⇦ 1986

1988 ⇨

The Best Music of 1987

Here is a selection of the best albums and songs from 1987. Hall of Famers are highlighted in orange.

For a list of the top artists who made their debut recording in 1987, check out this list.

Albums (?)		Wikipedia
10,000 Maniacs	In My Tribe	☆
Aerosmith	Permanent Vacation	☆
Anthrax	Among the Living	☆
Belinda Carlisle	Heaven on Earth	☆
Big Black	Songs About F*cking	☆
Boogie Down Productions	Criminal Minded	☆
Bruce Springsteen	Tunnel Of Love	☆
Bryan Adams	Into the Fire	☆
Bryan Ferry	Bête Noire	☆
Carly Simon	Coming Around Again	☆
Cher	Cher	☆
Dead Can Dance	Within the Realm of a Dying Sun	☆
Def Leppard	Hysteria	☆
Depeche Mode	Music For The Masses	☆
Dinosaur Jr.	You're Living All Over Me	☆
Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris	Trio	☆
Echo & The Bunnymen	Echo & the Bunnymen	☆
Eric B. & Rakim	Paid In Full	☆
Eurythmics	Savage	☆
Faith No More	Introduce Yourself	☆
Fleetwood Mac	Tango in the Night	☆
Gene Loves Jezebel	The House Of Dolls	☆
George Harrison	Cloud Nine	☆
George Michael	Faith	☆
George Strait	Ocean Front Property	☆
Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine	Let It Loose/Anything for You	☆
Guns N' Roses	Appetite For Destruction	☆
Hüsker Dü	Warehouse: Stories and Songs	☆
Helloween	Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part 1	☆
Ice-T	Rhyme Pays	☆
INXS	Kick	☆
Jethro Tull	Crest of a Knave	☆
Joe Cocker	Unchain My Heart	☆
Joe Satriani	Surfing With The Alien	☆
John Hiatt	Bring the Family	☆
John Mellencamp	The Lonesome Jubilee	☆
LadySmith Black Mambazo	Shaka Zulu	☆
LL Cool J	Bigger and Deffer	☆
Los Lobos	By the Light of the Moon	☆
Love And Rockets	Earth, Sun, Moon	☆
Mötley Crüe	Girls, Girls, Girls	☆
Marianne Faithfull	Strange Weather	☆
Marillion	Clutching at Straws	☆
Michael Jackson	Bad	☆
Midnight Oil	Diesel and Dust	☆
Napalm Death	Scum	☆
Original Broadway Cast	Les Miserables	☆
Original Broadway Cast	The Phantom of the Opera	☆
Overkill	Taking Over	☆
Ozzy Osbourne & Randy Rhoads	Tribute	☆
Pet Shop Boys	Actually	☆
Pixies	Come On Pilgrim	☆
Prince	Sign O' The Times	☆
Public Enemy	Yo! Bum Rush The Show	☆
R.E.M.	Document	☆
Randy Travis	Always & Forever	☆
Red Hot Chili Peppers	The Uplift Mofo Party Plan	☆
Robbie Robertson	Robbie Robertson	☆
Simply Red	Men and Women	☆
Sinead O'Connor	The Lion & The Cobra	☆
Smokey Robinson	One Heartbeat	☆
Sonic Youth	Sister	☆
Sting	...Nothing Like the Sun	☆
Suzanne Vega	Solitude Standing	☆
Terence Trent D'Arby	Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby	☆
The Cult	Electric	☆
The Cure	Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me	☆
The Grateful Dead	In The Dark	☆
The Jesus and Mary Chain	Darklands	☆
The Replacements	Pleased to Meet Me	☆
The Sisters of Mercy	Floodland	☆
The Smiths	Strangeways, Here We Come	☆
Tom Waits	Frank's Wild Years	☆
Toshiki Kadomatsu	Sea Is A Lady	☆
U2	The Joshua Tree	☆
Various Artists	A Very Special Christmas	☆
Various Artists	Dirty Dancing	☆
Various Artists	La Bamba: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack	☆
Warren Zevon	Sentimental Hygiene	☆
Whitesnake	Whitesnake	☆
Whitney Houston	Whitney	☆
Wynton Marsalis	Marsalis Standard Time, Vol. 1	☆
Yo La Tengo	New Wave Hot Dogs	☆

---

Songs (?)		Wikipedia
Aerosmith	Dude (Looks Like a Lady)	☆
Aerosmith	Rag Doll	☆
Aerosmith	Angel	☆
Al Jarreau	Moonlighting (Theme)	☆
Anthrax	Caught In A Mosh	☆
Anthrax	I Am the Law	☆
Anthrax	Indians	☆
Belinda Carlisle	Heaven Is A Place On Earth	☆
Belinda Carlisle	I Get Weak	☆
Belinda Carlisle	Circle in the Sand	☆
Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes	(I've Had) The Time of My Life	☆
Bob Rivers Comedy Corp.	The Twelve Pains of Christmas	☆
Bob Seger	Shakedown	☆
Boogie Down Productions	The Bridge Is Over	☆
Bruce Springsteen	Brilliant Disguise	☆
Bruce Springsteen	Tunnel Of Love	☆
Bruce Springsteen	Tougher Than the Rest	☆
Buster Poindexter	Hot Hot Hot	☆
Cher	I Found Someone	☆
Debbie Gibson	Shake Your Love	☆
Def Leppard	Pour Some Sugar On Me	☆
Def Leppard	Animal	☆
Def Leppard	Love Bites	☆
Def Leppard	Hysteria	☆
Depeche Mode	Never Let Me Down Again	☆
Depeche Mode	Strangelove	☆
Depeche Mode	Behind the Wheel	☆
Dinosaur Jr.	Little Fury Things	☆
Dokken	Dream Warriors	☆
Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt And Emmylou Harris	Wildflowers	☆
Eazy-E	Boyz-n-the-Hood	☆
Echo & the Bunnymen	Lips Like Sugar	☆
Enya	Boadicea	☆
Eric B. & Rakim	Paid in Full	☆
Eric B. & Rakim	I Know You Got Soul	☆
Eric B. & Rakim	I Ain't No Joke	☆
Eric Carmen	Hungry Eyes	☆
Eric Carmen	Make Me Lose Control	☆
Eurythmics	Winter Wonderland	☆
Exposé	Point of No Return	☆
Faith No More	We Care A Lot	☆
Fleetwood Mac	Little Lies	☆
Fleetwood Mac	Everywhere	☆
Fleetwood Mac	Seven Wonders	☆
Frankie Knuckles	Your Love	☆
George Harrison	Got My Mind Set On You	☆
George Harrison	When We Was Fab	☆
George Michael	Faith	☆
George Michael	Father Figure	☆
George Michael	I Want Your Sex	☆
George Strait	All My Exes Live in Texas	☆
Gerard McMann	Cry Little Sister Theme from The Lost Boys	☆
Gipsy Kings	Bamboléo	☆
Gipsy Kings	Bem, Bem, María	☆
Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine	Rhythm Is Gonna Get You	☆
Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine	1-2-3	☆
Great White	Rock Me	☆
Gregg Allman Band	I'm No Angel	☆
Guns N' Roses	Paradise City	☆
Guns N' Roses	Sweet Child O Mine	☆
Guns N' Roses	Welcome To The Jungle	☆
Guns N' Roses	Mr. Brownstone	☆
Hüsker Dü	Could You Be the One?	☆
Heart	Alone	☆
Helloween	Helloween	☆
Helloween	Future World	☆
Herb Alpert featuring Janet Jackson & Lisa Keith	Diamonds	☆
Ice-T	6 in the Mornin'	☆
Inner Circle	Bad Boys	☆
INXS	Need You Tonight	☆
INXS	New Sensation	☆
INXS	Devil Inside	☆
INXS	Never Tear Us Apart	☆
Jody Watley	Looking For A New Love	☆
John Hiatt	Have a Little Faith in Me	☆
John Mellencamp	Cherry Bomb	☆
John Mellencamp	Paper in Fire	☆
John Mellencamp	Check It Out	☆
Johnny Hates Jazz	Shattered Dreams	☆
Kenny Loggins	Meet Me Half Way	☆
Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam	Head to Toe	☆
LL Cool J	Going Back To Cali	☆
LL Cool J	I'm Bad	☆
Los Lobos	La Bamba	☆
Los Lobos	One Time One Night	☆
Mötley Crüe	Girls, Girls, Girls	☆
Mötley Crüe	Wild Side	☆
M|A|R|R|S	Pump Up the Volume	☆
Madonna	Who's That Girl	☆
Manowar	Fighting the World	☆
Michael Jackson	Smooth Criminal	☆
Michael Jackson	Bad	☆
Michael Jackson	Man In The Mirror	☆
Michael Jackson	The Way You Make Me Feel	☆
Michael Jackson	Dirty Diana	☆
Midnight Oil	Beds Are Burning	☆
Midnight Oil	Put Down That Weapon	☆
New Order	True Faith	☆
Patrick Swayze featuring Wendy Fraser	She's Like the Wind	☆
Pet Shop Boys	Always On My Mind	☆
Pet Shop Boys	It's a Sin	☆
Pet Shop Boys	Rent	☆
Pet Shop Boys & Dusty Springfield	What Have I Done to Deserve This	☆
Peter Tosh	No Nuclear War	☆
Pink Floyd	Learning To Fly	☆
Poison	Talk Dirty to Me	☆
Prince	Sign 'o' the Times	☆
Prince	U Got the Look	☆
Prince	I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man	☆
Prince	If I Was Your Girlfriend	☆
Public Enemy	Bring The Noise	☆
Public Image Ltd.	Seattle	☆
R.E.M.	It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)	☆
R.E.M.	The One I Love	☆
Randy Travis	Forever and Ever Amen	☆
Rick Astley	Never Gonna Give You Up	☆
Rick Astley	Together Forever	☆
Run-D.M.C.	Christmas in Hollis	☆
Rush	Time Stand Still	☆
Sinead O'Connor	Mandinka	☆
Sinead O'Connor	Troy	☆
Siouxsie and the Banshees	The Passenger	☆
Smokey Robinson	Just to See Her	☆
Sonic Youth	Schizophrenia	☆
Starship	Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now	☆
Sting	Englishman in New York	☆
Sting	Fragile	☆
Suzanne Vega	Luka	☆
T'Pau	Heart and Soul	☆
Taylor Dayne	Tell It to My Heart	☆
Terence Trent D'Arby	Wishing Well	☆
The Bangles	Hazy Shade Of Winter	☆
The Cult	Love Removal Machine	☆
The Cure	Just Like Heaven	☆
The Cure	Why Can't I Be You?	☆
The Grateful Dead	Touch Of Grey	☆
The Jesus & Mary Chain	April Skies	☆
The Pogues	Fairytale of New York	☆
The Pogues featuring The Dubliners	The Irish Rover	☆
The Replacements	Alex Chilton	☆
The Replacements	Can't Hardly Wait	☆
The Sisters of Mercy	Lucretia, My Reflection	☆
The Smiths	Girlfriend in a Coma	☆
The Smiths	Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before	☆
The Sugarcubes	Birthday	☆
The System	Don't Disturb This Groove	☆
Tom Waits	Way Down in the Hole	☆
Tom Waits	Hang on St. Christopher	☆
U2	I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For	☆
U2	Where The Streets Have No Names	☆
U2	With Or Without You	☆
U2	Sweetest Thing	☆
U2	Bullet the Blue Sky	☆
U2	In God's Country	☆
U2	Red Hill Mining Town	☆
Warlock	All We Are	☆
Warren Zevon	Boom Boom Mancini	☆
Whitesnake	Here I Go Again	☆
Whitesnake	Is This Love	☆
Whitney Houston	I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)	☆
Whitney Houston	So Emotional	☆
X	4th Of July	☆

⇦ 1986

1988 ⇨