Musical Monday - Footloose by Kenny Loggins

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: March 31, 1984 through April 14, 1984.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: March 31, 1984 through April 14, 1984.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

Throughout this series, I've commented on how much interaction there is between large studio movies and the music charts, and Footloose is another example of this phenomenon. As the title track to the movie of the same name, Footloose followed in the footsteps of Flashdance and Fame, which were also early 1980s era movies about kids and dancing. A generous person might put Xanadu into that same category, but Xanadu seems to have been an artifact of an earlier roller-disco-oriented era.

The big difference between Footloose and its spiritual predecessors Flashdance and Fame is that it was following the success of the earlier movies (and songs), and the studio seems to have put a lot more resources into this movie. Whereas the first two movies featured mostly little known or even unknown actors, and their music was performed by mostly unknown singers, Footloose featured veteran actors John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest in significant roles. Kevin Bacon was an up-and-coming actor coming off an award-winning performance in Forty Deuce and critical acclaim in Diner. Lori Singer was coming off of a two year run as a cast regular in the television adaptation of Fame. In short, this cast was full of actors who had much more substantial resumes than those who populated Flashdance or Fame.
The song itself was also sung by someone with a bigger resume than the earlier movies. Kenny Loggins spent the first half of the 1970s as half of the hit making duo Loggins and Messina, charting top twenty Billboard hits like Your Momma Don't Dance and Thinking of You. Picking him to write and perform the theme song for the movie wasn't quite like selecting a first round draft pick to do the job, but he was still an industry veteran with an extensive resume. It is also notable that the movie soundtrack also included songs by Bonnie Tyler, Sammy Hagar, and a duet by Mike Reno of Loverboy and Anne Wilson of Heart. The movie producers weren't leaving anything to chance with this one.

In the end, this all worked out. Footloose grossed eighty million dollars at the box office against a production budget of eight million. Bacon went on to appear in dozens of movies. This song was nominated for an Academy Award, and Loggins continued to push out hits, including one other notable movie theme song later in the 1980s.

Previous Musical Monday: Hello by Lionel Richie

Subsequent Musical Monday: Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) by Phil Collins

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Jump by Van Halen

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) by Phil Collins

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) by Phil Collins

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

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