Billboard Number One Album Rock Tracks 1989

'Stand'.

lol I voted STand as well.

FUCK "END OF THE INNOCENCE"

lol fucking schizoid list, with Stevie Nicks the only woman.

I'll bet "I'll Be You" or one of the Petty songs wins, and why not? For most of us 1989 was when we discovered Petty from the cumulative weight of Full Moon Fever, the Wilburys, etc. Meanwhile radio programmers acknowledge the Stones' "comeback," toss Chris Rea and Eddie Money a couple bones, anoint Stevie Ray, and uh Julian Lennon, sounding more like Bowie than Bowie did in Tin Machine.

The Nicks number is one of her weirdest and best; she actually gets away with a chorus that goes "Well there is magic all around you/If I do say so myself."

My finalists:

I Won't Back Down
I'll Be You
Rooms on Fire
Mixed Emotions
Stand
Runnin' Down a Dream

The Replacements "I'll Be You" i guess.

For the longest time I thought that Chris Rea song was Dire Straits. I think the main reason he was successful during this period was that programmers were waiting for Knopfler to pull his thumb out and deliver More Brothers In Arms, and Rea was the next best thing.

OMG, I love these threads. This shit was so formative for me, I'm realizing. Amazing how well I still know most of the songs from this and the 1990 thread.

"Show Don't Tell" is really pretty good and there's plenty of latter-day Rush I won't defend! I'm pretty sure that gets my vote. HATE "Stand".

The intro to "Show Don't Tell" is promising but the song doesn't stick like other Rush songs b/w 1981-1991.

What's intriguing is how little hair metal actually appeared on these lists! "Livin' on a Prayer" seems to be the only Slippery When Wet single to reach #1, nothing from Hysteria or Appetite, let alone any Sunset Strip bands. (There wasn't a separate hard rock chart, was there?)

Really? I think it's one of their best post-"Subdivisions" singles, along with "Big Money" and "Time Stands Still". I freely acknowledge that nostalgia is probably swaying me, though. I really like that riff and breakdown, though.

you can stand me up at the gates of hell
but I won't back down

"Pretending" is pretty good too. I remember really liking "Rock and a Hard Place", although I don't think I've heard it since 1989,

Did "The Flame" not make it to #1??

Like, I definitely remember hearing a lot of Poison/Crue/Cinderella/Skid Row/White Lion on these same stations.

And apparently Yes and Rush were scoring more #1s than any of them were in the late 80s and early 90s.

OMG "Got It Made". Haven't thought about this song in forever. Wouldn't say that it's great but it is > "Stand".

"The Flame" hit #1 pop, #3 on this chart in '88.

I love that Cheap Trick recorded "The Flame" because their other choice was "Look Away", which eventually went to Chicago.

Any of the Tom Petty's, Stevie Ray, Replacements. And does anybody remember the Cheis Rea without sneaking over to Google? Voting "Free Fallin'".

I remembered Chris Rea!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o3IdhYIkEg

That's a huge guitar pick...

There's diner I eat at sometimes, they have Journeyman on the juke, and it's always a good time when "Pretending" comes up on random play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm2PvnM7Vds

Clapton's pretty creepy in the vid, particularly in some gif-worthy scenes in the model's room.

runnin down a dream, just ahead of rush

it is alarming that 'steel wheels' will soon belong to the first half of the stones' career

God I hate Clapton SO MUCH

don't be pretending about how you feel

Alright, Cream was okay.

Ha, I'm always defending/repping for Clapton here when I actually do think that e.g. Rolling Stone overrates him about as much as ILM underrates him.

For my part, I don't know that I'll ever understand how people can really love Tom Petty.

Free Ballin'

^

I wonder if I juuuuust missed catching the Replacements in the MTV or VH1 top 20 countdowns

For my part, I don't know that I'll ever understand how people can really love Tom Petty

He's decent but I really can't imagine people claiming him as their favorite artist

Take Learning to Fly over these btw

Like Pretending quite a lot off that album but would prefer No Alibis

I would happily defend Behind the Sun - From The Cradle era Clapton any day

I think Rea had a big enough audience in his own right - Auberge in 1991 sold bucketloads and seemed be a bigger deal than the Dire Straits eventual follow up to BIA

Rea was huge in England, nothing here. His only Top 40 hit is this excellent supermarket classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC9sESRMRRM

I only know those Petty songs from the radio. So they were all on the same album? Huh. Maybe I should give it a listen. Probably one of those, but I'm not sure which.

Of all of these, 'I wont back down' is the only song I remember.

I can't understand why Peter Bogdanovich made a 4-hour documentary about Petty, or why some critics venerate him, but I have fond memories of these two hits. I've heard Free Fallin' played unexpectedly in a couple of contexts recently and it just floored me, so that.

a lot of these songs have nostalgic appeal. two of the first CDs I ever got were Green and Full Moon Fever. My parents also got me the cassingle for "Rock And A Hard Place" when I wanted the one for "Mixed Emotions."

Voted "Stand"

Fresh out of high school, summer jobs temping, those Tom Petty songs at the all-ages places where I shot pool.

"runnin down a dream" over "i'll be you". tom petty's an artist i always think i kinda hate except for a few songs but then 'a few songs' turns out to be like a solid cd's worth easy and the songs i actually hate (as opposed to just going 'ugh tom petty' and changing the station) are pretty few tbh . there's only a few i would say i love by him though and 'runnin down a dream' is the only one that doesn't have the word 'girl' in the title. huge fan of mike campbell and that solo is weirdly one of all time faves. was listening to grace jones earlier today, totally forgot she covered 'breakdown'.

that julian lennon hit's probably the best hit he had that didn't have a sam peckinpah video to go w/ it.

The guy's a scold, reactionary, and in the beginning of his career whined way too much in song, but wtf I have no tolerance for dismissals of Petty singles from 1977 to 1994.

"Mixed Emotions" was the last 45 I bought.

balls otm (re: petty)

Any of the Petty singles. There all good!

my dad was so stoked for that doobies comeback

when I first heard Moon Duo I thought of "Runnin' Down A Dream"

Huh, Journeyman isn't bad.

Considering how old most of these artists were and how these stations would still play the generally more innovative and/or heavy/intense 60s/70s work of these and other classic artists alongside the songs on these charts, I've been thinking that this aesthetic might have reflected an attitude that (rock) music had already peaked in the late 60s and early 70s. There was nothing really left to do except sit back with a light beer on the patio and coast, content that the battles had been won. Like, did anyone think CSNY or the Stones or even Robert Plant were doing the best work of their careers at this point? Around 2005, the modern rock charts seem to have moved to a similar attitude vis-a-vis the early 90s.

capital-R rock music was in a weird divided place in the late '80s. the biggest young bands were the brazenly commercial metal/hard rock guys, the 'alternative' stuff that we might consider the best of the era was a couple years off from having a mainstream breakthrough, a lot of aging stars had gone in big on videos and drum machines to stay relevant...

...and by then most boomers had CD players, and needed something to buy other than stuff they were replacing from vinyl.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Were any non-singles even appearing on the 'AOR' charts by this point?

Like, did anyone think CSNY or the Stones or even Robert Plant were doing the best work of their careers at this point?

not in 1990 probably, but the Honeydrippers project aside, Plant's eighties albums are damn good and don't embarrass him at all. Shaken 'n' Stirred is ready to be reclaimed by the Trans claque.

No, I love a lot of solo Plant actually, especially Manic Nirvana and Dreamland. He didn't deserve to be lumped in with the other two. I still kind of doubt that many people were saying "this is better than Zep IV!" is all.

But no, it wasn't the best example for the point I was making there.

I don't know the 80s albums except for Now and Zen tbh. Ever get into Peter Gabriel territory?

gabriel's not the worst comparison

Looks like this will probably be the first time I vote for Tom Petty in a poll.

Like, did anyone think CSNY or the Stones...were doing the best work of their careers at this point?

One thing to consider re:these two was how greased the hype machine was. The CSNY was their first lp in 18 years, while the Stones were on a new label, celebrating the end of the Jagger-Richards feud, and embarking on their first all-enormodome tour in like 6-8 years.

Did not expect that from you, Rudipherous.

Alfred has me interested in that Stevie Nicks song though.

It's batshit!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UchhRsc2spg

I miss my chance tell Sund4r: I Won't Back Down. Which I just voted for. Gave a sloppy listen to the Nicks before you posted that but I will try again. I don't tend to zero in on lyrics as much as you do, Alfred.

But there are a bunch of Tom Petty songs from this time period that I think are hard to argue with as good songs, even if I've never been into his sound.

haha I don't really care for lyrics! I noticed hers because they're particularly insane even for her. The tasteful Rupert Hine production (even the flamenco guitar and airy synth clouds he'd reprise for Rush's "Ghost of a Chance") helps.

I think I've made that mistake before about you and lyrics, but I do notice you mentioning them.

I feel dumb saying it, but I have a little trouble making out the words Nicks is singing much of the time and her voice just ends up sounding like her voice. And I like her voice, though the style of a song like this makes it hard for me to get excited about. I wouldn't really call the production tasteful, though I found myself enjoying the flauxmenco guitar part of the time.

This is annoying: I was going to post something about how crap "Runnin Down a Dream" is, went to listen to it to back this up, and then realized I know the whole thing by heart, which completely deflates my original point.

Again, time to get offline.

Oh, THIS Stevie Nicks song. I still hear this on the radio all the time.

OK, really going offline now.

Going off the grid?

looks like a grocery store playlist!

Petty album the first I ever sold off, think I like it more now than then but I dunno, so earnest!

The Call = The Fixx, no?

voted Stand over The End of the Innocence

Thinking more of 1989, I remember listening to Green a lot when I was packing to move out from home to live on my own, which gives it way too much importance somehow. As I think I've said elsewhere, I was really into it for maybe half a year. Something like that. I neither love nor hate Stand at this point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSxt-PFofNg

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Four votes for Nicks? TWO votes for CSNY???

there is magic all around us -- if I do say so myself

Principle of Moments is very good! I forgot how good "Big Log" was.

Tbh I probably mostly like Manic Nirvana for nostalgia.

Four votes for Nicks? TWO votes for CSNY???
I know! One of them should have been another vote for Free Fallin' and REM can suck it!

My vote for Free Falling would have stood in the way of an REM win, and after I had already voted, I changed my mind and wished that's what I had voted for.

somehow didn't notice 'rooms on fire' up there, yeah that's a pretty great solo nicks track

oh man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to2KasivROc