Sweet Child O' Mine
1987 · From Appetite for Destruction
Slash was goofing through a warm-up he called a circus melody; an hour later the band had this.
★ 8.7
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1987
Showing 46 songs from 1987
Welcome to the Jungle
1987 · From Appetite for Destruction
Slash's riff, McKagan's breakdown recycled from his old punk band, and roughly three hours from nothing to finished song.
★ 8.4
Where the Streets Have No Name
1987 · From The Joshua Tree
Eno reckoned half the album's sessions went into it and nearly wiped the tape; the Edge's delay does the rest.
★ 8.4
With or Without YouU2
With or Without You
1987 · From The Joshua Tree
The Edge was sent a prototype Infinite Guitar by Michael Brook, and U2 had their first American number one.
★ 8.0
Paradise City
1987 · From Appetite for Destruction
Written in a rental van home from San Francisco, and the final two minutes simply double the tempo.
★ 7.8
Just Like Heaven
1987 · From Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
Smith traced it to a day at Beachy Head with Mary Poole; Williams sped the tempo, adding the opening fill.
★ 7.7
Fairytale of New York
1987
Two years in the making, with MacColl finally singing the woman's part, and it still stalled at number two.
★ 7.7
Bring the Noise
1987 · From It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
First released on the Less Than Zero soundtrack, it opens with Malcolm X and never stops arguing rap's case.
★ 7.6
Smooth Criminal
1987 · From Bad
Jackson took the chorus line from a CPR dummy named Annie, and the anti-gravity lean later earned a patent.
★ 7.6
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
1987 · From The Joshua Tree
A jam demoed under the title The Weather Girls became a gospel hymn about doubt, and U2's second American number one.
★ 7.6
I Wanna Dance with Somebody
1987 · From Whitney
Walden thought the demo too country, funked it up, and Houston cut it while shaking off a bronchial infection.
★ 7.5
Paid in Full
1987 · From Paid in Full
Coldcut took 700 pounds for the remix, added Ofra Haza, and Rakim's minute-long verse reset how rappers rhymed.
★ 7.5
Bad
1987 · From Bad
Scorsese shot eighteen minutes in a Brooklyn subway station, and the brass hits point straight back at James Brown.
★ 7.4
FaithGeorge Michael
Faith
1987
A church organ quoting Wham!'s Freedom, then Hugh Burns's Bo Diddley rhythm, and four weeks at number one.
★ 7.4
Push It
1987
A B-side until a San Francisco DJ's remix reached radio, and a first rap Grammy nomination they boycotted.
★ 7.0
I Know You Got SoulEric B. and Rakim
I Know You Got Soul
1987 · From Paid in Full
A Bobby Byrd loop that sent every producer digging for James Brown, and Rakim rhyming coolly off the beat.
★ 7.0
Need You Tonight
1987
A cassette demo made while a taxi idled outside, finished in Hong Kong, and INXS's only American number one.
★ 6.8
It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
1987 · From Document
A dream about a party where every guest had Lenny Bruce's initials, sped into Document's headlong disaster list.
★ 6.8
Boyz N' Tha Hood (Eazy-E)Eazy-E
Boyz N' Tha Hood (Eazy-E)
1987
Ice Cube wrote it for a New York group who walked out; Dre pushed Eazy-E to rap it himself.
★ 6.7
The Way You Make Me Feel
1987 · From Bad
Cut at Westlake with Quincy Jones, a shuffle Jackson wrote himself, and Bad's third straight Hot 100 number one.
★ 6.5
RawBig Daddy Kane
Raw
1987 · From Long Live the Kane
Marley Marl on the beat, Kane's debut twelve-inch in 1987, and a rapid-fire delivery that reset the bar.
★ 6.5
Pour Some Sugar On Me
1987
Written last, on a tea break, from a riff Elliott had been jamming; it later pushed Hysteria to number one.
★ 6.4
It's a Sin
1987
Tennant settling scores with his Newcastle Catholic school teachers, then closing the record with the Confiteor recited in Latin.
★ 6.3
The One I Love
1987 · From Document
Buck wrote the riff on his porch, Stipe found it too brutal to sing, and America mistook it for romance.
★ 6.2
(I've Had) The Time Of My Life
1987
Medley said no repeatedly until Warnes signed on, and the two finished the vocal in about an hour.
★ 6.1
I Need Love
1987 · From Bigger and Deffer
Hip hop's first successful ballad, an MC known for boasts admitting loneliness, and a number fourteen pop hit.
★ 6.0
La Bamba (Los Lobos)
1987
Los Lobos took a Veracruz wedding dance to number one, in Spanish, for the Ritchie Valens biopic.
★ 5.9
Top Billin'
1987
Milk Dee built the beat from the Impeach the President break; over 300 records borrowed it since.
★ 5.9
It's Tricky
1987 · From Raising Hell
Rubin co-produced, the guitar hook lifted straight from My Sharona, and Penn and Teller hustle three-card monte in the video.
★ 5.8
Mony Mony
1987
Idol's 1981 studio take missed the Hot 100 entirely; the live 1987 version knocked Tiffany off number one.
★ 5.4
Touch of GreyGrateful Dead
Touch of Grey
1987 · From In the Dark
Cut live on a darkened Marin auditorium stage with no audience, and somehow the Dead's only Top 10 hit.
★ 5.3
Heaven is a Place on Earth
1987
Number one in both America and Britain, with Thomas Dolby on synths and Diane Keaton directing the video.
★ 5.3
April Skies
1987
Gillespie had gone off to Primal Scream, so a drum machine drives the Reids' highest UK charting single.
★ 5.2
It Must Have Been Love
1987
Written to order as a Christmas single, then reworded for Pretty Woman and two weeks atop the Hot 100.
★ 4.8
Never Gonna Give You Up
1987
Waterman handed Astley the title after hearing him talk about his girlfriend; five weeks at number one followed.
★ 4.8
I Want Your Sex
1987
A MIDI malfunction at Sarm West handed Michael that squelching bassline; the BBC then confined it to after the watershed.
★ 4.5
Is This Love (Whitesnake)Whitesnake
Is This Love (Whitesnake)
1987
Coverdale began it as a Tina Turner idea, Geffen told him to keep it, and it climbed to number two.
★ 4.0
Got My Mind Set on You
1987
Harrison bought the James Ray original in Illinois in 1963; Jeff Lynne turned it into his last American number one.
★ 3.9
Christmas in Hollis
1987 · From A Very Special Christmas
Nineteen eighty-seven, a Special Olympics benefit album, and Run-DMC turning Clarence Carter's Back Door Santa into a Queens carol.
★ 3.8