Top Songs of 1989: #3: "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by Poison

The #3 song of 1989 was power ballad "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by glam metal band Poison. Bret Michaels, Poison's lead singer, wrote the song after a failed love affair, in a laundromat, with an acoustic guitar (hey that sounds like the game Clue: Bret Michaels in the Laundromat with an Acoustic Guitar).

The song has a very simple structure...verse/chorus, verse/chorus, bridge, verse/chorus. Even melodically it is very simple. Maybe that is why it was such a big hit.

The video starts with Bret Michaels getting out of bed with some pretty lady and presumably putting on some clothes and picking up his guitar on a stage. There are some awesome "wow that is so 1989" moments in the video for "ERHIT"--slo-mo black and white shots of band members smashing guitars, jamming out shirtless on stage in packed arenas, head-banging in impossibly tight leather pants.

Poison never really did it for me--I liked some other hair bands but I never felt a connection with Poison in particular. Clearly, many people do not agree with me because Poison was one of the most successful bands in the late 80s and early 90s.