According to Wikipedia, Appetite For Destruction was released on July 21, 1987. In the US, 'Welcome To The Jungle' (video after the jump) was issued as its first single with an accompanying music video.

Initially, the album and single lingered for almost a year without performing well, but when Geffen Records founder David Geffen was asked to lend support to the band, he obliged by personally convincing MTV executives to play 'Welcome To The Jungle' during their after hours rotation. Even though the video was initially only played one time at 4 a.m. on a Sunday, rock and punk fans took notice and soon began requesting the video and song en masse. [hum, our article from 2003 used to be cited as the source for this info, but it looks like a wikinerd changed the time and removed the credit. Oh well. Go read more and check out the video - here]

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