The year was 1987, and emerging pop singer Tiffany was set to launch a self-titled debut album. Looking to appeal to her teen-pop demo, label MCA Records has what turns out to be a brilliant idea: a tour of shopping malls. As such, the 15-year-old Tiffany Darwish embarked on “The Beautiful You: Celebrating the Good Life Shopping Mall Tour ‘87."
The tour would find the singer performing three 20-minute sets every Saturday and Sunday, followed by fan meet-and-greets and press interviews. It launched at the Bergen Mall in Paramus, New Jersey, on June 23, 1987. The crowds grew as Tiffany hit malls across America. While the first single on her album, "Danny," failed to get any traction, savvy radio DJs picked up on her cover of Tommy James and the Shondells' "I Think We're Alone Now." Quickly released as the album's second single in August 1987, the song raced up the charts, peaking at #1 on November 6, 1987. The song it replaced: "Bad" by Michael Jackson. For the song's music video, her label collected footage from a series of shopping mall shows across Utah.
It was in November 1987 that Tiffany would release her next single from the album, "Could've Been." Recorded by the singer after she insisted that she could handle the mature lyrics of the heartfelt ballad, the track would follow "I Think We're Alone Now" up the Billboard charts.
With two hit singles to her credit, Tiffany the album would knock George Michael's massive Faith from the top spot to be the #1 album in America on January 23, 1988. It would stay there for two weeks before Michael's Faith would again take the lead position on February 6, 1988. While she'd relinquished the album crown, Tiffany's "Could've Been" would go to #1 on the Hot 100 that very same week.
The achievement would make her the youngest woman to have a #1 album in the US. It would also make her the youngest with back to back #1 singles on the Hot 100.
Tiffany still had one more hit on that debut album: "I Saw Him Standing There," a gender-corrected version of the 1963 Beatles classic. It would provide the singer with another Top 10 appearance, as the single peaked at #7 on April 22, 1988. The #1 song in America that week: Whitney Houston's "Where Do Broken Hearts Go?"
MCA Records tried to squeeze one more track from Tiffany, releasing "Feelings of Forever" as the fourth and final single. While it failed to do much business globally, America still had love for Tiffany, getting the song as high as #50 on the Hot 100.
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