This is a summary of 1988 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.
Summary The growing popularity of house music was evident in the charts by the start of 1988, with many songs of this genre becoming big hits, such as "House Arrest" by Krush, "Beat Dis" by Bomb the Bass and "Rok da House" by The Beatmasters."Cutting Shapes – How House Music Really Hit The UK", Greg Wilson, 18 July 2013. Accessed 13 November 2013 Acid house band S'Express had two Top 10 hits this year including a number 1 in April with the song "Theme from S'Express", but the biggest dance hit of the year came from London singer Yazz, who had first had a big hit with producers Coldcut on the song "Doctorin' the House".Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 477. Still with Coldcut, but now with her name billed as the lead artist, her song "The Only Way Is Up" topped the chart for five weeks, becoming the second biggest-selling single of the year, and paved the way for a successful solo career, including the follow-up "Stand Up for Your Love Rights", which hit No.2 in October.
One of the biggest successes of the year was 19-year-old Kylie Minogue, well known to the public from her role in the Australian soap opera Neighbours, which had been airing on the BBC since 1986. The popularity of "girl next door" Minogue and her on-screen character Charlene Mitchell ensured chart success. Signed to the production trio Stock Aitken Waterman, her debut international song "I Should Be So Lucky" was number 1 for five weeks, and all of her other solo releases this year – "Got to Be Certain", "The Loco-Motion" and "Je ne sais pas pourquoi" – reached number 2. Her album Kylie was also number 1 for six weeks, the biggest-selling album of the year and the fifth best-selling album of the entire decade. All Kylie's hits were produced by Stock Aitken Waterman who continued to score hit after hit this year. The production powerhouse also scored Top 10s with Mel and Kim ("That's The Way It Is", No.10, February) Sinitta ("Cross My Broken Heart", No.6, March), Rick Astley ("Together Forever", No.2, March and "Take Me to Your Heart", No.8, November), Bananarama ("I Want You Back", No.5, April), Hazell Dean ("Who's Leaving Who", No.4, April), Brother Beyond ("The Harder I Try", No.2, August and "He Ain't No Competition", No.6, November). In September, another star from Neighbours – Minogue's co-star Jason Donovan – debuted with his Stock Aitken Waterman-produced hit "Nothing Can Divide Us", which reached number 5 and he would go on to outsell even Kylie the following year.
Popular teenage acts other than Minogue to emerge this year included the American singer Tiffany who scored three Top 10 hits including the No.1 "I Think We're Alone Now" while fellow American teenage star Debbie Gibson also crossed over to the British Charts and had four Top 20 hits. Gibson's biggest hit was the 1980s-compilation staple "Shake Your Love", which reached number 7 in January. Meanwhile, from Italy came Sabrina whose infamous appearances in skimpy swimsuits became tabloid-fodder throughout the year as her pan-European smash hit "Boys (Summertime Love)" hit number 3 in June and the Stock Aitken Waterman-produced follow-up "All of Me" peaked at number 25 three months later.Allmusic.com Sabrina biography. Accessed 13 November 2013
New British boyband Bros took five singles into the Top 5 this year including "When Will I Be Famous?" and their only number 1 "I Owe You Nothing", a re-issue of their first single originally released in 1987. Wet Wet Wet scored the first number 1 of their long run of hits with a cover of "With a Little Help from My Friends", which held the top position for 3 weeks.
Also making her chart debut this year was nineteen-year-old Tanita Tikaram, who launched her career with the critically acclaimed album Ancient Heart, containing the Top 10 hit "Good Tradition" and the intriguing "Twist in My Sobriety", which peaked at number 22 in October. Eddi Reader also rose to prominence during 1988 as the lead-singer of Fairground Attraction. The band made number 1 with the song "Perfect" and followed it with another Top 10 hit, "Find My Love", and number 2 album, The First of a Million Kisses.
Making chart comebacks after long-absences were Cher, re-launching her music career with "I Found Someone", a number 5 hit written and produced by Michael Bolton. Belinda Carlisle revived her career this year with three Top 10s including the number 1 "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" while Kim Wilde scored a career-best three successive Top 10s with "You Came" (No.3), "Never Trust a Stranger (No.7) and "Four Letter Word" (No.6). Pop duo Dollar scored their ninth and final Top 20 hit with comeback hit "Oh L'amour", a cover of an early Erasure single, which made number 7 in April, and also making a chart comeback was the song "A Groovy Kind of Love", originally a hit in 1965 for The Mindbenders, it hit number 1 in September for Phil Collins, taken from the film Buster in which Collins also starred.
Some of the more unusual hits of the year included a remix of the theme tune from the popular television series Doctor Who, by "The Timelords", who would go on to have huge success in the early 1990s under the name The KLF. Their song "Doctorin' the TARDIS" (a play on Coldcut's "Doctorin' the House") was number 1 for a week in June. A television advertisement for Miller Lite beer used the 1969 song "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" by The Hollies, which became a number 1 in September 19 years after its original release, and an advert for Coca-Cola gave Robin Beck a number 1 with the ballad "First Time". Film and television actress Patsy Kensit, a teenager in 1988, also reached the Top 10 this year in the band Eighth Wonder. Their Pet Shop Boys–produced UK debut "I'm Not Scared" slowly climbed up the Top 40 and peaked at number 7 in May. The band were more popular in Italy and Japan where they scored several number 1 hits.
The race for Christmas number one was a battle between Cliff Richard, with a career stretching back to the 1950s and his seasonal song "Mistletoe and Wine", and new star Kylie Minogue with "Especially for You", a duet with her Neighbours co-star Jason Donovan released to coincide with their characters' on-screen wedding. Richard won the battle with the biggest-selling song of the year, but "Especially for You" climbed to number 1 in the new year of 1989, eventually selling just short of 1 million copies.
1988 saw Radio 1 start to broadcast on FM on a full time basis across much of the UK when five major transmitters begin radiating Radio 1 on FM for the first time.BBC Genome Project – BBC Radio 1 listings 25 November 1988 Previously, Radio 1 had been available on FM for only approximately 25 hours per week, when it "borrowed" BBC Radio 2's FM frequency at certain points of the day.
New classical works by British composers included oboe and trumpet concertos from Peter Maxwell Davies and Michael Finnissy's Red Earth for orchestra. Devotional works included Nicholas Jackson's Variations on ‘Praise to the Lord, the Almighty’ and John Tavener's The Akathist of Thanksgiving. Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin made his Proms debut during the 1988 season, whilst Sir Andrew Davis gave up his role as conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra to become director of Glyndebourne.Alan Blyth, "Davis, Sir Andrew (Frank)", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
Events February 8 – Kenney Jones performs for the last time as the regular drummer for The Who at the British Phonographic Industry awards ceremony, where the band receives the Lifetime Achievement Award. 15 February – The first public performance of Anthony Payne’s realisation of Elgar’s Symphony No. 3 is given by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Davis at the Royal Festival Hall. 10 March – Andy Gibb dies five days after his 30th birthday at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle caused by a recent viral infection and exacerbated by his years of cocaine abuse. 11 March – The first performance of Richard Rodney Bennett‘s Marimba Concerto takes place at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, performed by the Lehigh Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Donald Spieth. 16 April – A concert performance of the opera Beatrice Cenci by Berthold Goldschmidt takes place at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 37 years after it won first prize in the Festival of Britain opera competition. 30 April – The Eurovision Song Contest, held in the RDS Simmonscourt Pavilion, Dublin, is won by Celine Dion, representing Switzerland. The UK entry, "Go", sung by Scott Fitzgerald, finishes in second place after leading for most of the judging.Eurovision Song Contest 1988 BBC Archives
Charts
Number-one singles
Chart date(week ending) Song Artist(s) Weeks Sales 2 January "Always on My Mind" Pet Shop Boys 2 97,189 9 January 55,947 16 January "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" Belinda Carlisle 2 67,303 23 January 83,538 30 January "I Think We're Alone Now" Tiffany 3 81,413 6 February 97,988 13 February 74,987 20 February"I Should Be So Lucky"Kylie Minogue 5 92,701 27 February 110,007 5 March 87,975 12 March 65,841 19 March 48,280 26 March"Don't Turn Around"Aswad 2 48,807 2 April 63,665 9 April"Heart"Pet Shop Boys 3 44,863 16 April 55,301 23 April 48,399 30 April"Theme from S-Express"S'Express 2 58,361 7 May 61,183 14 May"Perfect"Fairground Attraction 1 65,739 21 May"With a Little Help from My Friends" / "She's Leaving Home"Wet Wet Wet / Billy Bragg 4 88,587 28 May 107,083 4 June 64,923 11 June 47,328 18 June"Doctorin' the Tardis" The Timelords 1 43,605 25 June"I Owe You Nothing"Bros 2 56,457 2 July 50,150 9 July"Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You"Glenn Medeiros 4 74,137 16 July 131,002 23 July 93,415 30 July 63,274 6 August"The Only Way Is Up"Yazz and the Plastic Population 5 61,183 13 August 122,145 20 August 103,989 27 August 88,995 3 September 67,864 10 September"A Groovy Kind of Love"Phil Collins 2 57,681 17 September 112,965 24 September"He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother"The Hollies 2 98,192 1 October 81,226 8 October"Desire"U2 1 62,118 15 October"One Moment in Time"Whitney Houston 2 47,855 22 October 63,716 29 October"Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)"Enya 3 58,310 5 November 71,604 12 November 47,617 19 November"First Time"Robin Beck 3 58,701 26 November 76,874 3 December 55,029 10 December"Mistletoe and Wine"Cliff Richard 4 128,418 17 December 160,973 24 December 174,148 31 December 218,943
Number-one albums Chart date(week ending)AlbumArtist 2 JanuaryNow 10Various Artists 9 January 16 JanuaryPopped In Souled Out Wet Wet Wet 23 JanuaryTurn Back the Clock Johnny Hates Jazz 30 JanuaryIntroducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'ArbyTerence Trent D'Arby 6 February 13 February 20 February 27 February 5 March 12 March 19 March 26 MarchViva HateMorrissey 2 AprilNow 11Various Artists 9 April 16 April 23 AprilSeventh Son of a Seventh SonIron Maiden 30 AprilThe InnocentsErasure 7 MayTango in the NightFleetwood Mac 14 May 21 MayLovesexyPrince 28 MayTango in the NightFleetwood Mac 4 JuneNite FliteVarious Artists 11 June 18 June 25 June 2 JulyTracy Chapman Tracy Chapman 9 July 16 July 23 JulyNow 12Various Artists 30 July 6 August 13 August 20 August 27 AugustKylieKylie Minogue 3 September 10 September 17 September 24 SeptemberHot City NightsVarious Artists 1 OctoberNew JerseyBon Jovi 8 October 15 OctoberFlying ColoursChris de Burgh 22 OctoberRattle and HumU2 29 OctoberMoney for NothingDire Straits 5 November 12 November 19 NovemberKylieKylie Minogue 26 November 3 DecemberNow 13Various Artists 10 December 17 December 24 DecemberPrivate Collection: 1979–1988Cliff Richard 31 December
Year end charts
Best-selling singles of 1988