1987 in music

See also:

Events

• January 3 - Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• January 16 - The Beastie Boys become the first act to be censored by American Bandstand.
• January - 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–March 7 - Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer" is the #1 song. It would be 1987's Biggest hit song.
• March 7 - The first five Beatles albums, Please Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, Beatles for Sale and Help! 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 were available in the US.
• March 9 - Carole King is inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York City
• March 13 - Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
• March 13 - 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, California.
• 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.
• June 27- Whitney Houston's sophomore album Whitney becomes the first album by a female artist to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200.
• September 25 - Matthew Garrison Chapman is born as the first child of Amy Grant and Gary Chapman. Lead Me On, Amy's 1988 album, is said to have been dedicated to Matt.
• October 12 - Twisted Sister breaks up
• October - electronic data gathering completely replaces the old sales diary technique in compiling the UK singles and albums chart.
• October 19 - Mötley Crüe release the song "You're All I Need" as a single. Its lyrics cause MTV to refuse to play its video. Radio stations never play the song either.
• November 13 - Sonny and Cher reunite for a performance on Late Night with David Letterman.
• Social Distortion returns to record Prison Bound
• Jane's Addiction's career begins
• Public Enemy's career starts
• Paul Oakenfold's career begins
• Tori Amos' career begins
• Danzig's career begins
• Gin Blossoms forms
• Mr. Big forms
• Nirvana forms
• Zebra breaks up
• Wham! breaks up
• Hüsker Dü breaks up
• Jane's Addiction signs to Warner Bros
• Winger signs to Atlantic Records
• Kylie Minogue's recording career begins, when her cover version of the Little Eva hit The Loco-Motion spends seven weeks at number one in her native Australia and leads to a contract with UK based record producers Stock Aitken Waterman