KROQ Top 50 1987

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7zGxBhTOGCLlo8SlBeHKvA?si=G-5oMJVGRsijc2uzjs4J9A

“Hazy Shade of Winter”, but “Time Will Crawl” is very close. The former is my favourite Rick Rubin production ever

Wow, never knew that at all, that he produced it.

The Bangles have long said it was the closest they ever came to sounding in the studio what they sounded like live.

“Time Will Crawl” is very close.

I feel obligated to vote for "Strangelove" or "Never Let Me Down Again," but I struggle to defend voting for any Depeche Mode song over Bowie. Yet another part of me is tempted to vote for "Fight for Your Right to Party" because why be so dour?

and those Bowie singles suck

hard not to vote for a cult track tbh

favorite song here in 2023 is probably "Behind the Wheel" but I was listening to KROQ daily when this was their chart and becoming more and more aware that there was a lot of exciting shit going on that they were just completely indifferent to -- you could flip to AM and be hearing KDAY right around the same end of the dial. it felt like the Roq played "absolute perfection" hourly. it's hard to remember Smiths tunes fondly given, you know, the whole deal, but there's two prime ones here. There's also "Coma" but what can you do. anyway, I voted for Tonio K

children by the millions

Fallin asleep with a flop-pop video on

I think some of my huge love for “Time Will Crawl” comes from its placement in Leos Carax’s Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991), which uses it to incredible effect

“Never Let Me Down” just sounds so HUGE. The intro always gives me frisson

WILD FLOWUHH

So many of my least favorite songs by some of my most favorite artists. I have a soft spot for the Damned track, which knocked me out years before I heard the Love original, but gotta go with "Alex Chilton."

“Rent” is one of my favorite PSB tunes, so probably that, with “Is it really so strange?” as runner up.

The Cure, Depeche Mode, The Smiths and U2 take up about 30% of the list

I think some of my huge love for “Time Will Crawl” comes from its placement in Leos Carax’s Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991), which uses it to incredible effect

“Never Let Me Down” just sounds so HUGE. The intro always gives me frisson

The juxtaposition of these two comments made me think you were talking about the Bowie album title track at first.

"Hazy Shade of Winter"

The juxtaposition of these two comments made me think you were talking about the Bowie album title track at first.

― Halfway there but for you

lol same reaction

I can hear Martin Gore shivering his way through Bowie's tinselly thing, and I'm pissing myself thinking of Bowie booming out Depeche's homoerotic drug banger.

NLMDAFTW

that "how'm I gonna get through?" bit on "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" is so pretty I'm voting for it based on that alone

I'm in love, with that song

1. The Bangles - Hazy Shade of Winter
2. The Replacements - Alex Chilton
3. X - Fourth of July

“Girlfriend In A Coma” is absolute horseshit, just a massively embarrassing artifact

Hard to see past the Pet Shop Boys in their imperial phase, but which one?

girlfriend in a coma is really funny

went for 'why can't I be you' but was tempted to vote 'i started something' just for moz's delivery of "fair enough"

I will honor my younger self and vote for the Stranglers - absolutely loved that song at the time.

"I Started Something..." remains one of the Smiths' best, one of the few I still play.

Hard to see past the Pet Shop Boys in their imperial phase, but which one?

Hard not to go with "It's a Sin."

The horns on “Why Can’t I Be You?” sound like the soundtrack from the very first Sonic the Hedgehog game

U2 getting sux songs in the Top 50, at first, does seem a little ridiculous but really isn't. Josh's Tree really was a monumental event in Pop history. I even ended up witnessing this: https://www.pressreader.com/usa/san-francisco-chronicle-late-edition/20170506/281921657955987

In God's Country, their last single from the album did show up at 68. And for their eighth song to place, Spanish Eyes ended up at 87.

"Never Let Me Down Again" over "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before".

Josh's Tree really was a monumental event in Pop history.

It certainly was at my high school. It seemed like in 1987 half the school was wearing U2 t-shirts and the other half were wearing GN'R.

At my high school Josh Tree wore an Iron Maiden shirt.

Lol at my phone's auto correct

"where the streets have no name" deserves a vote imo, so i gave it one

rent

I was only in San Francisco for the day of the green concert:

Day On The Green #3 & 4: U2, The Pretenders, The BoDeans, The Soup Dragons (November 14–15, 1987).

The Pretenders had Johnny Marr on guitar.

I just noticed sux was supposed to be six from above, I don't think those songs suck at all.

I like "Dear God" even if it comes across as heavy-handed.

I didn’t know “The Sweetest Thing” was actually released in 1987. There was all that big hype when they released their greatest hits album 11 years later and had it as the lead single.

Forgot to mention this in the earlier threads, but if you don't include the tiny college stations, the only real competitor to KROQ in Los Angeles was KNAC out of Long Beach. KNAC was a good station with an interesting playlist (I remember hearing Midnight Oil's "Read About It" on it) - only no one else listened to it. Zero. They got a new program director, fired everyone, and rebranded as KNAC Pure Rock - becoming the defining heavy metal station that still continues online.

It wasn't until late 1987 that another station tried to take on KROQ, this time KMPC-FM - they hired JJ Jackson from MTV as program director and then hired a lot of the unemployed KMET DJs and gave them a lot of leeway in what they could play. So Jim Ladd would do his Jim Ladd thing - only instead of The Doors, it would be with Love And Rockets. Most of the KROQ tracks here were also on KMPC-FMs playlist, but the ones with guitars would go to the front of the list. 10,000 Maniacs was a fave of theirs, so was X's See How We Are and whatever Mitchell Froom or Mitch Easter was producing that year.

It was a cool station and for this brief time it was the ersatz college radio station for Los Angeles (I could never get KXLU east of the 405). On my non-college days, I had a job delivering cars so I was on the freeways for hours. KROQ was so popular that it always seemed to be playing advertisements.

Voted "Hazy Shade of Winter" but if I could bring in any of the below-the-line tracks it would be #63 Icicle Works' "Understanding Jane."

So LA had KROQ and NY had WLIR…I guess Chicago’s nearest equivalent was WXRT, but it seemed targeted to older audiences. You’d hear maybe half the songs in these top 50 lists, but also tons of stuff like John Hiatt, the BoDeans, and the worst Chicago bands — they only played local acts if they were on a major, so stuff like “Ghost On The Beach” by the Insiders got heavy airplay. They also played self-consciously “rootsy” stuff like the Subdudes and Rob Jungklas a lot, for some reason, plus weird one-offs like the Eurogliders. XRT was afraid to skew too young/too goth/too “alternative,” but they were the only non-college Chicago station where you could hear the Replacements, XTC, and Echo and the Bunnymen.

I heard about the old KNAC from my friends older brother but I remember he was fine with it because it was hard to get in Anaheim and said KROQ was better. KNAC was then sold, moved their tower for a stronger signal and switched to metal.

I didn't remember KMPC but do remember some sort of station popping up around the 100.3 mark or so and thay would have a go but that was short lived. They then switched to Pirate Radio or something like that and changed to metal like KNAC was doing but they got even worse ratings and went away.

These are my fave songs here. It's hard for me to not vote for U2 in any poll obv. But NLMDA, True Faith, WHIDTDT, Crazy, and Need You Tonight are all amazing. I know "Lips Like Sugar" is kind of Echo and the Bunnymens's "Don't You Forget About Me" but I do like it a lot.

Gonna think on this one.

3 Depeche Mode - Strangelove
4 Echo & the Bunnymen - Lips Like Sugar
6 INXS - Need You Tonight
8 New Order - True Faith
9 U2 - With or Without You
10 Depeche Mode - Never Let Me Down Again
11 R.E.M. - The One I Love
12 The Bangles - Hazy Shade of Winter
14 U2 - Where the Streets Have No Name
17 Pet Shop Boys - Rent
18 U2 - The Sweetest Thing
26 U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
27 Pet Shop Boys - It's a Sin
28 Icehouse - Crazy
30 The Replacements - Alex Chilton
39 U2 - Bullet the Blue Sky
43 Pet Shop Boys - What Have I Done to Deserve This?
46 Erasure - Victim of Love
47 U2 - Silver and Gold
48 Beastie Boys - Fight for Your Right to Party

I can rep for any of these:

1 The Cure - Just Like Heaven
3 Depeche Mode - Strangelove
5 The Cure - Why Can't I Be You?
6 INXS - Need You Tonight
7 XTC - Dear God
9 U2 - With or Without You
11 R.E.M. - The One I Love
12 The Bangles - Hazy Shade of Winter
14 U2 - Where the Streets Have No Name
29 Faith No More - We Care a Lot
30 The Replacements - Alex Chilton
33 Siouxsie and the Banshees - The Passenger
34 The Cult - Love Removal Machine
39 U2 - Bullet the Blue Sky
45 The Cult - Wild Flower
48 Beastie Boys - Fight for Your Right to Party

Going with Faith No More because of personal reasons I feel more connected to that song than others.

It's hard for me to vote against New Order in any of these polls, although their hold over me had waned a little bit by 1987.

Almost nothing I really like...except for two songs I've included on lists of my favourites songs ever: "What Have I Done to Deserve This" (#2 on a list drawn up in 1991 for a fanzine) and "Alex Chilton" (#34 on a 2010 Facebook list). Which would I rather hear today? I don't know, but I'll defer to the PSB's higher placement on the '91 list.

"Fourth of July"'s good too, and, in the right mood, the Beastie Boys of course.

Yeah, that album as a whole was a letdown, but "Fourth of July" was a bright spot.

Cure vs Beasties, went w/Beasties

i'm vote-splitting Depeche Mode and PSBs to allow a surprise Icehouse verdict

I prefer U2’s re-recording of “Sweetest Thing” from 1998 which came about, in part, because their manager Paul McGann had tried and failed to interest another group (Take That?) to record it, and it inspired them to try another stab.

Paul McGuinness, Paul McGann is "I" in Withnail & I

It's funny seeing the Pet Shop Boys and U2 all over this list. Neil Tennant making fun of The Joshua Tree is one of the funniest things I remember from that era (leading, sideways, to their great "Where the Streets Have No Name" cover).

Haha! I knew I would make a mistake like that

Second year in a row that I don't need to look past #1.

What, no Bon Jovi?

When Bono learned PSB had covered "Where the Streets Have No Name," he faxed Tennant: "What have we, what have we, what have we done to deserve this?"

"You know very well"

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

1 The Cure - Just Like Heaven
4 Echo & the Bunnymen - Lips Like Sugar
5 The Cure - Why Can't I Be You?
6 INXS - Need You Tonight
7 XTC - Dear God
8 New Order - True Faith
9 U2 - With or Without You
10 Depeche Mode - Never Let Me Down Again
11 R.E.M. - The One I Love
12 The Bangles - Hazy Shade of Winter
13 Love and Rockets - No New Tale to Tell
14 U2 - Where the Streets Have No Name
16 The Smiths - Is It Really So Strange?
17 Pet Shop Boys - Rent
18 U2 - The Sweetest Thing
19 Depeche Mode - Behind the Wheel
24 The Smiths - Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
26 U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
27 Pet Shop Boys - It's a Sin
29 Faith No More - We Care a Lot
30 The Replacements - Alex Chilton
34 The Cult - Love Removal Machine
39 U2 - Bullet the Blue Sky
40 Tonio K - Supposed to Have Sex With You
43 Pet Shop Boys - What Have I Done to Deserve This?
48 Beastie Boys - Fight for Your Right to Party
49 The Stranglers - Always the Sun

In the end I had to go with a perfect pop song in "Just Like Heaven."

I picked "True Faith," one of their truly great songs.

I would have voted for "I Started Something," which I think is a brilliant song, but fuck Morrisssey.

I'm glad these are happening as these songs are good. Voting U2 Looking.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

New Order didn't win the trifecta on this rebooted series. They were number one in the last two but still placed really high.

Wasn't expecting the Bangles to take it but an excellent song.

one of the top ten best covers

Wow. Not a good winner.

Go to hell.

especially since Classic MTV in this hotel room I'm at happened to play the video about 30 mins ago

I forgot to vote. Would have been one more for The Bangles.

I really had no idea people liked that cover.

It's okay. I prefer the surprise--psychedelic S&G!--of the original.

(And much prefer the Bangles' cover of the obscure "How Is the Air Up There?" on their first EP.)

Morrissey has ruined the Smiths hasn't he? Three votes for two songs with two getting shut out. These songs are good but even I didn't vote for any. That did have more to do with the competition in this case. Morrissey can go to hell too.

I think The Smiths poll got 80 ballots, tied for the most.

well, these songs aren't their strongest. pretty sure I voted for "Bigmouth Strikes Again" in the '86 poll.

Good point, it's the end of their run and Strangeways is their worst album.

one of the top ten best covers

Absolutely. It has that same quality of the Isley Brothers’ covers of “Summer Breeze” and “Fire and Rain” — “I didn’t think it was possible for THAT song to be THAT AMAZING.” You scurry back to the original, thinking you must have missed something. Nope, the original is still meh, but the Bangles/Isleys found something in it that finally realizes the full potential of the song that the original barely hinted at. (I’ve often thought that James Taylor never heard the Isleys’ “Fire and Rain,” because if he had, he would’ve given up performing and devoted himself exclusively to writing for the Isleys.)

"Winter" is a banger for sure and I say this without any special feeling for the Bangles, who were too normie for me then, I like them a little better now but still just not really my thing -- but then as now, that track really hit the bullseye. Really tight and alive, I think it's considerably better than its origin especially in the bridge -- it's "produced by Rick Rubin," so it's another one where I'd love some more detail on who was placing mics & moving faders

I can't share Tarfumes' estimation of the original "Fire and Rain" as "meh" but on the subject of this cover we agree, it bests the original by some distance

I'd love some more detail on who was placing mics & moving faders

As long as the couch is placed and moved correctly, Rick can work his production magic

The Bangles have claimed often that, despite the credits, the track is self-produced.

I'd believe that

One of the few songs I can play on guitar, because the riff just falls under your fingers

My conspiracy theory:

"Hazy" won NOT because of its rampant airplay on 106.7FM but rather as the bumper music on Art Bell's late night Coast to Coast show on 720AM in the mid-1990s.

DBacks trade Andrew Chafin, why aren't they in the race?

Lol, wrong thread

Andrew Chafe trade away
what else do I have to say

D-backs and KROQ does scan quite nicely.

I like Hazy Shade fine but don’t really see how it wins the poll. If your thing is uptempo post-punk jangle, The One I Love is right there.

No.

There weren't that many other harder-working bands in the LA scene - the Bangles played everywhere and every show was killer. I was hoping that they would record a studio version of their "I'm Not Talking" cover, but "Hazy Shade Of Winter" is better.

The Bangles have claimed often that, despite the credits, the track is self-produced.

"Hazy Shade of Winter" and "Just Like Heaven" absolutely deserving top two but pained to see the amazing "No New Tale To Tell" with zero votes.

Honestly, the zero vote getters here would make a better poll than most polls we do.