#1 Alert!
Gold Record Alert!
Song#: 3008 Date: 01/31/1987
Debut: 64
Peak: 1 (2 weeks)
Weeks: 22
Genre: Pop, Soundtrack
Pop Bits: This new iteration of the Jefferson Airplane/Starship lineage took the band in a new pop-oriented direction and that resulted in two #1 hits, "We Built This City" and "Sara." After singles were exhausted from the associated album Knee Deep in the Hoopla, the band got an opportunity to record a song for an upcoming rom-com flick titled Mannequin. They recorded this tune with producer Narada Michael Walden and it would be issued out as a single a couple weeks before the movie's opening. It would end up being Starship's third song to top the Pop chart while being their second to reach #1 at AC. It also got to #16 at Rock and would be their second single to hit gold-level sales. An official soundtrack album from the movie would not be released, but this song would be included on the band's next LP No Protection, which would arrive in the summer of '87.
ReduxReview: I admit it - I fell for this song back in the day. It was just a damn good pop song that was happy and uplifting. It was well-written and had a nice 80s production by Walden. The sing-a-long chorus was hooky as hell and it appealed to a wide audience. There was just no doubt that this song would top the chart. As for the movie, well...yeah. I thought it was awful. But I do have friends who saw it as teens and loved it. They still quote from it. I just thought it was ridiculous. But at least it did spur this song. I'm less enamored with the tune these days since it got played to death (and still gets played a lot), but I still like it and it certainly put Diane Warren's career in high gear (see below).
ReduxRating: 8/10
Trivia: Triple Shot! 1) This song was written specifically for the film by Albert Hammond and Diane Warren. Warren's career as a songwriter was taking off at the time with many big-named artists picking up her songs. By this point, she already had two Top 10 hits to her credit, "Solitaire" by Laura Branigan and "Rhythm of the Night" by DeBarge. This movie theme became her first #1. It would be nominated for a Grammy and would be the first of ten (as of this posting date) Oscar nods for Warren in the Best Original Song category (she has yet to win). 2) Starship's Mickey Thomas and Grace Slick shared lead vocals on the song. With the tune hitting #1, it made Slick the oldest female lead vocalist to top the Pop chart at age 47. She would hold that record until 1999 when Cher hit #1 with "Believe." Cher was 52 at the time. As of this posting date, she still holds the record. 3) The film Mannequin starred "brat pack" member Andrew McCarthy and future Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall. Critics didn't like the movie, but audiences showed up anyway and made it a sizable hit easily besting the Sylvester Stallone flop Over the Top, which debuted the same weekend. It did well enough to get a sequel green-lit. In 1991, Mannequin Two: On the Move was released. McCarthy and Cattrall did not appear in the film, but Meshach Taylor, who played the flamboyant Hollywood Montrose in the original, did return. Kristy Swanson and William Ragsdale took on the lead roles. The film was a bomb with critics and at the box office.
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