The highest-selling albums and EPs in the United States are ranked in the Billboard 200, which is published by Billboard magazine. The data are compiled by Nielsen Soundscan based on each album's weekly physical and digital sales. In 1987, a total 9 albums reached the number one position.
The beginning of the year started with the continuation of the end of last year's number one album, Live 1975-85 by Bruce Springsteen, but was quickly overtaken by Bon Jovi, and Slippery When Wet, which returned to the top spot, and became their first number one album. Whitney Houston scored her second #1 with Whitney , which had the longest run among the releases, spending 11 consecutive weeks at the top. The album became the first by a female artist ever to debut at #1 in the Billboard 200, [1] and produced a then-record-equaling four #1 singles from one album; which was broken two months later when Michael Jackson's Bad produced five number ones. [2] Whitney is one of only nine albums in music history to produce at least four #1 Hot 100 hits from the same album. [2] Both U2 and Beastie Boys gained their first number one albums, with The Joshua Tree , and Licensed to Ill .
† | Indicates best performing album of 1987 |
Issue date | Album | Artist(s) | Label | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
January 3 | Live/1975–85 | Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band | Columbia | [3] |
January 10 | [4] | |||
January 17 | Slippery When Wet | Bon Jovi | Mercury | [5] |
January 24 | [6] | |||
January 31 | [7] | |||
February 7 | [8] | |||
February 14 | [9] | |||
February 21 | [10] | |||
February 28 | [11] | |||
March 7 | Licensed to Ill | Beastie Boys | Def Jam | [12] |
March 14 | [13] | |||
March 21 | [14] | |||
March 28 | [15] | |||
April 4 | [16] | |||
April 11 | [17] | |||
April 18 | [18] | |||
April 25 | The Joshua Tree | U2 | Island | [19] |
May 2 | [20] | |||
May 9 | [21] | |||
May 16 | [22] | |||
May 23 | [23] | |||
May 30 | [24] | |||
June 6 | [25] | |||
June 13 | [26] | |||
June 20 | [27] | |||
June 27 | Whitney | Whitney Houston | Arista | [28] |
July 4 | [29] | |||
July 11 | [30] | |||
July 18 | [31] | |||
July 25 | [32] | |||
August 1 | [33] | |||
August 8 | [34] | |||
August 15 | [35] | |||
August 22 | [36] | |||
August 29 | [37] | |||
September 5 | [38] | |||
September 12 | La Bamba | Los Lobos / Soundtrack | Slash | [39] |
September 19 | [40] | |||
September 26 | Bad | Michael Jackson | Epic | [41] |
October 3 | [42] | |||
October 10 | [43] | |||
October 17 | [44] | |||
October 24 | [45] | |||
October 31 | [46] | |||
November 7 | Tunnel of Love | Bruce Springsteen | Columbia | [47] |
November 14 | Dirty Dancing | Soundtrack | RCA Victor | [48] |
November 21 | [49] | |||
November 28 | [50] | |||
December 5 | [51] | |||
December 12 | [52] | |||
December 19 | [53] | |||
December 26 | [54] | |||
Whitney Elizabeth Houston was an American singer, actress, film producer, and philanthropist. Nicknamed "the Voice", she is one of the most awarded entertainers of all time, having been inducted into numerous halls of fame. Her crossover appeal on the popular music charts and her performances influenced the breaking down of racial barriers and popular culture. Houston has been recognized for her vocal delivery, distinctive timbre, and for popularizing the use of gospel singing techniques in pop music. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked her second on their list of the greatest singers of all time. Houston has sold over 220 million records worldwide, becoming one of the best-selling music artists in history. She also enhanced her popularity by producing and starring in multicultural movies. Her life and career have been the subject of multiple documentaries and television specials.
Bad is the seventh studio album by the American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson. It was released on August 31, 1987, by Epic Records. Written and recorded between 1985 and 1987, Bad was Jackson's third and final collaboration with the producer Quincy Jones. Jackson co-produced and composed all but two tracks, and adopted an edgier image and sound, departing from his signature groove-based style and falsetto. Bad incorporates pop, rock, funk, R&B, dance, soul, and hard rock styles, and incorporated new recording technology, including digital synthesizers. The lyrical themes include media bias, paranoia, racial profiling, romance, self-improvement, and world peace. The album features appearances from Siedah Garrett and Stevie Wonder.
The Billboard 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by Billboard magazine to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Sometimes, a recording act is remembered for its "number ones" that outperformed all other albums during at least one week. The chart grew from a weekly top 10 list in 1956 to become a top 200 list in May 1967, acquiring its existing name in March 1992. Its previous names include the Billboard Top LPs (1961–1972), Billboard Top LPs & Tape (1972–1984), Billboard Top 200 Albums (1984–1985) and Billboard Top Pop Albums (1985–1992).
Whitney Houston is the debut studio album by American singer Whitney Houston. It was released on February 14, 1985, by Arista Records. The album initially had a slow commercial response, but began getting more popular in mid-1985. It eventually topped the Billboard 200 for 14 weeks in 1986, generating three number-one singles—"Saving All My Love for You", "How Will I Know" and "Greatest Love of All"—on the Billboard Hot 100, which made it both the first debut album and the first album by a solo female artist to produce three number-one singles.
Whitney is the second studio album by American singer Whitney Houston, released on June 2, 1987, by Arista Records as the follow-up to her debut album. The album features five top 10 hits on the US Billboard Hot 100, which also became international hits. The album's first four singles—"I Wanna Dance with Somebody ", "Didn't We Almost Have It All", "So Emotional" and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go"—all peaked at number one on the US Hot 100, making her the first female act to achieve four number-one hits from one album.
I'm Your Baby Tonight is the third studio album by American singer Whitney Houston. It was released on November 6, 1990, by Arista Records. The album has been certified quadruple platinum in the US by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
My Love Is Your Love is the fourth studio album by American singer Whitney Houston, released worldwide on November 17, 1998. It was Houston's first studio album in eight years, following I'm Your Baby Tonight (1990) although she had participated on three movie soundtracks during that period. My Love Is Your Love is composed of mid-tempo R&B, hip hop soul, pop and dance music, produced by musicians such as Whitney Houston herself, Rodney Jerkins, Soulshock & Karlin, Missy Elliott, Wyclef Jean, David Foster, Lauryn Hill, and Babyface.
Just Whitney is the fifth studio album by American singer and actress Whitney Houston, released on November 27, 2002, by Arista Records. It was her first studio album to be released after her greatest hits compilation, Whitney: The Greatest Hits (2000), and the follow-up to her multi-platinum fourth studio album, My Love is Your Love (1998). Just Whitney was also Houston's first to be released after re-signing her contract with Arista in 2001 for $100 million - the largest recording contract for a female artist at the time.
The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album is a soundtrack album from the film of the same name, released on November 17, 1992, by Arista Records. The album's first side features songs recorded by American singer Whitney Houston, who starred in the film, while side two features the work of various artists. Houston and Clive Davis were co-executive producers of the record.
"I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" is a song recorded by American singer Whitney Houston for her second studio album, Whitney (1987). It was released as the lead single from the album on May 2, 1987, by Arista Records. It was produced by Narada Michael Walden, and written by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, of the band Boy Meets Girl, who had previously collaborated with Houston on "How Will I Know".
American singer, actress, producer and entertainer Whitney Houston, who is known as “The Voice”, released seven studio albums, eight compilations, three soundtrack albums, five box sets, six extended plays, and 57 singles. She has sold over 220 million records worldwide, becoming one of the best-selling music artists in history. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Houston is the best-selling female R&B artist of the 20th century, and has sold 100 million certified records in the United States. She is also the fourth best-selling female album artist in the US with 61 million certified album sales. In addition, until the launch of the RIAA's digital certification program in 2004, she had sold 16.5 million physical singles—more than any other female solo artist in history. According to the Official Charts Company in October 2012, Houston is the fourth-biggest-selling female singles artists of all-time list with a sales total of 8.5 million singles in that country.
Waiting to Exhale: Original Soundtrack Album is the soundtrack for the film of the same name, released on November 14, 1995, by Arista Records. Produced by Babyface, the soundtrack features appearances by several prominent R&B artists, including Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton, TLC, Brandy, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Faith Evans, Patti LaBelle, SWV and Mary J. Blige.
The Preacher's Wife: Original Soundtrack Album is the soundtrack to the 1996 film of the same name and features songs performed and produced by American singer Whitney Houston, who also stars in the film. The soundtrack was released on November 26, 1996, by Arista Records and BMG Entertainment. With sales of 6 million copies worldwide, it is the best-selling gospel album of all time.
I Look to You is the seventh and final studio album by American singer Whitney Houston. It was first released on August 28, 2009, through Sony Music in Europe, then August 31, 2009 with Arista Records in the United States before being released by RCA Records in the United Kingdom on October 19, 2009. The album was Houston's first non-holiday studio album since 2002's Just Whitney. It received favorable reviews from music critics, based on an aggregate score of 66/100 from Metacritic and debuted on the US Billboard 200 at number one with sales of 305,000 beating her previous career best first-week sale of 205,137 units with Just Whitney (2002), and it was her first album to reach number one in the US since 1992's The Bodyguard. Additionally it became her fourth chart-topping album, thus extending her as the female artist with the most cumulative weeks at the number one position.
American singer Whitney Houston, known as "The Voice", released 57 singles as a leading artist and 4 as a featured artist. Houston is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with over 220 million records sold worldwide. In the United States, Houston amassed 11 Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, all of whom have been certified either gold, platinum, multi-platinum or diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America and was one of a selected group of artists to have a top ten single in the Billboard Hot 100 in four different decades. She is currently ranked in seventh place of the artists with the most number one singles in the history of the Billboard Hot 100. Prior to the introduction of digital singles, Houston sold 16.5 million physical singles in the country, the most ever by a female recording artist. In October 2012, the Official Charts Company claimed Houston was the fourth biggest-selling female singles artist of all time with a sales total of 8.5 million singles in that country.
The albums discography of American singer Janet Jackson consists of eleven studio albums, four compilation albums, and two remix albums. When she was fifteen, her father arranged a contract for her with A&M Records. Her debut album, Janet Jackson (1982), peaked at number 64 on the Billboard 200 chart and sold 250,000 copies in the United States. Her next album, Dream Street (1984), peaked at number 147 on the Billboard 200, a weaker effort than her previous album. Her third album, Control (1986), became known as her breakthrough album, topping the Billboard 200 and sold over 10 million copies worldwide. Her fourth album, Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989), topped the Billboard 200 for four consecutive weeks and sold three million copies within the first four months of its release. The album went on to produce seven consecutive top 5 hits, four of them reaching the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in three separate calendar years, a record yet to be broken. The album was certified 6× Platinum by RIAA, and sold over 12 million copies worldwide.