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Madonna had taken a sabbatical in 1988, after a rather mixed 1987 that
yielded a pair of chart-toppers but also two of her least emphatic entries
from the disastrous Who's That Girl film soundtrack - Causin' A
Commotion and The Look Of Love - the latter of which barely scraped
into the Top 10. The break certainly revived her fortunes; the epic comeback
single Like A Prayer not only marked a considerable artistic achievement
but it debuted at #2 before easing its way past Jason Donovan's Too Many
Broken Hearts to the summit where it now remained for a 3rd and final week.
The PWL hit factory had four of the Top 10 singles in the UK on this week; in
addition to Donovan's former #1 (still tenaciously holding on to the #2 spot)
there were Stock Aitken Waterman productions at #4 (Donna Summer's This
Time I Know It's For Real down a notch from its #3 peak) as well at numbers
9 and 10 with the best-forgotten Pat & Mick's I Haven't Stopped Dancing
Yet and one-hit-wonders The Reynolds Girls' anti-Fleetwood Mac
sentiment I'd Rather Jack.
Eternal Flame: The Best of the Bangles
The most successful acts Stateside during 1989 were Paula Abdul and
Bobby Brown, both scoring a run of major hits from their albums Forever
Your Girl and Don't Be Cruel respectively. In the UK, Abdul was
making her breakthrough with Straight Up, the album's second single
which was now at a high of #3. Brown had already made #6 in February with
Don't Be Cruel's introductory single My Prerogative, but its follow-up -
the title track - was inching up from #14 to #13 and never went any higher.
One of the slowest British #1s eventually overhauled Like A Prayer; The
Bangles' Eternal Flame - up 14 places to #5 - was released on
January 30th but had taken six weeks to crack the Top 40. Once there, however,
it dramatically gained momentum; its progress of #19-5-1 after a protracted
attempt to reach the main chart recalling that of Dead Or Alive's You
Spin Me Round some four years earlier.
Come the year's end, London collective Soul II Soul were established as
a major and, for a while, influential force. In April 1989, their first Top 40
hit Keep On Movin' - sung beautifully by Afrodiziak's Caron Wheeler -
was at #6, down a place from its peak position. Wheeler, also featured on Soul
II Soul next smash hit Back To Life, flew the nest shortly after but
she didn't fare so well on her own, managing just a handful of modest hits
from her UK Blak album between 1990 and 1991. The UK club scene was also
represented by Coldcut, whose People Hold On (up 3 to #12)
introduced a female singer by the name of Lisa Stansfield. A solo #1
and a platinum debut album would be hers in late 1989. Meanwhile, Paul
Simpson's Musical Freedom launched the brief chart career of its
guest vocalist Adeva.
Fuzzbox: Rules and Regulations to Pink Sunshine
When the decade's most explosive phenomenon imploded in early 1987, Frankie
Goes To Hollywood's frontman Holly Johnson took his time before emerging
with a solo project. Frankie's swansong was the #28 hit Watching The Wildlife,
a peak which continued their swift fall from grace, so for Johnson to reach
the top 10 first time out with Love Train was not entirely guaranteed.
It did, however, and second single Americanos (moving #28-#14) emulated
the feat. After a such a promising start, including a #1 album with Blast!,
his solo career fell away even more swiftly than Frankie's did.
Steve Lipson, the producer of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's ill-fated second and
final album Liverpool, was at the helm for the bid at mainstream popstardom
by onetime indie favourites We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Use It.
International Rescue, stuck at #11, was the first of three sprightly
Top 30 hits in 1989 for the band, but their fourth single of the year on WEA -
a cover of Yoko Ono's Walking On Thin Ice - missed the Top 75
altogether.
Essential Yello
Transvision Vamp, despite what the revisionists would have us believe,
were huge in 1989. A chart-topping album Velveteen was on the horizon,
and its introductory hit Baby I Don't Care was biggest climber of the
week by moving #33-#16. Other notable progressions were The Cult's Fire
Woman up 7 to #15, The The (with ex-Smith guitarist Johnny Marr
now on board) breaching the UK Top 20 for the first time with the sly
The Beat(en) Generation at #18, a re-issued Can You Keep A Secret
by Brother Beyond climbing 12 to its peak of #22, the Bono-penned She's
A Mystery To Me taking the recently-deceased Roy Orbison from #38 to
#27 and the underrated Swiss duo Yello enjoying an all-too-rare foray
into the Top 40 with the delicious Of Course I'm Lying, rising 8 to #32.
Newcomers to the chart included Mystify, the fifth single to be lifted
from INXS' 1987 album Kick, at #21 and two places higher a future #2
smash for Simply Red in the shape of their version of Harold Melvin &
The Blue Notes' 70s classic If You Don't Know Me By Now.
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Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
