scorchy
Footballguy
I wanna meet that kid's mom. But she would probably consider 2021 scorchy a sellout.
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101 Best Songs of 1988:#1 – Guns n’ Roses – Sweet Child o’ Mine (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter scorchy
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scorchy
Footballguy
I really need to proofread. I obviously meant from The Land of Rape and Honey.
Sorry if I've asked you this before, but are you from Tampa? I used to go lots of industrial shows at a couple of bars/club in Ybor City (The Castle, maybe?) in the 90s.
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Gr00vus
Footballguy
Given some of the other things that have made the cut so far, I think you should have done a bit more convincing of yourself on this one.
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Osaurus
Footballguy
I live in the Tampa area. I’ve never seen a show at the Castle, but plenty at the Orpheum down the road. Seeing Nitzer Ebb this Saturday night. Saw Front 242 there not too long ago.
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scorchy
Footballguy
#69 - Tracy Chapman - Talkin' 'Bout A Revolution
"Poor people gonna rise up, take what's theirs."
The song that got Tracy Chapman discovered. The future co-writer of Rounders and producer of Billions (Brian Koppelman) saw his fellow Tufts student playing protest music at a coffee shop, procured her demo tape featuring ...Revolution, and gave it to his media exec father. A few months later, she's recording her self-titled album in LA and getting her first video debuted on 120 Minutes. I guess MTV figured it wouldn't have mass appeal.
Lots of artists from that show maintained a niche following, some got bigger a few years later, but Tracy Chapman - boosted by that first single/video and massive radio airplay - sold one million copies of her album in its first two weeks (and 20 million worldwide since then). I think it's the only album I bought in 1988 that my girlfriend's mom bought too - but it was so damn good that I didn't even care if the olds liked it.
Talkin' 'Bout A Revolution, the second single, disappointed from a sales perspective and didn't manage to crack the top 40. I guess the message was a little much for pop radio, even though it hit home for an idealistic pseudo-socialist like me awash in a sea of meatheads and rednecks.
Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution
"Poor people gonna rise up, take what's theirs."
The song that got Tracy Chapman discovered. The future co-writer of Rounders and producer of Billions (Brian Koppelman) saw his fellow Tufts student playing protest music at a coffee shop, procured her demo tape featuring ...Revolution, and gave it to his media exec father. A few months later, she's recording her self-titled album in LA and getting her first video debuted on 120 Minutes. I guess MTV figured it wouldn't have mass appeal.
Lots of artists from that show maintained a niche following, some got bigger a few years later, but Tracy Chapman - boosted by that first single/video and massive radio airplay - sold one million copies of her album in its first two weeks (and 20 million worldwide since then). I think it's the only album I bought in 1988 that my girlfriend's mom bought too - but it was so damn good that I didn't even care if the olds liked it.
Talkin' 'Bout A Revolution, the second single, disappointed from a sales perspective and didn't manage to crack the top 40. I guess the message was a little much for pop radio, even though it hit home for an idealistic pseudo-socialist like me awash in a sea of meatheads and rednecks.
Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution
Pip's Invitation
Footballguy
Could very possibly be my #1 from 1988. It's one of those songs that you knew was special (and its writer/performer was too) from the first seconds you heard it.
Chapman's debut album was one of the few exceptions to my "I didn't listen to new music in 1988" pattern.
Eephus
Footballguy
Ramsay Hunt Experience
Footballguy
Slightly off topic, but while I love a lot of BIG renditions of Oh, Holy Night, I think I like Tracy's spare, quiet version best. I sometime find myself debating vocal talent with my music theater major sister-in-law. And I just don't care about range. A great voice makes me feel things. And Tracy makes me feel all the things.
scorchy
Footballguy
#68 - EPMD - You Gots to Chill
Built around samples from a couple of funk classics (More Bounce to the Ounce by Zapp and Jungle Boogie by Kool & the Gang), You Gots to Chill still sounds fresh in 2021. I was checking out Billboards historical charts and it's just astounding how much rap was ignored - not just by radio but by MTV too. Strictly Business moved more than a half-a-million units in a month, had three singles crack the UK charts, yet not a single one broke the U.S. Hot 100.
You Gots to Chill
Built around samples from a couple of funk classics (More Bounce to the Ounce by Zapp and Jungle Boogie by Kool & the Gang), You Gots to Chill still sounds fresh in 2021. I was checking out Billboards historical charts and it's just astounding how much rap was ignored - not just by radio but by MTV too. Strictly Business moved more than a half-a-million units in a month, had three singles crack the UK charts, yet not a single one broke the U.S. Hot 100.
You Gots to Chill
massraider
Footballguy
80's and early 90's rap is very similar to punk and New Wave in the 70s.
Ignored at the time for the most part by mainstream music media, then trumpeted later as a Golden Era.
There was some great music in the 70s, but man, it wasn't on the radio.
Pip's Invitation
Footballguy
scorchy
Footballguy
I agree to some extent, but I also think ignoring rap was more willful. I wasn't old enough to know how big the Clash or Television or Suicide were in the late 70s, but wasn't it always more a niche thing (at least in the U.S.)? Did Marquee Moon or Rocket to Russia sell 500K copies in America over a month? I'm really asking - guess I could look it up.
Maybe my view is a little skewed b/c my high school was pretty much 50/50 white/Black, but hip-hop was huge a part of my immediate environment and its artists sold a ton of records, yet it was completely ignored on Top 40 radio and MTV. There's gonna be a bunch of non-rap stuff later in this thread that was ignored too. I just don't think those bands had the same cultural relevance outside of lower east side bars and college dorm rooms.
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massraider
Footballguy
Not even close to the same relevance. Agreed.
This is my angle:
Rolling Stone magazine talks with the same reverence about Talking Heads as they do about GangStarr, but at the time, they pretty much ignored them. There were some writers who wrote about the less mainstream stuff, but they might get a blurb an issue.
Hip Hop was more egregious, because they ignored what was a monster already happening, and they didn't get on board until Aerosmith and Run DMC.
They dramatically underestimated the appeal of Hip Hop to white kids.
That's interesting regarding your teen years, because I was in the middle of whitey town Mass, and my friends were all about rap music. Now I'm feeling like we were hipper then I thought we were.
scorchy
Footballguy
#67 - Soul Asylum - Cartoon
I was listening to some podcast the other day where a guy included Soul Asylum as another early 90s band that found success ripping off Nirvana. No need to listen to anything he had to say after that.
1988's Hang Time was the band's first major label release after three records for Minneapolis' famed Twin/Tone. I wore it out. Had really tough time picking between the first and second singles - I liked Sometime to Return better in 1988 but lean toward the harmonies in Cartoon at the moment. Honestly, it was great to see Soul Asylum hit it relatively big 4 or 5 years later - they earned it.
Cartoon
I was listening to some podcast the other day where a guy included Soul Asylum as another early 90s band that found success ripping off Nirvana. No need to listen to anything he had to say after that.
1988's Hang Time was the band's first major label release after three records for Minneapolis' famed Twin/Tone. I wore it out. Had really tough time picking between the first and second singles - I liked Sometime to Return better in 1988 but lean toward the harmonies in Cartoon at the moment. Honestly, it was great to see Soul Asylum hit it relatively big 4 or 5 years later - they earned it.
Cartoon
zamboni
Footballguy
Very nice - I had never heard anything from these guys pre-Grave Dancers Union. Have to give them a listen.
Pip's Invitation
Footballguy
Ditto. I knew who they were but had never heard their music until GDU became a thing.zamboni said:
In 1993 I saw them on an MTV-sponsored tour with The Spin Doctors and Screaming Trees. That’s a bill that never would have happened before 1992.
Ramsay Hunt Experience
Footballguy
Sometime to Return makes a lot of my mixes and I'm reasonably sure I first heard it on one yours.scorchy said:
A song so good, I'm willing to overlook Dave Pirner messing up my business with Winona Ryder.
zamboni
Footballguy
They also had one of the worst lyrical rhymes of its time in "Without A Trace" (off GDU):
Standing in the sun with a popsicle, everything is possible.
scorchy
Footballguy
I didn't like their later stuff very much either. But they put out a few pretty good records in the 80s, toured relentlessly, and managed to keep their indie cred relatively intact. Maybe they softened up to sell records or maybe they just got older, but I liked them enough that I'm happy they were able to finally earn some money.
Ramsay Hunt Experience
Footballguy
scorchy
Footballguy
I mean I did take a picture of Soul Asylum's "gold star" outside First Ave.
Pip's Invitation
Footballguy
April Fool’s from GDU is a great song. The rest of it, I don’t really have much of a desire to revisit.
plinko
Footballguy
Cartoon is my favorite Soul Asylum track pre Grave Dancers.. and I love GDU, still do
My second favorite full record by them was always The Horse They Rode In On, a nice breezy listen as I recall, bridges the gap between the punkier material and the more adult contemporary sound they started to lean into.. not sure in what universe they ever ripped off Nirvana.. unless we're talking questionable high profile significant other decisions..
So yeah, Horse.. though I confess it's been a minute or ten years or so..
My second favorite full record by them was always The Horse They Rode In On, a nice breezy listen as I recall, bridges the gap between the punkier material and the more adult contemporary sound they started to lean into.. not sure in what universe they ever ripped off Nirvana.. unless we're talking questionable high profile significant other decisions..
So yeah, Horse.. though I confess it's been a minute or ten years or so..
scorchy
Footballguy
#66 – Morrissey – Suedehead
By the time my friend at boarding school mailed me copies of The Queen is Dead and Strangeways Here We Come in late 1987, The Smiths had already broken up. And I didn’t even know that, because how could I? They were completely invisible in my world – I had no idea what Morrissey even looked like - and I was really bummed when Mike visited home over Xmas and broke the news.
So when Kevin Seal teased on 120 Minutes in March of ’88 that the video for Moz’s first solo single would be premiering on the show the next week, I set my parents’ VCR to record it just in case I got hit by a bus and missed it. Being a rube*, I didn’t really get all the James Dean references in Suedehead, and I thought Morrissey seemed kind of odd, but the song gave me hope that the sound of my new favorite band wasn’t dead. I bought Viva Hate the next weekend and loved everything about it. The album debuted at #1 on the UK charts but barely cracked the Top 50 here. Likewise, Viva Hate’s two singles made the top 10 in the U.K. but neither hit the Hot 100 in the U.S. That other single will most likely be showing up later.
One last thing, since we just discussed GnR One in a Million (also from 1988) a page back. If you would have told me back then that in 2021, Morrissey would be a hardcore nativist that supported several far right politicians while Axl Rose’s racism/sexism/homophobia were largely forgotten, I would have questioned your sanity.
Suedehead
* I was so clueless that it took me quite a while to realize that Margaret on the Guillotine was about Margaret Thatcher. My Anglophilia had not yet bloomed.
By the time my friend at boarding school mailed me copies of The Queen is Dead and Strangeways Here We Come in late 1987, The Smiths had already broken up. And I didn’t even know that, because how could I? They were completely invisible in my world – I had no idea what Morrissey even looked like - and I was really bummed when Mike visited home over Xmas and broke the news.
So when Kevin Seal teased on 120 Minutes in March of ’88 that the video for Moz’s first solo single would be premiering on the show the next week, I set my parents’ VCR to record it just in case I got hit by a bus and missed it. Being a rube*, I didn’t really get all the James Dean references in Suedehead, and I thought Morrissey seemed kind of odd, but the song gave me hope that the sound of my new favorite band wasn’t dead. I bought Viva Hate the next weekend and loved everything about it. The album debuted at #1 on the UK charts but barely cracked the Top 50 here. Likewise, Viva Hate’s two singles made the top 10 in the U.K. but neither hit the Hot 100 in the U.S. That other single will most likely be showing up later.
One last thing, since we just discussed GnR One in a Million (also from 1988) a page back. If you would have told me back then that in 2021, Morrissey would be a hardcore nativist that supported several far right politicians while Axl Rose’s racism/sexism/homophobia were largely forgotten, I would have questioned your sanity.
Suedehead
* I was so clueless that it took me quite a while to realize that Margaret on the Guillotine was about Margaret Thatcher. My Anglophilia had not yet bloomed.
massraider
Footballguy
Cool information I'm sure you all care about:
My old barback is Morrissey's touring drummer (formerly of The Bravery).
My old barback is Morrissey's touring drummer (formerly of The Bravery).
massraider
Footballguy
Also, the video of Morrissey on Johnny Carson is a must watch. Carson and Cosby mystified and pissed that the crowd was there to see Morrissey and no one else.
Bogart
Footballguy
The most disappointed I ever was in a show was finally seeing Morrissey in 2015 at Firefly. He didn't want to be there, and after about 20 mins we didn't want him to be there. Showing graphic videos of slaughterhouses and commercial chicken plants, in the middle of conservative meat-loving Dover was the final straw. Was literally booed off stage.
Ironically, a top 5 concert experience followed on that same stage as I finally got to see a Beatle and Sir Paul rocked for three straight hours.
FairWarning
Footballguy
I’ve heard that same complaint many times about morrissey. He’s a very odd person.
always wanted to see a McCartney show. I have some DVDs, looked like a great time.
massraider
Footballguy
massraider
Footballguy
TripItUp
Footballguy
Not trying to be Debbie Downer. I could probably be less blunt with my opinions.
Wasn't soul asylum regarded as a late grunge era poser band?
Chapman and EPMD are all time greats IMHO. Of the songs listed I don't consider them in the same stratosphere, but to each his own. I'm at least happy to see Chapman and EPMD get some recognition I suppose.
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scorchy
Footballguy
Wow. I hadn't thought of the Bravery since 2004 (?). Their first record wasn't bad at all.
scorchy
Footballguy
That sucks. I've seen Morrissey about a half-dozen times over the years, starting in 1991 when he still wasn't playing any Smiths songs up to maybe 2010. There was maybe one good show in the bunch.
In contrast, I go to see this great local Smiths/Morrissey tribute band whenever they get together to play a show (usually a couple of times a year). Faux Moz owns the stage and everyone has a blast. It's like one giant party of misfits that sing along with every word. I always joke that I would much rather go to one of their shows than a Smiths reunion - no doubt the latter would just be misery.
scorchy
Footballguy
If you read the original post, you'd know that Soul Asylum made a bunch of albums well before grunge was a thing. They were generally well thought of in the indie/punk scene, a couple of records were produced by Bob Mould, and they toured a lot with Husker Du. Lots of people only know their post-1991 stuff and thus the assumptions that they're second-rate Nirvana ripoffs.
As for the bluntness, keep opining, but you're probably taking this way more literally/seriously than I am. Not to give away trade secrets or anything, but I didn't do some scientific ranking system where I rated hundreds of songs on five different metrics and then calculated an overall score to the third decimal place. After all, I would probably rate 6 songs on And Justice for All and 8 songs on It Takes a Nation of Millions higher than anything by Erasure or Bobby Brown - but who wants to read that?
TripItUp
Footballguy
DocHolliday
Footballguy
scorchy
Footballguy
#65 - Jesus and Mary Chain - Sidewalking
Another "vanity" pick before I get back to the popular stuff. JaMC are one of my all-time favorite bands and the epitome of cool. They scored a few hits in England but only made the Hot 100 here once (#97 for their duet with Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star). But hey, Sidewalking, featuring a looped drum sample from Roxanne's Revenge and released in conjunction with their B-Sides album Barbed Wire Kisses, was #9 in NME's list of top singles of 1988 and John Peel's song of the year.
Sidewalking
Another "vanity" pick before I get back to the popular stuff. JaMC are one of my all-time favorite bands and the epitome of cool. They scored a few hits in England but only made the Hot 100 here once (#97 for their duet with Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star). But hey, Sidewalking, featuring a looped drum sample from Roxanne's Revenge and released in conjunction with their B-Sides album Barbed Wire Kisses, was #9 in NME's list of top singles of 1988 and John Peel's song of the year.
Sidewalking
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massraider
Footballguy
####### love this band, their guitar tone is awesome, like a chain across the strings.
scorchy
Footballguy
JaMC are criminally underrated by the masses - they're the favorite band of a lot of peoples favorite bands. If you've never gotten a chance to see them live, don't miss out if they come around again.
scorchy
Footballguy
It seems wrong to have gotten this far into the countdown without any R&B…
The roller rink where I worked briefly was just as segregated as the rest of my hometown. Friday nights was when all the white kids went (at least up until they hit high school) and Saturday night was for the Black kids. It’s not like anybody ever made that rule, or that you would get beat up if you went on the wrong night, it was just how it was and AFAIK, no one every really questioned it. Mostly I DJed on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons (which was basically for elementary school kids) and the music was pretty much straight top 40 fare. The few Saturday nights I worked helped provide solid lessons in a funk, electro, and R&B – especially the slow jams. You didn’t want to throw out any Tiffany for a couples skate on a Saturday night when the people wanted to hear Teddy Pendergrast and Freddie Jackson.
All three songs below hit #1 on the Billboard R&B charts in 1988. A number of tracks from Keith Sweat and Al B. Sure’s albums were produced by Teddy Riley, the creator of the New Jack Swing sound that fused R&B with hip hop and become a dominant force on “urban” radio in late 80s and early 90s.
#64 – Pebbles – Mercedes Boy
Mercedes Boy was the second single off of Pebbles’ debut album, making it all the way to #2 on Billboard Hot 100. Her first single, 1987’s Girlfriend also hit the top 10. Fun fact: Pebbles was briefly married to former Atlanta Brave Otis Nixon – one of the ugliest men to ever play a professional sport.
Mercedes Boy
#63 – Keith Sweat – I Want Her
Keith Sweat was really, really huge – I just don’t think many of us realized it. His first album, Make It Last Forever, sold 3 million copies and spawned four top 10 hits on the R&B charts. Only the first single, I Want Her made the Billboard Top 40, peaking at #5. It's perfect New Jack Swing.
The title track from Make It Last Forever was actually the theme song for my senior prom. Every year before that, it seemed to be one classic rock staple or another, but for 1990, a student lobbied for Make it Last Forever to be put on the ballot. IIRC correctly, the basic white kid vote was split between Take It to The Limit and Dream On and Keith Sweat won in a landslide. It was nice to have a non-trite theme for once.
I Want Her
#62 – Al B. Sure – Nite and Day
[DJ voice] Next up is couples skate – any combination of two people holding hands – couples. [/DJ Voice]
Nite and Day was a quiet storm jam. It reached #7 on the Hot 100 and was nominated for a Grammy. Al B Sure released a few more singles over the years that did well on the R&B charts but he never had another pop hit. Great video too - Al was sexy smooth.
Nite and Day
The roller rink where I worked briefly was just as segregated as the rest of my hometown. Friday nights was when all the white kids went (at least up until they hit high school) and Saturday night was for the Black kids. It’s not like anybody ever made that rule, or that you would get beat up if you went on the wrong night, it was just how it was and AFAIK, no one every really questioned it. Mostly I DJed on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons (which was basically for elementary school kids) and the music was pretty much straight top 40 fare. The few Saturday nights I worked helped provide solid lessons in a funk, electro, and R&B – especially the slow jams. You didn’t want to throw out any Tiffany for a couples skate on a Saturday night when the people wanted to hear Teddy Pendergrast and Freddie Jackson.
All three songs below hit #1 on the Billboard R&B charts in 1988. A number of tracks from Keith Sweat and Al B. Sure’s albums were produced by Teddy Riley, the creator of the New Jack Swing sound that fused R&B with hip hop and become a dominant force on “urban” radio in late 80s and early 90s.
#64 – Pebbles – Mercedes Boy
Mercedes Boy was the second single off of Pebbles’ debut album, making it all the way to #2 on Billboard Hot 100. Her first single, 1987’s Girlfriend also hit the top 10. Fun fact: Pebbles was briefly married to former Atlanta Brave Otis Nixon – one of the ugliest men to ever play a professional sport.
Mercedes Boy
#63 – Keith Sweat – I Want Her
Keith Sweat was really, really huge – I just don’t think many of us realized it. His first album, Make It Last Forever, sold 3 million copies and spawned four top 10 hits on the R&B charts. Only the first single, I Want Her made the Billboard Top 40, peaking at #5. It's perfect New Jack Swing.
The title track from Make It Last Forever was actually the theme song for my senior prom. Every year before that, it seemed to be one classic rock staple or another, but for 1990, a student lobbied for Make it Last Forever to be put on the ballot. IIRC correctly, the basic white kid vote was split between Take It to The Limit and Dream On and Keith Sweat won in a landslide. It was nice to have a non-trite theme for once.
I Want Her
#62 – Al B. Sure – Nite and Day
[DJ voice] Next up is couples skate – any combination of two people holding hands – couples. [/DJ Voice]
Nite and Day was a quiet storm jam. It reached #7 on the Hot 100 and was nominated for a Grammy. Al B Sure released a few more singles over the years that did well on the R&B charts but he never had another pop hit. Great video too - Al was sexy smooth.
Nite and Day
Ramsay Hunt Experience
Footballguy
Another band I probably owe this board (or the old Hoof) for really discovering. They were actually a band one of my best friend's in college was into, but I don't think I ever heard them until Beckster* made a Hoof mix with Just Like Honey.
Now they're almost certainly in my top 5 most listened to artists. Almost makes up for Zilla sharing that death metal cover of A View to a Kill.
Ramsay Hunt Experience
Footballguy
When my sister-in-law was living with my wife and I, she once walked in on me singing along to this on the radio, prompting her to declare that I had the musical taste of a 40-year old black woman. It was fair.
scorchy
Footballguy
scorchy
Footballguy
I'm with you. The Wawa I go to before work (pre-pandemic, when I actually went to work) usually had R&B music on. One of the women who worked the sandwich counter was always testing my knowledge of whatever song was on - Lisa Lisa, Jody Watley, Jodeci, and the like. She gave me "honorary" status, which is about as high of a compliment as you can get.
Gr00vus
Footballguy
scorchy
Footballguy
#61 - Cheap Trick - The Flame
The Flame is a really good pop song, I'm just not sure it's a really good Cheap Trick song. Maybe that makes sense because the band didn't write it and reportedly had to be convinced to record it. Regardless, it became Cheap Trick's only #1 hit and a must-play love song at HS dances across the country.
The Flame
The Flame is a really good pop song, I'm just not sure it's a really good Cheap Trick song. Maybe that makes sense because the band didn't write it and reportedly had to be convinced to record it. Regardless, it became Cheap Trick's only #1 hit and a must-play love song at HS dances across the country.
The Flame
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