Back In The Day: The Billboard Modern Rock Charts From 35 Years Ago

New Additions Cont’d
U2 - “Dancing Barefoot”




From one of my wife's least favorite songs ("Veronica") to one of her all-time favorites ("Last Of The Famous International Playboys")

And again, like "Crash" by The Primitives, I had no idea that The Proclaimers originally released this song in the 80's. It later got popular in the 90's because of the Benny & Joon soundtrack.
I was looking ahead at some 1994 lists and noticed that similarly to the Primitives and the Proclaimers tunes, the Cowboy Junkies “Sweet Jane” would also reenters the charts in 1994 thanks to Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers soundtrack. The 90s was the prime soundtrack era.
 
Modern Rock Tracks for Week Ending 04/29/1989
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No. 1 Song
XTC - “Mayor Of Simpleton”


Tracks that fell out of the top 30
Simple Minds - “Mandela Bay”
Sam Phillips - “Holding On To The Earth”
The Proclaimers - “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”
Tanita Tikaram - “Twist In My Sobriety”
Fire Town - “The Good Life”
Easterhouse - “Come Out Fighting”

New Additions
Joe Jackson - “Nineteen Forever”


Lou Reed - “Busload Of Faith”


Tom Tom Club - “Suboceana”
 
According to Spotify “Mayor Of Simpleton” ranks number 5 on their most popular behind:

“Making Plans For Nigel”
“Dear God”
“Senses Working Overtime”
“Generals And Majors”

I am familiar with “Dear God” and “Senses Working Overtime” I should probably check out the others too.
Senses Working Overtime is an all time favourite of mine.

Funny, I am familiar with almost all the new artists this week, and yet I still could not hum any of these tunes for you. I stick by my comments last week, 1989 was dominated by indie dinosaurs
 
According to Spotify “Mayor Of Simpleton” ranks number 5 on their most popular behind:

“Making Plans For Nigel”
“Dear God”
“Senses Working Overtime”
“Generals And Majors”

I am familiar with “Dear God” and “Senses Working Overtime” I should probably check out the others too.
I was at a Karen’s Hallmark the other day and Making Plans For Nigel was playing. It made me shop approximately 4 minutes longer than I had planned.
 
New Additions Con’t
House Of Freaks - “Sun Gone Down”


Holy crap, and apologies for getting dark. I was listening to this as I wasn't familiar with it at all, then went to the wikipedia entry for the band and discovered that one of the members (Bryan Harvey) had been murdered (along with his wife and kids) in 2006. It tugged at the backstory of a song written by the Drive~By Truckers - "Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife", which was written about the murder of Bryan and his family.


 
According to Spotify “Mayor Of Simpleton” ranks number 5 on their most popular behind:

“Making Plans For Nigel”
“Dear God”
“Senses Working Overtime”
“Generals And Majors”

I am familiar with “Dear God” and “Senses Working Overtime” I should probably check out the others too.
But could that be from us dummies listening to it repeatedly for the last month or so?
 
Holy crap, and apologies for getting dark. I was listening to this as I wasn't familiar with it at all, then went to the wikipedia entry for the band and discovered that one of the members (Bryan Harvey) had been murdered (along with his wife and kids) in 2006. It tugged at the backstory of a song written by the Drive~By Truckers - "Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife", which was written about the murder of Bryan and his family.



Wow. I was completely unaware. That is one of my favorite DBT tracks too.
 
Holy crap, and apologies for getting dark. I was listening to this as I wasn't familiar with it at all, then went to the wikipedia entry for the band and discovered that one of the members (Bryan Harvey) had been murdered (along with his wife and kids) in 2006. It tugged at the backstory of a song written by the Drive~By Truckers - "Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife", which was written about the murder of Bryan and his family.



Fucking hell
 
According to Spotify “Mayor Of Simpleton” ranks number 5 on their most popular behind:

“Making Plans For Nigel”
“Dear God”
“Senses Working Overtime”
“Generals And Majors”

I am familiar with “Dear God” and “Senses Working Overtime” I should probably check out the others too.
I would say "The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead" is pretty big for them too. And then Crash Test Dummies covered it shortly after for the Dumb & Dumber soundtrack.

But having not really discovered XTC until the early 90's it's still surprising to me to see how long Mayor sat atop this chart.
 
Speaking of XTC, while its well known that they stopped touring due to Andy's stage fright, the drummer started touring again recently with a band playing XTC songs (w/ the rest of the bands approval). Saw them last year, and it was a really enjoyable show, well worth searching out if they are near you. Fun to hear the classic songs live.

 
Modern Rock Tracks for Week Ending 05/06/1989
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No. 1 Song
The Cure - “Fascination Street”


Tracks that fell out of the top 30
Thrashing Doves - “Angel Visit”
Elvis Costello - “Veronica”
Throwing Muses - “Dizzy”
Violent Femmes - “Nightmares”

New Additions
Love & Rockets - “So Alive”


Xymox - “Obsession”


Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper - “Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant With My Two-Headed Love Child”
 
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