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1988 in country music |
See also: 1987 in country music, 1988 in music, other events of 1988, 1989 in country music and the List of years in Country Music
Contents |
(As certified by Billboard magazine)
| Date | Song Name | Artist | Wks. No. 1 | Spec. Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 9 | I Can't Get Close Enough | Exile | 1 | B |
| January 16 | One Friend | Dan Seals | 1 | |
| January 23 | Where Do the Nights Go | Ronnie Milsap | 1 | |
| January 30 | Goin' Gone | Kathy Mattea | 1 | A |
| February 6 | Wheels | Restless Heart | 1 | |
| February 13 | Tennessee Flat Top Box | Rosanne Cash | 1 | A cover of a song her legendary father Johnny Cash made famous in 1962. |
| February 20 | Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star | Merle Haggard | 1 | B |
| February 27 | I Won't Take Less Than Your Love | Paul Davis, Tanya Tucker, and Paul Overstreet | 1 | B - Paul Davis A - Paul Overstreet |
| March 5 | Face to Face | Alabama featuring K.T. Oslin | 1 | |
| March 12 | Too Gone Too Long | Randy Travis | 1 | |
| March 19 | Life Turned Her That Way | Ricky Van Shelton | 1 | |
| March 26 | Turn It Loose | The Judds | 1 | |
| April 2 | Love Will Find Its Way to You | Reba McEntire | 1 | |
| April 9 | Famous Last Words of a Fool | George Strait | 1 | |
| April 16 | I Wanna Dance With You | Eddie Rabbitt | 1 | |
| April 23 | I'll Always Come Back | K.T. Oslin | 1 | |
| April 30 | It's Such a Small World | Rodney Crowell with Rosanne Cash | 1 | A - Rodney Crowell This was the lead-off single to Crowell's Diamonds & Dirt album, which sprouted five No. 1 hits in 1988-1989, and represented the peak of this alternative country singer's mainstream popularity. |
| May 7 | Cry, Cry, Cry | Highway 101 | 1 | |
| May 14 | I'm Gonna Get You | Eddy Raven | 1 | |
| May 21 | Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses | Kathy Mattea | 2 | |
| June 4 | What She is (is a Woman in Love) | Earl Thomas Conley | 1 | |
| June 11 | I Told You So | Randy Travis | 2 | |
| June 25 | He's Back and I'm Blue | The Desert Rose Band | 1 | A |
| July 2 | If It Don't Come Easy | Tanya Tucker | 1 | |
| July 9 | Fallin' Again | Alabama | 1 | |
| July 16 | If You Change Your Mind | Rosanne Cash | 1 | |
| July 23 | Set 'Em Up Joe | Vern Gosdin | 1 | Recorded as a tribute to Ernest Tubb. |
| July 30 | Don't We All Have the Right | Ricky Van Shelton | 1 | |
| August 6 | Baby Blue | George Strait | 1 | |
| August 13 | Don't Close Your Eyes | Keith Whitley | 1 | A, 1 |
| August 20 | Bluest Eyes in Texas | Restless Heart | 1 | |
| August 27 | The Wanderer | Eddie Rabbitt | 1 | A cover of the classic Dion hit. |
| September 3 | I Couldn't Leave You If I Tried | Rodney Crowell | 1 | |
| September 10 | (Do You Love Me) Just Say Yes | Highway 101 | 1 | |
| September 17 | Joe Knows How to Live | Eddy Raven | 1 | |
| September 24 | Addicted | Dan Seals | 1 | |
| October 1 | We Believe in Happy Endings | Earl Thomas Conley with Emmylou Harris | 1 | B - Emmylou Harris |
| October 8 | Honky Tonk Moon | Randy Travis | 1 | |
| October 15 | Streets of Bakersfield | Dwight Yoakam with Buck Owens | 1 | A - Dwight Yoakam B - Buck Owens This song represented a (temporary, as it turned out) resurgence in groundbreaking artist Buck Owens' mainstream popularity, after hitting his peak in the 1960s and early 1970s. |
| October 22 | Strong Enough to Bend | Tanya Tucker | 1 | B |
| October 29 | Gonna Take a Lot of River (Mississippi, Monongahela, Ohio) | The Oak Ridge Boys | 1 | The first No. 1 Oak Ridge Boys song to feature new member Steve Sanders, who had replaced William Lee Golden a year earlier. |
| November 5 | Darlene | T. Graham Brown | 1 | B |
| November 12 | Runaway Train | Rosanne Cash | 1 | Written by former Kingston Trio member John Stewart. |
| November 19 | I'll Leave This World Loving You | Ricky Van Shelton | 2 | |
| December 3 | I Know How He Feels | Reba McEntire | 1 | |
| December 10 | If You Ain't Lovin' (You Ain't Livin') | George Strait | 1 | A cover of Faron Young's 1955 country hit. |
| December 17 | A Tender Lie | Restless Heart | 1 | B |
| December 24 | When You Say Nothing at All | Keith Whitley | 2 |
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