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Wham! - Last Christmas

Wham! - Last Christmas Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Music From The Edge Of Heaven
Released: 1984

Last Christmas Lyrics

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
But the very next day, you gave it away
This year, to save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
But the very next day, you gave it away
This year, to save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special (special)

Once bitten and twice shy
I keep my distance but you still catch my eye
Tell me baby do you recognize me?
Well it's been a year, it doesn't surprise me

I wrapped it up and sent it
With a note saying "I Love You" I meant it
Now I know what a fool I've been
But if you kissed me now I know you'd fool me again

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
But the very next day, you gave it away
This year, to save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
But the very next day, you gave it away
This year, to save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special

A crowded room, friends with tired eyes
I'm hiding from you, and your soul of ice
My god I thought you were someone to rely on,
Me? I guess I was a shoulder to cry on

A face on a lover with a fire in his heart
A man under cover but you tore me apart
Now I've found a real love you'll never fool me again

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
But the very next day you gave it away
This year, to save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
But the very next day you gave it away
This year, to save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special

A face on a lover with a fire in his heart
A man undercover but you tore him apart
Maybe next year, I'll give it to someone, I'll give it to someone special
Special, someone, someone
I'll give it to someone, I'll give it to someone special

Who'll give me something in return
I'll give it to someone, hold my heart and watch it burn

I'll give it to someone, I'll give it to someone special
I thought you were here to stay
How can love be for a day?
I thought you were someone special, gave you my heart

I'll give it to someone, I'll give it to someone
Last Christmas I gave you my heart
You gave it away
I'll give it to someone, I'll give it to someone

Writer/s: GEORGE MICHAEL
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Last Christmas

This song is actually about a failed relationship; only the phase "Last Christmas," when the relationship came to head, refers to the festive season. Despite this it has become an annual Christmas standard on UK radio stations.

This was a charity record with its proceeds going to famine relief in Ethiopia. Apart from "Do They Know It's Christmas," which prevented this from reaching #1, it is the biggest selling Christmas song in the UK. (George Michael features on both songs).

Numerous artists have covered this song including Ashley Tisdale, Coldplay, Jimmy Eat World and Taylor Swift, who reached #28 on the Billboard country with her version. In 2009 a version by the cast of Fox-TV's Glee finally took the song into the Hot 100 when their rendition debuted at #63.

The song never charted on the US Billboard Hot 100 as it was released only as a promotional, not commercially available, 7-inch single in 1984.

Two chart facts:

"Last Christmas" is the biggest selling single in UK chart history not to reach #1.

In Japan it has sold over 600,000 copies, making it the best-selling single that did not reach that country's Top 10.

The song's music video sees George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley accompanying girlfriends to see friends at their home in a ski resort. The duo's backing singers Pepsi and Shirlie also star in the clip along with Spandau Ballet bassist Martin Kemp, the boyfriend and future husband of Shirlie Holliman.

The songwriters of Barry Manilow's hit single "Can't Smile Without You" sued George Michael for plagiarism in the mid-'80s, claiming that this song lifted its melody from their tune. The case was settled out of court with Michael giving his first year's royalties to Band Aid.

The song's music video was the last time that George Michael was filmed without a beard.

Antenne Carinthia presenter Joe Kohlhofer started his 8 a.m. show on December 18, 2015 by telling his Austrian listeners that he felt people in the area were not in the Christmas spirit. He then proceeded to play "Last Christmas" on loop for almost two hours as a "Christmas protest."

Kohlhofer blockaded the studio door with a wooden chair, locking out his co-host Patricia Jordan and the station producers. The Austrian DJ eventually stopped playing the Wham! tune only after his 4-year-old daughter was put on the line. She told her father that she didn't like the song.

Phyllis Nelson - Move Closer

Phyllis Nelson - Move Closer Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Move Closer
Released: 1984

Move Closer Lyrics

Hey baby, you go your way
And Ill go mine
But in the meantime

When we're together, touchin' each other
And our bodies do what we feel
When were dancin', smoochin' and swayin'
Tender love song softly playin'

Move Closer
Move your body real close
Until we-ee-ee-ee
Feel like we're really makin' love

Ooh-ooh, move closer
Move your body real close
Until we feel like we're really makin' love

So when I say sugar-are and I whisper I love vou
We-e-ell I know you're gonna answer in the sweetest voice
Sayin' my pretty la-ady
I love you too-oo-oo-oo-ooh well

There's much room for passion, ooh-no-no
There's no room for fears
When, the love flows smoothly between us, baby
My dear-ear-ear-ear-ear

Move
Move closer
Move your body real close
Until we feel like we're really makin' love

Woh-oh-oh, move closer
Move your body real close (fade)

Writer/s: SONIA MARINA CLARKE, ROBIN BARTER, RICHARD EDWARD SALMON
Publisher: EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Move Closer

Phyllis Nelson was an American soul singer who became a one-hit wonder in the UK, when this song rose to the top of the charts in 1985. This was originally released in April 1984 but failed to chart. When re-released in 1985 after BBC Radio London started to play it, the song began to climb the charts, taking 11 weeks to climb to #1.

Nelson wrote this herself. She became the first black female artist to write and record her own UK #1.

Phyllis Nelson is quoted in 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh: "That song was really written with people in mind. I had the idea back in 1979. I thought about the public and it seemed to me that people had drifted apart physically and musically. Not much music lets you dance close anymore so I thought I'd write a song you could really dance close to. But I was also thinking about my husband as well, because with the job he had and me being away a lot, we don't see each other too often. It came so easily and weird how the lyrics just fell out of my mouth, it was like the song had been written by someone else."

Tom Jones returned the song to the charts in 1989 when his version reached #49.

In 1994 this became a hit again for Nelson, reaching #34 after being featured in an advert for Soft & Gentle deodorant.

This was the only UK chart topper of the year not to have a video.

Phyllis' son, Marc Nelson, was a founding member of Boyz II Men but left to become a solo artist before they became well known. In 1999 he had a #27 hit in the US with "15 Minutes."

The Fixx - Are We Ourselves?

The Fixx - Are We Ourselves? Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Phantoms
Released: 1984

Are We Ourselves? Lyrics

Lost feelings return
So now maybe I can learn
To stop the world of a lie this time around

Are we are we Are We Ourselves?
Are we are we are we ourselves?

Because seen through these eyes
We lead a double life
No one would know so check it out
Stepping out, here I go

Are we are we are we ourselves?
Are we ourselves and do we really know?

So they say, so they say, that to this earth we are bound
Most spirit returns and now maybe we've learned
To stop this whirl of a lie
To this earth we are bound
I ask you
Are we are we are we ourselves?
Are we ourselves, and do we really know?

Writer/s: ADAM TERENCE WOODS, CYRIL JOHN CURNIN, DANIEL KINGSMILL BROWN, JAMES WEST ORAM, PETER JOHN GREENALL
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group, MUSIC SALES CORPORATION
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Are We Ourselves?

In a radio interview, The Fixx explained that when we go where people don't know us, we take on a new persona, and that's what this song is about.

Rupert Hine, who produced the Phantoms album, also directed the video, which was shot at the Jodrell Bank observatory, where the world's first radio telescope is located. Hine, who was learning to fly, got to pilot the plane with the camera.

Murray Head - One Night In Bangkok

Murray Head - One Night In Bangkok Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Chess - Original Movie Soundtrack
Released: 1984

One Night In Bangkok Lyrics

Bangkok, Oriental setting
And the city don't know that the city is getting
The creme de la creme of the chess world in a
Show with everything but Yul Brynner

Time flies doesn't seem a minute
Since the Tirolean spa had the chess boys in it
All change don't you know that when you
Play at this level there's no ordinary venue

It's Iceland or the Philippines or Hastings or
or this place!

One Night In Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me

One town's very like another
When your head's down over your pieces, brother

It's a drag, it's a bore, it's really such a pity
To be looking at the board, not looking at the city

Whaddya mean? Ya seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town

Tea, girls, warm, sweet
Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham suite

Get Thai'd! You're talking to a tourist
Whose every move's among the purest
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me

Siam's gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would a
Muddy old river or reclining Buddha

And thank God I'm only watching the game controlling it

I don't see you guys rating
The kind of mate I'm contemplating
I'd let you watch, I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you

So you better go back to your bars, your temples, your massage
parlours

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
A little flesh, a little history
I can feel an angel sliding up to me

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me

Writer/s: TIM RICE, BENNY GORAN BROR ANDERSSON, BJOERN K. ULVAEUS
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

One Night In Bangkok

The song tells of the meeting of two great chess players, one Soviet and one American, in Bangkok, which is the capital of Thailand. Chess is a musical production that uses a US-USSR chess rivalry as a metaphor for the Cold War, but this song just contains double-entendres about the game of Chess compared to the Bangkok nightlife. The example often used is "I would invite you, but the queens we use would not excite you."

Chess was a musical that premiered in London's West End. This song was written for the 1984 concept album, which was recorded well ahead of the production. The album was very successful considering it was for a musical. The album charted in the Top 10 in the UK, #47 in the US, and #1 in Sweden. Another song from the album, "I Know Him So Well," held the #1 spot in the UK for four weeks in February 1985, being deposed by "You Spin Me Right Round" by Dead or Alive. The Broadway production of Chess was heavily altered and unsuccessful.

Along with the rest of the songs from Chess, the music was written by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA, and Tim Rice wrote the lyrics. Rice has written for many film and theatrical productions, including the song "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" from The Lion King.

A little over 2 minutes into this song, there is a flute solo using a difficult flutter tongue technique similar to that used on many Jethro Tull songs. It was played by a Swedish musician named Bjorn Jason Lindh.

Murray Head is an actor who has been in several movies and stage productions. He is barely out of the one-hit-wonder category because of his 1971 version of "Superstar" from the Jesus Christ Superstar production where he played Judas. It his #14 in the US in 1971.

Before Murray went to Mill Hill he had been at Hampton Grammar School with Paul Samwell-Smith (ex-Yardbirds & Cat Stevens' producer) In 1975 Paul Samwell Smith made a record of Murray's songs for Islands Records. The album Say It Ain't So became a cult album in France. His father was Seafield Head, a documentary maker, and is Mother was Helen Shingler, an actress who played Mrs. Maigret alongside Rupert Davies as Maigret in the 60's TV series of the same name. His younger brother is Anthony 'Little Britain' Head.

A dance remix by the German production team Vinylshakerz was released in 2005.

Mike Tyson performs this in the 2011 movie The Hangover 2, which of course takes place mostly in Bangkok. Tyson appears as a surprise wedding guest and takes the stage near the end of the movie.

R.E.M. - Don't Go Back To Rockville

R.E.M. - Don't Go Back To Rockville Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Reckoning
Released: 1984

Don't Go Back To Rockville Lyrics

Looking at your watch a third time waiting in the station for a bus
Going to a place that's far, so far away and if that's not enough
Going where nobody says hello, they don't talk to anybody they don't know
You'll wind up in some factory that's full time filth and nowhere left to go
Walk home to an empty house, sit around all by yourself
I know it might sound strange, but I believe
You'll be coming back before too long

[Chorus]
Don't Go Back To Rockville,
Don't go back to Rockville,
Don't go back to Rockville
And waste another year

At night I drink myself to sleep and pretend
I don't care if you're not here with me
'Cause it's so much easier to handle
All my problems if I'm too far out to sea
But something better happen soon
Or it's gonna be too late to bring you back

[Chorus]

It's not as though I really need you
If you were here I'd only bleed you
But everybody else in town only wants to bring you down and
That's not how it ought to be
I know it might sound strange, but I believe
You'll be coming back before too long

[Chorus: x2]

Writer/s: BILL BERRY, PETER BUCK, MICHAEL MILLS, MICHAEL STIPE
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Don't Go Back To Rockville

This is about Ingrid Schorr, a girl the band knew at the University of Georgia whose hometown was Rockville, Maryland. She got a lot of attention on campus as classmates lamented her departure.

This is one of the few R.E.M. songs where bass player Mike Mills wrote most of the lyrics and sings the lead vocal.

The band had already been playing this song in a much faster, punk-like style for a long time and didn't even consider it for the Reckoning album until their legal advisor, Bertis Downs, begged them to "at least do one take of it for me ... please!?!?"

Drummer Bill Berry remembers tweaking the song to mess with Downs: "To playfully suggest to him that the song wasn't in contention, we recorded a much slower version than he was accustomed to hearing and we sprinkled it with a Nashville twang to drive the point home. It started out silly, but when Mike added piano, the tune took on new light. Thanks, Bert!" (Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011)

The Psychedelic Furs - The Ghost in You

The Psychedelic Furs - The Ghost in You Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Mirror Moves
Released: 1984

The Ghost in You Lyrics

A man in my shoes runs a light
And all the papers lied tonight
But falling over you
Is the news of the day
Angels fall like rain
And love is all of heaven away
Inside you the time moves

And she don't fade
The Ghost in You
She don't fade
Inside you the time moves
And she don't fade

A race is on I'm on your side
And hearing you my engines die
I'm in a mood for you
For running away
Stars come down in you
And love, you can't give it away
Inside you the time moves

And she don't fade
The ghost in you
She don't fade
Inside you the time moves
And she don't fade

Don't you go
It makes no sense
When all your talking supermen
Just take away the time
And get in the way
Ain't it just like rain
And love, is only heaven away
Inside you the time moves

And she don't fade
The ghost in you
She don't fade
Inside you the time moves
And she don't fade

Writer/s: BUTLER, RICHARD/BUTLER, TIMOTHY /
Publisher: EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Ghost in You

A few soundtracks featured this minor hit from The Psychedelic Furs... by other artists. Counting Crows recorded it for the '90s teen comedy Clueless and Sugar Ray's Mark McGrath covered it for the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore romantic comedy 50 First Dates. On the small screen, Matthew Puckett's cover was used in an episode of the SyFy channel reboot of Being Human (season one's "Some Thing to Watch Over Me").

A slew of other artists have also included covers of the song on their albums or in live performances, including Vernion Process (on Catalysts), Duncan Sheik (on Whisper House and Covers 80's) and BT (on These Hopeful Machines). Robyn Hitchcock gave the song an acoustic makeover for a memorable in-store performance at New York's Tower Records in 1989.

This was written by Psychedelic Furs lead singer Richard Butler and his brother/bass player, Tim . The poignant lyrics about matters of the heart are typical of Richard's work.

The Replacements - Unsatisfied

The Replacements - Unsatisfied Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Let It Be
Released: 1984

Unsatisfied Lyrics

Look me in the eye
Then, tell me that I'm satisfied
Was you satisfied?
Look me in the eye
Then, tell me that I'm satisfied
Hey, are you satisfied?

And it goes so slowly on
Everything I've ever wanted
Tell me what's wrong

Look me in the eye
And tell me that I'm satisfied
Were you satisfied?
Look me in the eye
Then, tell me I'm satisfied
And now are you satisfied?

Everything goes
Well, anything goes all of the time
Everything you dream of
Is right in front of you
And everything is a lie (or) And liberty is a lie

Look me in the eye
And tell me that I'm satisfied
Look me in the eye
Unsatisfied
I'm so, I'm so unsatisfied
I'm so dissatisfied
I'm so, I'm so unsatisfied
I'm so unsatisfied
Well, I'm-a
I'm so, I'm so unsatisfied
I'm so dissatis,dissattis...
I'm so...

Writer/s: WESTERBERG, PAUL
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Unsatisfied

Rolling Stone magazine called this Paul Westerberg's greatest song. It's been used in a number of films, including a scene in Airheads in which Brendan Frasier is alone in a radio booth eating a burrito.

The Smiths - Suffer Little Children

The Smiths - Suffer Little Children Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Smiths
Released: 1984

Suffer Little Children Lyrics

Over the moor, take me to the moor
Dig a shallow grave
And I'll lay me down

Over the moor, take me to the moor
Dig a shallow grave
And I'll lay me down

Lesley-Anne, with your pretty white beads
Oh John, you'll never be a man
And you'll never see your home again
Oh Manchester, so much to answer for

Edward, see those alluring lights ?
Tonight will be your very last night

A woman said : "I know my son is dead
I'll never rest my hands on his sacred head"

Hindley wakes and Hindley says :
Hindley wakes, Hindley wakes, Hindley wakes, and says :
"Oh, wherever he has gone, I have gone"

But fresh lilaced moorland fields
Cannot hide the stolid stench of death
Fresh lilaced moorland fields
Cannot hide the stolid stench of death

Hindley wakes and says :
Hindley wakes, Hindley wakes, Hindley wakes, and says :
"Oh, whatever he has done, I have done"

But this is no easy ride
For a child cries :

"Oh, find me...find me, nothing more
We are on a sullen misty moor
We may be dead and we may be gone
But we will be, we will be, we will be, right by your side
Until the day you die
This is no easy ride
We will haunt you when you laugh
Yes, you could say we're a team
You might sleep
You might sleep
You might sleep
BUT YOU WILL NEVER DREAM !
Oh, you might sleep
BUT YOU WILL NEVER DREAM !
You might sleep
BUT YOU WILL NEVER DREAM !"

Oh Manchester, so much to answer for
Oh Manchester, so much to answer for

Oh, find me, find me !
Find me !
I'll haunt you when you laugh
Oh, I'll haunt you when you laugh
You might sleep
BUT YOU WILL NEVER DREAM !
Oh...
Over the moors, I'm on the moor
Oh, over the moor
Oh, the child is on the moor

Writer/s: MORRISSEY, STEVEN PATRICK/MARR, JOHNNY
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Suffer Little Children

Between 1963 and 1965, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley abducted and murdered five children in and around Manchester, England. They buried several bodies on Saddleworth Moor, north of Manchester, resulting in the case becoming known as the Moors Murders. The tragedy had a great impact on The Smiths' front man, Morrissey, who was not only from the area, but the same age as some of the victims. He was inspired to write "Suffer Little Children" after reading Beyond Belief: A Chronicle of Murder and its Detection, a semi-fictionalized account of the Moors Murders by Emlyn Williams.

Relatives of the murder victims disapproved of this song and The Smiths album was subsequently banned from several UK stores. Morrissey insisted he did not mean to cause offense, however, and later befriended Ann West, the mother of the murder victim, Lesley Ann Downey, after he wrote to her explaining the song was in fact a tribute to the children.

The song title alludes to a phrase in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 19, verse 14, in which Jesus condemns his disciples for turning away a group of children: "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven."

This song was played live only once, at The Smiths' first ever gig at The Ritz in Manchester on October 4, 1982.

In 2009, Morrissey contributed a story called "The Bleak Moor Lies" to The Dark Monarch: Magic & Modernity in British Art - a collection of essays on the occult, compiled by the British art institution, Tate - about a group of friends who travel to Saddleworth Moor and encounter a ghost.

Courtney Love's band, Hole, have been known to cover this song live.

This song closes The Smiths' self-titled debut album, which propelled the band into the limelight in 1984. In 2003, the album was ranked at #481 on Rolling Stone magazine's "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.

Echo & the Bunnymen - The Killing Moon

Echo & the Bunnymen - The Killing Moon Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Ocean Rain
Released: 1984

The Killing Moon Lyrics

Under blue moon I saw you
So soon you'll take me
Up in your arms
Too late to beg you or cancel it
Though I know it must be the killing time
Unwillingly mine

Fate
Up against your will
Through the thick and thin
He will wait until
You give yourself to him

In starlit nights I saw you
So cruelly you kissed me
Your lips a magic world
Your sky all hung with jewels
The Killing Moon
Will come too soon

Fate
Up against your will
Through the thick and thin
He will wait until
You give yourself to him

Under blue moon I saw you
So soon you'll take me
Up in your arms
Too late to beg you or cancel it
Though I know it must be the killing time
Unwillingly mine

Fate
Up against your will
Through the thick and thin
He will wait until
You give yourself to him
Fate
Up against your will
Through the thick and thin
He will wait until
You give yourself to him
You give yourself to him

La la la la la
Fate
Up against your will
Through the thick and thin
He will wait until
You give yourself to him

La la la la la

Fate
Up against your will
Through the thick and thin
He will wait until
You give yourself to him

Fate
Up against your will
Through the thick and thin
He will wait until
You give yourself to him

La la la la la

Writer/s: MCCULLOCH, IAN STEPHEN / SERGEANT, WILLIAM ALFRED / PATTINSON, LESLIE THOMAS / DE FREITAS, PETER LOUIS VINCENT
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Killing Moon

This was recorded at Crescent Studio in Bath, Somerset. After catching a cold, frontman Ian McCulloch completed the recording of his vocals at Amazon Studio in Liverpool, where Pete de Freitas also completed the drumming.

This song is the opener to the Donnie Darko movie soundtrack. Guitarist Will Sergeant recalled to The Guardian in a April 2015 interview: "Years after it was a hit, we got an email saying this bloke wanted to use the song in a film, Donnie Darko, which we didn't think would go anywhere, so accepted a one-off £3,000. Then when the director did the director's cut he replaced 'The Killing Moon' with 'Never Tear Us Apart' by INXS. Aren't some people knobheads?"

McCulloch told Uncut magazine issue 138: "You don't need to read The Bible, you can listen to 'The Killing Moon' and get as much out of it. It's the greatest song ever written."

McCulloch (from Mojo magazine March 2012): "I woke up with that lyric, 'Fate up against your will,' as if God had given it to me in my sleep. Recently I realised what it is - it's that soliloquy, 'To be or not to be' - but it's even better, because I'm f---in' singing it."

The song's Middle Eastern-tinged instrumentation was inspired by a vacation that bassist Les Pattinson and guitarist Will Sergeant spent in Russia. Pattinson told Uncut August 2014: "Me and Will had been in Russia for a holiday, and there was this band playing balalaikas in a hotel foyer, really cheesy cabaret. But it was fantastic and we just started messing about and the next thing is we've got a chorus for 'The Killing Moon'. It was just brilliant."

Will Sergeant added: "Adam Peters came and did cellos and double-tracked it to make it sound like an orchestra. I reversed the reverb of the autoharp going in on the chorus chords so you get a big 'whoosh' sound. I got a Vox Teardrop 12-string."

David Bowie inspired the song's formation: "I played David Bowie's 'Space Oddity' backwards, then started messing around with the chords," McCulloch recalled to The Guardian. "By the time I'd finished, it sounded nothing like 'Space Oddity.'"

AC/DC - Jailbreak

AC/DC - Jailbreak Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: '74 Jailbreak
Released: 1984

Jailbreak Lyrics

There was a friend of mine on murder
And the judge's gavel fell
Jury found him guilty
Gave him sixteen years in hell
He said "I ain't spending my life here
I ain't living alone
Ain't breaking no rocks on the chain gang
I'm breakin' out and headin' home

Gonna make a Jailbreak
And I'm lookin' towards the sky
I'm gonna make a jailbreak
Oh, how I wish that I could fly

All in the name of liberty
All in the name of liberty
Got to be free

Jailbreak, let me out of here
Jailbreak, sixteen years
Jailbreak, had more than I can take
Jailbreak, yeah

He said he'd seen his lady being fooled with
By another man
She was down and he was up
He had a gun in his hand
Bullets started flying everywhere
And people started to scream
Big man lying on the ground
With a hole in his body
Where his life had been
But it was

All in the name of liberty
All in the name of liberty
I got to be free

Jailbreak, jailbreak
I got to break out
Out of here

Heartbeats they were racin'
Freedom he was chasin'
Spotlights, sirens, rifles firing
But he made it out
With a bullet in his back

Writer/s: SCOTT, PATRICK JOHN
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Jailbreak

This is about Mark Brandon Reid, also known as "Chopper." He was sent to jail for murdering a gang leader and he got sentenced to 16 years. Three years into his sentence Chopper became disillusioned with jail life and hated working for the "screws." His friend and crime partner Jimmy Loughnan planned an escape, but because of Jimmy's fear of tight spaces, they were caught and given solitary for two weeks. Bon Scott read about this in a newspaper and started writing lyrics for a song. Everyone in AC/DC loved the idea of a criminal-themed song, and they finished it in about a week.

AC/DC made a reasonably high-end performance video for this song, complete with the boys playing on a bunch of rocks as various explosions go on around them.

Peter Wolf - I Need You Tonight

Peter Wolf - I Need You Tonight Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Lights Out
Released: 1984

I Need You Tonight Lyrics

When the music stops,
I walk you to your door
And we say goodnight,
Like a thousand times before

This is the night (night),
I just can't walk away, oh
This is the night,
I need you even more

Why should we wait 'til tomorrow? oh, oh
Why should we wait 'til tomorrow? oh, oh
I can't wait til' tomorrow oh
I Need You Tonight

I drive away, but you're still on my mind
It's gettin' so hard leavin' you behind
This is the night I just want you to know, oh
This is the night I just can't let you go

Why should we wait 'til tomorrow? oh, oh
Why should we wait 'til tomorrow? oh, oh
I can't wait til' tomorrow oh
I need you tonight

Yeah!

Oh!

Why should we wait 'til tomorrow? oh, oh
Why should we wait 'til tomorrow? oh, oh
I can't wait til' tomorrow oh
I need you tonight

And I need you tonight
'Cause I need you tonight

Writer/s: WOLF, PETER / BLISS, PETER S.
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

I Need You Tonight

After serving as frontman for the J. Geils Band from their formation in 1967, Peter Wolf left the band in 1983, launching a solo career with his 1984 album Lights Out. Following, the title track, it was Wolf's second single.

The song is about a man carrying on an affair with a woman he can only see occasionally but can no longer wait for. Thanks to the clips for the J. Geils Band songs Centerfold and Freeze-Frame, Wolf was a familiar face on MTV, and his video for "I Need You Tonight" got significant airplay. In the clip, Wolf plays a man smitten with a married woman whose husband is a wealthy and dangerous gangster.

Wolf wrote this song with Paul Bliss, whose other credits include "Heart Attack" for Olivia Newton-John and "Emotion" for Barbra Streisand.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Two Tribes

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Two Tribes Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Welcome To The Pleasuredome
Released: 1984

Two Tribes Lyrics

Yeah
Ha
When Two Tribes go to war
One is all that you can score
(Score no more, score no more)
When two tribes go to war
One is all that you can score
(Workin' for the black mask)

Comrad number one
A born again poor man's son
(Poor man's son)
On the air America
I modeled shirts for Van Heusen
(Workin' for the black mask), yeah

When two tribes go to war
One is all that you can score
(Score no more, score no more)
When two tribes go to war
One is all that you can score
(Workin' for the black mask)

Switch up your shield
Switch up and feel
I'm walkin' out, lover hey
I'm givin' you back a good time
I'm shippin' out, out
I'm workin' for the black mask

One is all that you can score
When two tribes go to war
When two tribes go to war
One is all that you can score

We got two tribes
(We got to part, we got to part), yeah
Somethin' this good died

Are we living in a land
Where sex and horror are the new gods, yeah

When two tribes go to war
One point is all that you can score

Writer/s: MARK O'TOOLE, PETER GILL, WILLIAM JOHNSON
Publisher: DOWNTOWN MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Two Tribes

The lyrics were inspired by US president Ronald Reagan's belief that Christ would return after a nuclear war.

The song features British actor Patrick Allen reading extracts from a government civil defense leaflet. Allen is well known in Britain for his distinguished voice, which has narrated many television adverts and films for over 30 years.

This was written by the band 2 years previous to release and was featured on a BBC Radio 1 John Peel session in October 1982.

In the extended version, the announcer states, "You may pronounce us guilty a thousand times over, but the goddess of the eternal court of history will smile and tear to tatters the verdict of this court - for she acquits us." When Adolf Hitler was tried for his failed putsch in 1924, he said these words (rather a very close paraphrase of it) in his concluding speech: "Pronounce us guilty a thousand times over: the goddess of the eternal court of history will smile and tear to pieces the State Prosecutor's submission and the court's verdict for she acquits us."

Former 10cc band members Lol Creme and Kevin Godley produced a memorable video featuring a no-holds-barred, hand-to-hand fight between Reagan and then Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko. Godley recalled to Q magazine: "It was a very intense shoot. We were trying to get the audience to behave in a manner that we wanted to by chanting, 'Kill! Kill! Kill!' A few of them seriously got into the spirit of it by jumping in the ring and beating each other up!"

Trevor Horn produced this track. He spent weeks juggling with the sound and remixing it to perfection.

In the UK for 2 weeks, this was #1 while Frankie Goes To Hollywood's song "Relax" was #2. They became only the third act to achieve this feat, after The Beatles and John Lennon, who like Frankie Goes To Hollywood, came from Liverpool. Madonna broke the Liverpool streak the next year.

In the UK, this sold close to 2 million copies, making it one of the biggest-selling singles of the '80s. This was partly due to Horn's tendency to put out as many as 7 different mixes of the singles.

Iron Maiden - Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

Iron Maiden - Rime Of The Ancient Mariner Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Powerslave
Released: 1984

Rime Of The Ancient Mariner Lyrics

Hear the Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
See his eye as he stops one of three
Mesmerizes one of the wedding guests
Stay here and listen to the nightmares of the sea.

And the music plays on, as the bride passes by
Caught by his spell and the mariner tells his tale.

Driven south to the land of the snow and ice
To a place where nobody's been
Through the snow fog flies on the albatross
Hailed in God's name, hoping good luck it brings.

And the ship sails on, back to the North
Through the fog and ice and the albatross follows on.

The mariner kills the bird of good omen
His shipmates cry against what he's done
But when the fog clears, they justify him
And make themselves a part of the crime.

Sailing on and on and north across the sea
Sailing on and on and north 'til all is calm.

The albatross begins with its vengeance
A terrible curse a thirst has begun
His shipmates blame bad luck on the mariner
About his neck, the dead bird is hung.

And the curse goes on and on at sea
And the curse goes on and on for them and me.

"Day after day, day after day,
we stuck nor breath nor motion
as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean
Water, water everywhere and
all the boards did shrink
Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink."

There calls the mariner
There comes a ship over the line
BUt how can she sail with no wind in her sails and no tide.

See...onward she comes
Onward she nears out of the sun
See, she has no crew
She has no life, wait but here's two.

Death and she Life in Death,
They throw their dice for the crew
She wins the mariner and he belongs to her now.
Then, crew one by one
they drop down dead, two hundred men
She, she, Life in Death.
She lets him live, her chosen one.

"One after one by the star dogged moon,
too quick for groan or sigh
each turned his face with a ghastly pang
and cursed me with his eye
four times fifty living men
(and I heard nor sigh nor groan)
with heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
they dropped down one by one."

The curse it lives on in their eyes
The mariner wished he'd die
Along with the sea creatures
But they lived on, so did he.

and by the light of the moon
He prays for their beauty not doom
With heart he blesses them
God's creatures all of them too.

Then the spell starts to break
The albatross falls from his neck
Sinks down like lead into the sea
Then down in falls comes the rain.

Hear the groans of the long dead seamen
See them stir and they start to rise
Bodies lifted by good spirits
None of them speak and they're lifeless in their eyes

And revenge is still sought, penance starts again
Cast into a trance and the nightmare carries on.

Now the curse is finally lifted
And the mariner sights his home
spirits go fromhe long dead bodies
Form their own light and the mariner's left alone.

And then a boat came sailing towards him
It was a joy he could not believe
The pilot's boat, his son and the hermit,
Penance of life will fall onto him.

And the ship sinks like lead into the sea
And the hermit shrives the mariner of his sins.

The mariner's bound to tell of his story
To tell this tale wherever he goes
To teach God's word by his own example
That we must love all things that God made.

And the wedding guest's a sad and wiser man
And the tale goes on and on and on.

Writer/s: HARRIS, STEPHEN PERCY
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

This was inspired by and based on the 1797 poem of the same name by Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), a contemporary of William Wordsworth and William Blake (whose work was the inspiration and basis of Bruce Dickinson's solo album The Chemical Wedding). In the poem, the captain (The Ancient Mariner) tells the story of how his ship was driven south by storms and the strange happenings that followed. The moral of the story is that "we should love all creatures created by God."

Survivor - The Search Is Over

Survivor - The Search Is Over Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Vital Signs
Released: 1984

The Search Is Over Lyrics

How can I convince you what you see is real
Who am I to blame you for doubting what you feel
I was always reachin', you were just a girl I knew
I took for granted the friend I have in you

I was living for a dream,
Loving for a moment
Taking on the world,
That was just my style
Now I look into your eyes
I can see forever,
The Search Is Over
You were with me all the while

Can we last forever, will we fall apart
At times it's so confusing, these questions of the heart
You followed me through changes, and patiently you'd wait
Till I came to my senses, through some miracle of fate

I was living for a dream,
Loving for a moment
Taking on the world,
That was just my style
Now I look into your eyes
I can see forever,
The search is over
You were with me all the while

Now the miles stretch out behind me loves that I have lost

Broken hearts lie victims of the game
Then good luck it finally stuck like lightning from the blue
Every highway leading me back to you
Now at last I hold you, now all is said and done
The search has come full circle, our destinies are one
So if you ever loved me show me that you give a damn
You'll know for certain the man I really am

I was living for a dream,
Loving for a moment
Taking on the world,
That was just my style
Now I look into your eyes
I can see forever,
The search is over
You were with me all the while

Writer/s: PETERIK, JAMES M/SULLIVAN, FRANK
Publisher: EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., THE BICYCLE MUSIC COMPANY
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Search Is Over

This was written by Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan, who were Survivor's primary songwriters. Peterik told us: "'The Search Is Over' started as a title in my notebook. A lot of times, I'll write down a phrase that just sounds like something. I may have gotten it from the news - the search is over for the missing whatever. A lot of times, you don't know what the title means until you live it or someone you know lives it. It wasn't about my life as much as a friend of mine who had a girlfriend - really a play pal throughout their growing up years - and never thought it could be anything more than that. It was looking him straight in the face that this was the girl of his destiny, and he looked everywhere to find that dream girl only to come back to the sandbox. This couple is still married and going strong. It became kind of an allegory to looking for what is obvious; having it in your hand and you being too close to even realize it."

Peterik added in our interview: "Mechanically, the whole thing kind of started in my head driving down the street. I turned on my tape recorder and I sang the whole melody top to bottom into my tape recorder. The way it modulated into the chorus was very unique. When I got to the piano a few hours later, I had to find out where it was going and what it was. I brought it to rehearsal, showed it to the guys and worked with Frank one on one on the song - he loved it. It was called The Search Is Over, but I still didn't know exactly what the hook of the song was going to be. I thought of this couple, and when we came up with the line, 'Then I touched your hand, I could hear you whisper, the search is over, love was right before my eyes,' we looked at each other's arms and we both had goose bumps. It was the magical turn of that phrase and realizing what this song was about. I think we discovered the song as we were writing it."

As a teenager, Peterik formed The Ides Of March and wrote their hit "Vehicle." While he was with Survivor, he also wrote several hit songs for .38 Special, including "Hold On Loosely" and "Caught Up In You." He left Survivor in 1996 and continues to record with The Ides Of March.

Jim Peterik told us: "I'm a sucker for a good title. To me, a good title is intriguing. It tells the story sometimes in and of itself, or at least it draws the person in enough to wonder, 'What search is it? What is he looking for?' Vehicle - boom, just a great word. I had that written in the margins of my high school notebook. I didn't know exactly what it was about, I just knew it had power to it. Other times, I'll start with a melody, then I'll search through a notebook to look for the mood of that melody: Is it dark? Is it happy? Sad? Bittersweet? I like to match up the mood of the lyric to what I'm noodling on."

Ollie & Jerry - Breakin'... There's No Stopping Us

Ollie & Jerry - Breakin'... There's No Stopping Us Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Breakin' soundtrack
Released: 1984

Breakin'... There's No Stopping Us Lyrics

Out in the street
You don't survive by being weak
This is our time
Walls were made for us to climb
Don't you try to lock us out
Cause were breaking down the doors
And ohhhh...we just came to fight
Yeah yeah

There's no stopping us
No one does it better
There's no stopping us
Red light doesn't matter
Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah

Long overdue
No playing games or being used
Something to prove
It's more than just a dream come true
We have waited far too long
For this moment to arrive

[Chorus]
We have waited far too long
For this moment to arrive

[Chorus]

Writer/s: BROWN, OLLIE E. EUGENE / KNIGHT, JERRY
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group, O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Breakin'... There's No Stopping Us

Ollie & Jerry was a Californian Dance-Pop duo consisting of drummer Ollie E. Brown and R&B singer Jerry Knight. The pair had previously worked together in the R&B group Raydio – Knight was a founding member singing vocals on their 1977 hit, "Jack and Jill," whilst Brown was a session drummer on all of Raydio's albums.

This was recorded as the title theme to the 1984 breakdance-themed movie Breakin', and released as the first single from the film's soundtrack album. The single became a hit reaching the Top Ten in both the US and UK.

Jean-Claude Van Damme was an uncredited background dancing spectator in the movie and he can be seen at one point during the music video.

Ollie & Jerry's follow-up single "Electric Boogaloo," was only a minor hit peaking at #57 in the UK and reaching the Top 50 of the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Dance Club Play charts. The duo split after the song's release in mid-1985.

Wang Chung - Dance Hall Days

Wang Chung - Dance Hall Days Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Points On A Curve
Released: 1984

Dance Hall Days Lyrics

Take your baby by the hand
And make her do a high handstand
And take your baby by the heel
And do the next thing that you feel

We were so in vies
In our Dance Hall Days
We were cool on cries
When all you and everyone we knew
Could believe, do, and share in what was true

Dance hall days love !

Take your baby by the hair
And pull her close and there, there, there
And take your baby by the ears
And play upon her darkest fears

We were so in vies
In our dance hall days
We were cool on cries
When all you and everyone we knew
Could believe, do, and share in what was true

Dance hall days love
Dance hall days
Dance hall days love

Take your baby by the wrist
And in her mouth an amethyst
And in her eyes two sapphires blue
And you need her and she needs you
And you need her and she needs you
And you need her and she needs you
And you need her and she needs you
And you need her and she needs you

We were so in vies
In our dance hall days
We were cool on cries
When all you and everyone we knew
Could believe, do, and share in what was true

Dance hall days love
Dance hall days love
Dance hall days
Dance hall days love
Dance hall days
Dance hall days love
Dance hall days
Dance hall days love

Writer/s: JACK HUES, NICHOLAS FELDMAN, DARREN COSTIN
Publisher: SPIRIT MUSIC GROUP
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Dance Hall Days

Jack Hues of Wang Chung told Eric Greenberg on the Just My Show podcast: "It begins quite innocent: 'take your baby by the hand,' and then the last verse with 'take your baby by the wrists, and in her mouth an amethyst,' it's all a bit more hallucinogenic in a way, how things that start off simple get complex.

My dad was a musician, and he had a band that played in an old-fashioned dance hall. I used to play with him in that band, so maybe there's sort of the nostalgia that's in the track. It's all quite real, actually, as far as experiences that I had when I was first starting out playing, and playing in public.

Musically, it's that sort of rhythm and that kind of shuffly beat. Technically it's sort of like 3 against 2 (laughs), but we're not gonna talk about all that. It's a particular feel that was sort of unusual at the time, I suppose. It was partly inspired by one of the Adam and the Ants tracks, and that's part of the thinking of using Chris Hughes, who produced Adam's Kings of The Wild Frontier album. I think the record company were keen that we sort of met up with him, and Chris and I have been friends ever since that time - Chris works with me on my jazz records that I've made in the last couple of years. It's been one of the most important friendships of my life."

Even though they are British, this was Wang Chung's only hit in the UK. After it proved to be a bigger hit in the US and was featured in the film To Live And Die In LA, they decided to ignore the UK market and concentrate on the US. This proved an astute decision as they recorded two more American top 10 hits, "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" (#2 in 1986) and "Let's Go!" (#9 in 1987), whilst not even recording a minor chart placing in the UK.

Hues explained on Just My Show: "I think it has perhaps created a slight air of unreality around it. Because Wang Chung in Britain is sort of obscure '80s band. I think 'Dance Hall Days' was a fairly substantial hit over here, although it didn't chart high, it was in the charts for a long time. It took a long time going up, and a long time going down, like a proper record should do. And we did Top of the Pops a couple of times, which was a big BBC show where promising bands - or not so promising bands - got their exposure. But I think the divide between the US and the UK for me probably worked, in that I'm quite a private person, and at the time of 'Dance Hall Days' I had three children, and I wasn't married at the time, but my family life is very important to me. Being able to come home and be low key was great. I could leave all of the craziness behind in the States and just be myself, as it were, when I got back here."

This was featured in the 1997 movie Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.

Wang Chung frontman Jack Hues' real name is Jeremy Ryder. He took the stage name as a persona, which British musicians like Joe Strummer and Johnny Rotten were doing at the time. He is the biological father of British actor Jack Ryder, who played Jaime in the British Soap Opera Eastenders. (thanks, Dave - Ipswich, England)

When this song was on the charts, Wang Chung was touring in America as the opening act for The Cars, who were supporting their album Heartbeat City.

Julian Lennon - Too Late for Goodbyes

Julian Lennon - Too Late for Goodbyes Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Valotte
Released: 1984

Too Late for Goodbyes Lyrics

Ever since you've been leaving me, I've been wanting to cry.
Now I know how it feels for you, I've been wanting to die.
But it's much too late for good-byes, yes, it's much too late for good-byes.

Time has gone since I've been with you, and we've been starting to die.
Now it seems you don't care for me, and I don't understand why.
But it's much too late for good-byes, yes, it's much too late for good-byes.

Ever since you've been far away, I've been wanting to fly.
Now I know what you meant to me, I'm the one who should cry.
And it's much too late for good-byes, yes, it's much too late for good-byes.

Ever since you've been leaving me, I've been wanting to cry.
Now I know how it feels for you, I've been wanting to die.
And it's much too late for good-byes, yes, it's much too late for good-byes.

Writer/s: LENNON, JULIAN
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Too Late for Goodbyes

Released in the UK in September, 1984, this was the first single for Julian Lennon, who is John Lennon's first son. (His first American single was "Valotte.") His mother Cynthia got a divorce from John when Julian was just five years old, and for the next nine years, Julian rarely saw his dad. When he was 14, Julian reconnected with his dad and made occasional visits to his home in New York City.

Julian inherited many of his father's musical gifts, including a knack for songwriting. He wrote "Too Late for Goodbyes" on his own and released the song when he was just 21. It was a Top 10 hit in both the UK and US, and helped him earn a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, which he lost to Sade.

"I had an old reel-to-reel Fostex in my first flat or apartment in London, which was in Kensington," Julian told us . "I remember just being in my living room. It was on the top floor walk-up of six flights. I just remember sitting there with a keyboard and writing this track."

Given his personal history, this song could be interpreted as Julian Lennon's message to his dad, who left him when he was young. Julian tells us that this is not the case. "Initially it was about a girl, a relationship," he said. "Then it was a few other friends in the room and I was bouncing ideas back and forth. I just ended up with that particular phrase and title and it seemed to stick. So it made sense to me, and voilÁ ! Bob's your uncle. That's it. No hidden agendas on that one."

The album was produced by Phil Ramone, who had helmed albums by Paul Simon and Billy Joel. Ramone kept the production remarkably tasteful and mature considering he was working with a 21-year-old British kid in 1984. This is one of the more synth-heavy tracks on the album, but the keyboards were part of a mix with prominent guitar and bass.

Toots Thielemans played the harmonica part. Producer Phil Ramone used Thielemans the previous year on the Billy Joel track "Leave a Tender Moment Alone."

The video did very well on MTV, which Lennon credits for much of his success. He told us: "The early days of MTV certainly had a tremendous effect on most everybody at that point in time because that's when I felt the industry was a bit more exciting, because you really did in those days look forward to not only the latest new songs that were coming out by your favorite artists, but you wanted to see what they looked like, and sometimes that was the closest you were going to get if you couldn't go to their shows."

Sam Peckinpah, who directed the films Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and Convoy, directed the video. He also directed Lennon's next video, which was for his song "Valotte."

Bonnie Tyler - Holding Out For A Hero

Bonnie Tyler - Holding Out For A Hero Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Footloose Soundtrack
Released: 1984

Holding Out For A Hero Lyrics

Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where's the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?
Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Late at night I toss
And I turn
And I dream of what I need.
I need a hero. I'm Holding Out For A Hero 'til the end of the night.
He's gotta be strong
And he's gotta be fast

And he's gotta be fresh from the fight.
I need a hero. I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light.
He's gotta be sure
And it's gotta be soon

And he's gotta be larger than life!
Larger than life.
Somewhere after midnight
In my wildest fantasy

Somewhere just beyond my reach
There's someone reaching back for me.
Racing on the thunder and rising with the heat

It's gonna take a superman to sweep me off my feet.
I need a hero. I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night.
He's gotta be strong
And he's gotta be fast

And he's gotta be fresh from the fight.
I need a hero. I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light.
He's gotta be sure
And it's gotta be soon

And he's gotta be larger than life.
I need a hero. I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night.
Up where the mountains meet the heavens above

Out where the lightning splits the sea

I could swear there is someone
Somewhere
Watching me.
Through the wind
And the chill
And the rain

And the storm
And the flood

I can feel his approach like a fire in my blood.
I need a hero. I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night.
He's gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast

And he's gotta be fresh from the fight.
I need a hero. I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light.
He's gotta be sure
And it's gotta be soon

And he's gotta be larger than life.
I need a hero. I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night.

Writer/s: PITCHFORD, DEAN / STEINMAN, JIM
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Holding Out For A Hero

This was featured in the movie Footloose, starring Kevin Bacon as a young man who comes to a small town where dancing in public is not allowed. The screenplay for the movie was written by Dean Pitchford , who also wrote the lyrics to the nine songs used in the film. This one appears in a scene where Bacon is playing chicken on tractors with a local. He becomes a "hero" when he wins - not by force of will, but because his shoelace gets caught on a pedal, and he can't jump off (yes, he couldn't get hit Foot Loose).

In putting together songs for his movie Footloose, Dean Pitchford used seven different co-writers and eight different artists, since he wanted a variety of styles. On this song, he wrote with the mercurial Jim Steinman, who wrote most of Meat Loaf's hits, including "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" and "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)." In our interview with Dean Pitchford, he told us how this one came together: "We decided that we were going to go after Bonnie Tyler, who was not even really happening at the time. I had fallen in love with Bonnie Tyler because she'd sung 'It's a Heartache,' and the song 'Total Eclipse Of The Heart' was a hit in Australia when I heard it, but it had not broken in the United States yet. But when we went to try to find her, nobody at Columbia Records knew who had signed her and where she was. We finally tracked her A&R rep down to Nashville, because in the United States she had been signed as a country act, and that was where 'It's A Heartache' had first broken. But in order to get to Bonnie Tyler and to get her to sing something for us, I was going to work with Jim Steinman. And I'd known Jim Steinman's work from all of his Meat Loaf days. So I sat down and listened to a lot of Jim Steinman. And I came up with 'Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods? Where's the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?' I wrote that lyric with an ear toward snaring Jim Steinman, and it worked. He looked at the lyric and he immediately knew what to do with it because it was so much in a style that he was familiar with. So in every case I tried to write a lyric that was in the style of the artist I was working with or the writer that I knew I would have to write with. Bill Wolfer, for instance, was a producer for Shalamar, and I knew what I needed to do in order to snare his involvement. And 'Dancing in the Sheets' is different than 'Holding Out For A Hero' is different than 'Almost Paradise.' So every one of those represented a different head set, a mindset."

Jim Steinman literally bled for this song when he demoed it for the Footloose director. Dean Pitchford told us the story: "I remember bringing in a girl to sing 'Holding Out For A Hero' with Jim Steinman pounding the crap out of the keyboard. When we were done, I looked over and there was blood on the keys. That's the kind of 'DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN da DON DON DON da DA DUN.' He was just pounding the s--t out of the keyboard. Everybody was just grooving along as he's pounding and this girl's singing, singing, singing. And at the end of the whole thing I looked over and there was blood up and down the keyboard. It cut his fingers."

The introduction to this song was originally used by Jim Steinman on the song "Stark Raving Love" from his 1981 solo album Bad For Good. (thanks, Kelley - Hickory, KY)

Ella Mae Bowen recorded this for the 2011 remake of the Footloose movie. Bowen, who was just 14 when she recorded the song, came up with a stripped down, countrified arrangement with her producer Seth Bolt. The movie's director, Craig Brewer, chose her version from many submissions.

A version by Jennifer Saunders was featured in the 2004 movie Shrek 2. It was also used in the climactic scene from the movie Short Circuit 2. (thanks, Gerry - Trinity, AL)