On This Day, Dec. 24, 1988: Poison landed their only #1 song with ‘Every Rose Has Its Thorn’

On This Day, Dec. 24, 1988 …

Glam rockers Poison landed their first and only #1 song with the power ballad “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.” 

The song, from the band’s sophomore album, Open Up and Say … Ah!, spent three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 and was #3 on the Billboard year-end charts that year.

The band’s frontman, Bret Michaels, shared in an interview for VH1’s Behind the Music that the song was inspired by a cheating girlfriend. He said he wrote it after he called her while at the laundromat and heard a male voice in the background.

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