US #1s of 1987

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?

we can build this poll together

cuz we're the poll of fools.

love shake you down

alone is really good too

Am seriously considering voting for Faith. I don't know how I feel about that.

Come on, you know it's 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody'. Just listen to it! It's amazing!

Was ready to vote Belinda but then, at the bottom, there was FAITH. Great song.

There were probably about 20 freestyle records that should have gone to #1 in this year instead of these "winners." Not to mention tons of hip hop. "Paid in Full," folks?

I agree Paid In Full should have had a high chart placing. Wiki says it was in 1988, though. *shrugs*

pre soundscan though

and there wasn't a hip hop format stations in a lot of big cities then either

^^Well, that was the problem. And there weren't a lot of freestyle or crossover dance stations either. And top 40 was mind-numbingly conservative, as the top list indicates. Hence the injustice.

I genuinely don't like a single song on here (I guess the Los Lobos cover is okay but its not very interesting)

reminds me of why I hated high school so much

The 86 and 88 lists were a lot better.

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ha -- i don't like any of these either! can't remember what the tiffany or carlisle tracks sound like, though.

Neither "With Or Without You" nor much of the Joshua Tree sounded nearly as good to me then as it does today.

"Open Your Heart" was a pretty uncommonly good single for Madonna, though, now that I'm forced to recall how it went.

Michael Jackson, "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" 0

:(

I thought I'd voted for that.

Huey Lewis and the News, "Jacob's Ladder"

wtf is this? the only thing on the list that i have zero memory of ever hearing

Written by Bruce Hornsby

Goes (as any song called "Jacob's Ladder" would) "Step by step - rung by rung."

Nothing to do with Tim Robbins, Vietnam, etc.

Bruce Hornsby wrote a song that Huey Lewis did?

*blood vessels in my brain explode*

Oh my god, that's so not right. Oh my god, that's...horrible.

yes! top 2!

leave bruce hornsby alone

actually bruce & huey they seem like 2 peas in a pod kinda

The three people who voted for Cutting Crew will never meet me.

Let's go deeper!

87 is a special year for me and I love almost all of these

This is one of the troubling years for me, because I felt like my aesthetic was being pulled in at least three directions at the time. Only later would I understand that they weren't in conflict, and that one could love different things for different reasons. Lots of these songs are awesome, and it's fascinating (to me anyway) how many different ways they find to be awesome.

80s music had lots of problems, but I do think there was a notable diversity of expression that allowed Lisa Lisa, Whitesnake, Whitney, and U2 to occupy the same cultural moment so thoroughly and so seamlessly (from the perspective of my teenage clock radio).

that's why I don't know what "eighties music" means.

I do think there was a notable diversity of expression that allowed Lisa Lisa, Whitesnake, Whitney, and U2 to occupy the same cultural moment so thoroughly and so seamlessly (from the perspective of my teenage clock radio).

so emotional?

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...