Events in 1987
- David Martin, bassist with Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs and co-writer of “Wooly Bully,” died of a heart attack at the age of 50.
- Dave Stewart of Eurythmics and Siobhan Fahey of Bananarama were married.
- Def Leppard released their fourth studio album, “Hysteria.”
- The soundtrack to the film “Dirty Dancing” was released by RCA Records.
- The film “Who's That Girl,” starring Madonna, premiered in New York.
- The Beastie Boys sued the city of Jacksonville, Florida, over the use of the “mature audience” designation on concert tickets and in advertisements.
- Nike placed a full-page advertisement in the Los Angeles Times in response to the controversy surrounding the use of The Beatles' song “Revolution” in a commercial.
- Film „Back to the Beach“ byl uveden v kinech po celých Spojených státech a po 24 letech znovu spojil Frankieho Avalona a Annette Funicello. Film utržil 13 milionů dolarů.
- Lindsey Buckingham během schůzky skupiny Fleetwood Mac ostře vystoupil proti svým spoluhráčům a skupinu opustil. Fleetwood Mac následně koncertovali bez něj na podporu alba „Tango In The Night“.
- Madonna během koncertu v Pontiac Silverdome zastavila vystoupení, aby se omluvila 42 000 fanouškům za své předchozí označení rodného města Bay City v Michiganu za „smelly little town“.
- Madonna vyvolala kontroverzi mezi obyvateli svého rodného města Bay City v Michiganu, když jej v pořadu Today označila za „smelly little town“.
- Janet Jackson reached No. 1 on the R&B chart with “The Pleasure Principle”.
- U2 reached No. 1 on the U.S. best-selling singles chart for the second time with “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. The song was released on the album “The Joshua Tree”.
- Swedish singer, songwriter and music producer Jonnali Parmenius, known professionally as Noonie Bao, was born in Stockholm.
- Wilson Pickett was found guilty of threatening bar patrons in New Jersey with a loaded shotgun after a fight inside the establishment. He was sentenced to two years' probation and fined $1,000.
- LL Cool J's second album Bigger And Deffer was certified Platinum. According to the source, he became the first solo rapper to achieve the certification.
- Rolling Stone magazine named The Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band the best album made during the previous 20 years. The next places went to Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, Exile on Main St., The Beatles (The White Album) and Blood on the Tracks.
- With the single “I Just Can't Stop Loving You”, they reached No. 1 on the UK singles chart. The song was originally intended to be a duet between Michael Jackson and either Barbra Streisand or Whitney Houston.
- Dan Smyers, guitarist of the country duo Dan + Shay, was born in Wexford, Pennsylvania.
- Beastie Boys and Run-D.M.C. concluded their Together Forever tour with a concert at Madison Square Garden in New York. Run-D.M.C. urged fans to stay in school and avoid drugs, while Beastie Boys performed with dancers in cages and beer.
- One of the busiest studio drummers of the 20th century, Gary Chester died of cancer at the age of 62. During his career, he took part in more than 15,000 studio recording sessions and played on thousands of recordings, including with The Coasters and The Monkees and on songs such as “Sixteen Candles”, “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do”, “Brown Eyed Girl”, “Under the Boardwalk”, “Walk On By” and “It's My Party”.
- Tom Waits released the album Franks Wild Years on Island Records. The album reached No. 115 in the United States and No. 14 in Switzerland.
- Aerosmith released the album Permanent Vacation, their first album after overcoming addiction. Hits such as “Dude (Looks Like a Lady)” and “Angel” launched a remarkable comeback for the band, which had spent the previous decade struggling with drug addiction and a creative crisis.
- American songwriter, singer and music producer John Ryan was born. He is known for co-writing and co-producing four albums by One Direction and a number of their singles. He has also worked with Maroon 5, Sabrina Carpenter, Katy Perry and John Legend.
- Metallica played a secret concert at The 100 Club in London. Two days later, they performed at Donington Park in Castle Donington as part of the large Monsters of Rock festival, headlined by Bon Jovi.
- The soundtrack to the film “Dirty Dancing” was released.
- The film “Dirty Dancing” was released in US cinemas. In November, its soundtrack reached No. 1 in America, where it sold more than 11 million copies.
- Metallica released their first EP, “The $5.98 E.P. – Garage Days Re-Revisited”. It contained cover versions of popular metal and punk rock songs from the 1970s and 1980s.
- Midnight Oil released their sixth album, “Diesel and Dust”, inspired by their tour of Aboriginal communities in the Australian outback. The single “Beds Are Burning”, which called for the return of land rights to Indigenous Australians, became the band's breakthrough hit in the US.
- Bon Jovi were the headliners of the Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington, England.
- Madonna reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 with “Who's That Girl”, her sixth U.S. No. 1 single and also a No. 1 hit in the United Kingdom. It was a Spanish-English song with the refrain “¿Quién es esta niña?” and the title track of the soundtrack album to the comedy film of the same name, in which Madonna starred alongside Griffin Dunne.
- During the Grateful Dead concert marking the 20th anniversary of the Summer of Love at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds in Angel Camp, California, a man who had escaped from a drug treatment facility shot a police officer and was subsequently shot by police.
- Madonna's single “Who's That Girl” reached number one on the charts.
- Donny Osmond released the single „I'm In It For Love“, his first single in ten years. The song did not reach the Billboard Top 40.
- John Mellencamp released the album „The Lonesome Jubilee“, which continued his move toward folk-rock and included the hits „Paper in Fire“, „Check It Out“ and „Cherry Bomb“.
- Scottish singer, songwriter and guitarist Amy Macdonald was born in Bishopbriggs. Her debut album “This Is the Life” reached number one in the UK in 2008, and the title track was a number-one hit in six countries.
- Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil injured his hand before a concert in Rochester, New York, after angrily smashing a glass of Gulden's mustard because he wanted Frenchie's. The concert was cancelled and Neil was flown to Baltimore, where surgeons repaired damaged nerves and tendons in his hand.
- The jury failed to reach a verdict and the judge declared a mistrial in the case of Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra, who was accused of distributing harmful material to minors because of H. R. Giger's illustration “Work 219: Landscape XX”, known as “Penis Landscape”, which was included as a poster with the 1985 album “Frankenchrist”. It was the first case in which a musician was prosecuted over an album cover, and the costly trial contributed to the subsequent breakup of Dead Kennedys.
- A Los Angeles radio station bypassed Epic Records' strict security measures concerning master tapes and broadcast a pirated sample of Michael Jackson's song “Bad” four days before its official release. The leak did not slow the album's expected success, as pre-orders had already exceeded 2.2 million copies.
- Def Leppard's fourth studio album "Hysteria" reached No. 1 on the UK album chart. The album also reached No. 1 in the US the following July after 49 weeks of gradual ascent. It also reached No. 1 in Australia, Norway, and New Zealand, and sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.
- Michael Jackson released the album "Bad", which followed his album "Thriller".
- Michael Jackson and Siedah Garrett had the song "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" at No. 1 on the US chart.
- Rick Astley began a five-week run at No. 1 on the UK singles chart with his debut hit "Never Gonna Give You Up". The song became the best-selling single of 1987, reached No. 1 in sixteen countries, and won the Brit Award for Best British Single in 1988.
- INXS released the album “Kick” during its international release week.
- Michael Jackson released “Bad”.
- Fleetwood Mac released "Little Lies" from their fourteenth studio album, "Tango in the Night". The song was written by group member Christine McVie with her then-husband Eddy Quintela. The single reached No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and No. 5 in the United Kingdom, becoming the group's last U.S. Top 10 hit.
- Michael Jackson's album "Bad" reached No. 1 on the British albums chart and began a five-week run at the top.
- CBS Records recorded the largest advance order of albums in its history when it shipped 2.25 million copies of Michael Jackson's "Bad" to stores in the United States. The album followed "Thriller", Jackson's best-selling album, and later sold more than 13 million copies.
- Michael Jackson's "Bad" music video was broadcast for the first time on CBS-TV.
- MTV launched "Club MTV", its contemporary and considerably more provocative version of "American Bandstand".