1987: The Year That Gave Us Some of the Greatest Albums and Films Ever Made - and Chalkys
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Chalkys was born in September 1987. And what a year to start.
1987 was one of those rare years when popular culture seemed to be firing on all cylinders. Michael Jackson released Bad. U2 gave us The Joshua Tree. Whitney Houston released Whitney. Fleetwood Mac returned with Tango in the Night. Prince delivered Sign o' the Times. On the big screen, James Bond returned in The Living Daylights, Full Metal Jacket arrived, The Untouchables hit cinemas and The Princess Bride, Dirty Dancing, Hellraiser and Empire of the Sun all became part of the cultural landscape.
And somewhere in the middle of it all, in September 1987, Chalkys began life as a single physical shop in Banbury, Oxfordshire.
Almost 40 years later, we are still here selling the music and films that people love.
So, as we celebrate Chalkys' birthday, we thought we'd take a trip back to 1987 and look at some of the albums and films that defined the year we started.
Quick Answer: What was released in 1987?
1987 was an extraordinary year for music and film. Major albums included Michael Jackson's Bad, U2's The Joshua Tree, Whitney Houston's Whitney, Fleetwood Mac's Tango in the Night, Prince's Sign o' the Times, and The Cure's Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me.
Cinema gave us The Living Daylights, Beverly Hills Cop II, Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, The Untouchables, Lethal Weapon, Labyrinth, Hellraiser, The Witches of Eastwick and Empire of the Sun.
For Chalkys, the significance is even greater: 1987 is the year our story began.
Key Facts: 1987 in Music, Film and Chalkys History
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Chalkys founded | September 1987 |
| Original location | Banbury, Oxfordshire |
| Original format | A physical music shop |
| Biggest-selling UK album of 1987 | Bad by Michael Jackson |
| Bad UK sales in 1987 | Approximately 1.65 million |
| U2's The Joshua Tree UK sales in 1987 | Approximately 1.45 million |
| Whitney Houston's Whitney UK sales in 1987 | Approximately 1.28 million |
| UK cinema leader | Crocodile Dundee |
| Chalkys today | Online retailer specialising in vinyl, CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray |
1987: The Year Music Changed Shape
It is easy to look back at 1987 through the slightly rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, but the sheer quality of the music released that year really does stand up.
The UK album charts were packed with artists who would go on to define their generation, alongside established stars producing some of their most memorable work.
Michael Jackson's Bad was the obvious giant.
Released in August 1987, it followed the almost impossible success of Thriller. Rather than trying to recreate that record, Jackson created something sharper, more aggressive and more visually spectacular.
The album produced a remarkable run of singles, including I Just Can't Stop Loving You, Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, Man in the Mirror and Dirty Diana.
It was the biggest-selling album in the UK during 1987, with around 1.65 million copies sold during the year according to year-end sales data.
And it wasn't alone.
U2 – The Joshua Tree
If Bad represented pop superstardom at its absolute peak, U2's The Joshua Tree represented something rather different.
Released in March 1987, it transformed U2 from a hugely successful rock band into one of the biggest bands on the planet.
With or Without You, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For and Where the Streets Have No Name became defining songs of the decade.
The album reached number one in the UK and was one of the biggest-selling albums of the year, with year-end UK sales estimated at around 1.45 million.
Whitney Houston – Whitney
Whitney Houston's second album was another enormous 1987 release.
Simply titled Whitney, it arrived in June and immediately established Houston as one of the world's biggest pop vocalists.
The album produced four US number-one singles and became a huge international success.
In the UK, it spent six weeks at number one and remained in the Top 40 for 78 weeks.
Fleetwood Mac – Tango in the Night
Then there was Tango in the Night.
Fleetwood Mac's fourteenth studio album became one of their biggest successes, helped by songs including Big Love, Little Lies and Everywhere.
It reached number one in the UK and spent an extraordinary 123 weeks in the UK album chart.
For a record shop opening its doors in 1987, these weren't just famous albums. They were the records customers were walking through the door to buy.
Prince, Janet Jackson, The Cure and More
And the brilliance of 1987 wasn't limited to the biggest sellers.
Prince released the sprawling and critically acclaimed Sign o' the Times.
The Cure released Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, bringing together alternative rock, pop and gothic influences.
George Michael's Faith arrived towards the end of the year and would become one of the defining albums of his career.
Def Leppard released Hysteria, an album that would go on to become one of the biggest-selling rock records ever made.
The Smiths released Strangeways, Here We Come, their final studio album.
R.E.M. released Document.
Erasure released The Circus.
The Cult delivered Electric.
David Bowie released Never Let Me Down.
Marillion released Clutching at Straws.
Europe gave the world The Final Countdown.
Gary Moore released Wild Frontier.
Bryan Adams released Into the Fire.
Level 42 delivered Running in the Family.
Simply Red released Men and Women.
The Style Council released The Cost of Loving.
And The Housemartins released The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death.
The Official Charts archives give a fascinating snapshot of just how crowded the UK album market was. Tango in the Night, The Joshua Tree, Whitney, Running in the Family, Solitude Standing and countless others were competing for attention at the same time.
For anyone working in a record shop in 1987, it was quite a time to be surrounded by music.
And Then There Was Cinema
The story is much the same when you look at the films released in and around the UK during 1987.
The year gave cinema audiences an extraordinary mixture of action, comedy, horror, science fiction, drama and adventure.
And James Bond was back.
The Living Daylights
Timothy Dalton made his first appearance as 007 in The Living Daylights.
Released in the UK in June 1987, it was a major box-office success and ultimately took more than £8 million at the UK box office.
For a generation of Bond fans, Dalton's more serious interpretation of the character remains one of the most interesting turns the franchise ever took.
Beverly Hills Cop II
Eddie Murphy returned as Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop II, one of the biggest films at the UK box office during the year.
It was exactly the sort of huge, accessible Hollywood entertainment that dominated cinemas during the late 1980s.
Full Metal Jacket
Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket was something altogether different.
Released in 1987, it became one of the year's most talked-about films and remains one of Kubrick's most studied works.
It was also one of the year's significant UK box-office performers.
The Untouchables
Brian De Palma's The Untouchables brought together Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro and Andy Garcia in a stylish crime drama based around Eliot Ness and Al Capone.
It is one of those films that still feels unmistakably 1980s while somehow remaining timeless.
Lethal Weapon
Mel Gibson and Danny Glover teamed up for Lethal Weapon, establishing a partnership that would become one of the defining action-comedy pairings of the decade.
Hellraiser
1987 was also the year Clive Barker's Hellraiser arrived.
For horror fans, it became a landmark British genre film and introduced Pinhead and the Cenobites to the world.
The Witches of Eastwick
Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer combined for The Witches of Eastwick, another major 1987 release that has retained its cult appeal.
Empire of the Sun
And towards the end of the year came Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun, starring a young Christian Bale.
It remains one of Spielberg's most ambitious dramas and another reminder of just how much cinematic talent was on display in 1987.
The Films That Ruled the UK Box Office
Looking specifically at UK box-office performance makes for interesting reading.
Crocodile Dundee was the biggest-grossing film in the UK figures for the period covering the year, taking more than £20 million. The Living Daylights followed, ahead of Beverly Hills Cop II and Platoon.
There is an important wrinkle here.
Crocodile Dundee was actually released in the UK in December 1986 before its nationwide release in January 1987, which is why different sources and different methods of calculating annual box office can produce slightly different rankings.
That's worth remembering when looking at historical film charts. A film's release date, nationwide release, box-office year and the period covered by a particular chart aren't always the same thing.
And This Is Where Chalkys Comes In
All of this is more than just a nostalgic trip down memory lane for us.
1987 is our year.
Chalkys began in September 1987, when the business was a single physical shop in Banbury, Oxfordshire.
There was no Chalkys.com. There were no algorithms recommending what you might like. There was no online shopping. There wasn't even a way of checking a customer's order from your phone while standing in the queue.
There were records, CDs, films, customers and plenty of conversations.
And, most importantly, there was the belief that if you knew your stuff, treated people properly and gave them a good experience, they would come back. And that philosophy has stayed with Chalkys.
The business has changed dramatically since those early days, moving from a local physical shop to an online retailer serving customers across the UK and internationally. But the fundamental idea remains the same: music and film are personal, and buying them should still feel personal.
Today Chalkys is as a trusted, human alternative in British retail, combining the scale of an online retailer with the personal touch of a local shop.
And that journey started in Banbury in 1987.
20 Albums That Take Us Back to 1987
Here are 20 of the major albums that defined the year, based on UK chart performance and 1987 release status:
- Bad – Michael Jackson
- Tango in the Night – Fleetwood Mac
- Whitney – Whitney Houston
- The Joshua Tree – U2
- Sign o' the Times – Prince
- Whitesnake 1987 – Whitesnake
- Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me – The Cure
- Faith – George Michael
- Hysteria – Def Leppard
- Solitude Standing – Suzanne Vega
- The Circus – Erasure
- Electric – The Cult
- Never Let Me Down – David Bowie
- Strangeways, Here We Come – The Smiths
- Document – R.E.M.
- Clutching at Straws – Marillion
- The Final Countdown – Europe
- Wild Frontier – Gary Moore
- Into the Fire – Bryan Adams
- Running in the Family – Level 42
Some of these records had their biggest chart runs across 1987 and into 1988, but all belong firmly to the musical story of 1987.
20 Films That Take Us Back to 1987
And on the big screen:
- Crocodile Dundee
- The Living Daylights
- Beverly Hills Cop II
- Platoon
- Personal Services
- Full Metal Jacket
- The Untouchables
- Lethal Weapon
- A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
- The Witches of Eastwick
- The Color of Money
- Hellraiser
- Cry Freedom
- The Fourth Protocol
- 84 Charing Cross Road
- The Fly
- Innerspace
- Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
- Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol
- Mannequin
As with the album list, historical film rankings can vary depending on whether they are based on UK release dates, annual box-office periods or worldwide performance. The list above is intended as a celebration of the major films associated with 1987 rather than a definitive all-time ranking.
1987 Was Quite a Year to Open a Record Shop
Looking back almost four decades later, it is hard not to think that Chalkys picked a pretty good year to start.
Imagine opening the doors of a record shop in Banbury in September 1987.
Bad was everywhere.
The Joshua Tree was still huge.
Whitney was dominating the charts.
Hysteria was about to become enormous.
Faith had just arrived.
The Living Daylights was in cinemas.
Full Metal Jacket was being talked about.
Dirty Dancing was becoming a phenomenon.
And every week brought another record, another film and another reason for somebody to walk into a shop and ask, "Have you got this?"
That was Chalkys then.
And, in many ways, it is still Chalkys now.
The technology has changed. The way people buy music and films has changed. The formats have changed.
But the love of a great album, a brilliant film and the excitement of discovering something you want to own?
That hasn't changed at all.
So as Chalkys celebrates its birthday this September, we aren't just celebrating a business.
We're celebrating where it all began.
Banbury. 1987. One shop. And a very good year for music and film.
Looking for the music and films of 1987?
From classic albums on vinyl and CD to films on DVD and Blu-ray, explore the world of 1987 and rediscover the records and movies that made the year so memorable at Chalkys.
Frequently Asked Questions
What year was Chalkys founded?
Chalkys was founded in September 1987 in Banbury, Oxfordshire. The business began as a physical music shop before eventually evolving into the online retailer it is today. Chalkys' own history explains that its founder started working in a Banbury record shop in 1981 before setting up his own company in 1987.
What was the biggest-selling album in the UK in 1987?
Michael Jackson's Bad was the biggest-selling album in the UK in 1987, with year-end sales data putting its sales at approximately 1.65 million copies.
What other major albums were released in 1987?
Major 1987 albums included U2's The Joshua Tree, Whitney Houston's Whitney, Fleetwood Mac's Tango in the Night, Prince's Sign o' the Times, Janet Jackson's Control, The Cure's Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Def Leppard's Hysteria and George Michael's Faith.
What was the biggest film in the UK in 1987?
Crocodile Dundee was the highest-grossing film in the UK according to the historical UK box-office figures covering the period, although its original UK opening was in December 1986. The Living Daylights was the biggest major 1987 release in the UK by the same historical data.
What James Bond film was released in 1987?
The Living Daylights was released in 1987 and marked Timothy Dalton's first appearance as James Bond.
Why is 1987 important to Chalkys?
1987 is the year Chalkys was founded. The business began as a single physical music shop in Banbury, Oxfordshire, before evolving into an online retailer selling vinyl, CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray and other entertainment products.