Today's AT40...

[acroyear]

...is nearing the end of my High School era, with Feb 27th, 1988.  I've done the one 2 weeks later, so there will be some overlap with that...I've also heard this one before, but in the car so I couldn't live-blog it.

Last Week...

• 3 Could've Been - Tiffany
  
• 2 What Have I Done To Deserve This - Pet Shop Boys (which stays at #2 while a number of #1s move around it)
  
• 1 Seasons Change - Expose
  

And this week begins with a bunch of debuts (7 of the first 8)

• 40 the awful Wishing Well by the awful Terrence Trent Darby
  
• 39 Aerosmith's Angel debuts, their first big power ballad since Dream On
  
• 38 INXS's hit parade continues with Devil Inside.  Earlier I wrote that I aughta pick up a best-of from them.  well, I did, thanks to circuit city's demise.
  
• 37 Bruce Springsteen once forgot the lyrics to Born to Run (I've heard this story before) and his fans saved the day by singing it anyways (that's happened to H in Marillion as well).  Here, he's in with Tunnel of Love.  It's ok, but never quite gripped me.  It's the only one of the first 8 that isn't a debut.
  
• 36 Jody Watley's some kinda lover...bleh.  one (of many) reasons i stopped paying attention to pop.
  
• 35 Mellencamp's Check It Out debuts.  He's definitely in the running for having the "best" career in the 80s, along with Bryan Adams and Sting.  Even Hall & Oats had some downtime.
  
• 34 George Harrison's When We Was Fab, which I've written before and really, really love.
  
• 33 Pebbles.  Girlfriend.  bleh.
  
• 32 Natalie Cole Lives for Your Love...but ain't gettin' mine. more bleh.
  
• 31The origin story of Swing Out Sister (the future lead singer woke up to find two strangers crashed in her living room, thanks to her roommate), as their second American hit plays, Twilight World.  I actually liked this one more than Breakout, but it didn't do as well.  More interesting chords in this. They're actually still actively touring and recording, though only as a duo as one of those two left after that first big hit album.

• 30 Fleetwood Mac with one of my all-time favs, Everywhere.  Usually Lindsey's production best serves Stevie's work, but on this album, Lindsey made several good Christie McVie songs into masterpieces, including this, Little Lies, and Isn't It Midnite.
  
  I picked up this album in Charleston, SC, along with Lethal Weapon soundtrack, on the Fiestaval band trip, just after having been stung in the foot by a bee.  To hell with any ideas of allergies (I knew I didn't have any), I just kept on going, hopping through the record store on one foot with my shoe and sock in my hand.
  
  
• 29 Billy Ocean's future #1 (and I still don't get it), get out of my dreams get into my car.
  
• 28 The Jets, with Rocket to You, once played for an empty New Orleans stadium (the one damaged in the hurricane), 'cause there were conflicts and the doors weren't allowed to open and the schedule couldn't switch to move the other bands to make room for them to play.
  
• 27 The Cover Girls, Because of You.  Typical pop-dance of the time, and not worth hearing again.  One of those producer-manufactured group where the line-up changes constantly and no original members are still with it.
  
• 26 The Bangles' cover of Hazy Shade of Winter, which isn't too shabby.  Falling from its #2 peak.
  
• 25 Michael Bolton, which is translated to "he who sucks", with his cover of Dock of the Bay.
  
• 24 Def Leppard's title track to one of the biggest albums ever, Hysteria.
  
• 23 Salt n Pepa.  Push It.  bleh.
  
• 22 A GREAT Sting song, Be Still My Beating Heart.  Much better than We'll Be Together.
  
• 21 INXS's again in the countdown with Need You Tonite.  No, the compilation I got doesn't have the Meditate piece added to it, and neither does this one played he

• 20  Keith Sweat. I Want Her.  bleh.  Has all of the chords and sounds that would later dominate 1989's hip hop scene like Bobby Brown's My Prerogative are all here.  Makes me wonder if they had the same producer.  (Answer: yes.  Teddy Riley, who also produced Michael Jackson's last big album, Dangerous).
• 19 Gladys Knight was still around with her Pips as I noticed before, with Love Overboard.  bleh.  Oddly, it got cut off short.  Go fig.
  
• 18 Debbie Gibson with her album's title song, Out of the Blue
  
• 17 Michael Jackson with Man in the Mirror.  Someone needs to tell him he needs to keep breathing as he reaches the ends of his songs.
  
• 16 "Roger".  I Want to Be Your Man.  bleh.
  
• 15 Richard Marx's Endless Summer Nights.  If I was 5 years younger, I probably would have liked Marx more.
  
  14 Kenny Loggins's Heart to Heart got stuck in here, maybe by accident, 'cause it wasn't a hit in 1988 that I can recall...I think it was supposed to be Meet Me Half Way or Nobody's Fool.
  
  
• 13 MARRS, Pump up the Volume.  bleh.
  
• 12 Steve Vai contributes some beautiful guitar work to David Lee Roth's Living in Paradise
  
• 11 Tiffany's Could've Been drops, big time...the allure of the shopping mall is starting to fade...
  

Into the top ten we go...

• 10 Miami Sound Machine's Can't Stay Away, though technically, things were really being credited "Gloria Estefan and ..." by this time (and XM just credits it to her and not the band at all)
  
• 9 Paul Carrack's decent Don't Shed a Tear
  
• 8 Belinda Carlisle with I Get Weak.
  
  I note this week that it has *3* female singers who later would do photo spreads for Playboy.
  
  
• 7 Foreigner, Say You Will, Say You Won't (play a guitar tonite...).  No, I'll never stop picking on them.
  
• 6 Seasons Change also drops out of the top spot quite a bit.
  
• 5 Eric Carmen's Dirty Dancing hit, Hungry Eyes.
  
• 4 Rick Astley rick-rolls us with Never Gonna Give You Up.  Guess in '88, you gotta expect it.  In the UK it had been a hit for a year already.
  
• 3 Patrick Swayze also Dirty Dances with She's Like the Wind
  
• 2 What Have I Done To Deserve This stays at number 2 as others move around it.  The "Open Arms" and "Waiting for a Girl Like You" of the late 80s...I really didn't like this at the time, but 20 years later it's become one of my fav Pet Shop Boys songs.
  
  And the new #1...
  
  I HAVE NO IDEA 'CAUSE XM JUST CUT IT OFF EARLY AUGH!
  
  fortunately wikipedia usually has the number ones, so here it is:
  
  
• 1 Father Figure from George Michael

So nothing I really wanted to hear, but still XM's about to get a semi-nasty email from me...and I also have concluded that if I never hear "You Shook Me All Night Long" ever again, I could still die happy.