1988 was a wild year for pop music. Hair metal was peaking in popularity, and everyone from Patrick Swayze to Bobby McFerrin to Tone Loc were scoring massive hits. Millions of teenage girls first met the New Kids on the Block, and George Harrison emerged from a five-year recording hiatus with a cover of a 1962 James Ray song. It shot to Number One on the charts – the last time any member of the Beatles pulled that off. Here's a look back at 15 hits you won't believe are a quarter of a century old.





"One More Try," George Michael

When the former Wham! member released this ballad about a cautious lover, he was enjoying a run of five straight top 10 solo singles. While many had guessed Michael was gay, he later said he kept his sexuality secret because he didn't want his mother to fret about AIDS.

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"Got My Mind Set on You," George Harrison

In the summer of 1963, several months before the Beatles arrived in America, Harrison visited his sister Louise, who had moved to the tiny mining town of Benton, Illinois. While in Benton, the Beatle sat in with a local band, purchased a Rickenbacker guitar and picked up a copy of the R&B song "Got My Mind Set on You" by James Ray.

More than two decades later, he was feeling nostalgic when writing songs for his album Cloud Nine ("When We Was Fab" being the obvious clue), and he included a bouncy cover of this tune. Now just as nostalgic as the original was in 1988, Harrison's cover became his second Number One solo song.





"Never Gonna Give You Up," Rick Astley

In 2008, Astley confessed to a Los Angeles Times reporter that he thought his huge hit was "naff" – British slang for cheesy or tacky. But of course, that would make it the ideal meme two decades later. Astley, known for his coiffed hair and naff songs, released the dance pop tune in 1987, and it was popular enough to be one of the biggest hits of 1988.

Despite its success, Astley was written off as a forgotten Eighties act when this song became the basis of a popular Internet prank known as Rickrolling. To Rickroll someone, all you had to do was send them a link to this song disguised as something else.

"Listen, I just think it's bizarre and funny," Astley told the Times. "My main consideration is that my daughter doesn't get embarrassed about it."





"Sweet Child o' Mine," Guns N' Roses

Front man Axl Rose isn't a touchy-feely kinda guy. But he wrote this hard rock ballad about then-girlfriend Erin Everly, saying she was the first person who'd inspired him to write a "happy love song." The couple wed at Cupid's Chapel in Vegas four years later, but it wasn't long before Cupid bailed on their relationship. The couple split after a month, and in 1994, Everly – daughter of Everly Brothers star Don Everly – sued Rose, saying he had battered her repeatedly.

Everly later married a businessman and had three kids. Rose is reportedly still single.





"Pour Some Sugar on Me," Def Leppard

In 1984, drummer Rick Allen was driving his Corvette Stingray through the English countryside when another driver ran him off the road. Allen flew out of his sunroof, but his left arm remained inside the car. Even though surgeons failed to re-attach the arm, Allen was already plotting how to play drums again while in the hospital. After 10 months of rebuilding his strength and perfecting an unusual left-foot technique that would compensate for a lost arm, he was ready to record two weeks after his hospital release.

At his suggestion, the band named its next album Hysteria. "Pour Some Sugar on Me," prominently featuring Allen's drumming, became the group's biggest seller to that point. Today, Allen often helps wounded veterans – and continues to drum with the band.





"Man in the Mirror," Michael Jackson

Siedah Garrett had never written a song before Quincy Jones (who produced her band Deco) invited her and songwriters he knew to a meeting to come up with material for Jackson's next album. Jones' missive was simple – "I just want hits, that's all I want" – and Garrett went to work with a little-known writer named Glen Ballard (who went on to co-write "Jagged Little Pill" with Alanis Morissette.)

Garrett recorded a demo for "Man in the Mirror," and Jones loved it. In 2009, a portion of the song was played during Jackson's funeral.