US #1s of 1989

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

Why do I always think of Roxette, "The Look" being a year or two later?

Totally satisfying results.

Yeah, I can live with this.

yo!

It's excruciating how pop radio wouldn't have allowed "Bust a Move" to top the chart (even though it's by "Wild Thing" co-writer Young MC), but it knocks most of these out of the water.

Anyway, I rank the year.

i love reading the old hot 100 chatter columns from around that time, when pop radio was starting to splinter severely and the old chart-tabulation methods were seeming increasingly ill-equipped to deal with that new reality. this one, from the week "bust a move" peaked, devotes a whole paragraph to explaining its bizarre (for the time) chart performance. and here another seems to suggest that "wild thing" failing to go #1 despite having been certified double-platinum (when none of the other singles in the top 30 were even gold) was something of a minor scandal that got press coverage in other outlets.

on the bright side, the us did (barely) manage to be one of the few countries where the jive bunny single was did not go top 10.

1. Shake It Off
2. Blank Space
3. Bad Blood (Remix)...
...er, what? oh, sorry

lol :D

I largely agree with your rankings this time, but I do have a very soft spot for Richard Marx’s “Right Here Waiting”.

Oh my god, that Jive Bunny horror... it was EVERYWHERE at the time in France...

I never really liked "Like A Prayer" although I reckon it's a very good/effective pop song.
The only songs in there I still like are "My Prerogative" and... "Eternal Flame" (and maybe "Batdance" although it's far from my favourite track on that album)!

on the bright side, the us did (barely) manage to be one of the few countries where the jive bunny single was did not go top 10.

― dyl, Monday, March 11, 2019

my abuela loved it #GlennMiller

My critical faculties break down (even more than usual) when it comes to this era, but it's hard to disagree with many of your Hague-bound picks (notable exceptions: Animotion, Surface). Glad to see Donna in good-to-great because where else could that song have possibly shown up.

Thank you for prodding me towards my 255-song '89 pop hit playlist. My workday just became a shade less painful.

the number of Facebook commenters who've liked that dinky Animotion song astounds me.

That's all they need
That's all they ask for
To see you peeved

I'm not like in love with it but it's dece.

that's the one recorded for the movie where Kim Basinger plays an alien with a talking magic purse

Huh, I guess I never picked up on those aspects of her Batman character.