Welcome to Throwback Tuesday!
We’ve got a lot to cover today, so let’s get started! 1987, here we come!
January 3rd – Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
January 16th – Beastie Boys become the first act to be censored by American Bandstand.
February 14th – Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer reaches #1 in the USA. It would be 1987’s biggest hit song worldwide.
March 9th – 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” (at the 1988 ceremony).
http://youtu.be/C_jxEgjneA4
March 27th – 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.
June 14th – Madonna starts her Who’s That Girl Tour in Osaka, Japan.
http://youtu.be/8eGtHXjRuO8
June 27th – Whitney Houston’s second album Whitney becomes the first album by a female artist to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200.
July 21st – 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
http://youtu.be/wf0OW9TIBoA
August 1st – MTV Europe is launched. The first video played is “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits.
August 31st – Michael Jackson releases Bad, the first studio album after Thriller, the best-selling album of all time. The album would produce five number one singles in the USA, a record which has not been broken.
September 7th – 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.
October 30th – 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 USA alone.
http://youtu.be/Wkc1LAi88EA
November 13th – Sonny and Cher reunite for a performance on Late Night with David Letterman.
http://youtu.be/EUtofZzEnbA
December 16 – John Mellencamp performs two free shows in the small town of Chillicothe, Ohio after one-fifth of the population signed a petition asking him to play.