See also: 1986 in music, other events of 1987, 1988 in music, 1980s in music and the list of 'years in music'

Events

• January 3 - Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• January 16 - The Beastie Boys become the first act to be censored by American Bandstand.
• January - Steve "Silk" Hurley 's innovative "Jack Your Body" becomes the first house music record to top the UK singles chart.
• February 6 - Sonny Bono announces his candidacy for mayor of Palm Springs, California
• February 14–March 7 - Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer" is the #1 song. It would be 1987's Biggest hit song.
• March 7 - The first five Beatles albums, Please Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, Beatles for Sale and Help! 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 were available in the US.
• March 9 - Carole King is inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York City
• March 13 - Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
• March 13 - 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 .
• March 27 - Inspired by The Beatles' 1969 rooftop concert, U2 shoots a music video for the song "Where the Streets Have No Name" on a rooftop in Los Angeles, California.
• 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.
• September 25 - Matthew Garrison Chapman is born as the first child of Amy Grant and Gary Chapman. Lead Me On , Amy's 1988 album, is said to have been dedicated to Matt.
• October 12 - Twisted Sister breaks up
• October - electronic data gathering completely replaces the old sales diary technique in compiling the UK singles and albums chart.
• October 19 - Mötley Crüe release the song "You're All I Need" as a single. Its lyrics cause MTV to refuse to play its video. Radio stations never play the song either.
• November 13 - Sonny and Cher reunite for a performance on Late Night with David Letterman.

• Social Distortion returns to record Prison Bound
• Jane's Addiction's career begins
• Public Enemy's career starts
• Paul Oakenfold's career begins
• Tori Amos' career begins
• Danzig's career begins
• Gin Blossoms forms
• Mr. Big forms
• Nirvana forms
• Zebra breaks up
• Wham! breaks up
• Hüsker Dü breaks up
• Jane's Addiction signs to Warner Bros
• Winger signs to Atlantic Records
• Kylie Minogue's recording career begins, when her cover version of the Little Eva hit The Loco-Motion spends seven weeks at number one in her native Australia and leads to a contract with UK based record producers Stock Aitken Waterman

Albums released

• Compilation - Accept
• Classics Live II - Aerosmith
• Tango in the Night - Fleetwood Mac
• Permanent Vacation - Aerosmith
• Among The Living - Anthrax
• I'm The Man EP - Anthrax
• Strength of Steel - Anvil
• Raising Fear - Armored Saint
• Heaven on Earth - Belinda Carlisle
• Eternal Idol - Black Sabbath
• Tunnel of Love - Bruce Springsteen
• Into the Fire - Bryan Adams
• Speed Metal Symphony - Cacophony
• Raise Your Fist and Yell - Alice Cooper
• Best Before 1984 - Crass
• Electric - The Cult
• Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me - The Cure
• The Best Of Dalida, Vol. 2 - Dalida (compilation)
• Never Let Me Down - David Bowie
• Hysteria - Def Leppard
• Pool It! - The Monkees
• Dream Evil - Dio
• You're Living All Over Me - Dinosaur Jr.
• Back For the Attack - Dokken
• White Fields - The Escape Club (debut)
• Paid in Full - Eric B. & Rakim
• Introduce Yourself - Faith No More
• Faster Pussycat - Faster Pussycat
• Frehley's Comet - Frehley's Comet
• Official Version - Front 242
• Funhouse - Funhouse
• Faith - George Michael
• Once Bitten - Great White
• Rock You To Hell - Grim Reaper (final album)
• 2X4 - Guadalcanal Diary
• Appetite for Destruction - Guns n' Roses (debut)
• I Never Said Goodbye - Sammy Hagar
• Music to Strip By - Half Japanese
• Wild in the Streets - Helix
• Bring the Family - John Hiatt
• Warehouse: Songs and Stories - Hüsker Dü (final album)
• A More Perfect Union - Icon
• Rhyme Pays - Ice-T (debut)
• Kick - INXS
• Bad - Michael Jackson
• Jane's Addiction - Jane's Addiction
• Crest of a Knave - Jethro Tull
• Priest... Live! - Judas Priest
• Keel - Keel
• Abigail - King Diamond
• Crazy Nights - KISS
• 1987 (What the Fuck is Going On?) - KLF (Kopyright Liberation Front)/The Jams. Subsequently destroyed after copyright infringement claim
• Shaka Zulu - Ladysmith Black Mambazo
• Trio - Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton
• Running in the Family - Level 42
• Terror Rising EP - Lizzy Borden
• Visual Lies - Lizzy Borden
• Bigger and Deffer - LL Cool J
• By the Light of the Moon - Los Lobos
• Ready or Not - solo debut album of Foreigner lead vocalist Lou Gramm
• Hurricane Eyes - Loudness
• Immaculate Deception - Ludichrist
• Strange Weather - Marianne Faithfull
• Deathcrush - Mayhem
• Perfect Timing - McAuley-Schenker Group (first release after Robin McAuley joined and they changed their name)
• Huevos - Meat Puppets
• (The $5.98 EP) Garage Days Re-Revisited - Metallica
• Master of Puppets - Metallica
• Diesel and Dust - Midnight Oil
• Stereoland - The Modern Art
• Girls, Girls, Girls - Mötley Crüe
• Rock N' Roll - Motörhead
• Escape From Noise - Negativland
• In Dreams: The Greatest Hits - Roy Orbison
• Tribute - Ozzy Osbourne
• Taking Over - Overkill
• Power Metal - Pantera
• Actually - Pet Shop Boys
• A Momentary Lapse of Reason - Pink Floyd
• Come On Pilgrim - Pixies (debut)
• Sign O' the Times - Prince
• Yo! Bum Rush the Show - Public Enemy
• Halfway to Sanity - The Ramones
• Randy Travis - Randy Travis
• Document - R.E.M.
• Pleased to Meet Me - The Replacements
• Kane Roberts - Kane Roberts (former Alice Cooper guitarist's solo debut)
• I Prefer The Moonlight - Kenny Rogers
• King's Record Shop - Rosanne Cash
• Hold Your Fire - Rush (band)
• Surfing With the Alien - Joe Satriani
• Hall of the Mountain King - Savatage
• The World Won't Listen - The Smiths (February, compilation)
• Louder than Bombs - The Smiths (March (U.S.)/May (U.K.), compilation)
• Strangeways, Here We Come - The Smiths (September, final studio album)
• Sister - Sonic Youth
• Floodland - The Sisters of Mercy
• New Again - TexAns
• Introducing the Hardline... - Terence Trent D'Arby
• Bridge of Spies - T'Pau
• Love Is for Suckers - Twisted Sister (final album)
• The Joshua Tree - U2
• To the Power of 3 - 3
• Calm Before The Storm - Venom
• Live...in The Raw - W.A.S.P.
• Live...Animal EP W.A.S.P.
• Triumph And Agony - Warlock (final album)
• Whitecross - Whitecross
• Pride - White Lion (2nd album, major label (Atlantic Records) debut)
• Whitesnake - Whitesnake
• Characters - Stevie Wonder
• Contagious - Y&T
• 3.V - Zebra
• Tattooed Beat Messiah - Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction

Top hits on record

• "Walk Like An Egyptian" - The Bangles
• "Shake You Down" - Gregory Abbott
• "C'est La Vie" - Robbie Nevil
• "At This Moment" - Billy Vera and the Beaters
• "Change of Heart" - Cyndi Lauper
• "Livin' on a Prayer" - Bon Jovi
• "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" - Georgia Satellites
• "Jacob's Ladder" - Huey Lewis and the News
• "Somewhere Out There" - Linda Ronstadt and J. Ingram
• "Lean on Me" - Club Nouveau
• "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" - Starship
• "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" - Genesis
• "Don't Dream It's Over" - Crowded House
• "I Knew You Were Waiting for Me" - Aretha Franklin & George Michael
• "(I Just) Died In Your Arms Tonight" - Cutting Crew
• "Looking for a New Love" - Jody Watley
• "With or Without You" - U2
• "You Keep Me Hanging On" - Kim Wilde
• "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (who loves me)" - Whitney Houston
• "Alone" - Heart
• "I Heard a Rumour" - Bananarama
• "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" - U2
• "I Want Your Sex" - George Michael
• "Luka" - Suzanne Vega
• "La Bamba" - Los Lobos
• "Here I Go Again" - Whitesnake
• "I Think We're Alone Now" - Tiffany
• "Heaven Is A Place On Earth" - Belinda Carlisle
• "Faith" - George Michael
• "Hazy Shade of Winter" - The Bangles

Other Singles

• "I Found Someone" - Cher
• "Somebody Save Me" - Cinderella
• "Pour en arriver là" - Dalida
• "Les hommes de ma vie" - Dalida
• "Beds Are Burning " - Midnight Oil
• "Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days" - Judas Priest
• "Where the Streets Have No Name" - U2
• "China in your hand" - T'Pau
• "You Can Call Me Al" - Paul Simon
• "Free" - Stryper
• "Hot Love" - Twisted Sister
• "Wait" - White Lion

Published popular music

• "Children Will Listen"     w.m. Stephen Sondheim
• "The Time Of My Life"     w.m. Franke Previte, Donald Markowitz & John DeNicola

Classical music

• Mario Davidovsky - Quartetto for flute, violin, viola and violoncello
• Philip Feeney - Mémoire Imaginaire (ballet)
• Malcolm Forsyth - Songs from the Qu'appelle Valley
• Juan Maria Solare - Doce variaciones 1987 (for piano)
• Joan Tower - Fanfare for the uncommon woman no 1

Opera

• John Adams - Nixon in China
• Friedrich Cerha - Der Rattenfänger (The Pied Piper)
• Judith Weir - A Night at the Chinese Opera

Musical theater

• Anything Goes - Broadway revival
• Bless the Bride - London revival
• Cabaret (Kander and Ebb) - Broadway revival
• Dreamgirls - Broadway revival
• Into the Woods - Broadway production
• Les Misérables - Broadway production
• Oil City Symphony - Broadway production
• Starlight Express (Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe) - Broadway production

Births

• March 9 - Bow Wow
• April 10 - Hayley Westenra
• May 21 - Ashlie Brillault
• September 7 - Evan Rachel Wood
• September 28 - Hilary Duff
• Chloe Hanslip, violinist

Deaths

• January 15 - Ray Bolger, actor, of cancer
• February 4 - Liberace, US pianist
• March 15 - Don Gant, singer/songwriter, record producer
• April 2 - Buddy Rich, brain tumor
• April 7 - Maxine Sullivan , US singer
• May 2 - Larry Clinton - US bandleader and songwriter
• May 3 - Dalida commits suicide
• May 4 - Paul Butterfield, drug overdose
• May 11 - Peter Tosh is murdered
• June 18 - Kid Thomas Valentine, jazz trumpeter & bandleader
• September 21- Jaco Pastorius, jazz bassist
• October 19 - Jacqueline Du Pré, English cellist
• October 28 - Woody Herman, US bandleader
• December 10 - Jascha Heifetz, violinist

Awards

• The following artists are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: The Coasters, Eddie Cochran, Bo Diddley, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Bill Haley, B. B. King, Clyde McPhatter, Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Smokey Robinson, Big Joe Turner, Muddy Waters, and Jackie Wilson

Grammy Awards

• Grammy Awards of 1987

Country Music Association Awards

Eurovision Song Contest

• Eurovision Song Contest 1987