Sunday, March 25, 2007

Lookin Back: March 1987

Club Nouveau's "Lean on Me" was the big hit of March 1987. I remember this song being very popular, but frankly it doesn't hold up. It's okay, but too repetitive. It was their only major hit.

Huey Lewis & The News has its third #1 hit with "Jacob's Ladder," which is a pretty typical example of late '80s pop/rock. Not bad, but not that memorable.

Probably the most interesting single from March 1987 was Janet Jackson's "Let's Wait Awhile," the fifth Control single. By 1993 she'd want it "Any Time, Any Place," but this ballad was a blunt message for sexual abstinence. It's hard to remember a time when sex-obsessed Jackson didn't want to do it, which makes this single refreshing when compared to her more recent works like "Throb," "Moist," "When We Oooh," "Sexhibition," "Rope Burn," Etc. The song Also had a lovely black & white video with a new mix of the song. It's even letterboxed, who was doing that back then?



In contrast, the Jets' "You Got It All" has an exceedingly silly video, set in a diner, with the waitress doing the singing. The fashions are fantastic. This is actually a pretty good song--a great typically '80s ballad.



Yet another ballad was big in March, Linda Ronstadt & James Ingram's "Somewhere Out There" from the film An American Tail. It sounds just a little too slow now. The Beastie Boys had their first and biggest hit, "You Gotta Fight for Your Right to Party." Bruce Hornsby hit the top 10 with the lovely "Mandolin Rain," which sounds a lot like his bigger previous hit "The Way It Is." Finally, Peter Gabriel was in the top 10 with "Big Time."

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