Road Crew Magazine
Music Magazine with News, Reviews, Photos and Video

I thought I would take  a different twist in our This Day In Rock column and do a 20 year flashback.  Looking back at the year 1988 and getting a refresher as to what music was out and about 20 years ago.

In 1988, I was a freshman in high school, didn't have a driver's license and took basketball so that I did not have to take P.E.  I was thrilled that I no longer had to eat school food and was able to go home for lunch, but thought it really sucked that I couldn't take speech and debate or join colorgaurd in band until my sophomore year.  Just so you know, when you're 5'2" and marching with a Tenor Sax, it's not fun.

But besides, all of that, it was an awesome year for music.  After school, you can take it to the bank, that MTV was on while I was doing homework....or when I was supposed to be doing homework and I was not going to miss the most requested video of the day; wasn't gonna happen.  So, here's a look back at the music that rocked our world back in 1988. 

Aerosmith had two memorable hits in 1988 from the album Permanent Vacation, with Angel, which went to #3 on the Billboard Top 100 and Rag Doll which went to #17. 

In 1988, Posion released it's second album Open Up and Say Ahh! which yielded a harvest of hits including Fallen Angel, Nothin But a Good Time, and insanely popular Every Rose Has It's Thron.

Who will ever forget when Guns N' Roses burst onto the music scene.  Axl's teased out hair for the Welcome to the Jungle video, or Slash's eyes hidden behind that mass of curls crowned in that signature top hat.  And in 1988, they made their presence known on MTV daily with Welcome to the Jungle, and Sweet Child O' Mine.

Van Hagar...I mean, Van Halen had a couple of hits from their ablum OU812 with Finish What Ya Started and When It's Love, which topped out on the Billboard Hot 100 at #5.

There were women who could rock just as hard as the men in the 80's, and Lita Ford was a singer/gutiarist who would at times out rock a lot of the men.  In 1988, Lita's single Kiss Me Deadly went all the way to #1.

In the midst of all the hair mania that ran lose in the 80's one of the top names that was on everyone's lips was Bon Jovi.  From their 4th album, New Jersy, 2 tracks were relased in 1988.  Bad Medicine went all the way to #1 and for the video, the band handed out tons of video cameras to the fans for the footage.  The second hit in 88', was Born To Be My Baby, which went to #7.

For our last flashback, I give you Cinderella, who had a hit with their power ballad Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone), from the album Long Cold Winter.  Who knew that years down the road, this song would make VH1's Most Awesomely Bad Break-up Songs....Ever list, ranking #37.

Well, I can only speak for myself when I say that that I always enjoy taking these trips back to the past, and the upside, you don't need Doc Brown's DeLorean to go back in time.