Late career comeback albums of 1989

new york maybe?

nick of time was on constant rotation in my parents house in the early 90s

Dylan's "Oh Mercy" & Neil's "Freedom" also fall in this bloc, but weren't as big sellers (though was the Quincy Jones thing a hit? I know it won a Grammy)

Petty doesn't fit. His two prior albums went platinum, and the Wilburys was multi-platinum just the year before.

Petty's last album flopped (top fifteen, failed to go platinum), Southern Accents a disappointment. Full Moon Fever sports his second top ten and signature hit, sat in the album top ten for nearly a year, and went multiplatinum. It belongs.

Is the Henley LP a comeback? His previous solo was a big seller. Anyway, going with Raitt because that one came out of nowhere. Aerosmith or B-52's would be my runners-up.

I completely disagree on Petty. Though Let Me Up was a mild disappointment, it was still top 20 (And a gold record) and had a #1 mainstream rock hit. Southern Accents sold well (platinum), was a critical success, and had a top 20 hit on it. Compared to the rest of this list he was still a resounding success.

The End of the Innocence is his best-selling solo album (six million).

Petty's career had plateaued by the time Volume One took off (I woudl've included it if I'd used '88 as a barometer). Each album sold a little less, peaked lower. FMF had three top thirty hits, a couple of other album rock radio standards, and hung around about as long as Damn the Torpedoes.

New York and Oh Mercy definitely huge omissions. I remember Flowers In The Dirt being kind of a big deal at the time.

Petty was still definitely mid-career and a going concern IMO.

my parents owned about half of these and i was surrounded by singles from the other half, i was 7 in 1989 and this is very 'dawn of awareness of current popular music' territory for me. voted for Pump over Cosmic Thing, although i know a disquieting number of Steel Wheels and End Of The Innocence deep cuts by heart.

Look at the sales. An artist doesn't go from automatic platinum to barely gold, then suddenly get certified 5x platinum two years later without a rethink.

xxpost

Alfred, what you say about Petty is true, but I just don't think he'd fallen away from both the public eye or public favor like many of the rest of these artists.

Of course, my hemming and hawing doesn't matter because I'm voting for Bonnie. Best album and biggest comeback on the list.

thought about Oh Mercy, but it was a success d'estime not a commercial success unless you mean "Dylan finally crawled into the top 40 album chart."

i disagree on petty and henley, too. both albums probably expanded their audiences, but they weren't coming back from anything. they were both pretty damn consistent throughout the '80s.

also disagree with the aerosmith -- their real comeback was permanent vacation in 1987 -- and the stones -- another mediocre platinum album, right on schedule.

Dylan's "Oh Mercy" & Neil's "Freedom" also fall in this bloc, but weren't as big sellers

yes to neil: freedom may not have been a huge pop hit, but it was a huge deal when it came out and it marked the beginning of a pretty big mid-career turnaround. not so sure about dylan. his comeback was more like a decade later.

Flowers in the Gold got Macca a gold album after touring the damn thing to death but it was actually a sales disappointment (Elvis Costello got the last laugh).

I'm thinking I should've qualified the headline to "Late career sales comeback albums of 1989," otherwise I'll get people repping for We Two Are One.

Avalon Sunset? Have I Told You Lately is probably the most iconic song Van Morrison had post 1980?

I'm thinking I should've qualified the headline to "Late career sales comeback albums of 1989," otherwise I'll get people repping for We Two Are One.

though it wasn't exactly a multiplatinum pop hit, i WILL rep for the neville brothers' yellow moon, which was a career-changer for them. (and aaron neville of course was a big part of linda ronstadt's 1989 as well.)

if i was gonna give this title a poll it'd probably be "AOR's last gasp." these were some of the biggest-selling rock albums of '89, things looked very different 2 years later: poll: megaselling rock albums released in 1991

er give this poll a title

speaking of AOR and big sales: damn yankees' early 1990 self-titled debut, which was certainly a late-career comeback for both tommy shaw and ted nugent, and maybe you could count it as a comeback for jack blades as well.

Bee Gee's One a year too early.

Cosmic Thing wasn't a comeback. It was their first taste of mainstream success.

cosmic thing was totally a comeback. pop stars aren't the only people who get to have them. the b-52's were a very special (and great) band who had fallen off the face of the earth before they re-arrived with their pop breakthrough. that it was in fact their pop breakthrough just makes it a better comeback.

How about the Mekons Rock n Roll

No it wasn't a comeback. It was their fifth album in ten busy years. But if it's going to spoil the thread please carry on pretending.

Cosmic Thing is the fifth studio album by new wave band The B-52's, released in 1989. It contains the singles "Love Shack" and "Roam," which remain two of their most popular tunes.[4] The success of the album served as a comeback after the death of former guitarist Ricky Wilson in 1985.

But if it's going to spoil the thread please carry on pretending.

Jackson Browne: World In Motion

Anyone who doesn't like that record is an imperialist dog who supports CIA-sponsored acts of political terrorism in Central America.

I mean, open your eyes people!

this is between Cosmic Thing and Nick of Time imo. Cosmic Thing was definitely a comeback - they'd been well-reviewed and liked for two albums and then gradually written-off, and then they got huge. Nick of Time...I mean when was Raitt big before it? she was an opening act until this album afaik. But it's one of the best-sounding records of its era imo & does such a good job of exemplifying its own niche. The title track especially, just a marvel of production and economy of performance. Both have Don Was, but Cosmic Thing's got Nile Rogers...tough call

Petty not a comeback (nor was Aerosmith really), B-52s was, so voting that

Was thinking of how Pete Townshend's The Iron Man could be shoehorned into this, seeing as how it had two new Who tracks, and was promoted on their massively popular 1989 reunion/comeback tour. But it didn't sell shit, and was justifiably panned.

But it's one of the best-sounding records of its era

This is otm. Nick of Time is the least dated-sounding record on this list.

A year too early: Little Feat-- Let It Roll

A year too late for Leonard

Was wondering why you picked that specific year. Then thought it was the year Jefferson Airplane did their reunion lp which isn't there. I don't think it's that great either.

voting Roy because he is Roy

also the best song Bono ever wrote

and the stones -- another mediocre platinum album, right on schedule

They had nearly broken up in the mid-80's and hadn't toured in seven years. The "Steel Wheels" tour was improbably huge (IIRC the highest earning tour in history to that point) and launched a new phase of their career where their new albums didn't really matter because they could carry on doing megatours until the end of time. I think it counts as a comeback of sorts.

I think Petty also got the biggest rub from the Wilburys' record, at the time he seemed like the fifth wheel among the heavyweights (or maybe it was just me)(or heavyweights + Jeff Lynne) I'm not sure FMF sells anything close to what it did if the Wilburys hadn't existed.

(xp) if anything, that would make steel wheels a comeback tour, though, not a comeback album. nick of time, cosmic thing, a few others -- those are albums people remember, for good reason. i'm not sure most people could name a single song off steel wheels without looking it up. i had to look it up. i quite liked that lead single. more of a last gasp than any kind of comeback, though, as far as rolling stones records go.

Roy Orbison got the biggest rub, then death rubbed him out.

No it wasn't a comeback. It was their fifth album in ten busy years. But if it's going to spoil the thread please carry on pretending.

― everything,

First album a college and New Wave club hit, second album took advantage of its predecessor and went top twenty, next two albums generate no hits and fall quickly off charts once the band's cult bought them, Bouncing Off the Satellites barely scraped the top 100 and their most essential member dies. If you don't think Cosmic Thing was a comeback, have fun!

>>>and their most essential member dies

Scrolled all the way down the list all ready to post this. B-52's not only came back from a poor-selling album, they came back from pretty much not being a band anymore.

haha this is the most "alfred" thread ever <3

of course!

nick of time was on constant rotation in my parents house in the early 90s

― call all destroyer, Monday, February 24, 2014 10:02 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

speaking of AOR and big sales: damn yankees' early 1990 self-titled debut, which was certainly a late-career comeback for both tommy shaw and ted nugent, and maybe you could count it as a comeback for jack blades as well.

Sorry for the slight diversion here, but this reminded me that after Damn Yankees, Shaw Blades got some alt rock radio play with "My Hallucination". That was a weird one for me.

The Wilburys record preceded Full Moon Fever the year before. That was the comeback, for both Petty and Orbison.

the way i listen to DSOTM these days: listen to the first three tracks, skip the four monsters in the middle, and play out the final three tracks.

Funny how we were all there, yet read Petty's late 80's completely differently.
Too bad he doesn't have a stock market price we could track and settle this once and for all. ;)

I was quite surprised to learn "Rock Lobster" only went to #56 on the US/Billboard chart - it was all over the radio on the top-40 pop station I listened to in 1979, and was famously praised by John Lennon. But it went to #1 in Canada and #3 in Australia, and was at least top 40 in the UK. And the album it was from eventually went platinum in the US, as well as winning critical praise and reasonably strong sales from the get-go. So Cosmic Thing felt to me more like a comeback than a breakout success.

Petty always felt like a major artist, even when his current albums weren't hitting, because his older songs were always on rock radio

I find it hard to believe the first B-52s album went platinum before "Cosmic Thing."

xpost

Don't think it was yet, but it was unquestionably a quite popular album throughout its first decade after its release. Most of my friends knew who the B-52's were well before "Love Shack" became a (surprise) hit.

Sure, but B-52s was a cult thing nonetheless. Was "Bloodletting" by Concrete Blonde a "comeback?"

Concrete Blonde never had a back to come to.

They had a very minor college back.

"God is a Bullet" went to number 15 on the US Modern Rock charts!

But no, I was just being silly. B-52s were hardly rock royalty at their early '80s peak, though. What did the first album sell/chart at the time?

It went gold. Platinum came later.

on the Billboard album charts...

Debut topped out at #59 (1979)
Wild Planet (1980) - #18
Party Mix (1981) - #55
Mesopotamia EP (1982) - #35
Whammy! (1983) - #29
Bouncing Off The Satellites (1986) - #85

See, that's all pretty middling compared to "Cosmic Thing," imo. "Comeback" implies a return to a previous level.

tbf, Bonnie Raitt's highest-charting record prior to Nick of Time hit #25...in 1977.

She came back from alcohol induced total career coma. Just like John Hiatt, come to think of it, fittingly.

I could go either way on B-52's vs. Raitt for biggest comeback. Raitt had been around longer (and could probably fill larger halls); the B-52's had higher-charting albums; Raitt's highest-charting single hit #57; the B-52's highest-charting single hit #56.

b-52's won comeback of the year in rolling stone fwiw

Raitt seemed more eager to sustain/capitalize on her comeback than the B-52's; she put out six records post '89 (and was seemingly never off the road), while the B-52's only managed two.

and they're all solid to excellent

yeah cindy split before good stuff and then they were pretty much oldies circuit after that, which is fine, they make a good living. they came back to athens one summer to record that last decent album, cindy and fred were at karaoke every week which was fun, cindy sang country and girl groups fred sang whatever, you know how it sounded.

remember when they replaced Cindy with Julee Cruise for the Good Stuff tour?

well you could just agree both were comebacks but....
B-52's got mega success in the UK with that album (and rock lobster was certainly a known song long before that) whilst I doubt anyone who didnt listen to bob harris knew who she was ... but we need some older ilxors to confirm or deny that...

So i voted B-52s.

Pump was definitely seen as a comeback album at the time. As was madonna's like a prayer (i forget what year that was) as she had been away for a few years.

great poll idea though!

DYING of jealousy at hanging with Fred and Cindy at karaoke.

As was madonna's like a prayer (i forget what year that was) as she had been away for a few years

all she was coming back from was taking 1988 off!

Em just saying how it was framed at the time! Many had predicted she was a flash in the pan and wouldn't last. Oh how wrong they were!

*I'm

Now its fairly normal to take 3 years between albums but It wasn't so much back then.

like a prayer as comeback is a bit much, she hits #1 in the us and uk in late 87 w/ 'who's that girl' and then hits #1 w/ 'like a prayer' in early 89 - roughly 18 month gap (with a huge tour in there), but it definitely felt like a new phase, i've never felt comfortable having 'like prayer'/'vogue' part of the same imperial phase as 'like a virgin'/'into the groove' but by the numbers there's no dip significant enough to definitively mark waxing and waning of popularity. you'd have a stronger case calling the batman soundtrack a comeback for prince.

I think w/Madonna like a prayer was maybe perceived as a comeback bc it felt like a return of Madonna the artist as opposed to the Madonna who had been tabloid fodder w Sean penn and a bunch of movie flops (despite her still putting out loads of music during that time too.)

I dont really consider it a comeback now buy it was marketed as one and I bought the cd the day it came out and everyone was really excited at madonna coming back.

I remember 'Love Shack' and 'Roam' being all over MTV in 1989/1990... next thing I knew of them, they were the BC-52's and doing the theme tune for that fucking awful Flintstones movie. And the theme tune to Rocko's Modern Life on Nickelodeon.

In fact, I remember my dad bought the 12" single of 'Roam', which had a 3D sleeve and came with 3D glasses.

I will not hear a word against the theme tune to Rocko's Modern Life

Pump was definitely seen as a comeback album at the time.

No it wasn't. How could "Pump" remotely be considered a comeback when the album that came right before it not only followed a breakup and rehab but featured three top 20 singles?

Actually, 1985's Done With Mirrors was the record that followed rehab (and brought Joe Perry back into the fold). They intended it to be their comeback, but it tanked (partly blamed on the fact that the cover art and all associated ads were backwards, punning on the title).

Aerosmith's real comeback was when Run-D.M.C. brought them out for "Walk This Way."

Well, yeah, that's right, and I was wrong which record brought them back. Point being, "Pump" was no comeback. The band was back, and then came "Pump."

i love how certain arguments for certain bands keep, um, coming back within this thread. (many of them completely valid! just like the bands!)

DON: The point is, we were very happy that Joe and Steve, after several years of let's say personal difficulties, were able to sell a few records.

GLENN: And those guys knew somethin' about love and elevators and pumpin'.

DON: Well, yeah.

"Lick My Love (Elevator) Pump"

While Matos and (I think) Alfred have argued that the "'80s" didn't really start until '82/'83, thus a decade can cross numerical boundaries, could a case be made that the weird dominant revanchism of classic rock dinosaurs in '89 mean that individual years could be exclaves, and we could assign said year to the 1970s where it properly belongs?*

*In rock music, obviously not hip-hop or pop

Regarding the 80s vs the 80s vs the 80s, I grew up across the decade - four in 1980, fourteen in 1990 - and I've always mentally broken it into four musical eras. Or three musical eras. There's the proto-80s of Adam Ant, Elvis Costello, The Kenny Everett Video Show, Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out" etc, which was really an extension of the late 1970s. Everything was really bassy and the rhythm section was actual drums and bass guitar.

Then there's the High 1980s of British MTV dominance. And then the post-Live Aid era when rock stars all tried to be serious artists and every album was recorded in four studios in London and New York. And then the proto-1990s of Neneh Cherry and Bomb the Bass, which feels like a completely different decade entirely. I like to imagine that there were two parallel late-80s. There was the acid house late 80s aimed at people my age, and there was the career retrospective boxed set late 80s aimed at older people.

Because the late 1980s was the heyday of the career retrospective boxed set stroke co-ordinated CD album reissue campaign, e.g. David Bowie's Sound + Vision and the Beatles CD reissues. And Q magazine, which acknowledged that rock had grown up and got older. So I suppose the 1989 career resurrection boom wasn't so much an enclave as a parallel evolutionary thread.

On a tangent Wikipedia's article on enclaves and exclaves is fascinating stuff:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclave_and_exclave

I learn that this road here starts in the United States but briefly, for a few hundred feet, crosses the border into Canada. That has nothing to do with pop music but I've just had some mint imperials and I've gone hyperactive. I can literally feel my eyes fizzing. There is a fish in my percolator.

There was also the Glam Metal 80s--which really got going around 83/84 and ended about 92.

i like the idea of the decade not beginning and ending with strict numerical calendar schitt. to give an example of how i process the concept: i've always thought of joy division as the last great band of the 70s and we all know new order didn't really get going until blue monday and that was what? 82?

so ya, this otm-

While Matos and (I think) Alfred have argued that the "'80s" didn't really start until '82/'83

also, yeah there's the rockist 80s and then there's a whole other dimension of "80s."

"The 80s" lasted from Duran Duran's Rio (May 1982) to New Order's Technique (January 1989).

fwiw brtitish 80s hits compilations start in 1979, with gary numan, buggles, m, blondie et al

The first volume of Rhino's Just Can't Get Enough New Wave series is all '78-9 stuff (which is addressed in the liners).

The eighties never ended