Another week in 1985, and another song from a movie was top of the charts. Yay or nay? On August 24 1985, “The Power of Love” (video up top) by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News reached Number One on the USA’s Billboard “Hot 100”. It was written for the soundtrack for the movie Back to the Future, and was the band’s first Number One on the “Hot 100”.
I liked this song, and the movie it was part of—in fact, I have all three Back to the Future movies on DVD. I suppose I could equivocate and say I liked it in much the same way I liked other songs at the top of the “Hot 100”, but this at least is a song I own—through a compilation disc, but that definitely counts!
On the other hand, I don’t have any particular memories about this song, nor any special connections to it. That’s not a criticism or shortcoming in any way whatsoever, though, because that same thing is true for most pop songs most of the time in that era. Nevertheless, this song would be in the soundtrack of any Major Motion Picture set in 1985 that I made, and that’s actually no small thing.
The music video, however, is something that I think is completely unextraordinary: Despite some attempts to tie-in the movie, it’s really just a run-of-the-mill performance video, little different from so many others. This is one of the things that annoyed me the most about songs in this era: Music videos were a major thing back then, and presenting an ordinary performance video seemed lazy. Nowadays, of course, music videos aren’t the “thing” they were way back then, but in 1985 I was always disappointed when music videos didn’t innovate. Still, I’m also well aware that this sort of video was common in 1985, so I cut it some slack.
“The Power of Love” reached Number One in Australia, Canada (Gold), Number 3 in New Zealand (2x Platinum), Number 9 in the UK (Platinum), as well as Number One on the USA’s Billboard “Hot 100” and on their “Mainstream Rock” chart. The song The song was certified Gold in the USA.
The soundtrack album for Back to the Future reached Number 36 in Australia, Number 21 in Canada (Gold), Number 47 in New Zealand, Number 66 in the UK, and Number 12 on the USA’s “Billboard 200”. It was Certified Gold in the USA.
This series will return on September 7 with the Number One song for that week in 1985.
Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1985” series:
Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 1 – February 2, 2025
Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 2 – February 16, 2025
Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 3 – March 12, 2025
Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 4 – March 30, 2025
Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 5 – April 13, 2025
Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 6 – May 11, 2025
Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 7 – May 18, 2025
Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 8 – June 1, 2025
Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 9 – June 8, 2025
Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 10 – June 22, 2025
Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 11 – July 6, 2025
Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 12 – July 13, 2025
Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 13 – July 27, 2025
Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 14 – August 3, 2025
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