Peter Gabriel releases the solo album So through Geffen Records, including the hit singles “”Big Time”, “Sledgehammer” and “In Your Eyes”. 
Peter Gabriel releases the solo album So through Geffen Records, including the hit singles “”Big Time”, “Sledgehammer” and “In Your Eyes”.
Hollywood Records releases the Queen album A Kind Of Magic. With no release of the movie’s score in the works, this album – featuring “Who Wants To Live Forever” and “Princes Of The Universe” – is the de facto soundtrack of the movie Highlander.
Mute Records releases the 13th Genesis album, Invisible Touch, featuring the single “Land Of Confusion”.
Threshold Records releases the Moody Blues album The Other Side Of Life, featuring the single “Your Wildest Dreams”.
Virgin Records releases the second album by former Split Enz lead singer Tim Finn, Big Canoe. With contributions from fellow ex-Enz bandmate Phil Judd, the album is elaborately produced, but fails to make a splash (at roughly the same time that Finn’s younger brother, Neil, is climbing the charts with Crowded House).
Scitron Digital releases the album Konami Game Music Volume 1, featuring sound and music recorded from the company’s early arcade hits.
IRS Records releases R.E.M.‘s fourth album, Lifes Rich Pageant, featuring the single “Fall On Me”.
Virgin Records releases the XTC album Skylarking.
MCA Records releases Leonard Rosenman’s soundtrack from the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, featuring tracks by the Yellowjackets.
Zang Tuum Tumb releases the Art Of Noise compilation Daft, gathering much of the band’s first album and B-side and EP material in one release.
The Alan Parsons Project releases its tenth album, Gaudi, including the single “Standing On Higher Ground”.
Scitron Digital releases the album Taito Game Music, collecting recordings of music and sounds from the company’s classic arcade games.
RCA Records releases a significantly reworked edition of Australian group Pseudo Echo‘s album Love An Adventure in North America, adding the single “Funkytown” (a cover of the Lipps Inc. song).
British label Legacy Records releases Starting Up, the fourth and final solo album of new material by Roy Wood (ELO, Wizzard).
A&M Records releases the Supertramp compilation album Classics, Volume 9 – Supertramp as part of the label’s 25th anniversary Classics series.
EMI Records releases the Pseudo Echo album Long Plays ’83-’87, gathering extended mixes of the storied Australian group’s various singles.
Warner Bros. Records releases the album Tango In The Night by Fleetwood Mac, featuring the singles “Big Love”, “Little Lies”, and “Seven Wonders”. This is the final studio album by the lineup that recorded Rumours and Tusk; Lindsey Buckingham goes his own way following this album.
Virgin Records releases the Roy Orbison album In Dreams: The Greatest Hits, which consists entirely of new recordings of Orbison’s most popular songs (since the original masters are in legal limbo due to the bankruptcy of Monument Records, Orbison’s former label); the compilation is timed to land near the release of the David Lynch film Blue Velvet, which used “In Dreams” in a pivotal scene.
RCA Records releases The Best of A Flock Of Seagulls, a retrospective of the new wave group’s heyday.
Island Records issues Yoyo, the second album by rock group Bourgeois Tagg, fronted jointly by Brent Bourgeois and Larry Tagg. This album is produced by Todd Rundgren, who also recruits most of the band members to play on his next album. The biggest hit turns out to be the ballad “I Don’t Mind At All”, written by Bourgeois and guitarist Lyle Workman; the band breaks up at a later date.
A&M Records releases Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack from the movie The Untouchables.
IRS Records releases R.E.M.‘s fifth album, Document, featuring the singles “The One That I Love” and “Its the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)”. This is the band’s last IRS release before signing with Warner Bros.
Art Of Noise releases its third album, In No Sense? Nonsense!. Now consisting only of Anne Dudley and J.J. Jeczalik, the group’s popular direction continues, with a cover of the Dragnet theme song (used heavily to promote a big-screen remake/spoof of the cop show starring Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks) and an instrumental from the Fat Boys’ movie Disorderlies, “Roller 1”.
Capitol Records releases the Paul McCartney compilation album All The Best!, gathering highlights of McCartney’s solo career and his work with Wings.
Dark Horse Records releases ex-Beatle George Harrison‘s 11th solo album, Cloud Nine, featuring contributions from Ringo Starr, Elton John, and Jeff Lynne, among others. The first single, “Got My Mind Set On You”, is a major hit, putting Harrison (and Lynne as a producer) back on the map.
The Alan Parsons Project releases a remastered and revised edition of its first album, Tales of Mystery & Imagination, based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. For the first time, narration recorded in 1976 by Orson Welles is heard in the context of the album itself. This is the first time the album has been available on CD.
The German arm of CBS Records releases the album Fantasie by Münchener Freiheit. The same album, except with English lyrics, will be issued in North America and the UK later in the year.
Scotti Bros. releases “Weird Al” Yankovic‘s fifth album, Even Worse, featuring the single “Fat” (inspired by Michael Jackson’s single “Bad”).
Threshold Records releases the The Moody Blues’ album Sur La Mer, featuring the single “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere”.
Under much scrutiny due to the success of the group’s debut album, Crowded House releases its second album, Temple Of Low Men. This album includes the singles “Better Be Home Soon” and “Into Temptation”.