I know its simple maths, but sometimes I find it hard to believe that 1987 was actually 25 years ago

This was a big year for me, I started secondary school, there was a new actor playing Doctor Who and I had started to get into my music, spending every penny of pocket money I could get in Woolworths

I know I will probably get a hard time for saying that. However, looking at the top 40 from this time 25 years ago I can understand why I was doing it, there were some BRILLIANT songs about!

1 MARRS Pump Up The Volume / Anitina (The First Time I See She Dance)
2 Rick Astley Never Gonna Give You Up
3 Cliff Richard Some People
4 Michael Jackson Bad
5 Madonna Causing A Commotion
6 T'Pau Heart And Soul
7 The Fat Boys & The Beach Boys Wipeout
8 Karel Fialka Hey Matthew
9 House Master Boyz & The Rude Boy Of House House Nation
10 Jan Hammer Crockett's Theme
11 LL Cool J I Need Love
12 Johnny Hates Jazz I Don't Want To Be A Hero
13 Level 42 It's Over
14 Abigail Mead & Nigel Goulding Full Metal Jacket (I Wanna Be Your Drill Instructor)
15 Levert Casanova
16 Sinitta Toy Boy
17 The Pet Shop Boys & Dusty Springfield What Have I Done To Deserve This
18 U2 Where The Streets Have No Name
19 Def Leppard Pour Some Sugar On Me
20 Gary Numan Cars ('E' Reg Model)
21 Chic Jack Le Freak
22 Jonathan Butler Lies
23 Black Wonderful Life
24 The Communards Tomorrow
25 Luther Vandross Stop To Love
26 Wet Wet Wet Sweet Little Mystery
27 Wax Bridge To Your Heart
28 The Sisters Of Mercy This Corrosion
29 Shakin' Stevens Come See About Me
30 ABC The Night You Murdered Love
31 The Bee Gees You Win Again
32 Heart Who Will You Run To
33 Squeeze Hourglass
34 The Housemartins Me And The Farmer
35 Mick Jagger Let's Work
36 Steve Winwood Valerie
37 Prince U Got The Look
38 Spagna Call Me
39 Then Jerico The Motive
40 Bruce Springsteen Brilliant Disguise

Four out of five songs in the top five are what I would consider all time classics. MARRS got me into House Music, Rick Astley made me notice Stock, Aitken and Waterman productions and I've always loved Michael Jackson and Madonna [in many ways this was the best era for both artists.]

The thing that strikes me the most about this Top 40 though is how varied the music was back then. There's a dance song at number one and the chart also has some rock, indie, soul and pop. This is something that rarely happens now as most radio stations are much more specialist and only play one particular type of music. For example, Kiss plays Dance and R & B, Kerrang plays Metal, Absolute is rock based and Capital and Radio 1 play shite.

I don't want to sound like an old man moaning about how much better the good old days were, but a bit of variation in today's chart would be lovely

What are your memories of the time? Do you agree with me or do you think I'm looking back with roses tinted glasses on?