List of Billboard Hot 100 number ones of 1988

These are the Billboard magazine Hot 100 number one hits of 1988. The Billboard Hot 100 is a chart that ranks the best-performing singles of the United States. Published by Billboard magazine, the data are based collectively on each single's weekly physical sales, and airplay. R&B/pop megastar Whitney Houston's two singles released from her second studio album Whitney, "So Emotional" and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go", both peaked at number one, which gave her a total of seven consecutive number one hits, breaking the record of six previously shared by The Beatles and The Bee Gees. The longest running number-one single of 1988 was "Roll With It" by Steve Winwood, which obtained four weeks at the top of the chart. When "Dirty Diana" reached number-one on the chart, it became Michael Jackson's fifth single from the album Bad to reach number-one. Jackson became the first artist to have five singles from one album reach number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 and is the only male to do so. George Michael's "Faith" was the best selling single of 1988 in the United States, despite most of its weeks at number one occurring in December 1987. (It carried over into 1988 at number one as the result of a frozen chart.) 1988 is tied with 1989 for the second most #1 hits with 32 songs going to number one.

Steve Winwood (pictured) earned his second Hot 100 number-one single with "Roll With It", which stayed at the top position for four straight weeks.

That year, 17 acts earned their first number one song, such as INXS, Exposé, Rick Astley, Terence Trent D'Arby, Gloria Estefan, Miami Sound Machine, Debbie Gibson, Cheap Trick, Richard Marx, Guns N' Roses, Bobby McFerrin, Def Leppard, UB40, The Escape Club, Will to Power and Poison. George Michael, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, and Rick Astley were the only acts to hit number one more than once, with George Michael having the most with four, Michael Jackson with three, and Whitney Houston and Rick Astley with two.

Chart history

Key

The yellow background indicates the #1 song on Billboard's 1988 Year-End Chart of Pop Singles.

An asterisk (*) by a date indicates an unpublished, "frozen" week, due to the special double issues that Billboard published in print at the end of the year for their year-end charts.

No.	Issue date	Song	Artist(s)	Ref.
646	January 2*	"Faith"	George Michael	[1]
647	January 9	"So Emotional"	Whitney Houston	[2][3]
648	January 16	"Got My Mind Set on You"	George Harrison	[4][5]
649	January 23	"The Way You Make Me Feel"	Michael Jackson	[6][7]
650	January 30	"Need You Tonight"	INXS	[8][9]
651	February 6	"Could've Been"	Tiffany	[10][11]
	February 13			[12][13]
652	February 20	"Seasons Change"	Exposé	[14][15]
653	February 27	"Father Figure"	George Michael	[16][17]
	March 5			[18][19]
654	March 12	"Never Gonna Give You Up"	Rick Astley	[20][21]
	March 19			[22][23]
655	March 26	"Man in the Mirror"	Michael Jackson	[24][25]
	April 2			[26][27]
656	April 9	"Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car"	Billy Ocean	[28][29]
	April 16			[30][31]
657	April 23	"Where Do Broken Hearts Go"	Whitney Houston	[32][33]
	April 30			[34][35]
658	May 7	"Wishing Well"	Terence Trent D'Arby	[36][37]
659	May 14	"Anything for You"	Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine	[38][39]
	May 21			[40][41]
660	May 28	"One More Try"	George Michael	[42][43]
	June 4			[44][45]
	June 11			[46][47]
661	June 18	"Together Forever"	Rick Astley	[48][49]
662	June 25	"Foolish Beat"	Debbie Gibson	[50][51]
663	July 2	"Dirty Diana"	Michael Jackson	[52][53]
664	July 9	"The Flame"	Cheap Trick	[54][55]
	July 16			[56][57]
665	July 23	"Hold On to the Nights"	Richard Marx	[58][59]
666	July 30	"Roll With It"	Steve Winwood	[60][61]
	August 6			[62][63]
	August 13			[64][65]
	August 20			[66][67]
667	August 27	"Monkey"	George Michael	[68][69]
	September 3			[70][71]
668	September 10	"Sweet Child o' Mine"	Guns N' Roses	[72][73]
	September 17			[74][75]
669	September 24	"Don't Worry, Be Happy"	Bobby McFerrin	[76][77]
	October 1			[78][79]
670	October 8	"Love Bites"	Def Leppard	[80][81]
671	October 15	"Red Red Wine"	UB40	[82][83]
672	October 22	"A Groovy Kind of Love"	Phil Collins	[84][85]
	October 29			[86][87]
673	November 5	"Kokomo"	The Beach Boys	[88][89]
674	November 12	"Wild, Wild West"	The Escape Club	[90][91]
675	November 19	"Bad Medicine"	Bon Jovi	[92][93]
	November 26			[94][95]
676	December 3	"Baby, I Love Your Way/Freebird Medley"	Will to Power	[96][97]
677	December 10	"Look Away"	Chicago	[98][99]
	December 17			[100][101]
678	December 24	"Every Rose Has Its Thorn"	Poison	[102][103]
	December 31*			[104][105]

Number-one artists

List of number-one artists by total weeks at number one

Position	Artist	Weeks at No. 1
1	George Michael	8
2	Michael Jackson	4
	Steve Winwood
4	Whitney Houston	3
	Rick Astley
6	Tiffany	2
	Billy Ocean
	Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine
	Cheap Trick
	Guns N' Roses
	Bobby McFerrin
	Phil Collins
	Bon Jovi
	Chicago
	Poison
16	George Harrison	1
	INXS
	Exposé
	Terence Trent D'Arby
	Debbie Gibson
	Richard Marx
	Def Leppard
	UB40
	The Beach Boys
	The Escape Club
	Will to Power

See also

• 1988 in music
• List of Billboard number-one singles
• List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of the 1980s