8 of the 80s: 3/7/13 (1989)...

It's time to get in your Benetton and take a trip back to 1989, with eight more nuggets from the year Romania ousted and then executed the Communist President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife...

Holly Johnson - "Love Train"
from the album Blast (1989)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #65

The lead singer of Frankie Goes To Hollywood strikes out on his own with his feel-good pop confection that's the opposite of his former bands being.

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Dead Or Alive - "Come Home With Me Baby"
from the album Nude (1989)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #69

I don't know what possessed Pete Burns to forgo the Stock Aitken Waterman hitmaking formula and go the Expose' route but besides another club hit this signalled their 30 minutes (two albums) were up.

Christopher Max - "Serious Kinda Girl"
from the album More Than Physical (1989)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #75

The obscure R&B singer had the benefit of a Nile Rodgers production, but the Chic-man was kind of out of his element in this proto-new-jack-milieu.

Patti LaBelle - "If You Asked Me To"
from the album Be Yourself (1989)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #79

Before Celine Dion got a hold of the song, this was one of the lesser-received James Bond themes, from License To Kill, but is much better than the Canadian diva, especially the video, filmed at the time of Patti's sister's death.

Living Colour - "Open Letter (To A Landlord)"
from the album Vivid (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #82

Living Colour should have been huge, but rock radio was still pretty unconsciously racist, but their impact lasted much longer than more popular cookie-cutter hair bands.

Winger - "Hungry"
from the album Winger (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #85

Speaking of hair bands, Winger may not have had the biggest hits, but all the girls in my town knew who Kip was. This was the fourth hit single from their debut.

TKA - "You Are The One"
from the album Louder Than Love (1990)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #91

TKA was the "supergroup" of Latin Freestyle dance music, and this was the first single from their second album that New York stations played nonstop that year, as well as being featured in the Lean On Me movie.

When In Rome - "Heaven Knows"
from the album When in Rome (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #95

The English duo bridged the divide between freestyle and new wave, and this nugget that followed their big hit "The Promise" deserved better. Very Erasure doing Information Society-like.

That does it for this shoulder-pad flashback. I'll be back tomorrow with another Song of the Day, Candletime, and my top-100 tunes for the week. Goodnight!