Today in 80s History: August 18th in the 80s

1986 - Slippery When Wet

Artist: Bon Jovi (3rd Album)
Billboard Charts: #1
Note: Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora road-tested the songs on New Jersey teenagers before picking the tracklist, which is how "You Give Love a Bad Name" and "Livin' on a Prayer" both made it. Twelve million copies and the biggest-selling album of 1987.

1987 - Out of the Blue

Artist: Debbie Gibson (Debut Album)
Billboard Charts: #7
Note: Gibson was 16, wrote every song herself and co-produced most of them — the youngest artist ever to write, produce and perform a #1 single, which came off this record a year later. Five million copies.

1983 - White Feathers

Artist: Kajagoogoo (Debut Album)
Billboard Charts: #38
Note: "Too Shy" went to #1 in the UK, Limahl got fired within months, and the haircut outlived the band by four decades.

sex, lies, and videotape (1989)

Release Date: August 18, 1989
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher and Laura San Giacomo
Budget: $1.2 Million
Box Office: $36.7 Million
Note: Soderbergh was 26 when it won the Palme d'Or, and the film is generally credited with starting the American independent boom that produced Tarantino, Linklater and Miramax. Thirty times its budget.

Casualties of War (1989)

Release Date: August 18, 1989
Director: Brian De Palma
Starring: Michael J. Fox, Sean Penn and John C. Reilly
Budget: $22.5 Million
Box Office: $18.6 Million
Note: Michael J. Fox taking the hardest possible swerve away from Marty McFly, opposite Sean Penn at his most frightening. It lost money and it is the best thing either of them did that decade.

Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! (1989)

Release Date: August 18, 1989
Director: Jean-Claude Lord
Starring: Michael Paré and Marina Orsini
Budget: $5 Million
Box Office: $536,000
Note: The first one flopped in theaters and then became a cable and video phenomenon, which is the only reason this exists. It made half a million dollars. Michael Paré also opened The Philadelphia Experiment on August 3.

Blood Red (1989)

Release Date: August 18, 1989
Director: Peter Masterson
Starring: Eric Roberts, Giancarlo Giannini, Dennis Hopper and Julia Roberts
Box Office: $15,000
Note: Shot in 1986 and shelved for three years. Julia Roberts has four lines in it, playing Eric Roberts' sister — her first credited feature, released the same month Steel Magnolias was being finished.

No 80s TV News for today in the 80s!

1986 - Jim Kelly Signed with the Buffalo Bills

Event: Pro Football

Details: Kelly had spent two years in the USFL rather than report to Buffalo, and signed only after that league folded twelve days earlier. He took the Bills to four straight Super Bowls and lost all four.

1982 - Pete Rose Set the Career Plate Appearances Record

Event: MLB

Details: Rose passed Hank Aaron and kept going, finishing with 15,890 — still the record, and still nearly 2,000 clear of anyone else.

1982 - Liverpool Named Four Streets After the Beatles

Details: John Lennon Drive, Paul McCartney Way, George Harrison Close and Ringo Starr Drive, all in one housing development. Houses on them still sell at a premium.