Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 4

Finally back with another new song that went to Number One, this time beginning a three-week run at the top spot. On March 31, 1984, the new Number One was ”Footloose” (video up top) by American singer, guitarist, and songwriter Kenny Loggins. The song was the title track to the 1984 motion picture also called Footloose (oddly enough…), and the first of two singles from the soundtrack (more to come about that in a couple months). The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, but lost out to a song from a different movie, a song that would top the charts much later in 1984 (I’ll get to that one, too). The song was Loggins’ biggest hit and only Number One in the USA.

The thing about the video above is that, like happens with so many movie songs released as pop music singles, the video doesn’t show the song as it was in the movie. The song's Wikipedia entry sums it up well::

It uses the single version and features several scenes from the film, in particular the warehouse where Kevin Bacon's character performs an unorchestrated dance routine (which was actually performed to a different song in the film itself).

Does this matter? No, I don’t think it does. After all, there are plenty of people who are well aware of the song who’ve never seen the film—like me, for example. In 1984, I was a LGBT+ grassroots activist who spent far too much time and money trying to fight off religious bigots’ political agenda, and I didn’t want to see a movie in which those attitudes were central to the plot. People seem to forget that the youths in the movie lost their bid to get dancing allowed, and the high school prom was held in a different county to escape the bigots’ jurisdiction.

At any rate, at some point I saw the video above, but that was after I’d heard the song on the radio (and everywhere else…). Still, for cultural accuracy, here’s a video of the film’s use of the song in the “Let’s dance!” ending segment:



The visual difference between the two, I think, is mainly the joyful celebration in the film, whereas the music video version is more about the movement of dance itself. They’re different, but, in my opinion, one isn’t necessarily better than the other. Of course, there’s also a subtle difference in the music tracks of the two videos, because the music video begins with a drum solo. So… there’s that, I guess.

I liked that song back in the day and still do, actually, and for the same reason: It’s a song that can make someone want to move—though not me, of course: I never dance or sing in public. Nevertheless, the driving beat and the generally optimistic melody make a feel-good pop song, in my opinion. Blake Shelton’s cover for the 2011 film remake was good, too, especially because it kept all that was great about the original, however, even though I have to admit that I found Shelton’s diction better than Loggins’ I still prefer the original. Of course, I often prefer the first version of a song that I hear, original or not, and that’s possibly true about this song, too.

The single “Footloose” reached Number One in Australia (Platinum), Canada (Platinum), and New Zealand, 6 in the UK (2x Platinum), and Number One on the USA’s Billboard “Hot 100” (Platinum).

The film soundtrack album reached Number 2 in Australia (5x Platinum), Number One in Canada (6x Platinum), Number One in New Zealand (Platinum), 7 in the UK (Gold), and Number One on the USA’s “Billboard 200” chart (9x Platinum).

This series will return April 21 with another new Number One, but there’s one more thing. This song is about dancing, and there’s a mashup from a few years ago that was made up of dancing scenes from various films, something that Kevin Bacon shared on social media at one point. So, even though though the video may be more likely to disappear than the other videos in this post, I’m including it at the very bottom, because it’s flat out fun.

Back again in three weeks!

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1984” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 1 – January 21, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 2 – February 4, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 3 – February 25, 2024