# List of Hot Country Singles number ones of 1988

Hot Country Songs is a chart that ranks the top-performing country music songs in the United States, published by Billboard magazine. In 1988, 49 different songs topped the chart, then published under the title Hot Country Singles, in 53 issues of the magazine, based on playlists submitted by country music radio stations and sales reports submitted by stores.
Only four songs spent more than a single week at number one in 1988: "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses" by Kathy Mattea, "I Told You So" by Randy Travis, "I'll Leave This World Loving You" by Ricky Van Shelton and "When You Say Nothing at All" by Keith Whitley. Travis and Shelton each scored two other number ones during the year to give them a total of four weeks in the top spot. This figure was matched by Rosanne Cash, who achieved three solo number ones and one in collaboration with her then-husband Rodney Crowell, making her the only artist to take four different songs to number one in 1988. Highway 101, Restless Heart, George Strait and Tanya Tucker each topped the chart with three different songs.
Artists to achieve their first chart-topper in 1988 included Dwight Yoakam, who reached number one with "Streets of Bakersfield", performed as a duet with Buck Owens, who had himself had a hit with the song fifteen years earlier. The song marked the veteran singer's first appearance at number one since 1972. The Desert Rose Band achieved the first of its two number ones with "He's Back and I'm Blue", and Paul Overstreet made his first appearance at number one when he collaborated with Tanya Tucker and Paul Davis on "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love". Overstreet achieved intermittent success as a singer but is better known as a songwriter, having written hit songs for many artists. At the other end of the scale, Merle Haggard topped the chart for the 38th and final time with "Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star". At the time of Haggard's death in 2016, only Conway Twitty (40) and George Strait (44) had taken more songs to the top of the Hot Country chart since Billboard began compiling sales and airplay into a single listing in 1958. Whitley's "When You Say Nothing at All" was the final number one of the year. Whitley was at the peak of his commercial success at the time, but would die less than six months later, on May 9, 1989.

## Chart history

| Issue date | Title | Artist(s) |
| January 2 | "Somewhere Tonight" | Highway 101 |
| January 9 | "I Can't Get Close Enough" | Exile |
| January 16 | "One Friend" | Dan Seals |
| January 23 | "Where Do the Nights Go" | Ronnie Milsap |
| January 30 | "Goin' Gone" | Kathy Mattea |
| February 6 | "Wheels" | Restless Heart |
| February 13 | "Tennessee Flat Top Box" | Rosanne Cash |
| February 20 | "Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star" | Merle Haggard |
| February 27 | "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love" | Tanya Tucker with Paul Davis and Paul Overstreet |
| March 5 | "Face to Face" | Alabama |
| March 12 | "Too Gone Too Long" | Randy Travis |
| March 19 | "Life Turned Her That Way" | Ricky Van Shelton |
| March 26 | "Turn It Loose" | The Judds |
| April 2 | "Love Will Find Its Way to You" | Reba McEntire |
| April 9 | "Famous Last Words of a Fool" | George Strait |
| April 16 | "I Wanna Dance with You" | Eddie Rabbitt |
| April 23 | "I'll Always Come Back" | K. T. Oslin |
| April 30 | "It's Such a Small World" | Rodney Crowell and Rosanne Cash |
| May 7 | "Cry, Cry, Cry" | Highway 101 |
| May 14 | "I'm Gonna Get You" | Eddy Raven |
| May 21 | "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses" | Kathy Mattea |
| May 28 | "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses" | Kathy Mattea |
| June 4 | "What She Is (Is a Woman in Love)" | Earl Thomas Conley |
| June 11 | "I Told You So" | Randy Travis |
| June 18 | "I Told You So" | Randy Travis |
| June 25 | "He's Back and I'm Blue" | The Desert Rose Band |
| July 2 | "If It Don't Come Easy" | Tanya Tucker |
| July 9 | "Fallin' Again" | Alabama |
| July 16 | "If You Change Your Mind" | Rosanne Cash |
| July 23 | "Set 'Em Up Joe" | Vern Gosdin |
| July 30 | "Don't We All Have the Right" | Ricky Van Shelton |
| August 6 | "Baby Blue" | George Strait |
| August 13 | "Don't Close Your Eyes" | Keith Whitley |
| August 20 | "Bluest Eyes in Texas" | Restless Heart |
| August 27 | "The Wanderer" | Eddie Rabbitt |
| September 3 | "I Couldn't Leave You If I Tried" | Rodney Crowell |
| September 10 | "(Do You Love Me) Just Say Yes" | Highway 101 |
| September 17 | "Joe Knows How to Live" | Eddy Raven |
| September 24 | "Addicted" | Dan Seals |
| October 1 | "We Believe in Happy Endings" | Earl Thomas Conley with Emmylou Harris |
| October 8 | "Honky Tonk Moon" | Randy Travis |
| October 15 | "Streets of Bakersfield" | Dwight Yoakam & Buck Owens |
| October 22 | "Strong Enough to Bend" | Tanya Tucker |
| October 29 | "Gonna Take a Lot of River" | The Oak Ridge Boys |
| November 5 | "Darlene" | T. Graham Brown |
| November 12 | "Runaway Train" | Rosanne Cash |
| November 19 | "I'll Leave This World Loving You" | Ricky Van Shelton |
| November 26 | "I'll Leave This World Loving You" | Ricky Van Shelton |
| December 3 | "I Know How He Feels" | Reba McEntire |
| December 10 | "If You Ain't Lovin' (You Ain't Livin')" | George Strait |
| December 17 | "A Tender Lie" | Restless Heart |
| December 24 | "When You Say Nothing at All" | Keith Whitley |
| December 31 | "When You Say Nothing at All" | Keith Whitley |