1987 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1987.
Specific locations
Specific genres
Events
January–February
- January 3 – Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The other inductees this year consist of The Coasters, Eddie Cochran, Bo Diddley, Marvin Gaye, Bill Haley, Clyde McPhatter, Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Smokey Robinson and Jackie Wilson.
- January 5 – Elton John, after several months of voice problems, undergoes throat surgery in an Australian hospital. The outcome would hinder his voice permanently and he would soon start singing in a deep register.
- January 16 – Beastie Boys become the first act to be censored by American Bandstand.
- January 24 – Steve "Silk" Hurley's innovative "Jack Your Body" becomes the first house music record to top the UK singles chart.
- February 6 – Sonny Bono announces his candidacy for mayor of Palm Springs, California.
- February 14
- *Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" reaches #1 in the USA. It would be 1987's biggest hit song worldwide.
- *Los Angeles radio station KMET signs off after nineteen years on the air. The station had been a pioneer of underground progressive rock programming.
- February 15 – Video Hits premieres on Australian television.
- February 24 – The 29th Annual Grammy Awards are presented in Los Angeles, hosted by Billy Crystal. Paul Simon's Graceland wins Album of the Year, Steve Winwood's "Higher Love" wins Record of the Year and Dionne Warwick's cover of "That's What Friends Are For", featuring Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder, wins Song of the Year. Bruce Hornsby & the Range win Best New Artist.
- February 26 – The first four Beatles albums, Please Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night and Beatles for Sale are released on compact disc. Capitol Records decides to release the original UK mixes of the Beatles albums, which means that the first four CDs are released in mono. This marks the first time that many of these mono mixes are available in the US.
March–April
- March 9
- *U2 releases The Joshua Tree, an album that launches them into superstar status in the music world. The album would sell over 14 million copies worldwide in 1987 alone and would win the Grammy for "Album of the Year". U2 have two #1 hit songs from this album on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts.
- *Carole King is inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York City.
- *The career that would end in an infamous appearance at The Brit awards and the burning of a million pounds began in Britain, as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu release their debut single, "All You Need Is Love".
- March 13
- *Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- *In the US, Bryan Adams' "Heat of the Night" becomes the first single to be commercially released on cassette. Cassette singles become known as cassingles.
- March 27 – Inspired by The Beatles' 1969 rooftop concert, U2 shoots a music video for the song "Where the Streets Have No Name" on a rooftop in Los Angeles.
- April 23 — Carole King sues the owner of her record company, Lou Adler, claiming that she is owed more than $400,000 in royalties. King also asks for rights to her old recordings.
May–August
- May 9 – Ireland's Johnny Logan wins the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Brussels, Belgium, with the song "Hold Me Now", making him the first artist to win the contest twice. The song tops the charts in Ireland, and peaks at No. 2 in the UK.
- June 14 – Madonna starts her Who's That Girl Tour in Osaka, Japan.
- June 27 – Whitney Houston's second album Whitney becomes the first album by a female artist to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200.
- July 4
- *Kylie Minogue's recording career begins with the release of her cover version of the Little Eva hit The Loco-Motion; the single spends seven weeks at number one in her native Australia and leads to a contract with UK-based record producers Stock Aitken Waterman.
- *The first joint rock concert between the United States and the Soviet Union is held in Moscow to promote peace. The Doobie Brothers, James Taylor, Santana and Bonnie Raitt share the bill with Soviet rock group Autograph.
- July 21 – American rock group Guns N' Roses release Appetite for Destruction which, after initial slow sales, will become the best-selling debut album of all time, with more than 18 million copies sold in the US alone to date.
- August 1
- *Dave Stewart of Eurythmics and Siobhan Fahey of Bananarama are married in Normandy, France.
- *MTV Europe is launched. The first video played is "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits.
- August 3 – Def Leppard releases Hysteria, the longest rock album ever released as a single LP or cassette.
- August 27 – The Jello Biafra criminal trial is dismissed after ending in a hung jury in Los Angeles court. Biafra and his manager had been charged with distributing harmful material to minors due to a poster included in the Dead Kennedys' Frankenchrist album of a painting depicting rows of sexual organs.
- August 31 – Michael Jackson releases Bad, his first studio album since Thriller, the best-selling album of all time. The album would produce five number one singles in the US, a record which has not been broken.
September–October
- September 3 – Fugazi plays their first live show at the Wilson Center in Washington DC.
- September 6 – Madonna ends her Who's That Girl Tour in Florence, Italy.
- September 7 – Pink Floyd release A Momentary Lapse of Reason, their first album after the departure of, and legal battle with, bassist Roger Waters. The subsequent tour grossed around $135 million worldwide, a sum that was only equaled by the earnings of Michael Jackson and U2 combined.
- September 11 – Reggae musician Peter Tosh is murdered during a robbery in his home.
- September 12 – Michael Jackson starts the Bad World Tour, supporting his Bad album.
- From September 15 to October 4, Johnny Hallyday starts his performance to Accor Arena for the first time.
- September 25 – CBS launches an American version of the long-running UK television show Top of the Pops. It lasts one year.
- October 4 – Electronic data gathering completely replaces the old sales diary technique in compiling the UK singles and albums chart. The publication day of new charts is moved from Tuesday to Sunday.
- October 8 – Chuck Berry receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- October 19 – Mötley Crüe release the song "You're All I Need" as a single. MTV refuse to play its video because of the level of violence.
- October 19 – INXS releases ‘’KICK’’.
- October 24 – The 16th OTI Festival, held at the Teatro São Luiz in Lisbon, Portugal, is won by the son "La felicidad está en un rincón de tu corazón", written by and Arnoldo Nali, and performed by Alfredo Alejandro representing Venezuela.
- October 30 – George Michael releases his first solo studio album, Faith, which would win the Grammy Award for album of the year and sell 11 million copies in the USA alone.
- October 31 – The Zorros headline on Halloween for the last-ever show at the Crystal Ballroom, Melbourne's premier Punk/New Wave venue. The Crystal Ballroom has seen almost ten years of intense musical evolution. The venue has chandeliers, stained glass windows, paisley wallpaper and a tiled foyer.
November–December
- November 2 – Dokken released Back for the Attack.
- November 13 – Sonny and Cher reunite for a performance on Late Night with David Letterman.
- November 18 – CBS Records is sold to the Sony Corporation in a deal worth about $2 billion; the company was renamed Sony Music Entertainment in 1991.
- November 19 – Cher returns to the music after five years of absence - time that she took to dedicate herself to the filmmaking business - with the lead single of her second self-titled album, "I Found Someone", which peaked at number five in UK and number ten in US.
- November 24 – ABC airs Rolling Stone Magazine's 20 Years of Rock 'n' Roll television special, chronicling the music and the people of the past twenty years to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Rolling Stone magazine. The special includes new interviews as well as vintage performance footage of many rock legends such as Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Sex Pistols, Bruce Springsteen and many more.
- December 16 – John Mellencamp performs two free shows in the small town of Chillicothe, Ohio after one-fifth of the population signs a petition asking him to play.
- December 23
- * Nikki Sixx of the rock band Mötley Crüe suffers a heroin overdose, but is revived shortly thereafter.
- * Roger Waters finalizes his departure from British progressive rock band Pink Floyd, after a two-year-long legal dispute over the rights to the band's name and assets.
- December 31 – The sixteenth annual New Year's Rockin' Eve special airs on ABC, with appearances by Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, Los Lobos, Barry Manilow, Restless Heart and The Temptations.
Also in 1987
- Andreas Kisser replaces Jairo Guedes in Sepultura.
- Prince cancels The Black Album just before its release. It becomes officially available in 1994.
- Naxos Records is established as a budget classical music CD label by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.
Bands formed
- ''See Musical groups established in 1987''
Bands disbanded
- ''See Musical groups disestablished in 1987''
Bands reformed
Albums released
Release date unknown
- 2X4 – Guadalcanal Diary
- 25 Years Celebration – The Dubliners
- The 77s – The 77s
- Akwaba Beach – Mory Kanté
- All Our Love - Gladys Knight & the Pips
- Annual Waltz – John Hartford
- Babble – That Petrol Emotion
- Back Again in the DHSS - Half Man Half Biscuit
- Ballot Result – Minutemen
- Between Two Worlds – Patrick O'Hearn
- Bennett/Berlin – Tony Bennett
- Bird Dog – The Verlaines
- The Blanton-Webster Years – Duke Ellington
- Brave Words – The Chills
- Brenda K. Starr – Brenda K. Starr
- Casque Colonial - Golden Sounds
- Catui - Catui
- The Chipmunk Adventure: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - The Chipmunks and The Chipettes
- The Cowboy Way – Riders in the Sky
- D & K – DeGarmo and Key
- Daddy's Highway – The Bats
- Dawn – Current 93
- Desire – Toyah
- Drive by Shooting – Henry Rollins
- Emergency Broadcast – White Heart
- Exiles – Dan Fogelberg
- Eye of the Hurricane – The Alarm
- Frozen Ghost – Frozen Ghost
- Fünf auf der nach oben offenen Richterskala – Einstürzende Neubauten
- Gluey Porch Treatments – Melvins
- Green Eggs and Crack – Too Much Joy
- Hai Hai – Roger Hodgson
- Hold to a Dream - New Grass Revival
- Hot Animal Machine – Henry Rollins
- Huevos – Meat Puppets
- Hot Number – The Fabulous Thunderbirds
- I Predict 1990 – Steve Taylor
- If I Were Your Woman – Stephanie Mills
- I Remember Blind Joe Death – John Fahey
- Irène Schweizer & Louis Moholo – Irène Schweizer and Louis Moholo
- The Killer Inside Me – Green on Red
- Law of the Fish – The Radiators
- Little Baby Buntin' – Killdozer
- Live and Loud!! – Sham 69 – Live
- Live At The Ritz – Ronnie Wood & Bo Diddley – Live
- Lone Star State of Mind – Nanci Griffith
- Lubricated Goat Plays the Devil's Music – Lubricated Goat
- Maggots: The Record – Plasmatics
- Menjaring Matahari – Ebiet G. Ade
- Mirador – Magnum
- Night Mood: The Music of Ivan Lins – Mark Murphy
- Official Version – Front 242
- One Thousand Years of Trouble – Age of Chance
- Out of Silence – Yanni
- Où veux tu qu'je r'garde - Noir Désir
- Pain of Mind - Neurosis
- Players – Too Short
- Pontiac – Lyle Lovett
- Poem of the River – Felt
- Post-Mersh Vol. 1 – Minutemen
- Post-Mersh Vol. 2 – Minutemen
- Powder Keg - Charlie Daniels
- Romeo at Juilliard – Don Dixon
- The Royal Treatment – Billy Joe Royal
- Saddle Pals – Riders in the Sky
- Safety In Numbers – David Van Tieghem
- See How We Are – X
- Shaka Zulu – Ladysmith Black Mambazo
- Silence – Stephan Eicher
- Simply Shadows – The Shadows
- Songs from the Stage and Screen – Michael Crawford
- The Sound of Music – The dB's
- Soy Así – José José
- Speed Metal Symphony – Cacophony
- Stereoland – The Modern Art
- Stinkfist – Clint Ruin and Lydia Lunch
- Strange Cargo – William Orbit
- Taj - Taj Mahal
- This Means War! – Petra (band)
- Too Late To Cry – Alison Krauss
- The Tribe – Bernie Taupin
- Trouble Over Here - Trouble Funk
- VI – Circle JerksThe Walking – Jane Siberry
- Wasted...Again – Black Flag
- Whistlin' in the Dark – Bryan Duncan
- Wildest Dreams – Saga
- Young and Free – Rock Goddess
Biggest hit singles
The following songs achieved the highestin the charts of 1987.
| # | Artist | Title | Year | Country | Chart Entries |
| 1 | Whitney Houston | I Wanna Dance with Somebody Who Loves Me | 1987 |  Published popular music
Classical music
Opera
Musical theater
Musical filmsAriaDirty DancingHail! Hail! Rock 'n' RollHearts of FireLa BambaMr. IndiaRock 'n' Roll NightmareSign o' the Times
Births
Deaths
Awards
Grammy AwardsCountry Music Association AwardsEurovision Song Contest[Glenn Gould Prize]Charts
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