Well, what do you know? This week in 1985 yet another song from a movie was top of the charts. On September 7 1985, “St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)” (video up top) by British singer John Parr reached Number One on the USA’s Billboard “Hot 100”. It was the main theme for the film St. Elmo's Fire, and was the first single from the film’s soundtrack album. The song was written by Parr and David Foster, who also produced the record. The Wikipedia article about the long (linked to above) says the song “was created and edited within 24 hours”.
I remember the movie and the song, and while I thought they were “okay, I guess”, I didn’t exactly love either one. Before I saw it, I thought the film sounded almost like a sequel to The Breakfast Club. It absolutely wasn’t that of, course—it just had some of the same actors, and was one of the
“Brat Pack” genre of films in that era, but that’s all the connection there was between the two films, and I knew all that before I ever saw the movie.
What I liked about the song was that it had a nice radio-friendly sound, and Parr’s voice was different enough from other artists of that era to be interesting. However, I loathed the music video—and, in fact, I still do.
The music video, was directed by Kort Falkenberg III, who devised the unusual concept with the film’s director, Joel Schumacher. It’s essentially a sequel to the film, with all seven main cast members appearing, and visiting the now burned-out St Elmo’s Fire bar. None of with is why I loathed the music video, it was the final scene, described well by the section of the Wikipedia article on the song that talked about the video. It says: “The ending of the video shows Parr singing to each individual cast member from the film before he disappears into the night, and the cast follows him.” Yeah, that just didn’t work for me. At all. I thought it was utterly silly, so much so that I thought it was “cringe” decades before that became a term. In fact, I loathe that scene so much that in reserarching this post, I initially stopped the video before the end to avoid shuddering at the sight of that scene. But, because I;m a professional I realised I needed to check to make sure that scene was still in the YouTube version. It is, of course, and I still loathe it. To each their own.
While I’ve had fun joking about all the songs from movies that became Number One in 1985, I had a thought when writing this post: In the old days, it was quite common for songs from movies to become hits on the pop charts, but now that seldom—never?—happens. These days, movie soundtracks often use pop songs by established artists, but the songs have often been released by the artist before the movie even comes out. I have no idea why movies often don’t bother with pop songs written for the movie—maybe it was to cut costs?
“St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)” reached Number 4 in Australia, Number One in Canada (Gold), Number 5 in New Zealand, Number 6 in the UK (Silver), as well as Number One on the USA’s Billboard “Hot 100” and Number 2 on their “Mainstream Rock” chart, as well as Number One on the Cash Box “Top 100”. The song wasn’t certified in the USA.
The soundtrack album for St. Elmo’s Fire reached Number 90 in Australia, Number 16 in Canada, Number 40 in New Zealand, and Number 21 on the USA’s “Billboard 200”. The album didn’t chart in the UK. It apparently didn’t receive any certifications.
This series will return in two weeks, on September 21 with the next 1985 Number One in this series.
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
Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 15 – August 24, 2025
2 comments:
As it turns out, I wrote about the music of 1985. My blogger buddy Kelly wrote: I do not recommend ST. ELMO’S FIRE (the movie; the song is actually terrific). Unless you want to be reminded just how godawful the 80s were. Put it this way: for an ensemble movie, I guarantee every character in it voted for Reagan.
Yeah, it wasn't exactly a great movie. Even the scenes in the music video don't really recommend the movie, in my opinion: So many shots of folks jumping each other.
Sometime after the movie came out, the company I was working at in Chicago had a bit of a reorganisation, and a new department manager was hired (there hadn't been one before, just supervisors).The new manager told people that her favourite move was St. Elmo’s Fire, and office gossip wondered if it was related to the character played by Mare Winningham, Wendy Beamish, because the manager, who was in the same age demographic as the characters, dressed a bit like the character of Wendy—and that was also the manager’s name. While I thought it was an odd choice for a “favourite” movie, I thought my coworkers’ deep interest in that detail about our manager, and their speculation about it, was even odder. And yet, I remember it forty years later—and I have no idea why that memory stuck with me over all these years. That’s odd, too.
Also, when the movie came out, I was a couple years or so older than the characters were supposed to be, but I never voted for Reagan, nor any other Republican presidential candidate, for the matter. Maybe that's because the soundtrack for my life in those days was much better than the movie's? 😉
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