US #1s of 1987

terrible list btw

i wanna dance w/somebody is the only stone classic thing on here.

I really liked that Ruff Squad track!

Did the singles from Hysteria and Appetite for Destruction only chart the following year or did none of them go to #1?

While I know it's probably not the best song, it's really hard to deny my elementary-school self's desire to vote for "Livin' On a Prayer".

My prom song was "High Enough". Ugh.

This is a fantastic list, you haters. (and all the Hysteria/Appetite stuff was '88 IIRC)

yeah "open your heart" is the best thing here.

much love to lisa lisa... and bon jovi. and whitesnake! lest we forget: whitesnake - "here i go again"

I am voting "Shake You Down", not because it's my favorite song here, but because it deserves a vote for being so fucking awesome.

i was a young kid but i knew something was deeply wrong with all those retroid covers at the time (tiffany, club nouveau, billy idol)

For Shakey. I'm sure you've heard this:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyEc0j2ny68

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyEc0j2ny68

also, Billy Vera:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH4odHVfF5E

This was the year I graduated from high school, went to college and discovered non-chart music. Voted Huey Lewis for the lols.

hahaha I have never heard Billy Vera speak before, wow

"At This Moment" was "Family Ties"'s jump-the-shark moment.

You should have changed your screen name to "Olivia Huxtable" for that post.

Well.

haaaaaaaaaaaaa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk-W_i7Z59I&feature=PlayList&p=A89DE745C35FBDEA&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=6

YOU'RE BUSTED

Graduated high school this year, can recite almost every word of these.

Interesting to look at this list in terms of Boomer nostalgia still being a potent force. Four covers of songs released between the late 50s and early 70s made it to #1 (including back-to-back Tommy James covers, WTF?) and lots of artists here in their 30s and 40s. Bill Medley, Aretha, Starship, Bob Seger. Very little here that really feels youthful at all.

Also the year that the Beatles CD issues came pouring out.

I just really love the line "Ooh you're like the sun chasing all of the rain away" for some reason. I guess "Always" just reminds me of my sister and that is why I voted for it.

fond of Belinda Carlisle, just over the two Madonnas and LOAP

haven't heard either of the Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam tracks :[

I think I can sing all of these songs. At least the hooks.

A lot of these songs are okay I guess, but I hate the whole list anyway because by 1987 I had swum out to the deep end of the avant-garde pool.

and now you've backed away from your youthful apostasy?

thank the music gods for college radio.

^^^Can't be stressed enough.

Looking at this list makes me think "wow, there was actually a time when Whitney Houston *didn't* send me running & screaming to get away from her". Not that I'd vote for her, mind.

God, that Gregory Abbott is so sappy.

There's plenty of crap in this list, but Living On A Prayer smells even worse than Cutting Crew, I'm sorry.

Actually, college radio wasn't so hot during this era either – at least not as hot as it became later in the decade, or hot it'd been two or three years earlier.

goddam 6th grade dance action up in here

lol bamba

every one of these songs makes me think of going to Sizzler at age 8 with my family.

and now you've backed away from your youthful apostasy?

Not at all! But the older I get the more I'm able to untie like and dislike from a more formal appreciation based on craft. If that makes any sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDcHzfhqlbI

if asked about this list at the time i would have said "Faith"

probably going to stick with that

?!xpost

The spotify playlist (minus seger):

http://open.spotify.com/user/stigoftdump/playlist/3t2ftyIumwhojGSBfZ4X5K
spotify:user:stigoftdump:playlist:3t2ftyIumwhojGSBfZ4X5K

A lot of good songs, but nothing jumped out at me at all. Especially weird given how many songs made it to #1, more than twice as many as 2008. Ended up going with "Still Haven't Found", though I thought about "I Wanna Dance", "Livin on a Prayer", "Open Your Heart", and "Always".

Bloody hell, listening to this playlist all the way through is serious next-level horrible. Kim Wilde gets points for not making me pull my fingernails out.

No, actually, Bad is alright too. A minor Michael Jackson is better than the rest of this shower.

Ok you ppl saying there's nothing good on here are crazy!!

Starship, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now"
Cutting Crew, "(I Just) Died in Your Arms"
U2, "With or Without You"
Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, "Head to Toe"
Whitesnake, "Here I Go Again"
Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, "Lost in Emotion"
Belinda Carlisle, "Heaven is a Place on Earth

Should probably go with my girl Belinda but Tiffany, "I Think We're Alone Now" was my jam when it came out. Hey, I was 10.

Starship, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now"
Cutting Crew, "(I Just) Died in Your Arms"

srsly, this is like making out with Perez Hilton.

this is impossible!

voted for "With Or Without You," with only "Faith" and "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" making me hesitate for a second

Listen Alfred - "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" is an extremely powerful song used to great effect in the movie Mannequin.
(I Just) Died in Your Arms is some powerfully poignant stuff.

Maybe you just can't handle the intensity. ;-)

Really they're just songs that I will sing on the top of my lungs ever single time I hear them because they're OTT and FUN.

Did we ever do a poll of the Starship singles?

If that hasn't happened then you need to make it happen RIGHT NOW.

You need to jump on a starship right now.

yeah because a love shack poll wasn't enough

although i guess nothin's gonna stop you now, huh?

I dated this Latina at the time who was lost in emotion

Wow what a great year for top 40. I had a dubbed cassette with "License to Ill" on one side and "Invisible Touch" on the other, that's what kind of year 1987 was.

can we discuss "Don't Disturb This Groove" forever

and the weirdness of my home girl Gloria Estefan's "Rhythm is Gonna Get You" isn't discussed enough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZkjeJKBI0M

of course this is the year i was born

^ me too, but i'm not really feeling these songs so much. there are some good ones there, but the only really great one to me is "Fight For Your Right." I like "Valerie" as well but not the 1987 remix.

P much love all but the Bon Jovi

xpost The Hague for 87 is a particularly dire list of tunes. Seems worse - quantity and lack of quality - than previous years.

Very few issues with Alfred's ranking as opposed to the '86 one - Bon Jovi undervalued again, and I'd put "Right on Track" and "Sign o' the Times" in the highest category. What really jumps out to me is how many I don't know - esp those in the 'meh' category. I was 15 and a 24/7 radio listener at the time, so it must be a US-Europe thing.

"Right On Track" would be in good to great today.

Hurrah!

Just had a look at the Dutch top 10s, and yes, it was a very different year here. Mel & Kim, "Pump up the Volume", Sabrina's "Boys", the original Rickroll, LL's "I Need Love", and a handful of Terence Trent D'Arby singles. Oh, and "Crockett's Theme" by Jan Hammer...

Just the #1s, see.

I'm surprised to realize how few of these outside of your 'good to great' I have much time for. I guess we still have a little way to go until we witness the crystalline perfection achieved by the pop music of the PB Interzone.

Can’t believe “Heaven Is a Place on Earth” is from ’87(!) Belinda was my first big “celebrity crush,” and I thought I was younger at the time... :/

Head To Toe is not and never has been meh, you monster

que sera que sera!

The best song won this poll. And also the worst song won this poll.