FRIDAY FLASHBACK: Every Friday we set the Hot Tub Time Machine to one year in rock history and give you the best (and worst) music from that year, all day long beginning at 1:00 AM EST and running for 24 hours on Jivewired Radio powered by Live365.
This week: 1989
Next week: 1972
Article Sources: Previous Friday Flashback Articles, Billboard, Wikipedia Search on 'The Year In Music 1989', All Music Guide, Joel Whitburn, America's Top 40, Rolling Stone Magazine, Spin Magazine, Rob Dimery, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Getty Images, MTV, Music Video Awards, Vevo, All Music Guide, Amazon.com, Rolling Stone Magazine, Music Outfitters, Alaska Jim, The Guardian, UK, Huffington Post, KROQ-FM, The Examiner, The People History Encyclopedia, The Village Voice, Pop Culture Madness, Rate Your Music, Who Framed Rock & Roll, Mick Rock Galleries, ArtSpace.com, Norman Seef Photography.
To listen to music from the year 1989 all weekend long, just press play on the radio widget at the bottom of this article or use this link to open in a new window that will allow you to listen when you navigate away from this page:
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1989 Album I Wish I Owned:Doolittle by The Pixies
1989 Album I'd Give Back If I Could:Walking With A Panther by LL Cool J
1989 Nominee For Worst Album Cover Ever:Wrong by NoMeansNo
1989 Most Underrated Song:Let The Day Begin by The Call
1989 Most Overrated Song:Black Velvet by Alannah Myles
1989 Most Memorable Song:Wicked Game by Chris Isaak
1989 Most Significant Song:Love Buzz by Nirvana
1989 Most Forgotten Song:Call It Love by Poco
1989 Fan's Choice For Most Popular Song:Like A Prayer by Madonna
1989 Album Of The Year:Freedom by Neil Young
1989 Most Likely To Start A Party Song:Love Shack by The B-52s
1989 Please Don't Play Anymore Song:When I See You Smile by Bad English
1989 Song That I Like More Than I Actually Should:Lay Your Hands On Me by Bon Jovi
1989 Album I Liked More Than I Thought I Would:Cosmic Thing by The B-52s
1989 Song That I Tend to Leave on Repeat:Cuts You Up by Peter Murphy
1989 Comeback Player of the Year: Bonnie Raitt
1989 Rookie Of The Year: Michael Penn, Nirvana
One Hit Wonder of 1989:Toy Soldiers by Martika
Guilty Pleasure of 1989:Like A Prayer by Madonna
Overplayed In 1989: Mike & The Mechanics, Phil Collins, Genesis
Not Played Enough In 1989:Public Enemy, Beastie Boys
Greatest Single Chart Re-Entry from 1989:Within Your Reach by The Replacements (1983)
Best Cover Song Of 1989:Love Buzz by Nirvana , Luka by The Lemonheads
Worst Cover Song of 1989:Everlasting Love by U2 (original by Robert Knight, 1967)
An unheralded great album from 1989:March by Michael Penn
An unheralded great single from 1989:Nineteen Forever by Joe Jackson
Best Soundtrack of 1989:Say Anything
Jivewired's Top Five Songs Of The Year
01. Fight The Power! by Public Enemy
02. No Myth by Michael Penn
03. Love Buzz by Nirvana
04. See A Little Light by Bob Mould
05. Mayor Of Simpleton by XTC
HONORABLE MENTION:World Leader Pretend by R.E.M.
HONORABLE MENTION: Like A Prayer by Madonna
HONORABLE MENTION: Angel Of Harlem by U2
Jivewired's Top Five Albums Of The Year
01. Doolittle by The Pixies
02. Oranges & Lemons by XTC
03. Rattle & Hum by U2
04. Bleach by Nirvana
05. Mother's Milk by Red Hot Chili Peppers
HONORABLE MENTION: March by Michael Penn
HONORABLE MENTION:Green by R.E.M.
HONORABLE MENTION:Like A Prayer by Madonna
We closed out a decade where musical trends were defined and exploited on an almost yearly basis, beginning with the death of disco and the birth of rap in 1979-80 and ending as the decade of musicians-united-for-political-causes. We were two years shy of Lollapalooza, the golden age of hip-hop and rap was simmering and original alt-rockers like R.E.M. and the B-52s were producing a more mainstream sound.
Ultimately 1989 was the year when everything changed in music, when what was popular and what was cool became the same things, far different from what actually sold, and genres of hip-hop, dance and rock interbred with thrilling results. We said goodbye to the standard genres for good, with genres and subgenres being redefined and restructured based on location as much as musical styles and following. De La Soul were sampling the Turtles, the Monkees and Led Zeppelin and acid house was incorporating breakbeats and chilling a little. New Order hung out in Ibiza long enough to record and release their Balearic album. In England, Warp Records was founded, providing an outlet for homegrown futuristic rave hits and electronic music as musicians really immersed themselves into new and developing digital technology.
But wait, there's more.........
The early grunge movement coalesced around Seattle's independent label Sub Pop Records in the late 1980s and was a result of Seattle's isolation from other music scenes. As Sub Pop's Jonathan Poneman put it, "Seattle was a perfect example of a secondary city with an active music scene that was completely ignored by an American media fixated on Los Angeles and New York." The grunge scene had it's first real taste of success in 1989 thanks to Nirvana, Mudhoney and Sebadoah, all on the Sub Pop label at the time. Nirvana's song Love Buzz was an underground hit and successfully launched the band to hordes of new fans thanks to it's following on college and independent radio throughout the United States.
1989 featured the scandal that was Milli Vanilli and the final top-ten hits from the following classic acts: Joe Cocker, The Bee Gees, The Rolling Stones, Chicago, Donna Summer, The Doobie Brothers & Roy Orbison. Orbison and Neil Young found a new generation of fans thanks to MTV placing You Got It by Orbison and Rockin' In The Free World by Young into heavy rotation. In fact, MTV was in the midst of it's second generation of programming, phasing out the original 5 VJs and introducing new ones, including Downtown Julie Brown who in 1989 took Club MTV out on the road. Meanwhile three of MTV's existing shows, 120 Minutes, Headbanger's Ball and Yo! MTV Raps helped to shape our listening habits as we followed the musical trends they set into the 1990s, though it's alternative programing, such as the game show "Remote Control" (Hello Colin Quinn and Kari Whurer) signaled the beginning of the end of MTV as strictly a music video outlet. .
For a while, Hip Hop, Acid House and Gangsta Rap all seemed to co-exist in the same long-sleeved T-shirt. Call that amalgamation "goon music" for lack of a better term. Possibly it was all the designer drugs talking, but starting in '89 we lived in a world where traditional and stereotypical pop genres no longer existed.
1989 was a momentous year for the indies but music by bands like U2 and Depeche Mode and genres like acid house defined the zeitgeist. Looking back you would reasonably expect to find U2, R.E.M. and Living Colour amongst the most socially relevant acts of the day. There were about a dozen other era-shaping albums released in 1989, including Paul's Boutique by The Beastie Boys, Doolittle by The Pixies, Mothers Milk by The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Club Classics Volume I by Soul II Soul, Fear Of A Black Planet by Public Enemy and Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails. But in sales terms all were crushed by Phil Collins, Paula Abdul, and of all people, a novelty pop music act from Yorkshire, England known as Jive Bunny & The Mixmasters. Add Madonna to that group as well, though Like A Prayer is arguably the best album she's recorded. Most of the albums in 1989 that are now regarded as classics actually sold the fewest units during the calendar year.
1989 ended with a remake of Band Aid's version of Do They Know It's Christmas? closing the year at number one on Billboard's Hot Hits Chart. Where the original version had seemed politically charged, spontaneous, righteous and significantly moral in its creation with the biggest acts of the day all involved, its follow up was little more than a promotional gathering and musical snapshot for acts who had worked with mega-producers Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterma. The only artists from the original Band Aid to be featured on Band Aid II were Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward of Bananarama. The 1989 version topped the UK Singles Chart for three weeks, but ultimately achieved far less historical significance and status than its predecessor. We'll leave Do They Know It's Christmas (II) with Swing The Mood to rot in the '89 time capsule and instead focus on the rest of the year in music. Cool? I thought you'd dig that.
Gone Too Soon
Russian-born American composer and lyricist Irving Berlin, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history, died on September 22, 1989. He was 101 years old. Berlin published his first song, Marie from Sunny Italy, in 1907 and had his first major international hit, Alexander's Ragtime Band in 1911.
Grunge Had Kind Of A Soggy Homeless Vibe:
Legend has it that the youngsters at a Seattle bar proceeded to scream uncontrollably until the proprietor of the establishment removed Hip To Be Square by Huey Lewis and the News from the jukebox. They claimed they had no way to identify with such happy music in their soggy little town. Thus, grunge was born and Nirvana launched it with their release of Love Buzz On Seattle's Sub Pop record label and a fashion statement that included several trips to the Salvation Army and a few weeks of dumpster diving. But it was so, so cool.
Don't Do Me Like That:
A long traded bootleg compilation, Shit, Shower & Shave by the Replacements was recorded in 1989, and is the sound of the band while on tour with Tom Petty who, later, infamously, ripped off Westerberg’s “rebel without a clue” line from the 'Mats song I’ll Be You. When asked about Petty’s nicking of the lyric, Westerberg, in character, responded “I’d steal something back from him, if I could find something I liked.”
Touché.
Loose Lips Synch Ships:
Here's where we briefly and regretfully mention Milli Vanilli, and it is only because of their lip-synching scandal. If you don't know the full story - you can find it anywhere online.
The first sign that the group was lip-synching happened in late 1989 during a live performance on MTV at the Lake Compounce theme park in Bristol, Connecticut. As they performed live onstage, the recording of the song Girl You Know It's True jammed and began to skip, repeating the partial line "Girl, you know it's..." over and over.
The duo continued to pretend to sing and dance, albiet awkwardly, for a few more moments, then both ran offstage. According to the episode of VH1's Behind the Music which profiled Milli Vanilli, Downtown Julie Brown, who hosted the event, stated that fans attending the concert didn't seem to notice, and the concert continued as if nothing unusual had happened.
In a March 1990 issue of Time Magazine, Rob Pilatus, one-half of the disgraced duo, was quoted proclaiming himself to be "the new Elvis", reasoning that by the duo's success they were more talented than Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger. Yes, this was AFTER the fateful incident.
Balls, right? However, the fallout from that incident eventually resulted in the band having their Grammy Award for Best New Artist of 1989 revoked. Their subsequent free fall was historic, and that's putting it mildly.
Go Forth, For You Are The Future Of Rock & Roll.......
The following bands were all established in 1989: The Cranberries, En Vogue, EMF, Mazzy Star, Morphine, Superchunk, The Toadies and The Wallflowers. On the flip side, 1989 also gave us 4 Non-Blondes, The Dixie Chicks and Wilson Phillips.
Previous In This Series:Friday Flashback 2000
To hear 200+ songs from the year 1989 please tune in to Jivewired Radio all weekend long and thank you for reading!