Pick a Day

Music History Events: Releases

October 1, 1987 Soundgarden release their first EP, Screaming Life, on Sub Pop Records. Recorded in 1986 at Reciprocal Recording in Seattle, Washington, the six-song release is co-produced by Jack Endino.More

September 8, 1987 Rush bring back Peter Collins, producer of Power Windows, for Hold Your Fire. Featuring Top Five singles "Time Stand Still" and "Force Ten," Power Windows goes Gold but is the first Rush album in nine years to fail to reach the Billboard Top 10 or to achieve Platinum status in the US.

August 21, 1987 Metallica release The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited.

July 6, 1987 Neil Young & Crazy Horse release Life, their last album under the Geffen label. With the exceptions of studio recordings "Cryin' Eyes" and "We Never Danced," the tracks are all taken from live performances.

June 1, 1987 Sub Pop Records issues Soundgarden's first single, "Hunted Down"/"Nothing to Say."

May 26, 1987 Richard Marx releases his first single, "Don't Mean Nothing," featuring Joe Walsh on guitar. It climbs to #3 on the Hot 100, the first of seven consecutive singles to place in the Top 5.

May 25, 1987 The Cure find mainstream success in America with the versatile double album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, featuring the hit singles "Why Can't I Be You?" and "Just Like Heaven."More

April 13, 1987 Fleetwood Mac release Tango In The Night, their first album since Mirage five years earlier. Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, who produced the album and had a hand in writing seven of the 12 songs, leaves before they tour.More

April 7, 1987 Whitesnake slides into hair metal with their seventh, self-titled album. It's by far their most successful, with the MTV hits "Here I Go Again" and "Is This Love?"

March 30, 1987 Prince releases his ninth album, Sign O' the Times. The title track is a sober look at problems like poverty and drug abuse, but it's balanced with "U Got the Look," a lusty duet with Sheena Easton.

March 23, 1987 Whitesnake releases "Is This Love" in the UK.

September 23, 1986 Following a split with their record label and some lineup changes, Boston release Third Stage, their first album since Don't Look Back in 1978. The first single is "Amanda," the group's only #1 hit in America. They don't put out another album until 1994.

September 15, 1986 John Farnham's "You're The Voice" is released in Australia, where it becomes an institution, sung wherever fighting spirit is needed. In America is barely makes a ripple, charting at #82 in 1990.

July 21, 1986 Landing on Water, Neil Young's 15th studio album, is released.

July 4, 1986 Flotsam and Jetsam's only full-length studio album with bassist Jason Newsted, Doomsday for the Deceiver, is released via Metal Blade Records. Doomsday is co-produced by the band with the label's head, Brian Slagel, and is the only album in the history of Kerrang! Magazine to receive a "six K" review (out of a possible five "K's").

July 1, 1986 Misfits issue their second compilation, a self-titled, 20-track release with two songs Metallica later cover: "Green Hell" and "Die, Die My Darling."

June 2, 1986 Randy Travis releases his debut album, Storms Of Life. Thanks to the #1 Country hits "On The Other Hand" and "Diggin' Up Bones," it goes on to sell over 3 million copies, establishing Travis as a star.

May 19, 1986 Former Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel transitions from cult performer to pop star with the release of his fifth solo album, So, which includes the hit single "Sledgehammer."More

March 24, 1986 "No One Is To Blame" by Howard Jones is released in the US. It goes on to become Jones' biggest-selling single in the US, peaking at #1 on the Adult Contemporary Chart and #4 on the Hot 100.

March 20, 1986 Country singer Kathy Mattea releases her third album, Walk The Way The Wind Blows, featuring her breakthrough single - a cover of Nanci Griffith's "Love At The Five And Dime." It peaks at #3 on the country chart.

February 3, 1986 The Firm release Mean Business, their second and final album.

October 15, 1985 Power Windows, Rush's 11th album, is released. It is the last Rush album to achieve Platinum status until Roll the Bones comes out six years later.

August 16, 1985 Red Hot Chili Peppers release the cocaine-fueled funk album Freaky Styley, produced by Parliament-Funkadelic founder George Clinton, and welcome back guitarist Hillel Slovak.More

August 12, 1985 Neil Young releases Old Ways, his 14th studio album and one of the lowest-selling and least appreciated albums of his career.

August 1, 1985 Tom Waits releases Rain Dogs, widely considered one of his most important and innovative works. Synthesizers and samples - very common in the 1980s - are deliberately absent as Waits develops the unique approach he began on Swordfishtrombones.

June 18, 1985 Weird Al Yankovic's Dare To Be Stupid, featuring the Devo-inspired title track, makes history as the first album of comedic music ever released on compact disc.

June 3, 1985 Bryan Ferry releases his sixth solo album, Boys and Girls.

April 29, 1985 Freddie Mercury releases his solo album Mr. Bad Guy. Although it sells okay in the UK, in the US it doesn't make even the top 150.

April 28, 1985 Bryan Ferry releases "Slave To Love."

April 25, 1985 Exodus release their first studio album, Bonded By Blood.