt foresee a siouxsie victory but can't argue!

Wow, can't believe I'm the only one who voted for "So Alive"! I thought it would be a contender!

Yeah, that's curious considering how much talk there was about it.

6 ppl voted for 'mayor of simpleton' - DISAPPOINTED IN YOU PPL!

Wow, can't believe I'm the only one who voted for "So Alive"! I thought it would be a contender!

i swear this is my true #1 but somehow i clicked on "Fasc. St." instead... slip o the finger

a bit sad that Veronica only got one vote.

The B-52s - "Channel Z" (3 weeks) 0

Shame on all of you

a bit sad that Veronica only got one vote.

Was me. I like singing that one at karaoke.

Wow, can't believe I'm the only one who voted for "So Alive"! I thought it would be a contender!

i swear this is my true #1 but somehow i clicked on "Fasc. St." instead... slip o the finger

― i genuinely thought when i first joined that he was the admin (ilxor), Monday, December 20, 2010 11:05 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

prob would have voted for this if I'd remembered to vote :|

Unexpectedly strong showing for Hoodoo Gurus! Worthy winner, though.

I gave these years a go.

awesome thread