There were so many great movies in 1984, and so many classic songs on their soundtrack albums.
If you want to feel really old, consider this: films like Gremlins, The Terminator, The Karate Kid, Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom and Romancing The Stone were all released 35 years ago. As great as all those movies are, they all lack one thing: a breakout hit single, like these soundtrack smashes from 1984…
“When Doves Cry”
You know you’re a big deal when you star in a movie loosely based on your life. In 1984, Prince was propelled to superstardom thanks to feature film Purple Rain, in which he starred as a musician, The Kid, and his accompanying soundtrack album, which contained his first Australian chart-topper, “When Doves Cry”.
The song, which was written overnight by Prince for use in the film, was also his first release with The Revolution, although his band’s bass player, Brown Mark, and drummer, Bobby Z, did not feature on the track – with Prince deciding to take the bass out of the finished version and a drum machine used.
“Ghostbusters”
Starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Sigourney Weaver, Ghostbusters was the comedy hit of 1984, and its theme song one of the year’s top 3 biggest songs. Written, produced and performed by Ray Parker Jr, who’d previously reached the top of the singles chart with 1982’s “The Other Woman”, “Ghostbusters” was kept off number 1 by George Michael’s “Careless Whisper” but did spend a mammoth 21 weeks in the top 10.
Some of the royalties from the movie tie-in ended up in Huey Lewis’s pocket, after he sued both Ray and film distributor Columbia Pictures due to the song’s similarity to his own band’s “I Want A New Drug” – a payout Huey revealed in 2001, leading to another lawsuit. Ray claimed Huey had breached a confidentiality agreement the two had signed when the original lawsuit was settled.
“I Just Called To Say I Love You”
This ballad taken from Gene Wilder comedy The Woman In Red did reach number 1 in Australia – for an unassailable eight straight weeks. Internationally, it was a similar story, becoming the biggest hit of Stevie Wonder’s decades-long career. It also beat out four of the other songs on this list to take out the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Naturally, there was a lawsuit, with two songwriters alleging Stevie had stolen a song they’d written in 1976 and played for him the following year – although one of the composers ended up changing his tune and testifying for Stevie instead. In 1990, a jury found in Stevie’s favour.
“Footloose” and “Let’s Hear It For The Boy”
Two of the songs that lost out to “I Just Called To Say I Love You” at the Oscars came from 1984 teen drama Footloose, which starred Kevin Bacon and Lori Singer. Both the Kenny Loggins title track and Deniece Williams’ “Let’s Hear It For The Boy”, which featured during the memorable dance tutorial scene involving Kevin’s character, Ren, and Willard (Chris Penn), were unlucky at the awards ceremony, but succeeded on the charts.
“Footloose” spent three weeks at number 1 in Australia, while “Let’s Hear It For The Boy” peaked at number 3. Somewhat surprisingly, they were the only hits locally from the soundtrack album, which also featured Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out For A Hero”, “Almost Paradise” by Mike Reno from Loverboy and Heart’s Ann Wilson, and another Kenny Loggins track, “I’m Free (Heaven Helps The Man)”.
“Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)”
Nothing says 1980s soundtrack more than Phil Collins, whose music popped up in films such as White Nights and Buster, and on TV shows like Miami Vice. In 1984, he released the almost title track to the Rachel Ward/Jeff Bridges romantic drama Against All Odds and earned himself an Academy Award nomination and a Grammy Award in the process.
“Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)” was based on “How Can You Sit There”, a song Phil had written during the sessions for his debut solo release, Face Value. Like much of that album, it was inspired by his breakup with his first wife, Andrea, and was reworked by Phil once he was asked to come up with a track for the movie.
“I Can Dream About You”
Although the film it was taken from has been mostly long forgotten in the decades since, this Streets Of Fire track was one of 1984’s biggest singles in Australia, where it reached number 3 and returned Dan Hartman to the top 10 for the first time since early 1979 and “Instant Replay”.
In the movie, which starred Diane Lane and Rick Moranis, “I Can Dream About You” was sung by a doo-wop group, The Sorels, with the actors lip syncing to vocals provided by a session singer. For the commercial release of the song, Dan, who had written it and pitched it to Hall & Oates before offering it up for use in the movie, recorded it himself.
“Twist Of Fate”
Released at the tail end of 1983, but a hit well into 1984 in Australia, this Olivia Newton-John track was taken from her much-heralded film reunion with Grease co-star John Travolta. But while the movie, Two Of A Kind, was a stinker – the supernatural rom-com also featuring Gene Hackman as the voice of God was nominated for multiple Razzie Awards – the song was an ONJ classic.
In fact, the synthpop tune co-written by Steve Kipner (who’d also co-written “Physical”) was Olivia’s final major hit in Australia (if you don’t count "The Grease Megamix" in 1991), where it reached number 4 for four non-consecutive weeks.
