Inside The Rock Era hopes you've enjoyed this exciting music special and as the cherry on the cake, we have 10 absolute cinema classics for you to enjoy!
#10--"Flashdance..What A Feeling"" by Irene Cara (from the movie Flashdance--1983)
First off, Irene Cara gives one of the most fantastic vocal performances of the Rock Era with this song. Second, "Take your passion and make it happen!" is about the best advice anyone could ever give you in life.
Giorgio Moroder wrote it with lyrics from Keith Forsey. The song is featured both during the opening credits as well as the final scene.
Flashdance is an uplifting story about Alex Owens (played by Jennifer Beals), an 18-year-old welder at a steel mill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by day. Although she has no formal training, Alex has her sights set on being a professional ballerina. She also works as a cabaret performer in the evenings at Mawby's, where many of her coworkers also hope to achieve great things.
Michael Nouri plays Nick Hurley, Alex's boyfriend, with additional support from Lilia Skala, Sunny Johnson, Kyle T. Heffner, Lee Ving and Ron Karabatsos while Cynthia Rhodes has a small part in the film.
Nouri was a television actor for many years in All My Children, The O.C., Damages, NCIS and now Yellowstone. Michael was also in the original production of Victor/Victoria.
Skala, who lived to be 98, came a long ways from being a non-English-speaking refugee from Austria working in a Queens, New York zipper factory. Not long after that work, Sofer was on Broadway with Ethel Merman in Call Me Madam. Skala is best-known for her Academy Award nominated performance in Lilies of the Field in 1963. She was also in Ship of Fools, Charly, Eleanor and Franklin and Heartland.
"Flashdance" jumped quickly to #1 and stayed there for six weeks during a very competitive time in music. The single also topped charts in Canada, Australia, France, New Zealand, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and South Africa.
The song received a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Original Song, earned Cara a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and has topped four million in worldwide sales. In 2023, the U.S. Library of Congress selected "Flashdance" for inclusion in the National Recording Registry.
Cara could tell fairly soon that she was not getting the proper royalties as stipulated in her recording contract. She filed a lawsuit against Casablanca Records so that she could be properly compensated. Even though she began receiving royalties, the label and its owner declared bankruptcy and claimed they were unable to pay her the $1.5 million she was awarded by a Superior Court in Los Angeles.
Not only that, but Cara felt she suffered a backlash in the industry for filing the suit as she struggled to find work afterwards.
The soundtrack album went Top 10 in every major country in the world, including #1 in the United States, Australia, Germany, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Japan. The "Flashdance" Soundtrack has gone over 6 million in U.S. sales and 20 million worldwide.
The movie was the third-highest-grossing film of 1983 with a worldwide gross of $200 million. Flashdance won a Golden Globe for Best Original Score-Motion Picture with additional nominations for Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical and "Maniac" by Michael Sembello was also nominated for Best Original Song. The film was nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing and "Maniac" was also nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards.
First when there's nothing
#9--"Evergreen" by Barbra Streisand (from the movie A Star Is Born--1976)
Barbra Streisand and Paul Williams wrote Song #9* for Streisand's 1976 movie A Star is Born.
A Star Is Born, a remake of the original in 1937, features Streisand as an unknown singer named Esther Hoffman and Kris Kristofferson (as the veteran Rock and Roll star John Norman Howard). The pair fall in love, but conflict arises when Hoffman continues to gain in popularity while Howard's career is in freefall.
Gary Busey, Paul Mazursky and Oliver Clark co-star, with appearances from Rita Coolidge and Tony Orlando.
Williams wrote several top hits in the 1970's, including "We've Only Just Begun" and "Rainy Days And Mondays" for the Carpenters, "An Old Fashioned Love Song" and "Out In The Country" for Three Dog Night and Helen Reddy's "You And Me Against The World". Paul also wrote the Oscar-nominated "Rainbow Connection" for The Muppet Movie and the lyrics to the opening theme of the television show The Love Boat.
Williams has been president and chairman of ASCAP since 2009.
Kristofferson's biggest hit was "Why Me". In addition to A Star is Born, Kris also starred in the Blade film trilogy from 1998-2004.
"Evergreen" topped the U.S. Popular chart for three weeks and the Easy Listening chart for six weeks and reached #1 in Canada, #3 in the U.K. and New Zealand, #4 in Ireland and #5 in Australia. When Streisand and Williams won the Academy Award for Best Original Song with this two-million seller, Barbra became the first woman to be so honored. "Evergreen" also won Best Original Song at the Golden Globes and Song of the Year at the Grammys.
The soundtrack topped Album charts on both sides of the Atlantic and has sold over four million copies. It received the Grammy Award for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special.
A Star Is Born was the #2-grossing film of the year and finished with a box office of $80 million. The movie captured Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical, Best Actor and Actress - Comedy or Musical for Kristofferson and Streisand and Best Original Score - Motion Picture at the Golden Globe Awards and was nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Sound and Best Original Song Score at the Academy Awards.
#8--"Mrs. Robinson" by Simon & Garfunkel (from the movie The Graduate--1968)
Legendary songwriter Paul Simon wrote this all-time classic in 1967, small parts of it used in the movie The Graduate.
While Simon & Garfunkel were touring the college circuit in the United States in 1965 & 66, director Mike Nichols was impressed with two of their songs and listened to them nonstop before and after filming the movie. Finally, Nicholls approached Columbia Records chairman Clive Davis to obtain permission to use the duo's music in his film.
Simon was to write two new songs, but Nichols wasn't sold on either. Mike asked Paul if he had any more songs, and he and Garfunkel returned with a song in its early stages they had been working on called "Mrs. Roosevelt" (for former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt). They played it for Nichols who loved it. Simon's "Coo-coo-ca-choo" in the lyrics is a tribute to the lyric in the Beatles' "I Am The Walrus".
"Mrs. Robinson" also features great lines about baseball great Joe DiMaggio. In an op-ed in The New York Times in 1999 shortly after DiMaggio's death, Simon said that the line was meant as a sincere tribute to Joe's unpretentious and modest heroic stature, in a time when popular culture magnifies and distorts how we perceive our heroes. Paul added,
In these days of Presidential transgressions and apologies and prime-time interviews about private sexual matters, we grieve for Joe DiMaggio and mourn the loss of his grace and dignity, his fierce sense of privacy, his fidelity to the memory of his wife and the power of his silence.
Dustin Hoffman stars in The Graduate as Benjamin Braddock, a college graduate who is seduced by an older woman, Mrs. Robinson (played by Anne Bancroft) but instead falls for her daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross). William Daniels, Murray Hamilton, Elizabeth Wilson, Buck Henry (who also co-wrote the screenplay) and Normal Fell co-star.
Nichols teamed up with Elaine May early in his career as part of the comedy duo Nichols and May, a hit on Broadway, with all three albums nominated for Grammys for Best Comedy Album. Their second release, An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, won the award. After their split, Mike started directing plays, beginning with his Broadway debut in 1963--Barefoot in the Park. Nichols earned Tony Award nominations for Luv in 1964 and The Odd Couple the following year. Mike won the Tony for Best Direction of a Play with Death of a Salesman in 2012.
In 1966, Nichols directed his first movie, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with The Graduate following. Mike also directed Carnal Knowledge, The Day of the Dolphin, Silkwood, Working Girl, Postcards from the Edge, The Birdcage, Primary Colors, Closer and the great Charlie Wilson's War.
Nichols is one of 21 people to win all four major entertainment awards--Oscar, Grammy, Tony and Emmy. He received Kennedy Center Honors in 2003 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2010. Mike's movies have won seven Academy Awards out of 42 nominations.
Mike has directed each of the following Oscar-nominated performances: Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor (win), Sandy Dennis (win) and George Segal in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Hoffman, Bancroft and Ross in The Graduate, Meryl Streep in Silkwood and Postcards from the Edge, Cher in Silkwood, Kathy Bates in Primary Colors, Melanie Griffith, Sigourney Weaver and Joan Cusack in Working Girl, Ann-Margret in Carnal Knowledge, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen in Closer and Philip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilson's War.
Bancroft made her film debut in Don't Bother to Knock in 1952 and won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in her Broadway Debut with Two for the Seesaw. Anne won both the Tony and the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in The Miracle Worker on Broadway followed by the movie adaptation in 1962. She was also nominated for The Pumpkin Eater, The Graduate, The Turning Point and Agnes of God.
Anne also starred in Jesus of Nazareth, The Elephant Man, To Be Or Not to Be and G.I. Jane. Bancroft was also nominated for Primetime Emmys for the television movies Broadway Bound, Deep in My Heart (winning that year) and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone.
"Mrs. Robinson" was the first Rock song to win the prestigious Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards.
The Graduate grossed $104.9 million, the top film of 1967. It earned four Golden Globe Awards--Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical, Best Director, Best Actress - Comedy or Musical for Bancroft and Most Promising Newcomer - Female for Ross while Hoffman was nominated for Best Actor - Comedy or Musical.
Nichols received an Oscar for Best Director among seven nominations--Best Picture, Best Actor for Hoffman, Best Actress for Bancroft, Best Supporting Actress for Ross and Best Screenplay and scored a Grammy nomination for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special at the Grammy Awards.
In 1996, the movie was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
#7--"Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" by B.J. Thomas (from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid--1970)
The great songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote this classic in 1970 for B.J. Thomas for the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The song plays during a romantic bike ride.
The movie is loosely a retelling of outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, known as Butch Cassidy (played by Paul Newman) and his partner Harry Longabaugh, the "Sundance Kid" (Robert Redford). The pair are running from a posse of citizens after they committed a string of train robberies. The duo and Etta Place (Sundance's love interest played by Katharine Ross) flee to Bolivia in the hopes of evading the posse.
Ross made her big-screen debut in the great drama Shenandoah in 1965 before starring in The Singing Nun and The Graduate and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, with the last two coincidentally ranked back-to-back in The Top 10*. Katharine picked up another Golden Globe for Voyage of the Damned in 1976.
In addition to this all-time classic, Thomas also scored hits with "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song", "Hooked On A Feeling" and "Don't Worry Baby".
"Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" remained at #1 for four weeks on the Popular chart and seven weeks at #1 on the Easy Listening chart in the United States. It took home the Oscar for Best Original Song. Bacharach won Best Original Score at the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards. In 2014, "Raindrops" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid grossed $102.3 million, which is the equivalent of an $888 million gross today. The movie won four Academy Awards (Best Cinematography and Best Screenplay added to the Best Original Song and Best Original Score awards) out of seven nominations (which also included Best Picture, Best Director and Best Sound.) The movie also earned Golden Globe nominations for Best Motion Picture - Drama and Best Screenplay.
#6--"To Sir With Love" by Lulu (from the movie To Sir With Love--1967)
Don Black and Mark London wrote this great song for Lulu and the 1967 movie To Sir With Love.
Social and racial tensions run high in this great movie which takes place in a secondary school in London's East End. Sidney Poitier stars in one of his finest roles with Christian Roberts, Judy Geeson, Suzy Kendall, Patricia Routledge and Lulu co-starring.
Poitier is the likeable schoolteacher Mark Thackeray to troubled kids who have been rejected from other schools. Although he has no teaching experience, Thackeray must find ways to reach the kids and help them turn around.
Poitier grew up in the Bahamas but moved to Miami, Florida when he was 15. Blackboard Jungle was his breakthrough film, which led to roles in The Defiant Ones (with an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor), Lilies of the Field, which earned him an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Actor, Porgy and Bess, A Patch of Blue, the all-time classic Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and In the Heat of the Night, which earned Sidney another Golden Globe nomination.
Poitier also served as the director in several films, most notably in Stir Crazy.
Lulu had several hits in the U.K., including her cover of "Shout" and "Boom Bang-a-Bang". She also sang the title song for the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun. She was married to Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees for four years.
The million-selling "To Sir With Love" shot up to #1 and stayed there for five weeks in the United States and also reached #1 in Canada. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences committed another glaring blunder when they failed to nominate the song for an Academy Award. Not only was "To Sir With Love" the best-selling song from a movie in 1967; it was the top-selling song of the year period.
To Sir, With Love grossed $42 million. The movie was nominated for a Grammy for Best Original Score from a Motion Picture or Television Show.
#5--"Eye Of The Tiger" by Survivor (from the movie Rocky III--1932)
Sylvester Stallone, the director and star of Rocky III, selected Survivor to record the title song for the 1982 movie, and Frankie Sullivan and Jim Peterik of Survivor wrote this using dialog from the film and even came with the riff to match punches in the boxing scene.
Mr. T landed the role of up-and-coming fighter Clubber Lane, Rocky's opponent in the ring. Lane has won match after match to rise to the rank of the #1 contender, while Rocky has held on to his title with 10 successful bouts, albeit against much-weaker opponents.
Rocky's trainer Mickey Goldmill, once again played by Burgess Meredith, wants no part of Clubber Lane and confesses to Rocky that he selected the opponents Rocky has been fighting to protect him from the beating he took from Apollo Creed in Rocky II. Lane, Mickey stresses, is hungry, while Rocky has become a celebrity and is "civilized".
Mickey agrees to train Rocky for "one last fight", but drills it into his fighter that he must have the "eye of the tiger" to have a chance to win.
Talia Shire, Burt Young and Carl Weathers reprise their roles as Rocky's wife Adrian, Paulie Pennino, Rocky's friend and brother-in-law and Apollo Creed, former heavyweight champion of the world.
Shire earned Academy Award nominations for The Godfather Part II and Rocky for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress, respectively. She is the only daughter of arranger/composer Carmine Coppola (who composed the scores for The Godfather trilogy as well as Apocalypse Now), and the aunt of actor Nicholas Cage. Talia recently starred in the great movie Nonnas.
Weathers, who we lost just last year, starred in the first four Rocky Films and Creed in 2015 and the Toy Story franchise as well as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Force 10 from Navarone. He also played Greef Karga in The Mandalorian from 2019-2023, winning a Primetime Emmy nomination. Karl, who played college football for San Diego State, briefly played linebacker in the National Football League for the Oakland Raiders and the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League.
You should remember Peterik as lead singer and guitarist for The Ides of March, which gave us the great song "Vehicle". Peterik has also written "Hold On Loosely", "Caught Up In You" and "Rockin' Into The Night" for 38 Special and songs for Lynyrd Skynyrd, Cheap Trick, REO Speedwagon, the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson and Dennis DeYoung.
"Eye Of The Tiger" was a monster hit with a relentless attack on the #1 position in the United States, holding on to it for six weeks. The single sold two million copies in the U.S. and nearly one million in the U.K., where it went to #1 for four weeks. The song also hit the top in Canada, Australia, Ireland, Finland, Japan and Norway, #2 in the Netherlands, #3 in France and Italy, #4 in New Zealand and #5 in Spain and Sweden. Worldwide sales of "Eye Of The Tiger" are now poised to break six million.
The song earned Best Performance by Duo or Group with Vocal at the Grammy Awards and was nominated for Best Original Song at both the Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards.
Rocky III attracted a box office gross of $270 million.
#4--"How Deep Is Your Love" by the Bee Gees (from the movie Saturday Night Fever--1977)
Here's the fifth of six songs from the classic "Saturday Night Fever" Soundtrack in The Top 200*. Written by Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, it plays prominently in the final scene and over the ending credits as Tony Manero, played by John Travolta, makes a plea to Stephanie Mangano (Karen Lynn Gorney) to be friends, to which she replies, "You think you could be friends with a girl?" and leans over to kiss him softly on the cheek.
Manero is trying to find himself and decide the path that he wishes to take. Increasingly, he doesn't like his job, his family nor his friends and feels that with Stephanie, he could have the kind of life he wants.
Barry Miller, Joseph Cali, Paul Pape, Donna Pescow, Bruce Ornstein, Val Bisoglio, Julie Bovasso and Martin Shakar co-star.
Shakar also starred in the great movie Without a Trace in 1983 among 15 movies and appeared in the television series Law & Order on three episodes.
The Bee Gees are hands-down the most successful trio in history. The began performing in 1955 when Barry was 9 and twins Robin and Maurice were 5. With 9 career #1 songs, the only groups which have more are the Beatles (20) and the Supremes (12). The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. The Bee Gees rank #6 among The Top 100 Artists of All-Time*.
"How Deep Is Your Love" was a #1 smash that remained in the Top 10 for 17 weeks on the Popular chart in the U.S. and a #1 song for six weeks on the Adult Contemporary chart. The single also hit #1 in France and Finland, was a Top 10 hit in virtually every major country in the world and has sold over 3.5 million units worldwide. "How Deep Is Your Love" was nominated for Best Original Song at the Golden Globes and won a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Group.
The soundtrack dominated the Album chart for 24 consecutive weeks in the United States and remained on the chart for 120 weeks while in the U.K., it hit #1 for 18 straight weeks. It was the top-selling album of all-time until Michael Jackson's Thriller in 1983 and still ranks among the best-selling albums in history with over 40 million copies sold.
Adjusted for inflation, Saturday Night Fever's total box office gross is $1.25 billion, one of the highest-grossing movies in history.
In 2010, the U.S. Library of Congress selected Saturday Night Fever and in 2012 its landmark soundtrack for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
#3--"My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion (from the movie Titanic--1997)
James Horner and Will Jennings wrote this tear-jerking classic for Celine Dion for the 1997 blockbuster Titanic. Horner had originally composed the music as an instrumental motif to run throughout the film but wanted a vocal version to play over the ending credits so he asked Jennings to provide the lyrics. Walter Afanasieff, who worked extensively with Mariah Carey, co-produced the song along with Horner and Simon Franglen.
Director James Cameron opted to weave a fictional love story through the historical telling of the sinking of the Titanic. Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his friend win a ticket onboard through a card game although they are among the lowest social class and are directed to steerage. Kate Winslet stars as Rose DeWitt Bukater, who with her wealthy, snobby mother is on the opposite end of the social spectrum. Jack and Rose meet and fall in love, much to the dismay of Rose's mother Ruth. Complicating matters further is the fact that Rose is engaged to be married to Cal Hockley.
The story is told through the much-older Rose Dawson Calvert (played wonderfully by Gloria Stewart), who contacts Brock Lovett (whose team is exploring the wreck of the Titanic in hopes of finding a necklace known as the Heart of the Ocean) after seeing a report of the exploration on the television news.
Billy Zane is Cal Hockley, with Frances Fisher playing Ruth DeWitt Bukater, Bill Paxton as Lovett, Suzy Amis as "Lizzy" Calvert, Rose's granddaughter, Danny Nucci as Fabrizio De Rossi, Jack's friend who boards the Titanic with him, Kathy Bates is great as always as Margaret Brown (known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", Victor Garver as Thomas Andrews, builder of the ship, Bernard Hill as Captain Edward John Smith and David Warner as Cal's bodyguard.
Titanic was the most expensive movie ever made at the time with a budget of $200 million.
Horner was a prolific composer who worked on over 160 movie and television productions. In addition to co-writing this great song, Horner wrote the score for Avatar in 2009. James's work has been nominated for Oscars in Aliens, An American Tail, Field of Dreams, Apollo 13, Braveheart, A Beautiful Mind and House of Sand and Fog. Horner has also written scores for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Willow, Legends of the Fall, Balto, The Mask of Zorro, Deep Impact, The Perfect Storm, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Troy, The Legend of Zorro, Glory and The Amazing Spider-Man.
James worked with directors such as Ron Howard, Cameron, Nicholas Meyer and Simon Wells and producers including Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Jon Landau. Horner has won two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes and six Grammys.
Bates made her movie debut in Taking Off in 1971 and starred in the play Vanities in 1976. Kathy earned a Best Lead Actress in a Play nomination at the Tony Awards for 'night, Mother. Bates won Best Actress at the Oscars for Misery in 1990 and has been nominated for the great movie Primary Colors, About Schmidt and Richard Jewell. She's also starred in Fried Green Tomatoes, Dolores Claiborne, The Waterboy, The Blind Side and the great film Midnight in Paris.
Kathy also won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for Two and a Half Men and another for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for American Horror Story: Coven.
Dion is the most-accomplished multi-lingual recording artist in history. With over 200 million in career sales, Celine is the best-selling French-language artist and one of the biggest English-language artists.
From the time she first appeared on the scene, Celine has been wowing listeners with her songs and audiences with her amazing performances. Four of her 12 English-language albums--The Colour of My Love, Falling into You, Let's Talk About Love and All the Way...A Decade of Song--rank among the top-selling albums of all-time. Seven of her albums have sold at least 10 million copies worldwide.
Deux in 1995 is the top-selling French-language album of all-time, featuring one of her best career songs, "Pour que tu m'aimes encore", which topped the French chart for 12 weeks. Dion also owns the second-top-selling French album with S'il suffisait d'aimer. Celine has sold nearly 25 million records in France, has spent the most weeks at #1 on the French singles chart and has six diamond-certified French albums. Her "Je Sais Pas" and "Encore un soir" reached #1 on the French chart while "Un garçon pas comme les autres (Ziggy)" and "Je ne vous oublie pas" hit #2. "Ne Partez pas sans moi" is the last French-language song to win the Eurovision Song Contest.
Celine has given us great songs like "Because You Loved Me", "The Power Of Love", "Beauty And The Beast", "If You Asked Me To", "The Prayer", "To Love You More", "It's All Coming Back To Me Now", "I'm Your Angel", "That's The Way It Is", "I'm Alive" and "I Drove All Night".
"My Heart Will Go On" went to #1 in over 25 countries and was the top-selling single of 1998. It has gone over 18 million in worldwide sales to rank as one of the top-selling singles of all-time. The song took Best Original Song at both the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards , Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television at the Grammy Awards and a Billboard Music Award for Soundtrack Single of the Year.
The Recording Industry Association of America included it in their Songs of the Century. Earlier this year, the U.S. Library of Congress inducted the song into the National Recording Registry for preservation for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
The soundtrack too catapulted to #1 in over 20 countries and has sold over 27 million copies worldwide.
Titanic has grossed over $2.26 billion, the top-earning movie from a gross standpoint until Avatar beat it in 2009. Titanic is still the fifth-highest-grossing movie adjusted for inflation.
#2--"Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees (from the movie Saturday Night Fever--1978)
The Brothers Gibb wrote this one as well and released it on December 15 of 1977 from the movie Saturday Night Fever.
The song, its beat synchronized with the steps of John Travolta as he walks down the sidewalk makes for one of the most iconic film openings in history. Moviegoers get an immediate impression that this is a confident young man and that music is going to play a big part in the movie.
Joining Travolta on the cast of Saturday Night Fever are Karen Lynn Gorney, Barry Miller, Donna Pescow, Joseph Cali, Paul Pape, Bruce Ornstein, Val Bisoglio, Julie Bovasso and Martin Shakar.
Americans who didn't like Disco took out their frustrations on the Bee Gees, who not only did not record many Disco songs, but the ones they did were among the best of the genre. This stigma held back the group for the remainder of their career, to the point where high-quality songs were deliberately kept from the public by radio stations. Robin Gibb talked to Q magazine about the stigma and why the group didn't deserve it:
We were not disco," Robin Gibb said. "People who emulated us were disco. All you heard on the radio was that dooo! dooo! syn-drum sound. We never had a syn-drum on one of our records!
#1--"I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston (from the movie The Bodyguard--1992)
We're up to the #1 song*! Dolly Parton wrote and recorded it originally in 1973, as a thank you to her friend and mentor Porter Wagoner as Dolly was launching her solo career. Several others covered it, including Linda Ronstadt, Kenny Rogers, LeAnn Rimes and Dolly herself (twice), but when Whitney Houston recorded it in 1992 for the film The Bodyguard, it was pure magic for the ages. Whitney only recorded two versions of it on April 22nd at Ocean Way Recording in Los Angeles. It was the very first take that was released, as all involved believed it was "flawless and raw".
The song features the solo sound of drummer Ricky Lawson's "tom" hit which precedes a dramatic key change near the end and a saxophone solo by Kirk Whalum. The record was pressed and released on November 2nd.
Both Whitney and Arista Records head Clive Davis had apprehensions about Houston being in the movie but a talk with co-star and co-producer Kevin Costner convinced Houston to do it.
Costner is former Secret Service agent Frank Farmer who is hired by superstar singer and actress Rachel Marron to protect her from an unknown stalker. Initially, Farmer feels Marron is a spoiled diva and Marron thinks Farmer is paranoid and intrusive. But eventually, they become closer and make love. Frank breaks off the affair, which hurts Rachel, but he knows that it compromises his ability to protect her.
Gary Kemp, Bill Cobbs, Ralph Waite, Tomas Arana and Mike Starr are the supporting cast with producer David Foster also appearing in the film as the conductor of the Academy Awards ceremony.
Davis was president of Columbia Records from 1967-1973, leaving that prestigious label to found Arista Records, which he ran from 1974-2000. Clive then founded J Records and was chairman and CEO of the RCA Music Group from 2002-2008.
Clive has signed Billy Joel, Chicago, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Aerosmith, Santana, Pink Floyd, Earth, Wind and Fire, Dionne Warwick, Alicia Keys, Air Supply, Sly and the Family Stone, Eric Carmen, Donovan, Ace of Base, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Kenny G, Janis Joplin and Laura Nyro among many others, and is largely responsible for lifting the careers of Houston and Barry Manilow.
Davis has won five Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
One of the greatest vocalists of all-time, Houston signed a recording contract with Arista when she was 19. Whitney enjoyed 11 #1 songs and holds the Rock Era record with seven consecutive chart-toppers.
Houston has given us great songs like "Greatest Love Of All", "I Wanna' Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)", "So Emotional", "I'm Your Baby Tonight", the fabulous a-cappella version of "The Star-Spangled Banner", "Exhale (Shoop Shoop"), "One Moment In Time", "You Give Good Love", "I'm Every Woman", "I Have Nothing", "Run To You", "Saving All My Love For You", "How Will I Know", "Didn't We Almost Have It All", "All The Man That I Need", "I Believe In You And Me", "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go".
Listeners couldn't get enough of this song, sending it to #1 for a then-record 14 weeks in the United States on the Popular chart that also topped the R&B chart for a then-record 11 weeks and #1 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart for 9 weeks. When it was #1 for five weeks simultaneously on the Hot 100, Adult Contemporary and R&B charts, "I Will Always Love You" broke an all-time record previously set by Ray Charles' "I Can't Stop Loving You" with four.
The song also #1 for 13 weeks in Europe, 14 weeks at the top in New Zealand, 10 weeks in the U.K., 10 weeks in Australia, 9 weeks in Norway and 8 weeks in France. "I Will Always Love You" was one of the most universal #1's in history, topping charts in 34 countries. After Houston's death on February 11, 2012, the song re-entered the U.S. chart at #7 and the U.K. chart at #10. With a second peak of #3 in the U.S., it fell just two spots shy of duplicating the feat of "The Twist" by Chubby Checker of reaching #1 a second time after falling off the charts.
The single had sold 4 million copies in the U.S. by January 12 of the next year and by 2022, had gone over 10 million units. Worldwide, "I Will Always Love You" has sold over 24 million copies worldwide, making it not only the top-selling single of 1992 but the best-selling song by a female artist ever.
The following are just some of the awards received for the song: Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance--Female, American Music Awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Single and Favorite Soul/R&B Single, Billboard Music Awards for #1 Hot 100 Single, #1 Hot R&B Single, Special Award for 14 Weeks at #1, #1 World Single, #1 Hot 100 Singles Sales and #1 Hot R&B Singles Sales and a Japan Gold Disc Award for Song of the Year.
In 2018, "I Will Always Love You" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and in 2020, the U.S. Library of Congress selected the song for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "Culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
The soundtrack itself was just as much of a cultural phenomenon, topping charts in 21 countries, including 20 weeks at #1 in the U.S. It sold a million copies a week for several weeks and reached 10 million sold by November of 1993. Currently, the album's sales are at 18 million in the U.S. alone and 45 million worldwide to become the world's top-selling soundtrack album.
The Bodyguard grossed $411 million, the #2-grossing film of 1992.
And there you have it, The Top 200 Movie Songs of the Rock Era*! We know you will be singing these songs in your head for days to come and will look up some of these movies to watch. You'll no doubt replay this special several times--you are most welcome and appreciated to do so. Enjoy the rest of your day and we are so happy you found us!
