Pick a Day

Music History Events: Releases

May 2, 1988 Living Colour's debut album, Vivid, is released. It takes almost a year to catch on, as the band slowly builds a following through tours, radio play and MTV.

April 11, 1988 In the midst of a decade characterized by materialism and excess, Neil Young releases This Note's for You, his 16th studio album. The title song mocks the marketing industry and the corporate music scene.

March 21, 1988 Lynyrd Skynyrd release Southern by the Grace of God, their second live album. It features music recorded in 1987 in what was supposed to be a one-time touring tribute to band members who died in a 1977 plane wreck that seemingly ended the band. Four years later, an updated Lynyrd Skynyrd lineup records new material and begins touring again regularly.

March 15, 1988 Talking Heads release their eighth album, Naked, which ends up being their last, as David Bryne breaks up the group three years later. It's produced by Steve Lillywhite, whose wife, Kirsty MacColl, sings on the track "(Nothing But) Flowers."

December 14, 1987 Dinosaur, Jr. release You're Living All Over Me. Overall sales are modest, but the album is an influential landmark in the alternative and indie music genres.

November 2, 1987 George Harrison releases Cloud Nine, a commercial comeback that includes the #1 hit "Got My Mind Set On You." It's the last album he puts out in his lifetime.More

October 15, 1987 Joe Satriani's second full-length solo album, Surfing with the Alien, is released. The popular all-instrumental album kicks open the door for similarly styled "guitar shred" albums.

October 13, 1987 Sting releases his second solo album, ...Nothing Like the Sun.

October 12, 1987 INXS release their breakthrough album Kick, with the hits "Need You Tonight," "Devil Inside" and "New Sensation."More

October 7, 1987 Exodus releases their second studio album, Pleasures of the Flesh.

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.