1988 Songs

The megastars keep the No. 1s coming

By 1988 the decade's biggest stars were still setting the pace. Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" and George Michael's "Father Figure" and "Monkey" all went to No. 1, and Bobby McFerrin took "Don't Worry, Be Happy", built from nothing but his own voice, to the top of the chart too. Start with our best 80s songs guide for the whole decade; this page covers 1988 song by song.

Whitney Houston, Rick Astley, Gloria Estefan and Chicago all added more No. 1s to their own long runs, and Kokomo, the Beach Boys' first American No. 1 since "Good Vibrations", proved a nostalgia act could still top the chart twenty years on.

Billy Ocean's "Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car", The Escape Club's "Wild, Wild West" and Steve Winwood's "Roll With It" all reached No. 1 too, while Robert Palmer's "Simply Irresistible", Breathe's "Hands to Heaven" and Belinda Carlisle's "I Get Weak" rounded out one of the most crowded years pop radio ever had.

Hair metal and hard rock hit their commercial peak

Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child o' Mine" finally went to No. 1 nearly a year after Appetite for Destruction's release, and Poison, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi and Cheap Trick all landed chart-topping singles of their own. Hair metal wasn't an underground scene anymore; it was pop radio.

Cinderella, White Lion, Winger and Europe filled out the rest of the format, while Living Colour's "Cult of Personality" showed a very different, harder-edged rock band could still break through on the same MTV rotation.

Hip-hop's golden age begins

Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton both arrived in 1988, along with landmark albums from Eric B. & Rakim, Boogie Down Productions and Big Daddy Kane. Rap critics still point to this year as the start of hip-hop's most creatively dense stretch.

De La Soul released their debut single, a first hint of the more playful, sample-collage sound they'd fully unveil the following year, and Run-D.M.C., the genre's first crossover stars, kept pace with a rougher, harder record of their own.

R&B moves toward new jack swing

Keith Sweat's "I Want Her" helped define new jack swing, the harder, drum-machine-driven R&B sound Teddy Riley was building that would dominate the genre into the early 90s.

Jody Watley, formerly of Shalamar, had her own "Don't You Want Me" (a different song from the Human League hit of the same name), and Brenda Russell's "Piano in the Dark" crossed over to adult contemporary and R&B radio alike, later earning two Grammy nominations.

House music crosses the Atlantic

Chicago house and Detroit techno, both built through the decade by Black DJs and producers working largely outside the mainstream music industry, found a much bigger audience in Britain in 1988 than at home. New Order's "Fine Time" is the clearest sign of the sound reaching pop radio on either side of the ocean.

In Nashville, Randy Travis, George Strait and Dwight Yoakam kept country radio anchored in traditional, twang-heavy production even as pop and rock kept reaching for bigger, more processed sounds.

The hits you already know, and 24 more

The year's biggest hits, from "Man in the Mirror" and "Sweet Child o' Mine" to "Fast Car" and "Kokomo", open the player above. Each one is written up elsewhere on the site, or discussed above. The 24 songs below are the rest of the story: new wave and goth from both sides of the Atlantic, hip-hop's golden age in motion, and the R&B, country and yacht rock filling out the rest of the dial.

Songs are filed by release year, so George Michael's "Faith", which topped Billboard's year-end chart for 1988, is on our 1987 songs page instead, since it was released that year. Every pick here follows our song selection rules.

The Songs

1. Stay on These Roads — a-ha

   a-ha's third album traded the icy synth-pop of "Take On Me" for a warmer, string-laced sound, and this title track became one of their biggest UK hits, reaching the top five. Morten Harket's voice, still capable of that famous falsetto leap, carries a gentler melody than the band's early singles.

2. Fine Time — New Order

   New Order's first single to fully embrace Chicago house, built around a chopped vocal sample and a booming drum-machine beat, showed the Manchester band listening closely to the American dance records their own "Blue Monday" had helped inspire in the first place. It became a UK top ten hit.

3. Domino Dancing — Pet Shop Boys

   Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe traded their usual synthesizer palette for flamenco guitar and Latin rhythm on this song about jealousy and betrayal, shot with a striking video of shirtless men wrestling on a Caribbean beach. It reached the UK top ten.

4. Desire — U2

   U2 borrowed a Bo Diddley beat and a harmonica riff for this raw, three-minute blast from Rattle and Hum, a deliberate reaction against the epic scale of The Joshua Tree. It became the band's first UK No. 1 single.

5. Lucretia My Reflection — The Sisters of Mercy

   Andrew Eldritch's booming baritone rides a thunderous drum-machine pulse on this Floodland single, one of goth rock's most theatrical moments. Producer Jim Steinman, better known for Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler, helped push the Sisters of Mercy's sound toward stadium-sized drama.

6. Carolyn's Fingers — Cocteau Twins

   Elizabeth Fraser's wordless, soaring vocal and Robin Guthrie's chiming guitar turn this Blue Bell Knoll track into pure texture, a song understood through feeling rather than lyrics. Cocteau Twins spent the late 80s perfecting a sound other bands spent years trying to copy.

7. I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) — The Proclaimers

   Twin brothers Charlie and Craig Reid wrote this thumping, hand-clapping declaration of devotion, and it became a modest UK hit in 1988. It wouldn't become a global smash until 1993, after it played over the opening credits of the film Benny & Joon.

8. Any Love — Luther Vandross

   Luther Vandross's smooth, meticulously arranged voice turns this title track into a masterclass in restraint, building slowly instead of reaching for a big chorus. It topped the R&B chart and confirmed Vandross as the era's defining male soul singer.

9. Just Because — Anita Baker

   From Giving You the Best That I Got, the album that made Anita Baker a superstar, this warm, jazz-inflected ballad shows the vocal control and patient phrasing that set her apart from the era's more dramatic R&B singers.

10. Don't Be Cruel — Bobby Brown

    The title song of Bobby Brown's breakthrough album, produced by Babyface and L.A. Reid, mixes new jack swing's clipped rhythms with a hook simple enough to shout back. It marked Brown's transformation from New Edition's least-featured member into a solo star.

11. Don't Believe the Hype — Public Enemy

    Chuck D answers his critics point by point over Hank Shocklee and the Bomb Squad's dense wall of samples and sirens, a defiant response to accusations that the group's message was overblown. It's one of the key tracks from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.

12. Follow the Leader — Eric B. & Rakim

    Rakim's dense, internally rhymed verses move at a pace few rappers of 1988 could match, laying out a style of lyricism that reshaped what rap writing could do. The title track of the duo's second album is still studied by MCs for its technique.

13. My Philosophy — Boogie Down Productions

    KRS-One, rebuilding Boogie Down Productions after the murder of DJ Scott La Rock, turns this song into a statement of purpose: rap as teaching, not just entertainment. Its plain, confident delivery over a spare beat became a blueprint for the "conscious rap" that followed.

14. Plug Tunin' — De La Soul

    De La Soul's debut single, built from odd, unglamorous samples and a loose, conversational flow, announced a group with little interest in rap's tough-guy conventions. It's the first sign of the sound the trio would fully realize on their 1989 album.

15. Run's House — Run-D.M.C.

    Run-D.M.C. answer younger rappers questioning their crown with a hard, minimal beat and a boastful, funny lyric that shows the group still had the sharpest tongues in the game, even as hip-hop's sound was changing quickly around them.

16. Baby Blue — George Strait

    George Strait's smooth baritone and a simple, aching lyric about lost love made this ballad one of his most enduring hits, a reminder of why he was already being called the King of Country by 1988.

17. Honky Tonk Moon — Randy Travis

    Randy Travis, the young traditionalist who'd turned country radio away from the pop-crossover sound of the early 80s, sings this warm, waltz-time song about small-town Saturday nights. It reached No. 1 on the country chart.

18. Streets of Bakersfield — Dwight Yoakam & Buck Owens

    Dwight Yoakam invited Buck Owens, the Bakersfield sound pioneer he idolised, to duet on this remake of a Homer Joy song, and their pairing became a country No. 1 that introduced a new generation to Owens's twangy, rock-influenced style.

19. Isn't It Midnight — Fleetwood Mac

    From Tango in the Night's long chart run, this Christine McVie-sung track kept the album's singles streak going more than a year after its release, a sign of how much radio still wanted from Fleetwood Mac even as the band's lineup was starting to fracture.

20. Never Die Young — James Taylor

    James Taylor's gentle, string-laced title track carries an unusually dark undertow beneath its pretty melody, a meditation on mortality dressed as a lullaby. It became one of his most-played songs on adult contemporary radio.

21. Pamela — Toto

    Toto named this smooth, keyboard-driven single after keyboardist Steve Porcaro's daughter, and its polished, radio-friendly sound helped The Seventh One return the band to the US top thirty after a run of lower-charting albums.

22. Kissing a Fool — George Michael

    George Michael closes out Faith's singles run with this hushed, jazz-tinged ballad, an old-fashioned torch song that showed off a side of his voice the album's bigger hits hadn't. It became a top five hit on both sides of the Atlantic.

23. Sign Your Name — Terence Trent D'Arby

    Terence Trent D'Arby, who'd promised the world a masterpiece on his debut album, delivered this tender, falsetto-led soul ballad as its second act, and it became his biggest American hit after "Wishing Well", reaching the US top five.

24. Best of Times — Peter Cetera

    Former Chicago frontman Peter Cetera's soaring solo ballad kept his run of adult contemporary hits going after "Glory of Love" made him a solo star the year before.