Fight the Power
1989 · From Fear of a Black Planet
Spike Lee asked for a defiant anthem, and the Bomb Squad answered with layered samples and Branford Marsalis's saxophone.
★ 9.0
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1989
Showing 35 songs from 1989
Like a Prayer
1989 · From Like a Prayer
Patrick Leonard co-wrote it, Prince played the intro guitar, and Pepsi pulled its five million dollar ad but paid anyway.
★ 8.5
Personal Jesus
1989 · From Violator
Priscilla Presley's memoir gave Gore the idea, Flood cut it in Milan, and Cash later called it evangelical.
★ 7.6
Free Fallin'
1989 · From Full Moon Fever
Two days of writing with Jeff Lynne, Mike Campbell's twelve-string, and Ventura Boulevard turned into the whole San Fernando Valley.
★ 7.6
Rockin' in the Free World
1989 · From Freedom
Sampedro joked about the free world after a Soviet tour collapsed, and Young debuted the song in Seattle unrehearsed.
★ 7.5
Me, Myself and IDe La Soul
Me, Myself and I
1989 · From 3 Feet High and Rising
Prince Paul flipped Funkadelic's Knee Deep; De La Soul resisted the beat, then got their only R&B number one.
★ 7.3
Express Yourself (Madonna)
1989 · From Like a Prayer
Madonna and Stephen Bray built it on horns and handclaps; Fincher's Metropolis video cost a reported five million dollars.
★ 7.2
Love Shack
1989
Don Was suggested welding a fifteen-minute jam to a shouted chorus, and Cindy Wilson's tin-roof ad-lib stayed in.
★ 7.0
Monkey Gone to Heaven
1989 · From Doolittle
Gil Norton brought in two cellos and two violins, and Black Francis rhymed ocean pollution with borrowed numerology.
★ 7.0
Pictures of You
1989 · From Disintegration
A house fire left Smith with photographs of Mary salvaged from his wallet, and one became the single's sleeve.
★ 6.9
I Won't Back Down
1989 · From Full Moon Fever
Harrison on acoustic guitar and harmonies, Lynne producing, and Petty answering the arsonist who burned his house down.
★ 6.9
Runnin' Down a Dream
1989 · From Full Moon Fever
Mike Campbell's fuzz riff, then a closing solo of nearly two minutes he nailed in a single take.
★ 6.7
The Dance
1989
Tony Arata's lyric works as a breakup song or an elegy, and Brooks' video chose the elegy.
★ 6.6
Just a Friend
1989
Freddie Scott's "(You) Got What I Need" rebuilt on piano, with Markie singing the hook himself, flat and irresistible.
★ 6.6
Here Comes Your Man
1989 · From Doolittle
A teenage demo the band mocked as their Tom Petty song, until Gil Norton talked it onto Doolittle.
★ 6.5
Epic
1989
Bottum, Gould and Bordin had the riff before Patton arrived; the bass and that piano coda did the rest.
★ 6.3
The Best
1989 · From Foreign Affair
Bonnie Tyler recorded it first; Turner asked Holly Knight for the bridge and key change it lacked.
★ 6.0
Janie's Got a Gun
1989 · From Pump
Tyler spent nine months on the lyric, Fincher directed the video, and the Grammy went to Aerosmith's bleakest hit.
★ 5.9
If I Could Turn Back TimeCher
If I Could Turn Back Time
1989
Diane Warren got on her knees begging Cher to cut it; the video was shot aboard the USS Missouri.
★ 5.6
She Drives Me Crazy
1989
Cut at Paisley Park with David Z, the snare a drumhead struck with a wooden ruler under Gift's falsetto.
★ 5.3
If Tomorrow Never ComesGarth Brooks
If Tomorrow Never Comes
1989
Kent Blazy had the first verse down seconds after hearing the idea, and it gave Brooks his first number one.
★ 4.8
The Heart of the MatterDon Henley
The Heart of the Matter
1989
Campbell cut the track at home before Henley and Souther added words, and forgiveness never sounded so hard-won.
★ 4.8
Roam
1989
A rare B-52's lyric from an outsider, Robert Waldrop, and Pierson and Wilson make wanderlust sound weightless.
★ 4.8
We Didn't Start the Fire
1989 · From Storm Front
Joel wrote it at forty, after a twenty-one-year-old told him the fifties were dull; he has called the melody terrible.
★ 4.1
Wind Beneath My Wings
1989
A 1982 song already cut by Lou Rawls and Gary Morris before Beaches made it Record of the Year.
★ 4.1
When I Call Your Name
1989
Gill wrote it with Tim DuBois, Patty Loveless sang the harmony, and the CMA named it Single of the Year.
★ 4.0
If You Don't Know Me By Now
1989
A Gamble and Huff ballad first sung by Teddy Pendergrass in 1972, taken by Hucknall to number one in America.
★ 4.0
Another Day in Paradise
1989
The last number one of the eighties and the first of the nineties, with David Crosby singing behind Collins.
★ 4.0
Don't Know Much
1989 · From Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind
Barry Mann and Bill Medley both cut it first; Neville's tenor against Ronstadt is what finally carried it to a Grammy.
★ 3.8
Funky Cold MedinaTone Loc
Funky Cold Medina
1989
Foreigner's riff, a Funkadelic drum break, and a phrase borrowed from Flavor Flav, built into a top-three hit.
★ 3.8
Right Here Waiting
1989
Written for Cynthia Rhodes while she filmed in South Africa, turned down by Streisand, then three weeks at number one.
★ 3.2
Black Velvet
1989
Ward got the idea riding a bus of Elvis fans to the tenth Graceland vigil, and Myles won a Grammy.
★ 3.1
Cherry Pie
1989
A pizza box in a Florida Hard Rock Cafe holds the lyric Lane dashed off at the label's insistence.
★ 2.0
How Am I Supposed to Live Without You
1989
Written in 1982, handed to Branigan after Bolton refused Clive Davis's rewrite, and reclaimed for a number one.
★ 1.7