Remembering the great days when America was free and ICE agents didn't just arrest someone on the street for no reason. We continue now with more great movie memories!
#89--"Only Time" by Enya (from the movie Sweet November--2001)
The Irish singer Enya mesmerized listeners for years with her soothing lyrics, layered by multiple tracks of her vocals, and melodic songs. In November of 2000, she released the single "Only Time" from her album A Day Without Rain and the song was included on the soundtrack for the movie Sweet November in February of 2001.
Sweet November is loosely based on the 1968 movie of the same name and stars Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron. Reeves, as Nelson Moss, has his nose to the grindstone as an advertising executive. He meets Sara Deever (Theron) and is intrigued by her. Sara says that if Nelson would spend a month with her, she'd change him for the better. On the first day of November, Moss is fired from his job and takes Sara up on the offer. The two enjoy the entire month of November and fall in love, before the plot reveals something dreadful.
Born in Beirut, Lebanon and raised in Toronto, Canada, Reeves achieved his breakthrough in the movie Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure in 1989, before starring in the independent My Own Private Idaho. But it was the thriller Speed in 1994 through which Reeves began to build popularity.
Reeves starred in the 1999 blockbuster Matrix and its sequels Reloaded and Revolutions. He began playing the assassin John Wick in the film series that began in 2014 and continues to this day. Keanu has also starred in Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Watcher, Something's Gotta' Give, The Day The Earth Stood Still and The Lake House, which reunited Reeves with Speed co-star Sandra Bullock. Reeves' movies have generated nearly 4 billion in box office receipts.
Enya is second only to U2 as the top-selling act in Irish history. Her second and third albums, Watermark in 1988 and Shepherd Moons in 1991, are among the best albums of all-time, with the latter placing 25th on Inside The Rock Era's list of The Top 100 Albums of the Rock Era*. Enya has won four Grammy Awards and six World Music Awards.
"Only Time" reached #1 in Germany, Canada, Switzerland and Poland, #2 in Austria and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart in the United States (#10 overall) and has sold over 1 million copies worldwide.
#88--"(I've Had) The Time Of My Life" by Jennifer Warnes & Bill Medley (from the movie Dirty Dancing--1987)
John DeNicola, Donald Markowitz and Franke Previte wrote this one for the popular 1987 movie Dirty Dancing, sung by Jennifer Warnes & Bill Medley. It is featured at the conclusion of the movie when Johnny Castle (played by Patrick Swayze) and "Baby" Houseman (played by Jennifer Grey) perform a dance they've been working on for the guests of the resort. Previte was the lead singer for Franke and the Knockouts, who scored the hit "Sweetheart" in 1985.
Dirty Dancing follows Baby as she spends the summer at Kellerman's Resort in the Catskills with her family. Soon, she meets Castle, the dance instructor at the resort, and the two fall in love. This doesn't sit well with Baby's father and a misunderstanding makes matters worse. Jerry Orbach, Cynthia Rhodes, Wayne Knight and Jane Brucker co-star.
Orbach won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role in Promises, Promises on Broadway. He was again nominated for the 1965 musical Guys and Dolls in 1965 and Chicago in 1976. Jerry also starred in Annie Get Your Gun and 42nd Street.
Orbach became well-known for appearing on the television drama Law & Order from 1992 to 2004, earning Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series from the Screen Actors Guild and a nomination for a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. Jerry reprised that role in several spinoffs and played in the series Murder, She Wrote from 1985-1991. He also starred in the movie Brewster's Millions and had a voice role in the animated Beauty and the Beast.
You've heard the term "blue-eyed soul"; that description is believed to have first been made by Philadelphia disc jockey Georgie Woods in 1964 in describing the music of the Righteous Brothers, Medley and Bobby Hatfield. Both were talented vocalists and Medley's booming bass-baritone voice and Hatfield's soaring tenor gave the duo a sound no one else can match.
The Righteous Brothers gave us "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling", "(You're My) Soul And Inspiration", "Unchained Melody", underrated at the time but what is now recognized as being one of The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era* ("You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" is #51* and "Unchained Melody is #202*), "Just Once In My Life" and "Rock And Roll Heaven". If you want to enjoy one of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*, treat yourself to Medley's solo release, the original version of "Don't Know Much", made popular later by Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville.
"(I've Had) The Time Of My Life" held on to #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart for four weeks and also topped the Popular chart in the United States, went to #1 in Canada and the Netherlands and reached #2 in Australia, #3 in New Zealand, #5 in Ireland and Switzerland and #6 in the U.K. It won both the Golden Globe and the Oscar for Best Original Song and a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. The song went Gold in the U.S. and has sold over one million worldwide.
The soundtrack to Dirty Dancing dominated the Album chart with 18 weeks at #1 in the United States and peaked at #1 in Australia, Germany, New Zealand and Switzerland and is one of the top-selling albums in history with 14 million in sales in the U.S. and 32 million copies sold worldwide.
The movie raked in $214 million at the box office during its theatrical run. It earned four Golden Globe Awards including the win for the song (the others being Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical and Best Actor and Actress in a Comedy or Musical for Swayze and Grey). The U.S. Library of Congress selected Dirty Dancing for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry in 2024.
#87--"Almost Paradise" by Ann Wilson & Mike Reno (from the movie Footloose--1984)
When the lead singer of Heart and the lead singer of Loverboy got together, good things happened. Reno wrote the song with music from Eric Carmen--it's one of three entries in The Top 200* from the 1984 movie Footloose.
Footloose is a movie about a teenage boy named Ren McCormack (Kevin Bacon) who moves to a small town in Utah with his single mother and doesn't fit in well at first as the townspeople resist outsiders and "new ideas". Ren learns that the city council has banned dancing within the city borders and he and his high school classmates set out to change that law.
The film is about much more than that--mainly about the personal growth of both Ren and the Reverend Shaw Moore, played by John Lithgow, and it's music and dancing is superb. McCormack's love of music and dancing and his interest in Reverend Moore's daughter Ariel (played by Lori Singer) complicate both his relationship with the Reverend as well as Ariel's relationship with her father. Dianne Wiest, Chris Penn and Sarah Jessica Parker co-star.
Bacon has become so entrenched in solid movies, co-starring with many of the giants in the industry, that the movie-association trivia game "The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" was created. The idea of the game is to see who can name the most-direct association of any actor or actress to Bacon; i.e. a degree of one is someone who has appeared in the same movie as Kevin, a degree of two refers to someone who has appeared in a movie with someone who appeared in the same movie as Bacon, and so on.
For instance, see if you can identify what the lowest degree of separation is between Bacon and the singer of our previous movie smash, Patrick Swayze!
Besides Footloose, Bacon has starred in National Lampoon's Animal House, Friday the 13th, A Few Good Men, Apollo 13, JFK, Mystic River, The River Wild, Only When I Laugh, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, She's Having a Baby, Tremors, Murder in the First, the fantastic historical drama Frost/Nixon, Sleepers, X-Men: First Class and many more. Kevin also won a Golden Globe for the television film Taking Chance.
Carmen enjoyed one of the great high tenor voices of his time, first as the lead singer of the Raspberries ("Go All The Way" and "I Wanna' Be With You") and then as an accomplished solo artist. Carmen offered imitations of Jimmy Durante at the age of two and when he was three, he enrolled in the Cleveland Institute of Music. At six, Eric began studying violin, then piano at 11 and when he was 16, he taught himself to play guitar.
Carmen began a solo career in 1976 and immediately enjoyed success with the #2 "All By Myself" and "Never Gonna' Fall In Love Again", both written around themes of Sergei Rachmaninoff. Carmen also scored big hits with "Hungry Eyes", which we heard in the Prelude* and "Make Me Lose Control".
Those familiar with only his hits will be pleasantly surprised by both his self-titled debut album as well as the follow-up, Boats Against the Current (with backing musicians Burton Cummings from the Guess Who, Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys, Andrew Gold and Nigel Olsson, the famous drummer from Elton John's band). There are several quality tracks on each--"Sunrise" on the debut at "Nowhere To Hide" and the title song of his second are especially noteworthy.
"Almost Paradise" rose to #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #7 overall in the United States and #3 in Canada. The soundtrack is one of just six in history to contain three or more songs in the Top 100 Movie Songs of the Rock Era*.
The "Footloose" Soundtrack reigned supreme for 10 weeks on the Album chart in the U.S. The great soundtrack has sold over 10 million copies in the U.S. alone and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special.
Footloose grossed $80 million.
#86--"America" by Neil Diamond (from the movie The Jazz Singer--1981)
Neil Diamond wrote this song for the 1980 movie in which he starred in, The Jazz Singer. The Richard Fleischer-directed film extols the virtues of immigration to the United States. 1980 is tied for the most-represented year in The Top 200* with 1984--they have 14 songs each in our special.
Yussel Rabinovitch performs at the synagogue of his father, played by Laurence Olivier. But he also writes songs for a black singing group, which strains the relationship with his strict father. Lucie Arnaz and Caitlin Adams co-star.
The son of Max Fleischer, Fleischer was a successful director for over 40 years. Max was instrumental in the development of cartoon animation through the use of a Rotoscope, an animation technique used to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, which results in much more realistic action.
Richard directed movies such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Barabbas, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Soylent Green, The Narrow Margin, The Vikings, Conan the Destroyer, Doctor Dolittle and many others.
"America" hit #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #8 overall in the U.S.
Not only did the soundtrack reach #3 on both sides of the Atlantic but it has gone over the 5-million mark in sales.
The Jazz Singer grossed $27 million at the box office.
#85--"The Prayer" by Celine Dion (from the movie Quest for Camelot--1998)
(NOTE: "The Prayer" featured solo recordings by both Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli, but none together. That famous version was recorded a few months later as a promotional single and is not eligible for this special. The version ranked in this special is from Dion with slightly different lyrics.)
Written by David Foster and Carole Bayer Sager with help from Tony Renis and Alberto Testa, "The Prayer" was featured in the 1998 animated movie Quest for Camelot.
The voices of Jessalyn Gilsig, Cary Elwes, Gary Oldman, Jane Seymour, Pierce Brosnan, Don Rickles, and John Gielgud (in his final film role) are featured in the movie, which follows Kayley, whose father was a Knight of the Round Table killed by Sir Ruber (Oldman). Ruber is still out to capture the kingdom of Camelot and steals the famed sword of Excalibur from King Arthur (Brosnan). Kayley must recapture the sword and save the kingdom.
After an acting career on stage, Brosnan starred in the television series Remington Steele from 1982-1987. Following that series, Pierce starred in Mrs. Doubtfire, then was the fifth actor to play the role of James Bond in the popular, long-running movie series, starring from 1995-2002.
Brosnan starred in the classic remake of The Thomas Crown Affair in 1999, and has also starred in The Ghost Writer, Dante's Peak, The Mirror Has Two Faces, Mars Attacks!, The November Man and Mamma Mia! and it's sequel.
Dion was discovered by her future manager and late husband René Angélil. She won the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest representing Switzerland. Celine has released 12 English-language albums, alternating those releases with French-language albums. D'eux in 1995 is the best-selling French-language album of all-time.
Celine has given us so many great songs--where do you start? She's enjoyed great success with "Beauty And The Beast, "Where Does My Heart Beat Now", "If You Asked Me To", "Because You Loved Me", "Love Can Move Mountains", "My Heart Will Go On", ""Pour que tu m'aimes encore", "Nothing Broken But My Heart", "The Power Of Love", "To Love You More", "It's All Coming Back To Me Now", her remake of "All By Myself", "I'm Your Angel", "That's The Way It Is", "A New Day Has Come", "I'm Alive", "I Drove All Night", "Have You Ever Been In Love", and so many more.
Her performances beginning with the A New Day concerts on the Las Vegas Strip from 2003-2007 are the highest-grossing concert residency in history.
With over 200 million in album sales worldwide, Celine is one of the top-selling artists of all-time. Celine has won 5 Grammy Awards and 7 of her albums have passed the 10-million sales mark. She is just the second woman to top $1 billion in concert revenue.
"The Prayer" won a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar for Best Original Song and the duet with Bocelli won a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.
#84--"The Power Of Love" by Huey Lewis & The News (from the movie Back to the Future--1985)
Huey Lewis, Chris Hayes and Johnny Colla of Huey Lewis & the News wrote Song #84* for the 1985 hit movie Back to the Future. The group was invited to write the song by movie producers Steven Spielberg, Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis. The song is featured early in the movie in which Marty McFly (played by Michael J. Fox) skateboards to high school.
McFly, the son of a meek and dopey father and depressed and alcoholic, protective mother, accidentally travels back in time in the vehicle designed by his scientist friend Emmett "Doc" Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd, with the dream of time travel in mind.
McFly arrives in 1955, where he must track down the much-younger Emmett Brown to be able to get back to 1985. He meets both his future mother and father, who turn out to be much different than he thought they were, and according to Brown, must make sure they fall in love so it is possible for McFly to even exist.
Lea Thompson stars as Lorraine McFly, Marty's mother, with Crispin Glover as his father George and Thomas F. Wilson as Biff, who bullies George and others.
Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest directors who ever lived. In his early career, Steven directed television episodes such as Columbo and Night Gallery, and showed early on his tremendous talent by directing the fantastic TV movie Duel in 1971.
In 1974, he directed his first big-screen movie with The Sugarland Express. His second movie? A film called Jaws the following year. Spielberg then directed Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., the original Indiana Jones trilogy, Poltergeist, Back to the Future, The Color Purple and Empire of the Sun. What an amazing start to his movie career!
But he was far from done, directing Jurassic Park, the highest-grossing movie ever at the time, Schindler's List (winning the Academy Award for Best Director), winning another Oscar for Saving Private Ryan, and also directing Minority Report, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Always, War of the Worlds, Amistad, Munich, Lincoln, Bridge of Spies, Catch Me If You Can and The Post.
People who vote in awards shows are very jealous of extreme talent and it shows with Spielberg winning just three Academy Awards and four Golden Globes despite that unmatchable body of work. Seven of his movies are in the National Film Registry. He has won the Kennedy Center Honors, AFI Life Achievement Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.
"The Power Of Love" was a worldwide smash, rocketing to #1 in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Japan, #3 in New Zealand, #5 in Ireland and #9 in the U.K. and was nominated for Best Original Song at the Golden Globes and the Oscars.
The soundtrack has been certified Gold and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special.
Back to the Future gathered $388 million in gross box office receipts, won a People's Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture and was nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical, Best Screenplay and Best Performance by a Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical and four Academy Awards, including Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing. In 2007, the U.S. Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in its National Film Registry.
#83--"A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton (from the movie Legally Blonde--2001)
Songwriter Vanessa Carlton wrote and recorded this next cinema song for the 2001 movie Legally Blonde. Carlton told Heather Stas at VH-1 the song is "a combination of reality and fantasy. It's about a love that so consumes you that you do anything for it." "A Thousand Miles" is one of just three movie songs from the year 2002 good enough to make our special.
Legally Blonde stars Reese Witherspoon and Luke Wilson as a sorority girl played by Witherspoon who tries to get back together with Warner Huntington III, played by Matthew Davis. She overcomes challenges and stereotypes to get a Juris Doctor degree at Harvard Law School and along the way, discovers herself and her confidence.
Witherspoon achieved her breakthrough in 1999 with a supporting role in Cruel Intentions. She starred in Legally Blonde in 2001 and its sequel, followed by Walk the Line, which gave her an Oscar for Best Actress. Reese then turned in an amazing performance in the drama Wild in 2014, for which she earned an Oscar nomination. Witherspoon has won two Golden Globe Awards, an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy.
At age two, Carlton went to Disneyland, then played "It's A Small World" on the piano when she came home. She began studying classical music and enrolled in the School of American Ballet before deciding on a career as an artist. She signed a recording contract with A&M Records in 2002.
Carlton completed the New York City Marathon in 2005 and donated pledge money to Musicians on Call, a nonprofit organization that arranges for live and recorded music to be brought to patients' bedsides.
Carlton's debut single was a universal hit that peaked at #1 in Australia, #2 in Poland, #3 in Ireland and Denmark, #4 in New Zealand and Belgium, #5 in the U.S. and Canada, #6 in the U.K., the Netherlands and Italy, #7 in Scotland and #8 in France and Switzerland. The song sold over one million units in the U.K. and is over 2 million worldwide.
Legally Blonde totaled $142 million at the box office. It earned Golden Globe nominations for Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical and Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical for Witherspoon.
Makin' my way downtown
Walkin' fast, faces pass and I'm homebound
Starin' blankly ahead just makin' my way
Makin a way through the crowd
And I need you
And I miss you
And now I wonder
It's always times like these when I think of you
And I wonder if you ever think of me'Cause everything's so wrong, and I don't belong
Livin' in your precious memory
If I could fall into the sky
Do you think time would pass me by?
'Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you tonight
#82--"Skyfall" by Adele (from the movie Skyfall--2011)
Adele wrote the title song for the James Bond film Skyfall with Paul Epworth in 2011, with both the song and movie released the following year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Bond film, Dr. No.
Skyfall is one of the better recent Bond films starring Daniel Craig as the popular MI6 agent with Javier Bardem playing the villain Raoul Silva and Judi Dench reprising her role as M. A mercenary, Patrice, has stolen a hard drive with details of undercover NATO agents and Bond and Eve Moneypenny are in pursuit. M orders Moneypenny to shoot but she misses and instead hits Bond, who falls into a river and is presumed dead.
M is forced to retire after the incident and Bond, who is not dead, comes back to serve after a hacking of MI6's servers.
Daniel Craig is the most recent actor to have the privilege of playing James Bond, and he's generally accepted to being one of the best. Craig starred in five Bond movies: the fantastic Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre and No Time to Die.
After training at the National Youth Theatre in London, Craig appeared on stage and then starred in movies such as Elizabeth, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Munich, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Knives Out.
Adele signed a recording contract with XL Recordings in 2006 and her debut album, 19, made an immediate impact, with Adele earning Best New Artist at the Grammys.
Her follow-up, 21, is the world's top-selling album of the 21st century and went to #1 for 24 weeks in the U.S. and winning Album of the Year honors among a record six Grammys. Adele's album 25 is the only album in history to sell over three million copies in a week and earned her six more Grammy Awards including her third straight Album of the Year trophy. Adele's last album, 30, also topped album charts across the world.
Adele has won a Golden Globe Award, an Oscar, a Primetime Emmy and 16 Grammy Awards.
"Skyfall" topped charts in eleven countries (Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Greece, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Lebanon, Luxembourg, South Korea and Belgium) and is one of the best-selling digital singles of all-time with 7.2 million copies purchased worldwide. Despite those enormous sales, "Skyfall" stopped at #2 in the U.K. and #8 in the United States. It took home the Golden Globe Award as well as the Oscar for Best Original Song and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media, becoming the first Bond theme to win all three coveted awards.
Skyfall grossed $1.1 billion at the box office and won Academy Award for Best Achievement in Sound Editing while being nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Motion Picture Original Score and Best Achievement in Sound Mixing.
#81--"Maniac" by Michael Sembello (from the movie Flashdance--1983)
Another great soundtrack album yields Song #81*--"Maniac" from the 1983 movie Flashdance. Michael Sembello wrote it with Dennis Matkosky with famous producer Phil Ramone producing the track. The track is played during a scene in which Alexandra Owens goes through a rigid dance workout.
Jennifer Beals stars as Alex Owens, a talented dancer who has her sights on being a professional ballerina. Michael Nouri is her boyfriend and the steel mill owner where Alex works during the day in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Sembello started out as a session musician and when he was 17, played electric and acoustic guitar on Stevie Wonder's 1974 album Fulfillingness' First Finale. Wonder chose Sembello to play lead and rhythm guitarist on most of the tracks of the landmark album Songs in the Key of Life.
Sembello wrote "Mirror Mirror" for Diana Ross in 1981 before recording "Maniac". Sembello's songs are also included in the movies Cocoon, Independence Day and Gremlins.
Ramone began to play the violin at the age of three and performed for Princess Elizabeth at age 10. Phil trained at the famous Juilliard School and in 1959 co-founded A&R Recording, an independent recording studio. Phil produced Elton John, Madonna, Celine Dion, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Chicago, Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart, Barry Manilow, Olivia Newton-John, George Michael, James Taylor, Gloria Estefan, Dionne Warwick, the Guess Who, Luciano Pavarotti, Sheena Easton, Ray Charles, Cyndi Lauper, Natalie Cole, Karen Carpenter, Burt Bacharach, Laura Branigan, Bono, the Band and many more.
Here's just a small sampling of the great albums Phil Ramone has produced: The Stranger, An Innocent Man, 52nd Street and Glass Houses by Billy Joel, Still Crazy After All These Years and There Goes Rhymin' Simon by Paul Simon, Hot Streets by Chicago, Genius Loves Company by Ray Charles, The Concert in Central Park by Simon & Garfunkel and the 1976 "A Star Is Born" Soundtrack.
Ramone won 14 Grammy Awards out of 34 nominations.
"Maniac" hit #1 in the U.S. and Canada and #2 in Australia, Spain and Switzerland and has sold over one million copies worldwide. It was nominated for Best Original Song at the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards.
The "Flashdance" Soundtrack won the Grammy for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special and was nominated for Favorite Pop (Rock) Album at the American Music Awards.
In addition to the nomination for "Maniac", Flashdance received Golden Globe nominations for Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical for Beal, and Best Original Score and Oscar nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing.
A lot of talent contributed to the songs in this feature, not just the recording artists and actors, directors and producers, but let's not forget the countless thousands that helped them--from the engineers, songwriters, screenwriters, agents, managers, the record company and movie company staff, photographers and camera folks to the people who sweep the floors--they had a part in each of the songs we're featuring.
Please join us tomorrow for Part 13, exclusively on Inside The Rock Era!
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