Hold an Old Friend's Hand

Hold an Old Friend's Hand is Tiffany's second album, released in November of 1988 in various countries and December 12th, 1988 in Australia.

Background
Tiffany started to record the album in around August of 1988. The title track is a Tracy Nelson cover, but the song was not widely known during that time. Tiffany was only 17 when she recorded the song, although it is unusual since the lyrics has a perspective of many years' experience. The song was written by Donna Weiss, who also co-wrote #1 single "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes (The singer for whom Tiffany's manager/producer George Tobin has produced records)."Hearts Never Lie" is a duet with Chris Farren, who went on to some country music success. "Overture" is an instrumental acoustic guitar performance by Grant Geissman. It is unusual to be included on the teen bubblegum pop album, especially since Tiffany is not involved in the track.

Overall, the album had some element changes: Pop rock elements became more uncommon than her debut self-titled album, and dance-pop became one of the main genres of the album.

Reception and singles
Although Hold an Old Friend's Hand is a commercial success, it is not as successful as her debut self-titled album, which has two #1 hits and a quadruple platinum certification by RIAA. The mid-tempo ballad "All This Time" was released exactly two months before the album was released worldwide (except for Australia, which was released on December 12th, 1988 in the country). Although the single was not as successful as her previous singles (except for "Danny" and "Feelings of Forever"), it received some success in the United States, peaking at #6 on Billboard Hot 100 (Higher than one of her previous singles, "I Saw Him Standing There") and #10 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart; it became Tiffany's fourth and last top-ten hit in the United States. In the United Kingdom, it is actually the second single of the album; it was released after "Radio Romance".

When the album was released, it peaked at #17 on Billboard 200, #48 on New Zealand Albums (RMNZ), and #56 on UK Albums (OCC). On January 20th, 1989, the album was certified platinum by RIAA.

"Radio Romance" was later released in January of 1989; it became the first single of the album in the UK. However, since the U.S. radio changed its genres to hip-hop and R&B by early 1989, it failed to have commercial success, peaking at #35 on Billboard Hot 100. It is, however, a success in the UK, peaking at #13 on UK Singles Chart. Three months later, the title track was released, and it became the last single of the album in the United States. Tiffany tried to make this a hit by performing it on several U.S. TV shows; unfortunately, it failed, as her popularity began to decline in the West during the time, and it only peaked at #37 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. "Oh Jackie" was later released in Japan in May of 1989 to promote Yamaha's new line of stereo systems, which was named after her (It is called "Tiffany System Stereo"). In June of 1989, "It's the Lover (Not the Love)" became the last single of the album in some territories, and it failed reprise the success of her previous singles.

Tour
Tiffany has a tour called "Hold an Old Friend's Tour" from 1988 to 1989. She was supposed to have New Kids on the Block as the opening block. However, their roles are reversed due New Kids on the Block's popularity, although the band were officially billed as co-headliners. The tour became more popular in Asia than in other continents.

Music videos
Overall, the album has two music videos: "All This Time" and "Radio Romance".

Trivia

 * The album had some changes on the covers and inlays. For example, on vinyl, another photo of Tiffany can be seen on the back cover, but on CD and cassette, it is instead on a CD booklet and a cassette inlay.
 * The album received mixed ratings by critics.
 * Bryan Buss of AllMusic rated the album "3 stars".
 * Robert Christgau rated the album a "B-".
 * Rolling Stone rated the album a star.