Matt OsbornEvery 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.
As we roll on into March, we’ve got buddy cop to the extreme, some new Janet, an NBC Thursday night dynasty, and Iron Mike. 1987 continues to reign supreme This Week . . . 33 Years Ago.
Music
Singles Chart – Top 10
Nearing a month straight on the top, “Livin’ On a Prayer” remains at #1 for a 4th straight week with Huey Lewis & the News hanging tough at #2 with “Jacob’s Ladder.” Only two songs drop out of the Top 10 this week, with Chicago falling all the way to #11 from #4 and Lionel Richie slipping from #10 to #18. In their place, Ms. Jackson returns to the Top 10 with a little ballad action along with the newly-minted 1987 Grammy Best New Artist Bruce Hornsby & the Range.
- Livin’ On A Prayer – Bon Jovi
- Jacob’s Ladder – Huey Lewis & The News – ⬆ 2
- You Got It All – The Jets – ⬆ 2
- Somewhere Out There – Linda Ronstadt & James Ingram – ⬆ 4
- Respect Yourself – Bruce Willis – ⬆ 2
- Keep Your Hands to Yourself – The Georgia Satellites – ⬇ 3
- (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!) – Beastie Boys – ⬆ 1
- Big Time – Peter Gabriel – ⬆ 1
- Mandolin Rain – Bruce Hornsby & The Range – ⬆ 1
- Fresh off a very good night at the Grammys where he won Best New Artist, Hornsby’s “Mandolin Rain” cracks the Top 10 a week later. Following up the #1 hit “The Way It Is,” “Mandolin Rain” will make it into the Top 5 in the coming weeks, topping out at #4.
- Let’s Wait Awhile – Janet Jackson – ⬆ 1
- The 5th single from Control, “Let’s Wait Awhile” makes it the 5th straight Top 10, and eventual Top 5 song for Janet. It’s quite the change from the first 4 singles (“What Have You Done For Me Lately,” “Nasty,” “When I Think of You,” and “Control”) but her slow jams will become just as much a staple of her catalog as the funk. Control will have one more single, “Pleasure Principle,” but it will stall out at #14 on this chart (though it’ll reach #1 on the R&B chart later this year). We won’t see Janet in the Top 10 again for a couple of years when her Rhythm Nation album hits in ’89.
Albums Chart – Top 5
After a 7-week run, the guys from Jersey are finally knocked out of the top spot by a few guys from NYC. They’ll sit there for most of the spring. The rest of the Top 5 sees a couple of ’86 releases make a comeback.
- Licensed to Ill – Beastie Boys – ⬆ 1
- Slippery When Wet – Bon Jovi – ⬇ 1
- The Way It Is – Bruce Hornsby & The Range – ⬆ 1
- Invisible Touch – Genesis – ⬆ 3
- Control – Janet Jackson – ⬆ 1
Movies
Box Office Top 10
Where the music scene had a bit of a ho-hum week, the movie scene had the release of an all-time classic that spawned multiple sequels and an eventual not-so-great TV series.
- Lethal Weapon – New Release
- Oh yes – in line for one of, if not the best buddy cop movies of all-time, and certainly the best franchise of the genre. You’ve got Danny Glover as the just-wants-to-retire homicide detective paired with Mel Gibson as the suicidal, ex-Special Forces cop whose wife died a few years earlier. The movie will sit up top for the next few weeks and end up making over $120 million worldwide, Here’s the trailer and one of the intro scenes for the nutso Sergeant Riggs.
- Platoon
- A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors – ⬇ 1
- Angel Heart – New Release
- I’ve . . . I’ve got nothing on this one. A search reveals it stars Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, and Lisa Bonet (think Cosby Show). Still rings zero bells. The poster and the trailer don’t help either. You’ll be shocked to learn it doesn’t make that much money.
- Outrageous Fortune – ⬇ 2
- Some Kind of Wonderful
- Hoosiers
- Mannequin – ⬇ 4
- Black Widow – ⬇ 1
- Crocodile Dundee
Television
Our review of television in the Spring of 1987 continues this week with a look at Thursday night where NBC ruled the house by a longshot. As in the #1, #2, and #3 rated shows in all of television. Just look. You’ll get it.
- 7pm – 8pm
- ABC: Our World
- CBS: Shell Game
- NBC: The Cosby Show/Family Ties
- 8pm – 9pm
- ABC: Jack and Mike
- CBS: Simon & Simon
- NBC: Cheers/Nothing in Common
- 9pm – 10pm
- ABC: 20/20
- CBS: Knots Landing
- NBC: L.A. Law
I mean it’s just a murderer’s row there for NBC. And the Fall of ’86 was even better – Night Court followed Cheers instead of Nothing in Common (which was a spinoff of a great ’86 film starring Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleason – the TV show, not so great). They moved Night Court to another night in the spring hoping that a Cheers lead-in might help the new show. Didn’t work.
But two things I remember about TV during this time – ABC on Tuesdays and NBC on Thursdays.
NBC’s hold on Thursday night started a few years earlier with the start of The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court, and Hill Street Blues. It added L.A. Law in ’86 and was dubbed by NBC “The Best Night on Television.”
In the coming years, they’d hold that title as shows like A Different World, Dear John, and Wings would replace Family Ties and Night Court in the late ’80s. By the early ’90s, NBC would move into the “Must See TV” era of Thursdays Nights with the ’90s staples of Mad About You, Frasier, Friends, Seinfeld, and ER. It’s a run likely never to be seen again from network television.
This week we did have two series finales air – The A-Team and Silver Spoons – two early ’80’s staples.
Sports
In boxing news (because boxing was still a thing in 1987), Mike Tyson won the WBA heavyweight title from James Smith in a 12-round decision. In November of ’86, Tyson had won his first heavyweight title, the WBC, from Trevor Berbick in a 2-round TKO. Now his quest to unify all the titles was well under way.
This fight shouldn’t have gone that long, but as you’ll see below in the fight, Smith held like crazy. He was cut by the 2nd round and just held on for dear life for the next 10 rounds, even getting some points deducted for his BS. One judge gave all 12 rounds to Tyson, while the other two called it 11-1 for Tyson.
It’s really hard to make young folks understand the furry of Iron Mike. And the simple nature of him. There was no 40-lb costume for his ring entrance. Dude just had a towel with a hole cut in it. Black trunks. Black boots. That was it. And then he’d just beat the hell out of folks. Mike will end up fighting three more times in ’87, adding the IBF title along the way.
Here’s the full fight.
And that’ll do it for the first week of March 1987. Be sure to check out the new DN33 Jukebox later this week with all the music mentioned here plus more. And as always, be sure to share if you like what you see!
If you missed any of the past weeks in review, click below and catch up. And if you’re liking them, be sure to share through the social media of your choice below or to the side.
Past This Week . . . 30 Years Ago Reviews:
1987: Week One | Week Two | Week Three | Week Four | Week Five | Week Six | Week Seven | Week Eight | Week Nine |
Acknowledgments:
Embedded tweets come from various Twitter accounts dedicated to all things ’80s (not just 1987), including A special thanks OldSchool80s, LandofThe80s, and RetroNewsNow. All provide fantastic content. We follow all of them and recommend you do too!
Duck Newton
