It became Summer's biggest hit in the UK since the 1970s (during which time she had been the most popular female disco artist), reaching number three and spending a total of 14 weeks in the Top 75, longer than any of her other singles there. It also reached #7 in both the U.S. (where it was certified Gold) and Canada, making it Summer's first transatlantic hit since 1979. It was Summer's 14th and last U.S. top ten hit.

This was Summer's first U.S. single to be released on Atlantic Records, a division of Warner Bros. Records. Since 1980 she had been signed to Geffen (also a division of Warner Bros.) but her work across Europe had always been distributed by Warner Bros.' main label. This would continue to be the case following her signing to Atlantic.

The video was directed by Dieter Trattmann.

LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948 – May 17, 2012), known by the stage name Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the late 1970s. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Summer was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach number one on the United States Billboard chart, and she also charted four number-one singles in the United States within a 13-month period.

The song reached within the top ten position in Australia, Austria, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Netherland and the UK making it one of her biggest hits to date. In the U.S. it peaked at number 11. "Leave a Light On'" features former Beatle George Harrison on the slide guitar.

The single can be heard in a 1991 episode of the TV sitcom Out of This World entitled "I Want My Evie TV".

Note: There is also a version of "Leave a Light On" called the Kamikazee mix, included on Carlisle's "Vision of You" CD single, clocking in at 4:42, but it is unknown whether this version is simply shorter than the 8:05 "extended version" or a new, unique mix.

"Like a Prayer" is a pop rock song that incorporates elements of gospel music. A choir provides background vocals that heighten the song's spiritual nature, while rock guitar sounds keep the music dark and mysterious. Madonna introduced liturgical words in the lyrics—which were inspired by her Catholic upbringing—but changed the context in which they were used. Thus, they had dual meanings of sexual innuendo and religion. "Like a Prayer" was acclaimed by critics, and was a commercial success. It became Madonna’s seventh number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, and reached the top of the singles charts in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom and other countries.

The single's accompanying music video, which Mary Lambert directed, features Madonna as a witness to a murder, as she hides in a church for safety. The clip depicts Catholic symbols such as stigmata and burning crosses, and a dream about making love to a saint. After its release, the Vatican condemned the music video, while family and religious groups protested its broadcast. They boycotted products by soft drink manufacturer Pepsi, which used the song for a commercial. Madonna's contract with Pepsi was subsequently canceled, although she was allowed to retain her initial fee.

Alongside its respective album, "Like a Prayer" has been marked as a turning point in Madonna's career, as she began to be viewed as an efficient businesswoman—someone who knew how to sell a concept.

It was remade by the new wave group Animotion in 1989 and included on their eponymous third album. Animotion released the song as a single, and it reached number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. Cynthia Rhodes and Paul Engemann shared lead vocals on the song, which was featured in the 1988 science-fiction comedy film, My Stepmother Is an Alien.

Animotion is a 1980s U.S. New Wave/synthpop band from Los Angeles, California best known for their songs "Obsession" (written by Michael Des Barres and Holly Knight), "Let Him Go", "I Engineer" and "Room to Move". Formed in 1983 from the remnants of a retro science-fiction band called Red Zone, they signed a record deal with Polygram Records in 1984 and made three albums.

In the midst of recording their third album, Animotion went through personnel changes, as all three of the remaining founding members (Bill Wadhams, Astrid Plane and Charles Ottavio) departed. Following their departure, Ottavio and Plane married. Actress/dancer/singer Cynthia Rhodes, known for her performance as the character "Penny Johnson" in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, replaced Plane as female lead singer, and former solo artist/Device member Paul Engemann replaced Wadhams as the male lead for Animotion's second self-titled album, informally known as "Room to Move" (due to the success of this song) to distinguish it from their first LP. By the time of this album's release, only Kirkpatrick and Smith remained officially in the "band" backing Rhodes and Engemann, and other session musicians were used during its recording. The single "Room to Move," is a remake of the 1988 song by the group Climie Fisher and was aided by its inclusion in the movie My Stepmother is an Alien, became a radio hit in April 1989, and their second Top 10 hit in the U.S., after "Obsession" in 1985; but the album itself failed to chart and Animotion broke up after that.

Unlike the rest of the garage-band pop songs on their album Everything, the song was a ballad. Co-writer Billy Steinberg describes it as "The Beatles meet The Byrds".

The song was inspired by two eternal flames: one at the gravesite of Elvis Presley that the Bangles saw when the band visited Graceland, and one at a local synagogue in Palm Springs which Steinberg attended as a child Steinberg recalled to Songfacts: "Susanna was talking about The Bangles having visited Graceland, and she said there was some type of shrine to Elvis that included some kind of eternal flame. As soon as those words were mentioned, I immediately thought of the synagogue in the town of Palm Springs, California where I grew up. I remember during our Sunday school class they would walk us through the sanctuary. There was one little red light and they told us it was called the eternal flame."

It spent one week at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, blocking Milli Vanilli's "Girl You Know It's True" from reaching the summit position. It was preceded at #1 on the Hot 100 by Mike + The Mechanics' "The Living Years" and succeeded by Roxette's "The Look".

The song debuted on the UK Singles Chart in February 1989 at number 81 and peaked at number one in April spending four weeks there and went on to spend twenty weeks in the chart and was the UK's third best-selling song of 1989.   The song also spent seven weeks at the #1 position in the Dutch Top 40. It also topped the U.S. adult contemporary chart for two weeks.   The song was Australia's 4th biggest selling single of '89 and was sent up on the Australian TV show Fast Forward.

After its release, "Cherish" received positive feedback from reviewers, who were surprised by the change of content and the lighter image of Madonna's music, unlike her previous singles from Like a Prayer. They also compared the lyrics of the song to words spoken by Juliet, in William Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet. "Cherish" was also a commercial success, reaching the top-ten of the charts in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Italy, United Kingdom and the combined European chart. On the Billboard Hot 100, "Cherish" became Madonna's sixteenth consecutive top-five single, setting a record in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

A black-and-white music video of the song was directed by photographer Herb Ritts at the Paradise Cove Beach in Malibu, California. In the video, Madonna played herself, while three co-actors who were dressed as Mermen swam in and out of the sea. Academics noted that the Mermen became symbols for the homosexual community and the oppression it faced. Madonna performed "Cherish" on her 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour, where the performance included her dancers dressed up as Mermen. The symbolism was seen to de-sexualize men, relegating them to objects of desire.

White was born in Los Angeles,to Vivian and Clarence White. She is the youngest of five children. She sang in a church choir and worked as a backing singer, then sang on Jeff Lorber's single "Facts of Love" before signing to Warner Bros. Records.

White married Terry Lewis in 1992 and together they had a daughter, Ashley Nicole. They eventually divorced in 1999, and she later married producer/musician Bobby G.

White's self-titled debut album Karyn White was released in 1988. It was produced by L.A. Reid and Babyface and achieved platinum status. Karyn White contained the hit singles "The Way You Love Me", "Secret Rendezvous" (#6 in the U.S., her biggest hit at the time), "Superwoman" and "Love Saw It" a duet with Babyface. White was nominated in the Best R&B/Urban Contemporary New Artist category for the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards.She was also nominated for two Grammy Awards. She became the first female artist to have their first three solo releases hit #1 on the R&B charts.

Her follow-up album was Ritual of Love in 1991. It had songs produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and featured the hit single "Romantic", which hit number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Other singles from the album include "The Way I Feel About You" (U.S. #12), "Walkin' the Dog," and "Do Unto Me" (the last two did not chart).

Gibson had written the song as a statement about how young people of that era were seen and how their ideas were often ignored. As a teenager herself, she was a firm believer that the beliefs and ideas held by young people were just as important as those held by adults and the song reminded people of this. It also reminded them that the current youth would become the next generation of adults.

The music video was directed by Gibson and Jim Yukich and was nominated for a moonman at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Art Direction in a video.

A pop version by New Kids on the Block was featured on the group's 1986 self-titled debut album. The song was later released a stand-alone single during the groups Hangin' Tough era in an attempt to heighten the profile of the album it was from. Their cover of the song, slightly re-titled "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind)," peaked at number eight on both the US and UK pop charts in October 1989.

The single entered the UK singles charts on 12 November 1988; it rose to a high of number 62, and remained in the charts for 2 weeks

"One" was written in November 1987 by Metallica's principal composers James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. The song was released in 1989 as the fourth and final single from the album. For the first 17 seconds of the song there are a series of sound effects with a battle theme, an artillery barrage and helicopter are heard and continues slightly over a clean tone guitar intro by Hetfield before Kirk Hammett comes in over the top with a clean-toned solo. The song speeds up after Ulrich's drums come in and continues until each chorus, when the guitars become heavy and distorted before returning to clean. There is a second solo by Hammett halfway through the song, before lyrics cut out and the song gradually gets more heavy and distorted until the "machine gun" guitar build up (played alongside double bass drums) before the next, often highly praised, guitar solo by Hammett, and a final dual solo by Hammett and Hetfield. The song is in standard 4/4, similar to the majority of Metallica songs.

In 1991, James Hetfield told Guitar World that he wrote the song's opening B-G modulation based on an idea prompted by the Venom song "Buried Alive".

The song was composed by drummer Debbi Peterson and Walter Iglehart, and produced by Davitt Sigerson. Peterson sang lead vocals on the song, one of the only two A-sides upon which she did so. The track was remixed by Chris Lord-Alge for the single release. This is also their third consecutive Billboard Top 40 hit single written by at least one band member. The song reached #30 on Billboard in June 1989, becoming the last one to hit the charts, a situation that contributed more to the group's dissolution months later.

Martika is the only one who sings throughout the song, although she is joined on the chorus by some of her former castmates from Kids Incorporated, including the Black Eyed Peas's Stacy Ferguson, Rahsaan Patterson, Renee Sands, as well as later cast members Jennifer Love Hewitt and Devyn Puett, as backup vocalists.

The song spent two weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. and New Zealand while reaching number five in both the United Kingdom and Australia. When it spent its first week at number one, it had leapt over Madonna's "Express Yourself" and kept that song from reaching the top spot. On Billboard's year-end chart for 1989, "Toy Soldiers" placed number 29. It was Martika's only number-one single in the U.S., and her highest-ranking single in the United Kingdom. The single was certified Gold in the United States by the RIAA.

In March and April 2009, VH1 ran a countdown of the 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the 80s. "Toy Soldiers" placed at #67 on the countdown despite the fact that Martika had three other Top 40 hits: "More Than You Know" (#18); "I Feel the Earth Move" (#25); and "Love ... Thy Will Be Done" (#10).

There are two distinct versions of the song: The original album version which includes a keyboard solo and the remixed version, which is arguably more recognizable and commonly appears on Greatest Hits albums, which includes a guitar solo. The song was used in the 1989 film The Wizard as well as the Regular Show episode "High Score". Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song for their 1991 album The Chipmunks Rock the House.  

New Kids on the Block (also initialized as NKOTB) are an American boy band from Boston, Massachusetts, assembled in 1984 by producer Maurice Starr. The band consists of brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, and Danny Wood.

New Kids on the Block enjoyed success in the late 1980s and early 1990s and have sold 80 million records worldwide. They won two American Music Awards in 1990 for Favorite Pop/Rock Band, Duo, or Group and Favorite Pop/Rock Album.

After having disbanded in 1994, several attempts were made to get the group back together, all of them unsuccessful. After secretly reuniting in 2007 and recording a new CD, the group released that new album and embarked on a concert tour in 2008. The album, entitled The Block was released on September 2, 2008. New Kids on the Block was enlisted number 16 as one of the Rolling Stone's Top 25 Teen Idol Breakout Moments.

Known as one of their signature tunes, "A Little Respect" continued Erasure's success on the UK Singles Chart, where it hit number four to become the band's fifth Top 10 single. It was also Erasure's second consecutive Top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, where it climbed to number 14, and hit number two on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Songs chart. In the U.S. the remixes were made by Justin Strauss.

Written by Erasure members Vince Clarke and Andy Bell, the heavily synthesized instrumentation is accentuated by acoustic guitar and Bell's use of falsetto in the chorus. The lyrics are an empowering plea to a lover to show compassion and respect.

An acoustic version of "A Little Respect" is featured on the Moon & the Sky Plus EP in the UK. The song was remixed in 2006 by Jaded Alliance for the Future Retro compilation, and again in 2009 by Avantara for the Pop! Remixed album and EP and by Wayne G & Andy Allder for inclusion on the Phantom Bride EP.

Erasure remixed and re-released the track in December 2010 as a digital download-only single for charity. Proceeds from the sale of the single benefit the Hetrick-Martin Institute, the home of the Harvey Milk High School in New York, and the True Colors Fund. Called the "HMI Redux", it includes additional vocals from the Hetrick-Martin Institute youth chorus. Numerous HMI youth were featured in the "HMI Redux" music video that accompanied the track. Produced by Laundry Service Media and directed by Jason Stein, the video premiered on the Huffington Post and was featured on Perez Hilton.

"Love in an Elevator", like the other tracks on Pump, were recorded sometime in April to June 1989 at Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia. During the writing process, lead singer Steven Tyler is said to have come upon the concept of the song while researching famous battleships. Specifically, an instance on the Russian Battleship Navarin, in which one of the crew was famously quoted, as the ship was going down, "Мы должны жить вверх, в то время как мы теперь идем вниз," or when translated "we must live upwards now, for it is downward we head." Steven Tyler claims the song's lyrics were inspired by an experience he had at a hotel, in which he was making out with a girl in the elevator and they started having sex as the doors opened; “It felt like a lifetime waiting for those doors to close,” quipped Tyler.

The song was produced by Bruce Fairbairn and was engineered by Mike Fraser with Ken Lomas as second engineer, and in addition to Aerosmith – Steven Tyler (lead vocals), Joe Perry (guitars, backing vocals), Brad Whitford (guitars), Tom Hamilton (electric bass, backing vocals), & Joey Kramer (drums, percussion) – were Bob Dowd (backing vocals), Bruce Fairbairn (backing vocals), and Catherine Epps (elevator operator).

The song is a mid-tempo dance tune. The synthetic lead trumpet sound comes from the Roland D-50 (preset 1-5).

"Straight Up" was the third single released from her debut album Forever Your Girl, after "Knocked Out" and "(It's Just) The Way That You Love Me". While the latter was enjoying success on the R&B charts, radio station KMEL in San Francisco started playing "Straight Up" from the album. The label decided to abandon "(It's Just) The Way That You Love Me" and refocus its attention on "Straight Up". The strategy paid off, as "Straight Up" was followed by three more number-one hits from the same album.

The record spent three weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart from February 11, 1989 and was ranked fourth in the Top 100 hits of 1989. It was certified Platinum by the RIAA with sales of more than one million units It reached number three in the UK and Germany.

After debuting at number 79 on the chart the week of December 3, 1988, the song became so popular that it ascended to the Hot 100 top 20 before a music video had even been shot for the song. The black and white video, directed by David Fincher and choreographed by Paula herself, won four 1989 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Female Video, Best Editing, Best Choreography, and the first Best Dance Video. The video features a special appearance by Paula's friend, comedian Arsenio Hall, whose popular talk show would not premiere until a few weeks after the video was shot. The video at the time went into very heavy rotation on MTV, and it also made Abdul known for her exceptionally creative and distinct videos.

The song is a pastiche of The Beatles and was produced in a style reminiscent of their late 1960s output. The song was written in 1987, during the week of the 1987 General Election in the UK, in which Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher won her third term in office. The election prompted Roland Orzabal who comes from a working class background to take an interest in politics and socialism, and at the time of its release, he considered this to be the most overtly political song that Tears For Fears had ever recorded. The song's title was inspired by a radio programme that Orzabal had heard at the time about a man who was putting together a collection of traditional English folk songs. One of the more obscure songs was called "The Seeds of Love" which he had learned about from a gardener called Mr. England (reflected in the lyric "Mr England sowing the seeds of love"). The song borrows synthesizer elements of the 1971 piece "Sekoilu Seestyy" by Finnish artist Pekka Pohjola, also sampled by DJ Shadow for his track "Midnight In A Perfect World".

The music video was directed by Jim Blashfield, who had already made acclaimed videos for Joni Mitchell ("Good Friends"), Paul Simon ("The Boy in the Bubble") and Michael Jackson ("Leave Me Alone"). The video won two awards at the MTV Music Video Awards: Best Breakthrough Video and Best Special Effects. It was also nominated in the "Best Group Video" and "Best Postmodern Video" categories.

It was also the first song ever played on Atlantic 252, an Irish radio station broadcasting across most of the UK, which went live at 7am on 1 September 1989, when Gary King greeted listeners to the new station.

The single was released on multiple formats, including a 7" single, a 12" single, a 12" picture disc, and a CD Single.

The song first appeared on Sheriff's self-titled debut album (the group's only album, to date), released in 1982. It was released as a single but failed to make a big impression on the charts at the time.

After the success of "When I'm with You" several years later, Freddy Curci (lead vocalist) and Steve DeMarchi (lead guitarist) tried to put Sheriff back together, but the other band members would not release permission for use of the band name. Consequently, Curci and DeMarchi formed the band Alias, which would have a hit in 1990 with the power ballad "More Than Words Can Say".

Freddy Curci is listed in the Guinness Book of Records for holding the longest note in a pop song, timed and submitted by a Houston university, at the ending line of "When I'm with You."

This song is also notable that it was one of the few #1 hits not to have a promotional video during the MTV era.

One variant mixed from the original multitrack, "Lost in Your Eyes" (Piano and Vocal Mix/3:34), was only available in Europe as Track 3 of the CD3 release #A8970CD. The song is mentioned by name in Kimya Dawson's, "Caving in," as the singer's preferred alternative to "Unchained Melody".

In 2006, Gibson rearranged the song with Tim and Ryan O'Neill for the O'Neill Brothers album Someone You Love. In 2010, Gibson re-recorded the song in both English and Japanese as extra tracks for the Japan-exclusive album Ms. Vocalist.

According to songwriter Billy Steinberg, "In Your Room" was written in the same batch of songs as "Eternal Flame". Steinberg recalled, "[The Bangles] liked everything from Petula Clark to The Beatles and all the Sixties music they loved. So when we got together to write with Susannah it was right up our alley because of course Tom and I grew up in the sixties and that was what we loved. So we had that in common with Susannah". He added that the song's style was somewhat similar to "Mony Mony", the 1968 hit single by Tommy James and the Shondells.

Released in October 1988, "In Your Room" entered the Billboard Hot 100 the following month and peaked at number five in January. It reached number four on the Singles Sales chart, number nine on the Hot 100 Airplay chart, and number five on the Modern Rock chart. The song also peaked at number 11 in New Zealand, number 41 in Australia, and number 35 in the United Kingdom

"My Brave Face" was first recorded at sessions overseen by McCartney and Costello in early 1988. Excerpts from this session were eventually used in McCartney's documentary video Put It There, but other than that were not used. The final version of the song was recorded later the same year at Olympic Studios in London, with producer Mitchell Froom joining in on the work. According to the Put It There documentary, Costello requested that McCartney bring his iconic Höfner violin bass, which he had not played in years, to the recording session. To this day, Paul still uses this bass, in addition to the Rickenbacker 4001 and his Wal 5-String Customized.

The lyrics speak of finding direction in one's life ("Think about direction / Wonder why you haven't before"), and of doing more than only contemplating change or wishing for it ("If wishes were trees / The trees would be falling").

Singer Michael Stipe has said of the song's origin that he and the other band members were discussing The Banana Splits, The Archies, The Monkees, and similar ’60s pop groups. “They threw these super bubblegummy songs at me, and I said, ‘I’ll raise you and see you one.’ And I wrote the most inane lyrics that I could possibly write. Now, it was a very intentional thing to do that. I really like most of those songs, in fact.”

"Weird Al" Yankovic parodied "Stand" for his 1989 album, UHF, as "Spam".

"Stand" was used as the opening theme to the early 1990s Fox comedy Get a Life, starring Chris Elliott.

The song was placed on R.E.M.'s Warner Bros. Records "best of" album In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988–2003 in 2003.

The song is an example of "truck driver's gear change", as the last two rounds of the chorus are each one whole step higher than the one previous

Released as the album's first single in August 1989, "Mixed Emotions" made into the top 10 in the US, going to #5, and was also a #1 hit on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for five weeks. This is significant as it would be the Stones' last US top 10 single thus far, but they would go on to have more chart hits on the Mainstream Rock chart. To match the upbeat nature of the song, the music video featured the Stones, playful and smiling, performing the song as well as recording it. This stands in stark contrast to the band's previous video, 1986's "One Hit (to the Body)," filmed during a time when relations between Jagger and Richards were at an all-time low, and which featured uncomfortable physical sparring between the two.

"Rock and a Hard Place" was released as the second single from Steel Wheels on 13 November 1989 in the UK. The b-side was a slow blues number entitled "Cook Cook Blues." The single reached number 63 in the UK, number 23 in the US and number 1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song has been performed by the Stones sporadically since its release, appearing on the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour, Voodoo Lounge Tour, Bridges to Babylon Tour, and Licks Tour.