4 Songs That High Schoolers in 1987 Knew Every Word To

In 1987, Michael Jackson released his Bad album, Dirty Dancing created one of the biggest pop culture references ever, and the charts were laced with rock and pop music all around. Here are a few culturally significant songs from that year that high schoolers definitely knew every word to.

“Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” by Starship

“Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” is the ultimate perseverance anthem. Released by Starship for their second studio album, No Protection, the song was written by Albert Hammond and Diane Warren, who got her very first No. 1 hit out of the song. Hammond was inspired by his own relationship troubles when writing this one, which he explained to Warren. He had been living with his girlfriend at the time for seven years, waiting for his divorce from his wife to be finalized. The attitude was very much “They’re trying to stop me, but they can’t.”

“(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life” by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes

Dirty Dancing fans will forever associate this song with the iconic 1987 film, and that scene where Patrick Swayze makes Jennifer Grey airborne for about four glorious seconds. Fun fact: the demo of this song was actually what was playing when they filmed that scene. I suppose it was just meant to be.

“Bad” by Michael Jackson

Everyone loves Thriller, but Bad takes the cake for me as Michael Jackson’s best work. Plus, the title track is just an absolute jam. With his follow-up project to “the greatest album of all time,” Jackson aimed to be a little more rebellious. At the time, “bad” was just slang for “cool,” so his all-black outfits are probably more off-putting now. In fact, according to Toni Basil of “Mickey” fame, Jackson drew inspiration from the song “Cool” in West Side Story when working on Bad.

“If you look at ‘Bad’, that’s taken straight out of ‘West Side Story‘,” she shares in MTV Ruled the World – The Early Years of Music Video. “If you put the song ‘Cool’ from ‘West Side Story’ up against that, you’ll see hunks taken. Not that it wasn’t great, but Michael would never say where he was inspired from.”

“Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac

“Everywhere” is a love song, written by Fleetwood Mac’s very own Christine McVie. I’ve always thought this song describes being in love so well. Especially when there are butterflies at the beginning of a relationship.

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