Music News

[Jeff Wrangler]

I always thought this one should've gotten more attention that it did.

It was on the Streets of Fire soundtrack, but it was overshadowed by Dan Hartman's "I Can Dream About You", which became a Top 10 hit.


"Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young" by Fire, Inc.

How did I miss this? I love "I Can Dream About You," another song with a really good beat. (Dan Hartman, who was closeted and died of AIDS in 1994, was something of a home boy for me. He grew up in Central Pennsylvania east of Harrisburg.)

OK. so that's Diane Lane in the clips from the movie. She was something like 17 when the movie was made, IIRC. I'm sure I remember reading that she was still doing the young actor--high school thing when the movie was made.

I never thought to try to find out: Is that her singing in the movie, or was she lip-synching?

Did you catch Willem Dafoe in the clip? And of course Michael Pare (    Thud!)?

(The move was released in 1984. It was one of Pare's three starring vehicles. They were all financial failures, which is probably why he never became a real star.)

[southendmd]

Les McKeown, the lead singer of the Bay City Rollers, died last week, at 65. 

[Jeff Wrangler]

Les McKeown, the lead singer of the Bay City Rollers, died last week, at 65. 

I heard/read that somewhere. The weird thing was, I learned that just after for some reason I'd been trying to remember the name of the band.

[serious crayons]

Even a rock and roll song has a lot of musical work behind it.

True. When I think of this, I'm always really impressed. Not so much by what it took to write the melody or the lyrics or the guitar hook -- not that those are easy, but I can imagine being able to do it. But all the other stuff; this guitar will do this thing here that doesn't really follow the tune of the song but somehow sounds just right, and the bassist will do that and the drummer and so on. Often those things don't seem intuitive based on the overall song itself. At least not to me.

BTW, I like "St. Elmo's Fire." There's a kind of galloping rhythm to it that appeals to me.

I know you're talking about the song, but I was laughing about this movie just yesterday in a conversation with my son, recalling how Andrew McCarthy's character gets a job at the Washington Post -- itself slightly a stretch, but OK -- and his dream is to get on the front page. And he finally does! And -- if I remember correctly, which I may not because I believe I saw it in theaters in the '80s but even then thought was ridiculous -- the story is about "The Meaning of Life."

Huhh??  Even, like, Bob Woodward -- or name any other famous accomplished writer or journalist anywhere -- would never get a front-page article on that topic in a big paper. I mean, the paper would never run something like that period, let alone by some 20-something cub reporter.

(It's possible I'm remembering it slightly wrong, but it was something really silly.)

[CellarDweller]

How did I miss this? I love "I Can Dream About You," another song with a really good beat. (Dan Hartman, who was closeted and died of AIDS in 1994, was something of a home boy for me. He grew up in Central Pennsylvania east of Harrisburg.)

OK. so that's Diane Lane in the clips from the movie. She was something like 17 when the movie was made, IIRC. I'm sure I remember reading that she was still doing the young actor--high school thing when the movie was made.

I never thought to try to find out: Is that her singing in the movie, or was she lip-synching?

Did you catch Willem Dafoe in the clip? And of course Michael Pare (    Thud!)?

(The move was released in 1984. It was one of Pare's three starring vehicles. They were all financial failures, which is probably why he never became a real star.)

Hey Jeff!  This is from Wikipedia, regarding the Streets of Fire soundtrack.


Jimmy Iovine produced five of the songs for the film and the soundtrack album. For Ellen's singing voice, he combined the voices of Laurie Sargent and Holly Sherwood, billing them as 'Fire Incorporated'. The Attackers were the real-life (Face to Face) bandmates of Sargent, who provided the lead vocals on Ellen's songs "Nowhere Fast", "Never Be You" and "Sorcerer", and supporting vocals on "Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young". The version of "Sorcerer", composed by Stevie Nicks, that was featured on the actual soundtrack album was performed by Marilyn Martin. The version of "Never Be You" that was featured on the soundtrack album was performed by Maria McKee.

Two songs written by Jim Steinman were part of the soundtrack: "Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young" and "Nowhere Fast", both performed by 'Fire Incorporated', with Holly Sherwood providing lead vocals on the former and Laurie Sargent on the latter. The title of the former was used as the tagline on some promotional materials for the film.  Dan Hartman's selection "I Can Dream About You" is the most successful song from the movie, and became a Billboard top 10 hit in 1984 (also from his studio album of the same name). In the movie, the song is performed on stage at the end of the film by 'The Sorels', a fictional doo-wop style group consisting of actors Stoney Jackson, Grand L. Bush, Mykelti Williamson, and Robert Townsend.  However, the song was actually sung for the film by Winston Ford, whose vocals were lip-synched by Jackson in the movie. While there are thus two versions of the song, only Hartman's version was released commercially.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Thanks, Chuck. That's interesting.

Funny, isn't it? Michael Pare's movies were not successful, but two of them included songs that were more or less successful, "On the Dark Side," from Eddie and the Cruisers, and "I Can Dream About You" from Streets of Fire.

[CellarDweller]

Thanks, Chuck. That's interesting.

Funny, isn't it? Michael Pare's movies were not successful, but two of them included songs that were more or less successful, "On the Dark Side," from Eddie and the Cruisers, and "I Can Dream About You" from Streets of Fire.

Gotta say, I never liked "On The Dark Side".  Not sure why.


As for "I Can Dream About You" - I always felt badly for Dan Hartman.  I think he should've gotten more recognition than he did.  There were two videos for that song, and the one that got seen the most was the one that used the footage from the film, obviously, to hype the movie.

The second video featured Dan, but it was barely seen from what I remember.  I recall only seeing it recently for the first time.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Gotta say, I never liked "On The Dark Side".  Not sure why.

I vaguely remember hearing it on the radio. For me, anyway, it has the distinct advantage of lyrics that are actually audible and comprehensible--meaning you can actually make out what the singer is saying. And I just like the tune. I love the piano part. Then the guitar comes in.

All of John Cafferty's music for Eddie and the Cruisers is like that--you can understand the lyrics. I guess that was important to the plot. After all, it's a movie about a band.

[Jeff Wrangler]

As for "I Can Dream About You" - I always felt badly for Dan Hartman.  I think he should've gotten more recognition than he did.  There were two videos for that song, and the one that got seen the most was the one that used the footage from the film, obviously, to hype the movie.

The second video featured Dan, but it was barely seen from what I remember.  I recall only seeing it recently for the first time.

I like that version. It's nice.

Unfortunately, it takes me 7 notes to name "I Can Dream About You."   

Of course, it takes me 8 notes to name "On the Dark Side." 

[Jeff Wrangler]

"On the Dark Side," with video from Eddie and the Cruisers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYDAF6NbgKc

The guy in the background in the long-sleeved white shirt is Tom Barenger. I really like the sax part. The guy who played the sax player really was the sax player from the Beaver Brown Band, John Cafferty's band. They did the music for the movie; it's Cafferty's voice we hear when Eddie is singing.

After all the times I've watched the movie and this and other clips, I've begun to wonder if the guy who played the drummer really could play drums. If he couldn't, I think he did a very creditable job acting it. Tom Berenger could not play the piano; we never actually see him playing.

I take no responsibility for any ads that appear if you click on the YouTube link.