Exactly 25 years ago today, Debbie Gibson’s debut single, “Only In My Dreams,” peaked at number 4 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart.  In doing so, the song became the first of four straight top 5 singles for Gibson, culminating with “Foolish Beat,” which spent one week at number 1 in June of 1988.

All told, Gibson would hit the top 40 nine times in her career, with all of those hits coming between 1987 and 1990.  Gibson’s most recent album is Ms Vocalist, which was released in 2010, though you may also have seen her lately in Katy Perry’s video for “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” or in a cameo in the film Rock of Ages.  For more on Gibson, check out her official website.

As I mentioned a couple months ago, Debbie Gibson was a significant part of the late 1980s pop music experience of a lot of Generation Xers like me.  It doesn’t seem so long ago that the then-17-year-old Gibson was reaching the top 5 with her first four singles.  Yet, today, Debbie (who now goes by Deborah) Gibson, turns 40 years old.  Still performing, as her official Web site notes, Gibson will end a run in a Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy at MGM Foxwoods in Connecticut tomorrow.

Word is that Debbie Gibson and Tiffany will be co-starring in an upcoming movie on Syfy called Mega Python vs. Gatoroid.  Seems like a far cry from “Shake Your Love” vs. “I Think We’re Alone Now” in the Fall of 1987 or “Lost in Your Eyes” vs. “All This Time” in Spring 1989 when the two pop music queens were co-starring on the Hot 100 charts.  Nothing against Tiffany, but I was partial to Debbie Gibson back in the day.  I even had a big Debbie Gibson poster on my bedroom wall.  Where do/did you stand on the what has seemed for the most part to be a friendly rivalry?