POP LP CHART : Anita Baker’s Still Cooking

Despite the heavy metal and rock emphasis at the top of the charts, Anita Baker’s jazzy ballad album continues to be the nation’s best seller. Another woman bucking the hard-rock trend: Edie Brickell. If Tracy Chapman weren’t everyone’s choice for best new artist of 1988, Brickell’s achievement might be getting more attention. Her album, “Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars,” is filled with oddball, poetic rock--the kind of album that usually languishes in the lower depths of the Top 200. Remarkably, this one (No. 16 this week) appears headed for the Top 10. Another female, however, may be in trouble. Tiffany’s “Holding an Old Friend’s Hand” is slowing down, moving up just one notch this week--to No. 19. The new No. 1 pop single is Bobby Brown’s “My Prerogative.”

Industry jokesters were suggesting that the Bangles’ “Everything,” which seemed to be running out of gas after barely reaching the Top 40, be renamed “Nothing.” But these female rockers may have the last laugh. “Everything” still isn’t quite the blockbuster many expected, but it’s not a stiff either. With a boost from the Bangles’ Top 10 single, “In Your Room,” the album climbed to No. 33.

POP LP CHART

Rank Rank 2 Weeks Title (Label) Last Week Weeks Ago on Chart 1. “Giving You the Best That I Got” 1 1 11 Anita Baker (Elektra) 2. “Rattle and Hum” 30 20 12 U2 (Island) 3. “Cocktail” 20 30 23 Soundtrack (Elektra) 4. “New Jersey” 40 50 15 Bon Jovi (PolyGram) 5. “Appetite for Destruction” 70 40 73 Guns N’ Roses (Geffen) “Everything” 37 39 110 Bangles (Columbia)