This Week . . . 33 Years Ago: Week One, January 1 – 4

Every week, we’ll take a step back to this week 33 years ago to remember just how great it was as we review the top music and movie charts, as well as anything else that happened in TV, sports, the news, you name it.

We begin with the first week of 1987 – yes, 1987 was 33 years ago. And yes, we’re all old. Since the year started on a Wednesday (which was awful and is a subject that deserves a whole separate post), the first week is very short. Because of that, we’re going to start with an abbreviated post this week and focus only on the movie charts – we’ll break in the music charts starting next week.

Movies

Box Office Top 10

1. The Golden Child
2. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
3. Lady and the Tramp
4. Three Amigos
5. Crocodile Dundee
6. The Morning After
7. Little Shop of Horrors
8. The Color of Money
9. Heartbreak Ridge
10. An American Tail

Not a bad list at all to start out 1987. I’ve seen 9 out of 10 of them – sorry The Morning After. Apparently that one starred Jane Fonda and Jeff Bridges and didn’t do too great. The others were much more memorable – here’s some thoughts on a few.

Let’s start with The Golden Child. We are in the middle of peak Eddie Murphy movie star phase – he’s had 48 Hrs, in ’82, Trading Places in ’83 and Beverly Hills Cop in ’84. The Golden Child was released in ’86 and will be followed this year (’87) with Beverly Hills Cop II and Raw, then Coming to America in ’88 and Harlem Nights in ’89. Good gracious! Last month, the younger generation got a taste of Eddie in his SNL comeback (which was great), but they’ll never understand Eddie at his peak during this stretch. That said, The Golden Child comes in last in this string of movies for me. The rankings for me of the four movies through ’86 are: 1. Beverly Hills Cop; 2. Trading Places; 3. 48 Hrs.; 4. The Golden Child. While the top 3 may differ for most folks, I’m pretty sure The Golden Child is #4 for everyone.

Star Trek IV – Eh . . . I was never a huge Star Trek fan but loved The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock. By now though, I’d lost interest. I’m sure plenty will disagree. Strangely enough though, of the original Star Trek movies (with Shatner and Nimoy), this one ranked #2 in box office gross, being beat only by the original.

Lady and the Tramp was re-released in 1986 for the, my goodness, 4th time. Originally released in 1955, it was also re-released in 1962, 1972, and 1980. Who knew?

You wanna talk about a golden age of comedy movies – we have Eddie Murphy in full blast, but also Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, and Martin Short. Chevy was riding off of Vacation (’83), European Vacation, Fletch, and Spies Like Us (all ’85), Meanwhile, Steve was just beginning his biggest run with this and Little Shop of Horrors this year, Roxanne and Planes, Trains and Automobiles in ’87, with Parenthood, My Blue Heaven, and Father of the Bride still to come.

For now though, we have the classic Three Amigos. Originally set to be an all-SNL cast of Steve, Dan Aykroyd, and John Belushi back in 1980, the Three Amigos for me is more memorable for the music like this:

. . . or that fantastic amigo salute.

For Little Shop of Horrors, again Steve stole the show as Orin Scrivello, DDS. You may recall this:

As for The Color of Money, I’ll end up writing a full post on this one and its accompanying soundtrack, so you get an idea on how I feel about this one (let’s just say there was a pool table in my teenage years at the house and I’m not sure if you can wear out a CD like a cassette but I sure tried),

Overall, not a bad Top 10 to start out 1987.

Music

Though we’re not getting into the charts this week, there was some music news this week:

I always thought his newer stuff (’90’s) sounded different than his Crocodile Rock-phase music, but never knew why. Turns out this surgery made his voice deeper. The more you know!

Also this:

Sports

In sports this week, #2 Penn State beat #1 Miami and Vinny Testaverde in the Fiesta Bowl to win the college national championship. I sure do miss logos like this:

Alright, well that is a pretty good start to our rundown. Stay tuned for next week where we add in the singles music charts (the albums chart will come the week after) and continue to reminisce about This Week . . . 33 Years Ago.