Footloose, Soundtrack — April 21, 1984

Columbia 39242
Executive producers: Becky Shargo and Dean Pitchford

Track listing: Footloose [Kenny Loggins] Let’s Hear It for the Boy [Deniece Williams] /Almost Paradise (Love Theme from Footloose) [Mike Reno and Ann Wilson] / Holding Out for a Hero [Bonnie Tyler] / Dancing in the Sheets [Shalamor] / I’m Free (Heaven Helps the Man) [Kenny Loggins] / Somebody’s Eyes [Karla Bonoff] / The Girl Gets Around [Sammy Hagar] / Never [Moving Pictures]

April 21, 1984
10 weeks

After working extensively on the Fame soundtrack, which reached number seven in 1980, songwriter Dean Pitchford relocated to Los Angeles in search of more work. “I began to do more songs in motion pictures, but every time I would get a call it would be for a song, or two songs,” he says. “I was getting frustrated. I began to think it would great if I could do a group of songs would create the texture for a film.”

In his quest for such a project, Pitchford came across a news clipping from Elmore City, Oklahoma. The town had outlawed dancing in 1889 but had finally repealed the law. “I took that and with it and created a motion picture script,” Pitchford says. “Then, when the motion picture went into production, I began working on all the songs for the soundtrack.”

Pitchford co-wrote each song specifi­cally for scenes in the movie. “I felt that all the songs were the alter egos of the actors on the screen, so I specifically set out to get those artists who would make sense,” he says.

The first artist to commit to the pro­ject was Kenny Loggins. “He had always been a favorite of mine,” Pitch­ford says. “When I contacted him about this movie idea I had, he asked me to write with him for the album he did right before Footloose.” The result was a song called “Don’t Fight It,” a duet by Loggins and Journey frontman Steve Perry. “We knew we could work togeth­er,” Pitchford adds. “I wanted him involved, because I felt there was a wonderful honesty to the way he sang and I heard him as the voice of the main character. He was really the only artist that I had in mind when I walked into Paramount [Pictures].”

The other artists on the soundtrack became involved through a variety of circumstances. “In some cases, it was because of their availability, or because they were on Columbia, or because they were absolutely the right voice for the moment in the movie,” he says.

One of the most difficult recordings to coordinate was “Almost Paradise,” a duet by Mike Reno and Ann Wilson. “He was in Loverboy and she was tour­ing with Heart,” Pitchford says. “The only way we could get them together was on this one single night that the both had free in their schedule.” Both artists flew into Chicago for the recording session, scheduled at a suburban studio. Reno flew in from Canada, arriving on the last plane before a storm shut down the airport. “He arrived, but Ann Wilson didn’t show up,” Pitchford says.

Finally, Pitchford received a phone call. Wilson had fallen in her hotel room and broken her wrist. “She went to the hospital, but refused pain killers, because she knew that they would mess up her voice,” he says. Instead, Wilson requested only a beer. “It was enough to bring tears to your eyes. The woman was obviously in pain. She was wearing a sling and the plaster was hardly dry on the cast,” he says. Nonetheless, the track was recorded that night.

Wilson’s effort was rewarded, as the song went on to become a number seven hit, but that wasn’t the biggest hit from Footloose. The title track, performed by Loggins, hit the top of the Hot 100 on March 31, 1984. Three weeks later, the album hit Number One on the album chart. With the album still at the top, Deniece Williams’s “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” also reached Number One on May 26, 1984. In the end, Shalamar’s “Dancing in the Sheets,” Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero,” and Loggins’s “I’m Free (Heaven Helps the Man)” also became hits, giving Foot­loose a grand total of five top 40 singles, a record for a soundtrack album matched only by Saturday Night Fever and Xanadu.

THE TOP FIVE
Week of April 21, 1984

1. Footloose, Soundtrack
2. 1984, Van Halen
3. Thriller, Michael Jackson
4. Can’t Slow Down, Lionel Richie
5. Sports, Huey Lewis and the News