Music and the Movies - Part 2
The 80's started with a huge global hit for Blondie with Call me, which was used as the main title song for Richard Gere's breakthrough film American Gigolo.
Gere continued with An Officer and A Gentleman which featured Up Where We Belong with Jennifer Warnes and Joe Cocker. The powerful image of Richard Gere whisking off Deborah Winger in his Naval Dress Uniform with the song playing was very much the image of 1982, and of course it has now resurfaced as a successful stage musical.
Neil Diamond had success with The Jazz Singer. His hits such as, Summerlove, Hello Again and Love On The Rocks made the album a multi platinum seller, and to date is his biggest selling album. The film unfortunately did not fare as well at the box office and Neil was voted the worst actor of the year!
Rocky 3, a big film in 1983 for Sylvester Stallone had the theme song Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor which trail blazed around the world selling a healthy 2 million in singles sales. In recent years this track has achieved 3 million downloads!
1983 also saw the hit The Big Chill which was very much a film totally driven by the music. The soundtrack is a mix of 60's and 70's original songs for an 80's audience.
In 1983 Flashdance was the year's biggest grossing film and the soundtrack sold 6 million copies, accompanied by the single release success of Irene Cara's What A Feeling. The dance sequence is the films iconic visual legacy that managed to make leotards and leg warmers look cool!
Purple Rain, the film starring Prince released in 1984,is often overlooked, but has sold a whopping 30 million and remains his best selling album.
Released the same year was Footloose, the single alone a huge worldwide hit for Kenny Loggins. And the album selling a phenomenal 27 million.
In 1986 Top Gun was huge with the theme tune Take My Breath Away by Berlin dominating the charts around the world. This is the film that brought aviator sunglasses back into vogue!
Top Gun was however dwarfed by the release of Dirty Dancing in 1987, which sold over 40 million soundtracks and remains one of the biggest selling albums of all time.
Fusing a mix of music from the 60's and 80's Be My Baby by The Ronettes and Hey Baby by Bruce Chanel together with Patrick Swayze singing She's Like The Wind and Bill Medley (formerly of The Righteous Brothers) singing The Time of My Life connected with all age groups
Throughout the 80's John Barry continued his success as a film composer with Somewhere In Time, Body Heat and Out Of Africa, which all superbly reflect the moving and majestic sound of orchestral music in film. He remains in my opinion the cream of the crop of soundtrack composers. He spearheaded the continuing success of Music and Movies into the 90's with Dances with Wolves.