These are the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks number-one hits of 1988. The chart debuted in September of that year to recognize the increase and popularity of radio stations playing modern rock music.
| Issue date | Song | Artist | Reference(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 10 | "Peek-a-Boo" | Siouxsie and the Banshees | |
| September 17 | "Just Play Music!" | Big Audio Dynamite | |
| September 24 | "Peek-a-Boo" | Siouxsie and the Banshees | |
| October 1 | "All That Money Wants" | The Psychedelic Furs | |
| October 8 | |||
| October 15 | |||
| October 22 | "Desire" | U2 | |
| October 29 | |||
| November 5 | |||
| November 12 | |||
| November 19 | |||
| November 26 | "Orange Crush" | R.E.M. | |
| December 3 | |||
| December 10 | |||
| December 17 | |||
| December 24 | |||
| December 31 |
Famous quotes containing the words number one, number, modern, rock and/or hits:
“Ah, but to play man number one,
To drive the dagger in his heart,
To lay his brain upon the board
And pick the acrid colors out,
To nail his thought across the door,
Its wings spread wide to rain and snow,
To strike his living hi and ho....”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“This nightmare occupied some ten pages of manuscript and wound off with a sermon so destructive of all hope to non-Presbyterians that it took the first prize. This composition was considered to be the very finest effort of the evening.... It may be remarked, in passing, that the number of compositions in which the word “beauteous” was over-fondled, and human experience referred to as “life’s page,” was up to the usual average.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“The City of New York is like an enormous citadel, a modern Carcassonne. Walking between the magnificent skyscrapers one feels the presence on the fringe of a howling, raging mob, a mob with empty bellies, a mob unshaven and in rags.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“I’m headed for a land that’s far away
Beside the crystal fountains.
So come with me, we’ll go and see
The Big Rock Candy Mountains.”
—Unknown. The Big Rock Candy Mountains (l. 5–8)
“Life begins to happen.
My hoppped up husband drops his home disputes,
and hits the streets to cruise for prostitutes,”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)