Number one Album Rock Hits 1987

Gonna say Paper in Fire.

My pick is Lou Gramm's great oddity "Midnight Blue."

Runners-up:

"Paper in Fire" (one of Mellencamp's forgotten singles)
Bruce's two great singles
"Jammin' Me" (top five Petty)
my favorite eighties Clapton
"My Baby"

I like "Come As You Are" a lot too (remember the video?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHtdmxakUO8

love those springsteen, love 'with or without you', affection for the mellencamp (lonesome jubilee is just sorta forgotten in general now it seems; a lot of hits at the time but now if i hear mellencamp on the radio it seems like it's either from american fool-uhhuh-scarecrow or, weirdly, 'wild night' or 'key west intermezzo' from the 90s), tip of the cap to 'touch of grey', but no way i can vote for anything except 'midnight blue'. GREAT song.

"Touch of Grey," one of my only favorite songs by the Grateful Dead. If you had asked me to guess the release date, I would have though that came out at least a year or two later than 1987, maybe even 1990.

The only LJ hit I still hear on the radio is "Cherry Bomb."

'jammin me' - last moment of cultural relevance for joe piscopo?

cherry bomb all the fucking way

"Cherry Bomb" might be the best song, but "Midnight Blue" is easily the best single. I'm not sure why I think that; I just do. Runners-up: "Jammin' Me," "Livin' On A Prayer" (which maybe I won't be sick of again someday), and begrudgingly, "Paper In Fire" though that was the beginning of Coug's end, in my book. (Lousy song, great performance, as Metal Mike Saunders put it at the time.) (Actually, I might actually prefer "Touch of Grey" now, if I heard it.)

Lousy song, great performance,

but this Mellencamp's M.O.

this IS Mellencamp's M.O., rather

Nah, he wrote tons of great songs. Just not after 1987.

Or maybe after 1987 he was more "great songs, lousy performances," if anything. I doubt it, though.

His band has compensated for rote lyrics and blah melodies more often than he's come up with original ones (and I like Coog!). The real decline: "Pop Singer," wherein, out of material, he turns to the one subject about which he's bound to get the most sanctimonious, i.e. stardom.

I like "With or Without You" as a song, but Bono's vocals are too big a turn-off for me.

"Midnight Blue" < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4ElItczHKA

Sorry, U2-haters, but "With Or Without You" is the best song here. One of their best ones ever.

Pretenders. Although I haven't heard many of these.

Life is simple. It's either cherry red or Midnight Blue

Midnight Blue.

"midnight blue", but i almost wanna go with the runner-up U2 song cuz i hate to back a winner. and "touch of grey" to show.

this sort of has to be "With Or Without You" for me

U2

gtfo the lot of you

haha.

I have zero recollection of Mellencamp's "Cherry Bomb". Tell me this isn't a cover of The Runaways.

"That's when a smoke was a smoke. AND GROOVIN WAS GROOVIN...."

Oh THAT song.

On the other hand I don't know the Yes tune a'tall.

That Yes song is great, and in fact I'm gonna vote for it since "Midnight Blue" clearly will have enough votes.

You can blame Raggett for bringing this to my attention:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQbAizfsvrQ

Yes - "Love Will Find a Way"

This was #1 for THREE WEEKS?

I'm not sure I even know what this is and I'm a pretty dedicated fan of prog Yes. At first, I thought of "Leave It". Listening on Youtube... Sounds a bit like Asia. (Chorus: OK, I think I have heard this before.) What a strange time period: People still really wanted to listen to Yes and Pink Floyd (and the Dead for that matter) but wanted to hear them play straighforward rock anthem singles.

I suppose I should vote for "Livin on a Prayer" to honour my elementary-school self.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0XQwazkx10

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

Oddest top five ever.

Or: fuck you.

where did they hide all the women & black ppl in 1987?

lol @ "eric calpton"

where did they hide all the women & black ppl in 1987?

not in the "album rock" charts

oh "ALBUM ROCK" - did not see that clarifier.

Prior to right now (youtube), "Midnight Blue" had completely passed me by somehow. Pretty boring/generic imo. Good jams from aging dinosaurs that year: I would've voted for the Dead or Floyd. "Cherry Bomb" is ace too.

LOVE Midnight Blue so much, I started a thread on it.

TS: Lou Gramm's "Midnight Blue" vs. Steve Perry's "Oh Sherrie"

missed this poll cos I've been on the road but motherfuck do I love "Midnight Blue" & hearing it when I was 13 had an, er, effect on me ("you might think it's much too soon for us to go this far").