January 5 – Elton John, after several months of voice problems, undergoes throat surgery in an Australian hospital. The outcome would hinder his voice permanently and he would soon start singing in a deep register.
February 26 – The first four Beatles albums, Please Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night and Beatles for Sale 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 are available in the US.
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). U2 have two #1 hit songs from this album on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts.
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.
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.
July 21 – 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.
August 27 – The Jello Biafra criminal trial is dismissed after ending in a hung jury in Los Angeles court. Biafra and his manager had been charged with distributing harmful material to minors due to a poster included in the Dead Kennedys' Frankenchrist album of a painting depicting rows of sexual organs.
August 31 – Michael Jackson releases Bad, his first studio album since Thriller, the best-selling album of all time. The album would produce five number one singles in the US, a record which has not been broken.
September–Octoberedit
September 3 – Fugazi plays their first live show (as a three-piece; Guy Picciotto had not joined the band yet) at the Wilson Center in Washington DC.
September 25 – CBS launches an American version of the long-running UK television show Top of the Pops. It lasts one year.
October 4 – Electronic data gathering completely replaces the old sales diary technique in compiling the UK singles and albums chart. The publication day of new charts is moved from Tuesday to Sunday.
October 30 – 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 the USA alone.
October 31 – The Zorros headline on Halloween for the last-ever show at the Crystal Ballroom, Melbourne's premier Punk/New Wave venue. The Crystal Ballroom has seen almost ten years of intense musical evolution. The venue has chandeliers, stained glass windows, paisley wallpaper and a tiled foyer.
November 19 – Cher returns to the music after five years of absence - time that she took to dedicate herself to the filmmaking business - with the lead single of her second self-titled album (and eighteenth overall), "I Found Someone", which peaked at number five in UK and number ten in US.
November 24 – ABC airs Rolling Stone Magazine's 20 Years of Rock 'n' Roll television special, chronicling the music and the people of the past twenty years to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Rolling Stone magazine. The special includes new interviews as well as vintage performance footage of many rock legends such as Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Sex Pistols, Bruce Springsteen and many more.
Nikki Sixx of the rock band Mötley Crüe suffers a heroin overdose, but is revived shortly thereafter.
Roger Waters finalizes his departure from British progressive rock band Pink Floyd, after a two-year-long legal dispute over the rights to the band's name and assets.[1]
UK 1 – Jul 1987, US BB 1 – Jul 1987, Switzerland 1 – Aug 1987, Italy 1 of 1987, Republic of Ireland 1 – Jul 1987, New Zealand 1 for 7 weeks Aug 1987, Australia 1 for 7 weeks Apr 1988, Netherlands 2 – Aug 1987, Australia 2 of 1987, Austria 4 – Oct 1987, Norway 4 – Aug 1987, US BB 8 of 1987, POP 8 of 1987, Germany 9 – Aug 1987, US CashBox 11 of 1987, Sweden 12 – Aug 1987, Poland 17 – Sep 1987, South Africa 17 of 1987, Scrobulate 75 of Latin, KROQ 81 of 1987, RYM 116 of 1987, Party 227 of 1999, Acclaimed 2050
UK 1 – Aug 1987, US BB 1 – Jan 1988, Netherlands 1 – Sept 1987, France 1 – Aug 1987, Norway 1 – Oct 1987, Germany 1 – Sept 1987, New Zealand 1 for 1 weeks Feb 1988, Australia 1 for 7 weeks Jun 1988, South Africa 1 of 1988, US CashBox 2 of 1988, Switzerland 2 – Sept 1987, Sweden 3 – Sept 1987, Austria 4 – Nov 1987, Australia 5 of 1988, Italy 13 of 1987, US BB 34 of 1988, POP 61 of 1988, Germany 140 of the 1980s, OzNet 765
UK 1 – May 1987, US BB 1 – May 1987, Netherlands 1 – May 1987, Switzerland 1 – May 1987, Norway 1 – May 1987, Germany 1 – May 1987, New Zealand 1 for 4 weeks Jun 1987, Australia 1 for 5 weeks Jan 1988, US CashBox 2 of 1987, Sweden 2 – May 1987, Austria 3 – Jun 1987, Poland 4 – Jun 1987, South Africa 4 of 1987, France 10 – Jun 1987, Italy 10 of 1987, Australia 11 of 1987, POP 22 of 1987, Germany 67 of the 1980s
Sweden 1 – Oct 1987, Austria 1 – Oct 1987, Switzerland 1 – Nov 1987, Norway 1 – Nov 1987, Poland 1 – Nov 1987, Germany 1 – Dic 1987, Republic of Ireland 1 – Dic 1987, Netherlands 3 – Dic 1987, France 5 – Jan 1988, US BB 9 – Jan 1988, South Africa 18 of 1987, Italy 21 of 1987, KROQ 27 of 1987, RYM 34 of 1987, Germany 94 of the 1980s, Acclaimed 1308
US BB 1 – Apr 1987, Poland 1 – Mar 1987, Republic of Ireland 1 – Apr 1987, Netherlands 2 – Mar 1987, UK 4 – Mar 1987, Sweden 5 – Apr 1987, Europe 5 of the 1980s, RYM 6 of 1987, Germany 7 – Apr 1987, KROQ 9 of 1987, Switzerland 10 – Apr 1987, POP 10 of 1987, US CashBox 12 of 1987, US BB 14 of 1987, Poland 14 of all time, Austria 15 – Jun 1987, Belgium 24 of all time, OzNet 44, TheQ 47, Scrobulate 93 of rock, WXPN 116, Rolling Stone 131, Party 168 of 2007, Acclaimed 309
Les Misérables – Broadway production opened at The Broadway Theatre and ran for a total of 6680 performances, the second-longest run of any Broadway musical after Cats
Oil City Symphony – off-Broadway production ran for 626 performances
August 9 – Noonie Boa, Swedish singer-songwriter and record producer
August 19 - John Ryan, also known as John the Blind and JRY, American singer-songwriter, record producer and multi-instrumentalist (Niall Horan, Sabrina Carpenter, One Direction, De;ta Goodrem)
^Giles, Jeff (December 23, 2015). "How Roger Waters' Split From Pink Floyd Was Eventually Finalized". Ultimate Classic Rock.
^Hearsay Fake was R&B big hit in 1987. Retrieved 23 July 2022
^Holmes, Ann (October 18, 1987). "Nixon in China/HGO presents world premiere of unusual opera". Houston Chronicle. p. Zest 15. Archived from the original on October 20, 2012. Retrieved March 28, 2011.
^Jay Robert Nash (April 1, 1997). The Motion Picture Guide 1988 Annual: The Films of 1987. Cinebooks. p. 371. ISBN 978-0-933997-16-5.
^Roger D. Kinkle (1997). Leading musical performers (popular music and jazz) 1900-1950: 2150 biographies updated to 1996 with additions and corrections. Windmill Publications. p. 159.
^Anthony Slide (March 12, 2012). The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-61703-250-9.
^Colin Larkin (2004). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz. Virgin. p. 429. ISBN 978-1-85227-183-1.
^Richard Cook (2004). Blue Note Records: The Biography. Justin, Charles & Co. p. 216. ISBN 978-1-932112-27-6.
^Wisconsin Magazine of History. State Historical Society of Wisconsin. 2008. p. 27.
^Year Book Covering the Year ... Crowell-Collier Educational Corporation. 1987. p. 413.
^Dalida's Official Website, Biography Archived July 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, retrieved December 29, 2009