A while back, I posted this cartoon from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal largely without comment:

I posted it because it encapsulated a certain truth regarding the nature of pop music and nostalgia. A truth that I found was more or less borne out in the contents of this list at Buzzfeed making the case that 1987 was an “Amazing Year for Music”, citing 43 examples of songs and records that were released that year.

I turned thirteen in 1987, and like a lot of kids that age, I was, to the extent that geography and access allowed me, very much into the pop music of the day. Of the examples cited on that list (I suggest you go look, especially if you’re of an age with me), I could immediately recall a mental recording of at least 35 of them immediately, because frankly, that’s the way I’m wired. There’s some great stuff here, from what some (read: me) consider the golden age of MTV, five or six years into it’s broadcast life – enough time to get past “proof of concept” and work out the serious kinks, but before the age of reality programming, so the M still stood for “Music”.

I think it’s a pretty universally great list. 1987, among other things, brought us records I appreciated at the time like only a naive teenager could. Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet. Guns n Roses’ Appetite For Destruction. Def Leppard’s Hysteria. Pop Masterpieces like George Micheal’s Faith. U2’s The Joshua Tree, and Michael Jackson’s Bad. More complex stuff I didn’t fully appreciate or even know about until much later, like The Replacements’ Pleased To Meet Me and R.E.M.’s Document. As well as, you know, less artistically significant, fleeting confections that nonetheless had a significant affect on my thirteen year old self.

Ahem.

So yes, musically, it was pretty good year, all things considered. And the Buzzfeed list (and playlist!) covers almost all the highlights. Almost. Were I compiling it, I certainly wouldn’t have left this one out. It pretty much covers all the bases in the previous paragraph, and is perhaps one of the world’s perfect pop records:

Thankfully, having a space like this allows me to correct that grievous error.