In the Rock of Life series I will be recounting my music listening history throughout the years. Each year, starting with 1982, I will describe what I was listening to at the time and then pick my “Album of the Year”. Some (arbitrary) rules: the album will have been released in that year, although some could be from late in the prior year. It must be an album I actually listened to back then, not an album I discovered later. It can’t be a “greatest hits” album.
When 1987 starts off I am 16 years old. At this point I had a job, so I had a little spending money to buy my own things and often that meant cassettes.
Early in the year Whitesnake came out and I remember buying that pretty early after loving the single Hear I Go Again. I had not heard of Whitesnake before, but I absolutely loved this album. It had a great mix of some hard rocking tunes and more poppier rock. Still of the Night kicks ass!
Later in the spring, Girls, Girls, Girls by Motley Crue came out and I bought that. But that album was not good at all and the title song is rather cringey these days.
I did pick up the new Loverboy album, Wildside early in the summer but it was just not very good.
Another favorite of mine was Once Bitten by Great White. I still enjoy this album today, actually.
But Whitesnake remained my favorite album for much of the year. That changed in August when I was shopping with my Mom for school clothes for my senior year of high school and saw a new Def Leppard album in the music section. The album was Hysteria and it became my favorite album for the next year and a half!
Read my article Remembering Def Leppard Hysteria for more of my thoughts on this amazing album.
In October 1987, I went to my first concert which was the second show of the Def Leppard Hysteria tour.
Tesla was the opening band, which is what got me into their album that was released in 1986, Mechanical Resonance.
A couple months later Dokken released Back for the Attack. I had a friend who was a huge Dokken fan and I actually bought this as my first Dokken album. Back for the Attack had a harder rock sound than their previous album and it also become a favorite.
Lastly, towards the end of the year Foreigner released Inside Information. I also bought this. Re-listening to it again recently, I forgot how much I liked this album. Say You Will, I Don’t Want to Live Without You, Inside Information, and Face to Face are all great. Overall, I like this album better than Agent Provocateur from 1984.
But I think it goes without saying that my 1987 album of the year is Hysteria by Def Leppard.
Hysteria was huge and I love every song on it. Plus it had tremendous staying power. It was in the Billboard top 10 for over a year and actually didn’t even hit #1 until nearly a year after it was released. I listened to it up through my freshman year of college and still love it to this day. Hysteria is one of my all-time favorite albums.
Other notable albums from 1987:
Permanent Vacation by Aerosmith: Perhaps my favorite Aerosmith album.
Appetite for Destruction by Guns N’ Roses: This became a huge album, but not until 1988.
Pride by White Lion: A couple good songs, but otherwise somewhat generic.
The Rock of Life list so far:
1987: Hysteria by Def Leppard
Remembering Def Leppard Hysteria
It’s Hysteria week so time for a Hysteria retrospective! It’s August 1987. I’m 16 years old and at Zayre with my Mom shopping for clothes for my senior year of high school. Bored with that I head to the music section and come across something in the new releases section: a new album by
I would gone with the Dokken, myself. "Back For The Attack" wasn't their peak, but it did have the ultimate, immortal George Lynch instrumental "Mr. Scary", as well as "Burning Like A Flame". "Hysteria" didn't have a lot of the punch even "Pyromania" had; the Leps had gone full-corporate by that time.
Def Leppard all the way man. Two Steps Behind is one of my all-time faves.