Here’s something a little lighter than the last couple of entries, seeing as it’s a weekend and all: Pop-music blogger Jason Hare has a regular Friday feature called “Chart Attack!” in which he posts the Top Ten songs from a past week ending on the same date, and goes through the songs. This week’s entry, from February 11, 1989 is right in my wheelhouse, or ought to be:
10. Walking Away – Information Society
9. She Wants To Dance With Me – Rick Astley
8. I Wanna Have Some Fun – Samantha Fox
7. The Lover In Me – Sheena Easton
6. All This Time – Tiffany
5. When The Children Cry – White Lion
4. Born To Be My Baby – Bon Jovi
3. Wild Thing – Tone-Loc
2. When I’m With You – Sheriff
1. Straight Up – Paula Abdul
At the time, I was a senior in high school, mostly listening to Top 40 radio (because there wasn’t any other kind out in the sticks), smack in the middle of the prime pop-culture imprinting years (the block of years between ages 13-21 are teh time when you’re most likely to obsessively follow pop culture), so you’d think this would be prime nostalgia material for me…
You’d be wrong.
I can confidently recall only four of those ten songs, and I hate, hate, hate two of them (“When the Children Cry” by the Great White Poisonous Lion-Snakes (though I don’t associate the song with 1989), and “Straight Up” by Simon Cowell). I think I might be able to place the Samantha Fox song (I haven’t watched the YouTube video to see if I’m right), but the other five are a total loss. I have absolutely no recollection of any of these songs, and they were evidently big hits.
I’m not really sure whether this is a statement about the ephemeral nature of pop culture, or just an indication that I had other things on my mind (Feb. 11 would’ve been getting toward the end of basketball season, so I was a little preoccupied, plus I was waiting on college acceptance letters at around that time…). It’s sort of weird to see a Top Ten list from right in the heart of my era, and have it look so unfamiliar, though.
(Contrast this with the previous installment, from 1985, where I’m pretty sure I could sing the chorus of eight of the ten songs. Not that you would want me to do that. Believe me, nobody wants that.)