This piece revisits three soft rock songs from 1988 that remain widely recognisable to those who grew up in the 1980s, highlighting Phil Collins' "A Groovy Kind Of Love", Chicago's "Look Away" and Cheap Trick's "The Flame". Each track topped the charts on release and has endured as a defining example of the era's softer, romantic rock sound, distinct from the heavier and more electronic music also popular at the time.

Phil Collins' hit featured on the soundtrack to his film Buster, which he also starred in, alongside other songs he wrote for the record; the track itself was written by others. Chicago's "Look Away", penned by Diane Warren, spent two weeks at number one and proved to be the band's last chart-topper for nine years, until 1997's "Here In My Heart". Cheap Trick's "The Flame", written by Bob Mitchell and Nick Graham, appeared on the album Lap Of Luxury and remains the only song by the band to reach number one, despite their many other hits.