Today I opened up another stenographer book to see what I was listening to during mid-November 1988. [Apologies, this page was very faded, and I had to do some heavy color editing.] Looking at this list of songs, I can tell I was still heavily listening to new wave or what it was known as in the late 80s, Modern Rock. My favorite station WLIR went off the air in December 1987, so this was greatly influenced selection by its pale replacement, WDRE. Twenty songs here won’t make the Top 40, and ten won’t chart on the Hot 100.
George Michael & the Pet Shop Boys have two songs a piece, so I would get beat up in any bar Ricky Bobby was hanging out in. I really (still do) loved PSB. They were the best at making great club songs with catchy pop choruses. Introspective was their third album and was released in the Fall of 88, spawning my #1 hit (#18 Pop), I’m Not Scared (posting at #21), and my favorite, the disco throwback Left To My Own Devices.
I took a look at the Billboard Top 40 from the week of November 12th, 1988. Looks like we only agree on fourteen out of forty. I was surprised I had already kicked Anita Baker’s Giving You the Best That I Got off my charts after peaking at #35. That’s one I appreciate more with age. The same goes for INXS’ Never Tear Us Apart, nationally at #10 but off my pages having only reached #31. On the flip side, I have that New Edition cut in my Top 10 while it debuts on the Hot 100 at #100. And Yazz is my leaving book two weeks before it debuts at #99.
I also noticed I wrote something up at the upper right next to the date. It’s so tiny that I had to blow it up.
This must be my “bubbling under.” I loved Art Of Noise’s cover of Kiss with Tom Jones singing lead; so creative, so cheesy, and fun (nice Steely Dan sample in there too.) I don’t remember that Level 42 track and the Curiosity Killed The Cat tunes are from a one-year-old album that I was still heavily spinning. All six tracks will debut in my 50 next week.
If I had to switch out one track on my chart for a tune in the Top 40 during that week, I would’ve swapped that Rick Astley (which somehow had re-entered my pages) for Ivan Neville’s Not Just Another Girl.
One week after the chart, I would visit Asheville, NC, for the first time and spend Thanksgiving there. My life would never be the same, and I’m very thankful.
Music In The Key Of E 