US Top 25 Singles For The Week Ending December 26, 1987. Pick your favourites.

I'm dimly aware of the first one, but the rest mean nothing.

 

I like all of them, but my two favourite Jody Watley tracks are both off her next album ("Friends" and "Everything"). It's unbelievable how fast she fell off the radar after 1990. She, in theory, was perfect for 1990s R&B. And it wasn't just her... Karyn White and Pebbles, who I also loved, both dropped off the map thereabouts. It's like in 1990/91, the R&B gods pressed the 'delete' and 'reset' buttons for all female R&B artists (except for Janet Jackson).

 

It's very strange how Watley missed the boat here. I wasn't paying as much attention as I was a few years earlier, but I'm reasonably sure she wasn't a 'thing' in the UK.

 

It is funny how Jody Watley was such a flop in the UK (one Top 15 hit, "Looking For A New Love"), when Shalamar were so hot in 1982/83 (four Top 10s). It's like, 1983 (peak Shalamar) to 1987/88 (almost total disinterest in Jody) is less than 5 years!

 

Looking at the UK chart for this week, it was a top two of "Always On My Mind" and "Fairytale Of New York". You also had two "When I Fall In Love"'s in the Top 10: Rick Astley and Nat 'King' Cole. Madonna's "The Look Of Love" (an underrated song for her) was also on the chart, falling to No. 14. I'm too lazy to type it out, but it had a few songs I really like: "Who Found Who" by Jellybean Benitez (Madonna's ex, who was briefly really hot in the UK in 1987/88), "Turn Back The Clock" by Johnny Hates Jazz, "Letter From America" by The Proclaimers, "Criticise" by Alexander O'Neal and quite a few more.

 

And in NZ, No. 1 was "Faith". But the most interesting detail was "Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)" by the Eurythmics, debuting at No. 13. I love the song, but I didn't remember it was such a hit. It's one of their more unusual hits, that's for sure.

 

Yeah, I really love "Everything" - such a great pop song. "Real Love" was the first single/hit off that album.

And how great was Karyn White??? That first album is considered a classic here with the R&B crowd. We played a lot of R&B in my store since we had the clientele for it.

 

The Savage album was the polar opposite to previous ones like Revenge and Be Yourself Tonight. I do like Beethoven, though.

 

I might have a look at the UK chart later. Do a review of it.

 

I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man

 

Yeah, I love Karyn White. I don't know what its legacy is, but I thought "Superwoman" was destined to become a standard. That seems to me like a song for the ages, both in content and as a composition (one of Babyface's best ever). And I love "The Way You Love Me" and "Secret Rendezvous".
And as for Pebbles, I loved "Girlfriend" and "Mercedes Boy" from 1988, and I really loved her Always album from 1990. The title song is bliss, and "Giving You The Benefit" is just a stellar R&B track.

 

Yeah, it was an interesting development, but the Eurythmics were all over the map from Touch to Be Yourself Tonight to Revenge to Savage. They never really completely repeated themselves, there was always a twist. And "Beethoven" was a contrary choice as a single, deliberately so. Still, a Top 10 hit in NZ, so I'm sure Annie and Dave were proud of that (even if flopped in the UK).

 

I was concerned that it would be another 80's list that I couldn't find anything on. This time I found three, but the best of a bad lot, rather than getting really excited about the songs (as I have done for previous polls for different decades).

4. Got My Mind Set On You - George Harrison
- a nice appearance in the charts for George, however, as pleasant as this song is, it's not George at his peak

9. Cherry Bomb - John Cougar Mellancamp
- I've never been a big Mellancap fan, but I love this song!

15. Hazy Shade Of Winter - Bangles
- The Bangles, at their best.

 

OK, allow me to do a track-by-track on most of these (something to do to keep me awake while Saturday Night Live is on!)

FAITH –•– George Michael – What can I say? I love George. And the movie Keanu makes great use of this song/video!
IS THIS LOVE –•– Whitesnake – Boring song. The only track I like by them is the debut single from this album, called "Still Of The Night."
GOT MY MIND SET ON YOU –•– George Harrison – A nice comeback for him, and they made 2 different videos for it! A lot of people don't realize this is a cover.
SHAKE YOUR LOVE –•– Debbie Gibson – Kind of embarrassed to admit I really loved her back then! I still like the music - I actually think it was quite impressive for a girl of her age to write/produce so many hits. But the teenage me used to watch this video lovingly!
DON’T YOU WANT ME –•– Jody Watley – as many have noted here, not the Human League song. A solid R&B pop number from an equally great album! A lot of people don't know there's a duet with George Michael on the album ("Learn To Say No.")
CATCH ME (I’M FALLING) –•– Pretty Poison – a fun little dance/pop number from the Hiding Out soundtrack that also featured "Live My Life" by Boy George, "Crying" by Roy Orbison and k.d. lang, "Seattle" by PiL, "I Refuse" by Hue And Cry, and "You Don't Know" by Scarlett And Black.
CHERRY BOMB –•– John Cougar Mellencamp – I don't mind some of his stuff, but this one is boring. And people had a hard time realizing he was singing "That's when a spoke was a spoke."
NEED YOU TONIGHT –•– INXS – I was so happy to see this band I loved so much finally getting its due with this album. But it should have happened a few years prior!
VALERIE –•– Steve Winwood – This is the remix, and it is miles ahead of the original. My favorite song by him.
TELL IT TO MY HEART –•– Taylor Dayne – She had a decent run of hits here! They changed the album artwork after she started having multiple hits, which was a common thing from RCA/Arista back then. Here's the original, and then the 1988 update:

HAZY SHADE OF WINTER –•– Bangles – How much do I love Susanna Hoffs? Way, way too much! What's great about this is 1) how much they rock out on this version, and 2) how the guitars switch back and forth between the left and right channels.
COULD’VE BEEN –•– Tiffany – A great pop song, and she really has a good voice. But kind of odd how such a young girl sang lyrics like "Memories of your lovin'..."
HEAVEN IS A PLACE ON EARTH –•– Belinda Carlisle – this song is just OK. "I Get Weak" is much better. Diane Keaton produced the video for this song, and it's one of the stupidest videos I've ever seen! (Little girls in matching plain outfits, with their eyes covered, running in place while holding globes. UGH. Pretentious!)
THERE’S THE GIRL –•– Heart – A nice pop hit with Nancy on lead.
SEASONS CHANGE –•– Expose – They were so huge for about 3 years! Cherry Pop did a nice, comprehensive 2-disc set of this album.
(I’VE HAD) THE TIME OF MY LIFE –•– Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes – The soundtrack was a hit before the movie was - it really didn't find an audience until it hit cable TV. Good song, but does not sound like a song from the period of time the movie represents.
CRAZY –•– Icehouse – Glad to see @Bobby Morrow likes this one. I wanted them to have a hit here for so many years! MTV played them a lot, particularly "Hey, Little Girl" and "No Promises," but this is their first song to make a real impact on the pop charts. But "Electric Blue," the follow-up, did much better than this one.
I COULD NEVER TAKE THE PLACE OF YOUR MAN –•– Prince – whole album is incredible. 'Nuff said.
HUNGRY EYES –•– Eric Carmen – As a Cleveland boy, I was happy that my hometown hero finally had another hit. This one was written by Franke Previte, lead singer of Franke & The Knockouts; they had a hit with "Sweetheart" in 1981. Franke also co-wrote "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life," too!

 

Great post.

The deluxe edition of the Tell It To My Heart CD had a reverse sleeve. So you could choose which picture you wanted as the front cover.

Icehouse had a hit with Hey Little Girl here before Crazy. Both are featured on the CD single I bought.

I loved the Tiffany single. The album is good too.

 

The album bombed here, but I really like it. "Beethoven" was a video that MTV played, but the actual first single here was "I Need A Man." Best song, and one that should have been a hit, is "You Have Placed A Chill In My Heart."

I'd say "Superwoman" is considered a standard as far as R&B radio is concerned. That was a landmark album in the R&B world. And as I've explained in other threads on this forum, the R&B charts were not just a token - they really represented a huge buying and listening audience. Alexander O'Neal didn't really cross over to the pop charts beyond her hit with Cherrelle, but he had a string of R&B hits and did quite well sales-wise.

 

Me, too. (Sigh).
But no, I can't lie: "Only In My Dreams" remains, to this day, a brilliant pop song. That chorus... total ear candy.

 

Yeah, I read an interview with Iva Davies not to long ago - he said that even though "Electric Blue" was a top 10 American hit, he's made more money off of "Hey, Little Girl" due to its worldwide success.

 

And then "All This Time" off her next album. She was like the most worldly 16 year-old ever. But I believed her. Admittedly I was 14 then, but I never stopped to think, hey wait... what can you possibly know about lost love?!?!

 

Radio Romance was more age appropriate for her.

 

The "I Get Weak" video is also much better. (I think Diane Keaton directed that too?) And it's funny, the model Tony Ward is the dude Belinda cuddles up with in that, and later he'd star in Madonna's "Justify My Love". So he had, uhhh, a fun music video career.

 

Well, yeah. I do like Tiffany, but it has to be said, she had a few dodgy songs. "Radio Romance" is slightly too cute-sy, even for me. And her remake of "I Saw Him Standing There" is pretty terrible.

 

Is This Love
Got My Mind Set On You
Cherry Bomb
Need You Tonight
Valerie
Candle In The Wind
Dude (Looks Like A Lady)
Hazy Shade Of Winter
Heaven Is A Place On Earth
Animal
(I've Had) The Time Of My Life

 

I'll look forward to reading it, but be warned: there's a Comic Relief Christmas song by Mel [Smith] and Kim [Wilde] at No. 3.

 

I rather liked that Mel & Kim song. I must have been full of seasonal goodwill that year.