1988 Countdown: #71-80 Roundup

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Last year, while sorting through some mildewed videotapes in my garage, I discovered three VHS tapes that contained the complete year-end countdown of MTV’s top 100 videos of 1988, unwatched by me since they were broadcast over the last ten hours of that year. Since then, I’ve been working my way through the tapes, and analyzing the videos in more detail than would seem reasonable to anybody–including the artists starring in those videos and myself.

It took me fully seven months to plow through the ten videos and four commercial breaks in the countdown’s third hour. Wow. That’s pathetic. I’ll try to pick up the pace a bit.

If you’re tuning in late, here’s what you missed.

#71: Terence Trent D’Arby, “Sign Your Name”

#72: Kenny Loggins, “Nobody’s Fool”

#73: Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car”

#74: Steve Winwood, “Don’t You Know What the Night Can Do?”

#75: Jody Watley, “Some Kind of Lover”

#76: Johnny Hates Jazz, “Shattered Dreams”

#77: Foreigner, “I Don’t Want to Live Without You”

#78: Pat Benatar, “All Fired Up”

#79: OMD, “Dreaming”

#80: Whitney Houston, “Where Do Broken Hearts Go”

Ad time: Commercial Break #9, Commercial Break #10, Commercial Break #11, Commercial Break #12.

And the countdown’s first hour, spanning #91 to #100, and its second hour, spanning #81 to #90.

posted 29 April 2009 in 1988 and tagged , . 4 comments

4 Comments on 1988 Countdown: #71-80 Roundup

  1. Chris M. Says:

    Still unseen so far (mostly) but likely to be ubiquitous later:

    • George Michael — the biggest act of 1988 (Billboard single and album of the year)

    • Guns N’ Roses — will be interesting to see if they count “Welcome to the Jungle” as an ’88 hit (first single from the album in ’87 but didn’t chart until after “Sweet Child” peaked in summer ’88)

    • Def Leppard — no countdown play except for that bonus, unranked play of “Armageddon It”

    • Michael Jackson — most of the Bad singles (everything from that album released after “Bad,” starting with “The Way You Make Me Feel”); they’ve only played “Another Part of Me” so far

    • U2 — probably just “Desire,” though; the late Joshua Tree singles didn’t have videos, and the last with a video, “…Streets Have No Name,” charted in ’87

    • INXS — at least three, probably four times, with all the Kick hits

    • Richard Marx — at least two clips; his hair-helmet was unavoidable

    • Debbie Gibson/Tiffany — probably one clip by each of them

  2. Gavin Says:

    Bobby Brown and Bon Jovi should make appearances too.

  3. Chris M. Says:

    Maybe, but I’ll take the other side of the Bobby Brown bet: By this point (last day of ’88), “My Prerogative” was still rising — it hit No. 1 in January ’89 — and so MTV might have held it for the ’89 countdown. And the first single from Don’t Be Cruel, the title track, was more a radio hit than a video hit; I don’t think MTV played the clip all that much. In general, the Cruel album’s success was a bit of a left-field phenomenon that no one (except maybe MCA’s promotions dept.) saw coming. Brown’s first solo joint was a flop except at R&B radio, and I don’t think anyone would have bet his sophomore album would be the late-breaking multiplatinum smash it became (Billboard‘s No. 1 album of 1989).

    As for Bon Jovi, they’ll probably chart high here with “Bad Medicine” but that’s it. At this point I believe “Born to Be My Baby” was still rising.

  4. Gavin Says:

    I’d tell you to name your stakes on the Bobby Brown bet, but that would require one of us remembering the wager circa 2011, when I finish the countdown.

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