What song held the number one spot for the longest in 1988?
The closing years of the 1980s saw the pop charts wavering on an unsure, quiet before the storm pivot.
It wasn’t quite over yet in 1988, but the hair metal buffoonery that mugged MTV for much of the day’s rotation began to creak, albeit Guns N’ Roses’ harder street rock giving the spandex brigade a slight shock, and Mötley Crüe still managing to eke out the mammoth selling Dr Feelgood the following year. But the party was nearing its end, glossy power ballads and glam cockrock about to be rudely awakened by Washington state’s sleepy logging city in three short years…
Or so the rock narrative tells us. While it’s true that Nirvana’s ode to Mennen’s deodorant brand would unleash an alternative explosion across the Billboard Hot 100, to everyone’s surprise, the indie underground was well and truly bubbling away in reactive simmer against T’Pau’s windswept, turgid twang. Across 1988, Pixies, Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, Butthole Surfers, Jane’s Addiction, and Dinosaur Jr would all drop essential records, paving the way for Lollapalooza’s US chart takeover in the next decade.
Of course, for one corner of 1988’s musical moment, guitars were old hat, and the very tradition of the conventional band set-up was shifted aside for decks and Roland keyboards in the acid house wave. Sporting dayglo outfits and plenty of MDMA, the likes of D-Mob’s ‘We Call It Acieed’ and Humanoid’s ‘Stakker Humanoid’ would score the ‘Second Summer of Love’. Such gurning rave would seep into the Manchester indie scene, Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets, and New Order’s emerging Balearic fancies would all orbit the city’s Haçienda fulcrum across the year.
1988 was fundamentally the year of hip-hop, however. Reigning supreme since its formation over a decade earlier, explosive records from Public Enemy, Eric B & Rakim, Ultramagnetic MCs, and Boogie Down Productions all continued New York’s standing as the world’s rap capital.
Yet, for the first time, Los Angeles began to give the East Coast a serious run for its money, NWA and Ice-T respectively dropping their landmark Straight Outta Compton and Power in the midst of hip-hop’s golden age.
So, which song held out the longest in 1988?
As ever, Rolling Stone’s esteem and commercial stature are worlds apart. Over in the States, former Traffic frontman and British blue-eyed soul stalwart Steve Winwood enjoyed the longest hold at the Hot 100’s top spot, staying put for a full four weeks off the back of his ‘Roll With It’ mega hit.
Across the Atlantic, two pop debuts would launch onto the UK charts and sit at number one for five consecutive weeks. Having lent her vocals to Coldcut’s ‘Doctorin’ the House’, Yasmin Evans would form Yazz and the Plastic Population, and shoot to the top of the charts with her debut single ‘The Only Way Is Up’, a cover of Otis Clay’s disco soul hit from 1980.
While Yazz’s career quietened soon after, Kylie Minogue’s was just about to bloom. Still primarily known as Charlene Robinson from the Australian soap opera Neighbours, a partnership with the Stock-Aitken-Waterman pop factory would yield ‘I Should Be So Lucky’, a smash all over the world and launching the career of one of pop‘s most enduring stars, enjoying canonical numbers well into the 21st century.
