MCA 5793
Producer: George E. Tobin
Track Listing: Should’ve Been Me / Danny / Spanish Eyes / Feelings of Forever / Kid on a Corner / I Saw Him Standing There /Johnny’s Got the me Moves / Promises Made / I Think We’re Alone Now / Could’ve Been
January 23, 1988
2 weeks
On January 23, 1988, a high school from Norwalk, California, simply known as Tiffany, made history she became the first teenage girl to score a Number One album. The last teenager to have a Number One album was Stevie Wonder, whose Little Stevie Wonder/The 12 Year Old Genius, hit the summit, when the singer was 13. The only other teen to score a Number One album prior to Tiffany was Ricky Nelson, who was 17 when his Ricky topped the chart in 1958.
Tiffany was a mere 12 years old when she met producer George Tobin while recording a demo at a San Fernando Valley studio. “I was singing country at that time,” she says. “He started a relationship with me over the phone.” Tiffany’s parents were divorced, and her father did not want her to enter the music business. But once she moved into her mother’s home, she was able to sign on with Tobin, and began cutting her debut album when she was just 14.
“In the beginning we just recorded after school,” Tiffany says. “I would get out of school at about 3 P.M. and there would be a car waiting for me to take me to the studio, and I would get back home at about 8 P.m.” However, as the project progressed, Tiffany sometimes pulled all-nighters working in the studio. “I’d have to skip my first and second periods in school. It was hard to still be in school and get semi-good grades, because the music was all I wanted to do.”
Tiffany’s own musical tastes leaned toward classic rock, Janis Joplin, Stevie Nicks, and the country-rock of the Los Angeles band Lone Justice, but Tobin, a big fan of ’60s pop, had other ideas. “When I first started recording with George, we did some songs with a Stevie Nicks kind of sound and a Lone Justice kind of a sound with a little country influence, and I was just a happy camper,” Tiffany says. “Then he found ‘I Think We’re Alone Now.’ He did the track and he gave it to me and I said, ‘This isn’t really what I want to do.’ I took it home and played it for my friends and they liked it.”
At Tobin’s urging, Tiffany also recorded a cover of the Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There,” retitled “I Saw Him Standing There.” Says Tiffany, “George loved the Beatles, but at the time I was not a big Beatles fan. George brought me the track and I gave him a hard time, because I really didn’t want to do it. It wasn’t the sound that I wanted, but in the end I went ahead and did it anyway.”
The one track that Tiffany did like was the ballad “Could’ve Been.” Says Tiffany, “The lyrics are so meaningful and could mean so many different things to so many different people. I like the way I sang on that record. I can feel the emotion in that song.”
Even if Tiffany didn’t necessarily like the song, Tobin’s choice of “I Think We’re Alone Now,” originally recorded by Tommy James, ended up being a winner. With help from Tiffany’s novel tour of shopping malls, the single hit the top of the Hot 100 on November 7, 1987.
Tiffany hit the summit in its 18th week on the Top Pop Albums chart. Two weeks later, she scored her second Number One single with “Could’ve Been.”
The gap between Little Stevie Wonder/The 12 Year Old Genius and Tiffany had been 25 years, but it would take only a bit over a year for the next Number One album from a teenager — Tiffany’s rival, Debbie Gibson.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of January 23, 1988
1. Tiffany, Tiffany
2. Faith, George Michael
3. Dirty Dancing, Soundtrack
4. Bad, Michael Jackson
5. Whitesnake, Whitesnake