Hot Country Songs is a chart that ranks the top-performing country music songs in the United States, published by Billboard magazine. In 1988, 49 different songs topped the chart, then published under the title Hot Country Singles, in 53 issues of the magazine, based on playlists submitted by country music radio stations and sales reports submitted by stores.
Only four songs spent more than a single week at number one in 1988: "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses" by Kathy Mattea, "I Told You So" by Randy Travis, "I'll Leave This World Loving You" by Ricky Van Shelton and "When You Say Nothing at All" by Keith Whitley. Travis and Shelton each scored two other number ones during the year to give them a total of four weeks in the top spot. This figure was matched by Rosanne Cash, who achieved three solo number ones and one in collaboration with her then-husband Rodney Crowell, making her the only artist to take four different songs to number one in 1988. Highway 101, Restless Heart, George Strait and Tanya Tucker each topped the chart with three different songs.
Artists to achieve their first chart-topper in 1988 included Dwight Yoakam, who reached number one with "Streets of Bakersfield", performed as a duet with Buck Owens, who had himself had a hit with the song fifteen years earlier. The song marked the veteran singer's first appearance at number one since 1972. The Desert Rose Band achieved the first of its two number ones with "He's Back and I'm Blue", and Paul Overstreet made his first appearance at number one when he collaborated with Tanya Tucker and Paul Davis on "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love". Overstreet achieved intermittent success as a singer but is better known as a songwriter, having written hit songs for many artists. At the other end of the scale, Merle Haggard topped the chart for the 38th and final time with "Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star". At the time of Haggard's death in 2016, only Conway Twitty (40) and George Strait (44) had taken more songs to the top of the Hot Country chart since Billboard began compiling sales and airplay into a single listing in 1958. Whitley's "When You Say Nothing at All" was the final number one of the year. Whitley was at the peak of his commercial success at the time, but would die less than six months later, on May 9, 1989.
Chart history
Issue dateTitleArtist(s)"Somewhere Tonight"Highway 101"I Can't Get Close Enough"Exile"One Friend""Where Do the Nights Go""Goin' Gone""Wheels"Restless Heart"Tennessee Flat Top Box""Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star""I Won't Take Less Than Your Love" with Paul Davis and Paul Overstreet"Face to Face"Alabama"Too Gone Too Long""Life Turned Her That Way""Turn It Loose""Love Will Find Its Way to You""Famous Last Words of a Fool""I Wanna Dance with You""I'll Always Come Back""It's Such a Small World" and Rosanne Cash"Cry, Cry, Cry"Highway 101"I'm Gonna Get You""Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses""What She Is (Is a Woman in Love)""I Told You So""He's Back and I'm Blue""If It Don't Come Easy""Fallin' Again"Alabama"If You Change Your Mind""Set 'Em Up Joe""Don't We All Have the Right""Baby Blue""Don't Close Your Eyes""Bluest Eyes in Texas"Restless Heart"""I Couldn't Leave You If I Tried"""Highway 101"Joe Knows How to Live""Addicted""We Believe in Happy Endings" with Emmylou Harris"Honky Tonk Moon""Streets of Bakersfield" & Buck Owens"Strong Enough to Bend""Gonna Take a Lot of River""Darlene""Runaway Train""I'll Leave This World Loving You""I Know How He Feels""If You Ain't Lovin' (You Ain't Livin')"""Restless Heart"When You Say Nothing at All"
See also 1988 in music List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. country chart
References