Best 80s teen queen single

I chose Foolish Beat-

I chose "I think we're alone now." I was a preteen girl and that song was the best! Debbie Gibson was lame compared to Tiffany.

Tiffany's biggest hit:

Out of the Blue:

Foolish Beat was Debbie's best

[quote] I was a preteen girl and that song was the best!

How do you feel now that you’re an older man?

"Could've Been" spent 2 weeks at #1 in February, 1988:

"Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child"

Debbie's "Only in My Dreams" reached No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the summer of 1987:

Tiff's memorable "All This Time" was her fourth and last top-ten hit in the US:

I always thought "Foolish Beat" was a pretty clever re-write of "Careless Whisper". I never liked the song, but I remember thinking "I see what you did there, Debbie. Not bad for a teenager!"

"Lost in Your Eyes" is a nice little song. Nothing spectacular, but well done. Would've been better with a really great singer.

My vote goes to "Only in My Dreams". Brings back fond memories, and I always liked the surreal video.

[quote] I always thought "Foolish Beat" was a pretty clever re-write of "Careless Whisper".

Debbie is still a big George fan:

Current results: DL is equally split between Deb's first hit and Tiff's classic. No other songs are close.

Debbie Gibson wasn't a genius or anything, but she wasn't bad for teen pop. All of Tiffany's songs seemed like lame covers of 60s hits. And she was always trying to make this move happen.

I stole R4 for my "This Used to Be My Playground" video....

None of the above. It's this one.

"Shake Your Love", live 9/88:

Tiffany was always a bit too white trash for my taste. So, something by Debbie, probably "Electric Youth", which wasn't her biggest hit but it hit all the right notes with young me. Though Martika was really my girl back in1988- 1989.

Tiffany had the most devoted fans:

Electric Youth was the only one to inspire a fragrance.

The only reason people remember Debbie is because of her feud with Tiffany. They were both two year wonders, sadly same as Martika.

Martika's best work came in 1991, though.

R22 yes and she was done after that.. which made no sense.

Interesting how Tiffany, Martika and Debbie were all so talented especially considering their age yet never got the proper acclaim because they were discarded as throwaway teen pop. Compared to the teen acts the music industry would later push a decade after who managed to have longer careers on questionable talent. I think these three mentioned here deserve a reevaluation.

1988 was a strange year in pop. Debbie and Tiffany were even bigger than Madonna and Janet:

Top Pop artists 1988:

1. Debbie Gibson

2. Whitney Houston

3. Tiffany

4. Belinda Carlisle

5. Taylor Dayne

R24 Lets be real, they were talented compared to say Britney or whispercoo Janet but not THAT talented.

She just kind of disappeared, didn't she, R23? I saw an interview of hers from maybe 10 years ago and my guess is that there might be some mental health issues (or drugs?) involved. She didn't come across as batshit crazy but it was obvious that something was a bit off. I believe that, since 1991, she only put out a couple of albums in Spanish back in early 2000s, together with her husband.

R25 Wasn’t Madonna touring most of that year? I don’t think she released much new music that year.

I love seeing the malls featured in Tiffany's video. At the time I thought it was so cheesy but now it's a wonderful time capsule

There was definitely more competition in the 80s and 90s. So many different female artists with different styles and vocal types all getting airplay. There's a reason Madonna had to get creative and take so many risks, she was always threatened by other female pop stars who were overtaking her on the charts.

R27 I think Martika definitely was a crack head? She got scarily thin. Too bad she stopped making music all of a sudden. Tiffany and Debbie kept at it until they finally flopped to oblivion and were seen as 80’s has beens.

R29 I love it as well. Even the creepy grandpa dancing with her. Her record label must have spent all of 50 dollars making that music video.

[quote] There was definitely more competition in the 80s and 90s.

So true, today Olivia Rodrigo gets immediate Grammy nominations for Album and Record of the Year for her pop singles. Madonna had to wait 15+ years for her nominations.

All This Time is a beautiful vocal, but a strange song for a teenager to be singing. Linda Ronstadt would have made it make more sense.

Only In My Dreams is the least overwrought of the others, so it got my vote. But both of them are victims of the times, production-wise.

The correct answer is Only In My Dreams, of course.

They were way before my time but I love the late 80’s teen queens (Tiffany, Debbie, Martika) a lot more than the late 90’s teen queens (Mandy Moore, Britney, Christina, Jessica Simpson, etc)

The dancer in the R12 clip is the same one in the R17 clip. Debbie still performs with the dancers from her old tours, 30+ years later.

This mix

You can't pick the Tiffany song, it's a cover. The first Debbie Gibson song hits all the requirements.

Why can’t we pick a cover though? She completely changed it and made it her own.

Martika's "More Than You Know" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on the chart dated December 24, 1988, and peaked at #18.

The "Jellybean" remix should have been a bigger hit:

I voted Only In Mt Dreams. It’s so catchy & a bop. I had the 45 & would play it nonstop.

I really couldn’t stand Shake Your Love. Not for the song itself, but i initially thought it was like an instruction to a guy: shake your (dick).

Why aren’t Martika’s songs in this Poll??

[quote] Why aren’t Martika’s songs in this Poll??

Toy Soldiers should be there, although she was 20 by the time it hit #1 in summer '89.

R44 I believe Martika’s entire album was recorded back in 1987 a year after she quit kids incorporated . I am not sure why it took so long to release it. She wrote parts of toy soldiers in 1986 and it is about a friend in high school that had a cocaine addiction.

Fergie covers "Out of the Blue:

The original and the best...

Tommy James and The Shondells - I Think We're Alone Now

Tommy James and the Shondells

Roxette - It Must Have Been Love

Roxette were well into their 30s by the time that song was released. What's "teen queen" about it?

19 year old Kylie. Top 10 in 15 countries, #1 in 8 of them.

I applaud the OP for his knowledge of my 80's oeuvre.

He left off my final 80's hit, though.

And, for the record, there was no "feud" with that other girl. She was a low-class, talentless, flash-in-the-pan whore who eventually stooped to showing her stanky cooch in Playboy. The same pussy that turned that New Kid into a gay.

But hey, I get it, what else was she going to do, go back to singing in malls? Hell, even the malls didn't want her by her third album, poor dear.

Anyway, here's "No More Rhyme", yet another of my masterpieces!

R47 I disagree that song with those lyrics works better on a ingénue girl. Also the heartbeat thing the guitar player did was incredibly corny. There is a reason tv shows like Umbrella Academy, Heathers, Full House and Dead to me (and countless of movies as well like Ted and Ted 2) choose to use Tiffany’s version over the original.

Tiffany voiced Judy Jetson in The Jetsons: The Movie and the movie featured some songs by Tiffany. I've always liked this one. I don't think was released as a single though. Just on the soundtrack.

"I Think We're Alone Now" works so well because it's about--gasp!--sex while all of Deb's songs are droopy, forgettable love ballads.

"I just can't shake your love" What does that even mean? Oh, and don't forget that "Electric youth is....electrifying." Not a shocker that her career died a quick death.

R55 Debbie will never be cool, l can picture creepy mormons wearing those stupid hats with big artificial flowers on them performing/loving her songs.

R52 Hello, Tiff is still singing in malls. At least she was pre pandemic. I am not quite sure if that is an amazing thing or a sad thing though. What are you up to Deborah?

Debbie's video for Electric Youth was her jump the shark moment. The video and song are just awful and pile up every upbeat wholesome cliche. Song and video make Up with People productions seem downbeat and restrained in comparison.

I’m 34, I was too young for them or wasn’t alive.

But I knew about them because Britney and Christina were being compared to them.

And they were always on VH1 80’s stuff. Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now” was always on VH1.

I always knew about Debbie but I didn’t know any songs. I know “Only In My Dreams” from Pandora at work and that would be it.

I love “Only in My Dreams”.

I prefer Lene Lovichs version of “I Think We’re Alone Now”.

My sister hated Tiffany because she dated Jonathan Knight and Jonathan was my sister’s future husband at that time. My parents said Jonathan Knight was gay(they were right) and my mom called poor Debbie Gibson a tramp.

Also at that very young age I learned what a coke head was thanks to Belinda Carlisle.

R60 Jonathan Knight has gotten hotter with age, unlike poor Tiffany. He has horrible taste in bottoms however.

A friend of mine sang this one time (to the tune of “Shake Your Love”) and now, 30 plus years later, it’s all I can think when I hear that song:

Fuck your butt

I just can’t fuck your butt

I just can’t fuck..YOUR BUTT!

Which ever song Debbie wore both stripes and polka dots in the music video, that’s when I knew for sure she must be the Antichrist.

R63 Debbie was so lame, she dressed like she was 7 years old, and her music was way too G rated. Just look at her she’s so “wholesome” it’s nauseating.

Tiffany was trailer trash but she somehow came off way more sophisticated and mature even if she was younger than Debbie.

R62 Is that the 80’s bottom anthem?

Tiffany wins the poll with 41.7% of the votes.

R67 We all knew she would.

I guess she’s just not that alone, now.