I Love the Eighties: My Top 100 Albums of 1987

Today, we are covering the last important year of the decade as far as music is concerned. 1987 was the last truly big year for the large number of great albums released. 1987 will forever be held up next to 1983 and 1984 as those rare transcendent years such as 1972, 1977 and 1979 before them. Then again, I am partial to 1984 as the best year of the Eighties, but 1987 is pretty damn good for music.

In 1987, I changed jobs at the beginning of the year, after taking a job at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati, as I spent the next 16 months traveling back forth in order to work in the Hematology Department that was doing simultaneous clinical and research work with flow cytometry machines modified to not only provide a Complete Blood Count (CBC, meaning all of the cellular counts of the red and white blood cells, along with a platelet counts as well as a white blood cell differential count. The latter part was the new technology that we were testing for the whole time period to correlated the machine versus the techs’ counts. It was an easy project to be part of, as the machines were accurate. The problem in 1987 was the bulkiness of the machines. The original one was around twenty feet long, while the second version was a large tabletop version. See? I really am intelligent! I just prefer to act like a dumbass.). Anyway, when I started there, our phlebotomists were all pre-med students from the University of Cincinnati (UC). Many of those people are physicians now, but they were wild back then. One evening in October, a group of them called me because they had one extra ticket to see R.E.M. at Millet Hall on the Miami of Ohio University campus in Oxford, Ohio, and wanted me to go with them. Reluctantly, my wife let me go, even though she never stop reminding me of her generosity that evening. I eventually made it up to her when we saw them in 1995.

These guys loved XTC, Elvis Costello, New Order and the rest of the alternative artists that made the Eighties so great. We could spend hours after second shift work discussing the merits of XTC’s Skylarking versus the album it parodied, The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper, and how and where XTC succeeded while Prince failed (that was one guy’s opinion, while I backed my man Prince, of course!). It was just fantastic to have daily interaction with a bunch of young men with common interests.

Throughout the Eighties, artists who had been in a drought for years staged major comebacks. Back in 1984, Tina Turner had one of the most wonderful comeback stories ever. And, in 1986, Paul Simon staged a major comeback behind his brilliant Graceland album. And in 1987, the Grateful Dead unexpectedly had their first Top 10 single of their groundbreaking career with the appropriately titled “A Touch of Grey,” which rode something of a hippie zeitgeist that summer. Finally, the band had a song that engaged their traveling fans, as well as the record-buying Boomers a last-gasp time to purchase some new music. Still, “A Touch of Grey” was a great song, and the album it came from, In the Dark, was the band’s most solid album since the early Seventies classics of Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty.

1987 will forever be associated with some of the following artists’ finest albums being released that very year: Prince, U2, George Michael, Guns N’ Roses, INXS, Terence Trent D’Arby, The Cult, Midnight Oil and Eric B. & Rakim. Plus, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Depeche Mode and The Cure all released excellent albums as well. But, the year belonged to rap, alternative and all types of metal, including the unfortunate hair metal, which was hogging the airwaves on radio and MTV.

So, let me prove to you, my faithful reader, see what I have been rambling over and over about. Here is My Top 100 Albums of 1987.

1. Prince – Sign ‘o’ the Times
2. E.M. – Document
3. U2 – The Joshua Tree
4. George Michael – Faith
5. Guns N’ Roses – Appetite for Destruction
6. John Cougar Mellencamp – The Lonesome Jubilee
7. Prince – The Black Album
8. Depeche Mode – Music for the Masses
9. The Replacements – Pleased to Meet Me
10. Bruce Springsteen – Tunnel of Love
11. New Order – Substance 1987
12. Eric B & Rakim – Paid in Full
13. Terence Trent D’Arby – Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D’Arby
14. The Cult – Electric
15. The Cure – Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
16. INXS – Kick
17. Michael Jackson – Bad
18. Pet Shop Boys – Actually
19. The Dukes of Stratosphear – Psonic Psunspot
20. Def Leppard – Hysteria
21. Robbie Robertson – Robbie Robertson
22. Hüsker Dü – Warehouse: Songs and Stories
23. Game Theory – Lolita Nation
24. Whitney Houston – Whitney
25. Suzanne Vega – Solitude Standing
26. Warren Zevon – Sentimental Hygiene
27. Various Artists – A Very Special Christmas
28. John Hiatt – Bring the Family
29. Midnight Oil – Diesel and Dust
30. The Psychedelic Furs – Midnight to Midnight
31. Sting – …Nothing like the Sun
32. George Harrison – Cloud Nine
33. 10,000 Maniacs – In My Tribe
34. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Darklands
35. Whitesnake – Whitesnake (aka ‘1987’)
36. Anthrax – Among the Living
37. Los Lobos – By the Light of the Moon
38. Fleetwood Mac – Tango in the Night
39. Grateful Dead – In the Dark
40. ABC – Alphabet City
41. Flying Color – Flying Color
42. The Style Council – The Cost of Loving
43. The Smiths – Strangeways, Here We Come
44. Tom Waits – Franks Wild Years
45. Squeeze – Babylon and On
46. Mötley Crüe – Girls, Girls, Girls
47. Echo & the Bunnymen – Echo & the Bunnymen
48. Sonic Youth – Sister
49. Dinosaur Jr. – You’re Living All Over Me
50. Public Enemy – Yo! Bum Rush the Show
51. Aerosmith – Permanent Vacation
52. Los Lobos and Various Artists – La Bamba OST
53. Pink Floyd – A Momentary Lapse of Reason
54. T’Pau – Bridge of Spies
55. Sinéad O’Connor – The Lion and the Cobra
56. Roger Waters – Radio K.A.O.S.
57. Alexander O’Neal – Hearsay
58. X – See How We Are
59. Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam – Spanish Fly
60. David Bowie – Never Let Me Down
61. Boogie Down Productions – Criminal Minded
62. Ozzy Osbourne & Randy Rhodes – Tribute
63. Lyle Lovett – Pontiac
64. Schoolly D – Saturday Night! The Album
65. Heart – Bad Animals
66. The Go-Betweens – Tallulah
67. Belinda Carlisle – Heaven on Earth
68. Yes – Big Generator
69. Jody Watley – Jody Watley
70. The dB’s – The Sound of Music
71. Faith No More – Introduce Yourself
72. Sisters of Mercy – Floodland
73. Rick Astley – Whenever You Need Somebody
74. Swing Out Sister – It’s Better to Travel
75. Great White – Once Bitten
76. Jennifer Warnes – Famous Blue Raincoat: The Songs of Leonard Cohen
77. Big Black – Songs About Fucking
78. Kool Moe Dee – How Ya Like Me Now
79. Smokey Robinson – One Heartbeat
80. Stevie Wonder – Characters
81. Pixies – Come on Pilgrim
82. Men Without Hats – Pop Goes the World
83. Joe Satriani – Surfing with the Alien
84. Richard Marx – Richard Marx
85. Debbie Gibson – Out of the Blue
86. Siouxsie & the Banshees – Through the Looking Glass
87. Hoodoo Gurus – Blow Your Cool
88. Red Hot Chili Peppers – The Uplift Mofo Party Plan
89. Bryan Ferry – Bȇte Noir
90. Pebbles – Pebbles
91. Cher – Cher
92. LL Cool J – Bigger and Deffer
93. The Housemartins – The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death
94. The Fat Boys – Crushin’
95. Ice-T – Rhyme Pays
96. Heavy D & the Boyz – Living Large
97. Love & Rockets – Earth, Sun, Moon
98. Keith Sweat – Make It Last Forever
99. Tiffany – Tiffany
100. DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince – Rock the House

Now do you get it? This was a killer year! It’s always great to be motivated to listen to some forgotten classics. Plus, what can you say about a year during which Rick Astley burst onto the scene? It all happened here in 1987!

Author: ifmyalbumscouldtalk

I am just a long-time music fan who used to be a high school science teacher and a varsity coach of several high school athletic teams. Before that, I worked as a medical technologist at three hospitals in their labs, mainly as a microbiologist. I am retired/disabled (Failed Back Surgery Syndrome), and this is my attempt to remain a human. Additionally, I am a serious vinyl aficionado, with a CD addiction and a love of reading about rock history. Finally, I am a fan of Prince, Cheap Trick, Tom Petty, R.E.M., Hall & Oates, Springsteen, Paul Weller & his bands and Power Pop music. View all posts by ifmyalbumscouldtalk