1987 is getting a little stale

Though '87 was another excellent year, this is where it started to lack variety and where some of the big hitmakers from earlier in the decade (Laura Branigan, Loverboy, Cars) were either in a lull or were fading altogether. This is mostly sufficient for its one-hit wonder songs.

Kim Wilde's "You Keep me Hangin' On" is an underplayed radio song, seems like an older Debbie Gibson. Starship's last big one "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us", Billy Vera's soulful "At This Moment", Bananarama's happy "I Heard A Rumor" (one of their 3 hits) and Crowded House's perfect pop of "Don't Dream It's Over" are the high points.

Ex Go-Go Belinda Carlisle's best solo song, the laid-back but confident "Heaven is A Place On Earth" and U2's "With or Without You" are also worth buying this for. Aretha Franklin's last big hit "I Knew You were Waiting" is fair, but the others are throwaways. Robbie Nevil's "C La Vie" sounds like unintelligible dance music and Chris DeBurgh's wimpy "Lady In Red" is a headache.

An Enjoyable Collection, But the Series Was Drying Up

If there was a time when licensing began to catch up to Rhino's BILLBOARD TOP HITS series, it was in the 1987 volume. First off, 1987 was a year where the big hits, ranging from Latin pop to pop-metal, were pretty much in the middle of the road, trying to reach the mainstream audience. So it's not necessarily a problem that the selections for this particular volume sound lightweight. What does hurt this collection, however, is the lack of strong songs. Not that any of the songs here are bad, it's just that some of them sound a bit too much like products of their time, like Chris De Burgh's overplayed "The Lady in Red"; Belinda Carlisle's catchy but fluffy "Heaven is a Place on Earth"; or forgettable songs like Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over" and (especially) Robbie Nevil's "C'Est la Vie." Also, it makes sense why U2's "With or Without You" and George Michael's "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)"- a duet with Aretha Franklin- both made the cut here, as both were big hits, but both artists still had equally big hits in better songs that year ("I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "Faith," respectively).

It also hurts that this volume gives too much of a focus to adult contemporary tunes this time around, after the lack of them in the 1986 edition. And considering how light most of these tunes are here, this volume really needed some more shaking up in the songs, as Kim Wilde's dance cover of "You Keep Me Hangin' On" and Bananarama's "I Heard a Rumour" are not enough to fully provide that needed boost. So in this case, tunes like, say, Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer"; Cutting Crew's "(I Just) Died in Your Arms"; Los Lobos' updating of "La Bamba"; or anything from Madonna, Michael Jackson, or Whitney Houston would have been great inclusions in this set, as well as the aforementioned "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "Faith."

But, in terms of a collection that, probably unintentionally, focuses on tunes adult contemporary radio would have played in 1987, this volume still works as a nice listen, especially since most of these songs here still get radio airplay. It's just not the same listen that came in previous volumes.

The Top Hits In 1987

These are all power songs from 1987. Each listener has his/her own favorites. My top three are: Heaven Is A Place On Earth, Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now, and The Lady In Red.



(N Haven)