Pick of the Year : 1989

‘It wasn’t like I picked a camera up in 1989 and stopped making music. I picked a camera up and found another form of expression’ – Nikki Sixx

Dad’s ‘Pick of the Year’ tapes were always a firm family favourite where he would make a compilation cassette of his favourite songs form that year. He stopped in 1992 however, when music got a bit too modern for him. It’s something over the years I’ve tried to carry on, and did for a while but, no one listens to CDs anymore and they don’t have the same impact as mp3 playlists. I’ve often thought about restarting it all from 1982 on my blog though just so I have somewhere to put them all for prosperity sake.

The first rule of POTY is DON’T TALK ABOUT PICK OF THE YEAR, sorry, that’s the illegal underground fight club i’m part of.

The first rule of POTY is that you can only pick songs that charted in the top 75 in the UK. The second rule of POTY is that you can only pick enough songs that would fit onto an old C120 cassette (between 30-40 tracks). The final rule, one which I’ve imposed myself, is that you must include that year’s Christmas number 1 (highlighted in green)

1. Black Box – Ride on Time
2. Gladys Knight – Licence to Kill
3. Lightning Seeds – Pure
4. Aerosmith – Love in an Elevator
5. Roy Orbison – You Got It
6. Bagles – Eternal Flame
7. Guns N Roses – Sweet Chold O Mine
8. Cher – If I Could Turn Back Time
9. Don Henley – End of the Innocence
10. Soul II Soul – Back to Life
11. Tom Petty – I Won’t Back Down
12. Billy Joel – We Didn’t Start the Fire
13. Jive Bunny – Swing the Mood
14. Richard Marx – Right Here Waiting
15. Traveling Wilbury’s – End of the Line
16. Tom Petty – Free Fallin’
17. Bon Jovi – Lay Your Hands on Me
18. New Kids on the Block – The Right Stuff
19. Jason Donovan – Too Many Broken Hearts
20. Michael Jackson – Leave Me Alone
21. Bon Jovi – I’ll Be There for You
22. Madonna – Express Yourself
23. Fine Young Cannibals – Good Thing
24. Tears for Fears – Sowing the Seeds of Love
25. Del Amitri – Kiss This Thing Goodbye
26. Phil Collins – Another Day in Paradise
27. Neneh Cherry – Manchild
28.  Sydney Youngblood – If Only I Could
29. Kylie Minogue – Hand on you Heart
30. Madonna – Like a Prayer
31. Fine Young Cannibals – She Drives Me Crazy
32. Marc Almond & Gene Pitney – Something’s Gotten Hold of my Heart
33. Morrissey – Last of the Fanous International Playboys
34. Lisa Stansfield – All Around the World
35. Sam Brown – Stop
36. Karyn White – Superwoman
37. Technotronic – Pump up the Jam
38. Bananarama – Help
39. Paula Abdul – Straight Up
40. Transvision Vamp – Baby I Don’t Care
41. Simple Minds – Belfast Child
42. Holly Johnson – Americanos
43. Band Aid II – Do They Know It’s Christmas