The conversation led to a discussion about music and we looked up Billboard's Hot 100 Songs from 1987. Apparently the number one song for the year was "Walk Like an Egyptian" by the Bangles. How many times did I watch that music video...back when MTV actually played music videos all day! My mom's favorite video was another hit that year, Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" which came in at number four. I was also thrilled to see that the song that I claim as mine, "Carrie" by Europe, was on the list at number 56. Other hits included "La Bamba", "Hip to be Square", "Livin' on a Prayer", "I Want Your Sex", "Fight for Your Right (to Party)", "Control" and so many others that make up the soundtrack of my adolescence.
Looking at that list brought back other memories. Starship's "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now," from the movie "Mannequin" came out that year. That was the first movie I went to see on my first date ever (not counting a date to Chuck E. Cheese when I was twelve!).
That led to the question of what were the movies that were popular the momentous year that I turned sixteen. Wikipedia lists the following as the top ten movies that year:
- Three Men and a Baby, starring Ted Danson, Steve Guttenberg, and Tom Selleck
- Fatal Attraction, starring Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, and Anne Archer
- Beverly Hills Cop II, starring Eddie Murphy
- Good Morning, Vietnam, starring Robin Williams
- Moonstruck, starring Cher and Nicolas Cage
- The Untouchables, starring Kevin Costner, Sean Connery and Robert De Niro.
- The Secret of My Succe$s, starring Michael J. Fox
- Stakeout, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Emilio Estevez, Madeleine Stowe
- Lethal Weapon, starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover
- The Witches of Eastwick, starring Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer
While I did go see many of these movies on dates or with friends, the movies I especially remember from that year were of the "teen movie genre,":
- Dirty Dancing
- Summer School (with Mark Harmon from NCIS!)
- Some Kind of Wonderful
- Can't Buy Me Love (with Patrick Dempsey, yes, McDreamy from "Grey's Anatomy")
- Adventures in Babysitting
Then there were the other "classics" released that year:
- The Lost Boys (Corey and Corey, before they were reality stars, before tragedy struck; both born the same year as me, FYI)
- The Princess Bride
- LaBamba
- Spaceballs
- Planes, Trains and Automobiles
- Throw Mama from the Train
Of course, there were many, many other films that were produced in 1987, but these are the ones I remember seeing in the theater.
It was really neat to look back at the year I turned sixteen. It definitely made me feel a bit old, and not all of the memories of high school are good--I'm not one of those people who wants to go back--but there were some good times. For many people, turning sixteen means freedom because they get their license. I actually was a terrible driver, and didn't get my license until many years later, but my friends did, so their freedom did translate into my freedom. However, I do remember that year as the year I began to realize who I was as a person. I doubt that "The Lost Boys" or "The Princess Bride" had much to do with that, although the main characters did fight through adversity. Debbie Gibson's love songs didn't offer much advice on plotting the course of my life, though they were useful when I was going through breakups. However, the movies and music of the time frame the backdrop for the beginning of my transformation from child to adult...and so will always have a fond place in my heart.
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