1987 Survey Mix

This is the third in my series of 1980s survey mixes, which are designed to give more context to the music of that decade. Most versions of ‘80s history focus on specific niches and canons, but mostly ignore or write off parallel and overlapping cultural trends. My goal in doing this project is to highlight all the different things going on from year to year, to better understand the original context of familiar songs and to highlight a lot of the music that has faded from cultural memory. Here are the mixes for 1988 and 1989.

1987 may be the greatest year of the ‘80s – the sheer number of enduring classics in this set, particularly on the first disc, is staggering, and I think a lot of the aesthetic of “80s-ness” in music today is largely rooted in the music of this year. This isn’t to say everything is perfect, but I think it’s safe to say that blockbuster pop and “college rock” are both at their pinnacle in this year. There’s also a lot of top-quality cheesy pop music in this year, and a good number of songs that you may not recognize in terms of artist/song title, but will probably be like “oh, they play this all the time at the pharmacy” when you hear it.

Thanks to Paul Cox, Sean T. Collins, and Chris Conroy for their assistance in putting this set together. I’m going to pause this project in December for the 2015 survey set, and resume it again in mid to late January with the 1986 survey.

DOWNLOAD DISC 1

U2 “Where the Streets Have No Name” / INXS “Need You Tonight” / George Michael “I Want Your Sex” / Whitney Houston “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” / Michael Jackson “The Way You Make Me Feel” / Prince “U Got the Look” / M/A/R/R/S “Pump Up the Volume” / Sly & Robbie “Boops (Here to Go)” / Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam “Head to Toe” / Terence Trent D’Arby “Wishing Well” / T’Pau “Heart and Soul” / Aretha Franklin featuring George Michael “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” / Def Leppard “Pour Some Sugar On Me” / Swing Out Sister “Breakout” / Erasure “Victim of Love” / The Fall “Hit the North” / Eric B and Rakim “I Know You Got Soul” / LL Cool J “Going Back to Cali” / Suzanne Vega “Luka”

DOWNLOAD DISC 2

R.E.M. “Finest Worksong” / The Cure “Just Like Heaven” / Depeche Mode “Never Let Me Down Again” / Belinda Carlisle “Heaven Is A Place On Earth” / Fleetwood Mac “Everywhere” / Eric Carmen “Hungry Eyes” / Pet Shop Boys “What Have I Done To Deserve This?” / ABC “When Smokey Sings” / Kool Moe Dee “How Ya Like Me Now” / Run-D.M.C. “Christmas In Hollis” / Joseph Cotton “No Touch the Style” / Jody Watley “Looking For A New Love” / Madonna “Who’s That Girl” / Squeeze “Hourglass” / The Smiths “Girlfriend In A Coma” / George Strait “All My Ex’s Live In Texas” / Bruce Springsteen “Brilliant Disguise” / Rosanne Cash “If You Change Your Mind” / Cabaret Voltaire “Don’t Argue” / The System “Don’t Disturb This Groove”

DOWNLOAD DISC 3

Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” / Richard Marx “Don’t Mean Nothing” / Rick Astley “Never Gonna Give You Up” / Debbie Gibson “Only In My Dreams” / Tiffany “I Think We’re Alone Now” / Kim Wilde “You Keep Me Hanging On” / Club Nouveau “Lean On Me” / John Cougar Mellencamp “Cherry Bomb” / Just-Ice & KRS-One “Moshitup (1-800-Suicide)” / Public Enemy “Public Enemy No. 1” / Nitzer Ebb “Join In the Chant” / LeVert “Casanova” / Skinny Puppy “Addiction” / Starship “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” / Atlantic Starr “Always” / They Might Be Giants “Don’t Let’s Start” / Los Lobos “La Bamba” / Billy Idol “Mony Mony (Live)”

DOWNLOAD DISC 4

Guns N’ Roses “Welcome to the Jungle” / Motley Crue “Girls Girls Girls” / Aerosmith “Dude (Looks Like A Lady)” / Sinead O’Connor “Mandinka” / Midnight Oil “Beds Are Burning” / Biz Markie “Nobody Beats the Biz” / MC Shan “Kill That Noise” / MC Shy D “Gotta Be Tough” / Dana Dane “Nightmares” / Icehouse “Electric Blue” / Johnny Hates Jazz “Shattered Dreams” / New Order “True Faith” / Reese & Santonio “Bounce Your Body to the Box” / Echo and the Bunnymen “Lips Like Sugar” / Bl’ast “It’s In My Blood” / The Bangles “Hazy Shade of Winter” / Robbie Robertson “Broken Arrow” / Jandek “I Passed By the Building” / Holger Czukay “Blessed Easter”

DOWNLOAD DISC 5

Penguin Cafe Orchestra “Perpetuum Mobile” / Sonic Youth “Schizophrenia” / Sisters of Mercy “This Corrosion” / Anthrax “I Am the Law” / Candlemass “Dark Are the Veils of Death” / XTC “Dear God” / The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl “Fairytale of New York” / Heart “Alone” / Pink Floyd “Learning to Fly” / Sting “Englishman In New York” / Tom Waits “Way Down in the Hole” / Frankie Knuckles “Baby Wants to Ride” / Fat Boys featuring the Beach Boys “Wipeout” / Exposé “Let Me Be the One” / Laura Branigan “Shattered Glass” / Buster Poindexter “Hot Hot Hot” / Public Image Ltd. “Seattle” / King Missile “Sensitive Artist”

DOWNLOAD DISC 6

Pixies “Caribou” / The Grateful Dead “Touch of Grey” / 10,000 Maniacs “Like the Weather” / The Replacements “Alex Chilton” / Dinosaur Jr. “Little Fury Things” / The Jesus and Mary Chain “April Skies” / Game Theory “Dripping with Looks” / Siouxsie and the Banshees “This Wheel’s On Fire” / Pulp “I Want You” / Whitesnake “Here I Go Again” / Bob Seger “Shakedown” / Ice-T “6 ’N the Mornin’” / Too Short “Freaky Tales” / Conroy Smith “Dangerous” / Phuture “Your Only Friend” / Derrick May “Nude Photo” / Was Not Was “Walk the Dinosaur” / Charlie Haden Quartet West “Bay City”

DOWNLOAD DISC 7

Coldcut “Say Kids (What Time Is It?) / Kaos “Court’s In Session” / Schooly D “Saturday Night” / Spoonie Gee “The Godfather” / Beastie Boys “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” / Suicidal Tendencies “Possessed to Skate” / Testament “C.O.T.L.O.D. (Curse of the Legions of Death)” / Dag Nasty “Trying” / Spermbirds “Americans Are Cool” / Blasters “Just Another Sunday” / John Hiatt “Thank You Girl” / Lou Gramm “Midnight Blue” / F.R. David “Don’t Go” / Reba McEntire “The Last One to Know” / Marianne Faithful “As Tears Go By” / MX-80 “We Will Bury You” / Bongwater “His New Look” / The Embarrassment “Wellsville” / The dB’s “Think Too Hard” / The Wedding Present “Anyone Can Make A Mistake” / Love & Rockets “No New Tale to Tell” / Dolly Parton, Linda Rondstadt, and Emmylou Harris “To Know Him Is To Love Him”

DOWNLOAD DISC 8

Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” / Maxi Priest “Some Guys Have All the Luck” / The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu “All You Need Is Love” / Red Hot Chili Peppers “Me and My Friends” / Rhythim Is Rhythim “String of Life” / Eurythmics “Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)” / Blue Mercedes “I Want To Be Your Property” / Admiral Bailey “Kill Them With It” / E.U. “Da Butt” / T La Rock “Lyrical King” / Marshall Crenshaw “This Is Easy” / Wire “Ahead” / Hüsker Dü “Could You Be the One?” / Big Black “Bad Penny” / The Bats “Sir Queen” / Lyle Lovett “If I Had A Boat” / k.d. lang “Angel With A Lariat” / The Housemartins “Five Get Over Excited” / Lloyd Cole and the Commotions “From the Hip” / The Go-Betweens “Right Here” / Aztec Camera “Somewhere In My Heart” / Celtic Frost “Mesmerized” / Rollins Band “Do It”