Footloose at 40

In the wake of 1983’s Flashdance, two things had become clear in Hollywood: dance pictures could still make money in the ‘80s, and dance picture soundtracks could make enormous money. Partially inspired by a true story, a lyricist writing his first screenplay managed to get a deal, a director, and a fresh cast of future stars. Here’s how the dance got started.

The concept of Footloose originated from an idea by Dean Pitchford. Before the’80s, Pitchford had made a name for himself in the New York theater world. He was in Godspell off-Broadway in 1971 and played the titular character in Pippin in 1975 after being cast by Bob Fosse. Pitchford also performed in dozens of national TV commercials. Pitchford’s own skill as a lyricist saw him collaborate with Broadway royalty, including Peter Allen, Alan Menken, and Stephen Schwartz. By the end of the decade, Pitchford and Michael Gore had teamed up to write three songs for the film that would become 1980’s Fame. The duo wrote “I Sing the Body Electric,” “Red Light,” and the title tune.

Irene Cara performing “Fame” (Uploaded to YouTube by ShoutFactoryVEVO)

“Fame” hit No. 4 in the States and won both the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Song. The level of attention opened pathways into pop for Pitchford and Gore. Among the songs that Pitchford collaborated on in the early part of the Reagan decade were Melissa Manchester’s mega-hit “You Should Hear How She Talks about You” and the Steve Perry/Kenny Loggins team-up “Don’t Fight It,” which went to No. 20. But beyond the live theater and pop charts, Pitchford had a concept for another world to conquer: musical film. And the roots of that idea were inspired by an Oklahoma town of fewer than 1,000 people, Elmore City.

During the 1979-1980 school year, Elmore City attracted national attention when students at the local high school began to organize and fight back against a ban on dancing inside the town limits that stretched all the way back to 1898. The kids’ protests led to series of town and school board meetings that culminated in the students having a prom in 1980. Pritchard, who had already been casting about for a story that he could build a film musical around, had found his inspiration.

Footloose trailer (Uploaded to YouTube by Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers)

After a brief affiliation with Fox, Pritchard got the screenplay set up at Paramount in 1982. The first choice for director was Herbert Ross. Ross had a proven track record with musicals, comedy, and musical-comedy, but had also racked up an Academy Award nomination for Best Director for the ballet-infused drama The Turning Point. When an initial deal could not be reached, the studio targeted Ron Howard (who opted for Splash) and Michael Cimino (who actually was hired, but made too many demands).  Eventually, Ross got on board and the picture was, seemingly, rolling.

“Footloose” music video (Uploaded to YouTube by Kenny Loggins)

More snags happened in the casting process. At various points, it seemed that Tom Cruise and Rob Lowe would be the lead. Cruise decided to make a different movie (All the Right Moves), and Lowe had an injury that made dancing out of the question. The leading role of Ren McCormack would go to Kevin Bacon. Bacon was already a visible presence in films like Animal House and Friday the 13th, but it was his role in Diner that put him on a much bigger map.

The female lead, Ariel, went to Lori Singer, a cello prodigy who was the youngest graduate of Julliard. Singer was cast as one of the leads of the TV adaptation of Fame in 1982; her background and visibility paved the way for her to take the role.

“Let’s Hear It for the Boy” music video (Uploaded to YouTube by Deneice Williams)

Rounding out the young side of the cast as close friends of Ren and Ariel were Chris Penn and Sarah Jessica Parker. Penn was the brother of actor Sean Penn (who was having a break-out decade) and musician Michael Penn; ironically, he had been able to appear in All the Right Moves (the film Cruise had done instead of Footloose) before filming his part. Parker had already played Annie on Broadway and was a lead of the short-lived but much-loved CBS sitcom Square Pegs. The crucial roles of Ariel’s parents, Revered Shaw Moore and Vi Moore, went to John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest. Lithgow was coming off of Best Supporting Actor nominations in both 1982 (The World According to Garp) and 1983 (Terms of Endearment), and Wiest’s career was heading toward orbit (she’d win an Oscar herself for Hannah and Her Sisters before the decade was out).

“Almost Paradise” (Uploaded to YouTube by Mike Reno-Topic)

But for a film that emphasizes the importance of dancing (and by extension, the arts in general), the music had come through. While the movie did include several songs from the day (including such disparate hits as Quiet Riot’s “Bang Your Head (Metal Health)” and John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Hurts So Good) that were already popular, Pitchford co-wrote nine new original songs for the soundtrack. These collaborations included: two with Kenny Loggins (the title track and “I’m Free (Heaven Helps the Man)”); two with Tom Snow (“Let’s Hear It for the Boy,” performed by Deneice Williams, and “Somebody’s Eyes,” performed by Karla Bonoff); “Almost Paradise … Love Theme from Footloose,” co-written with Eric Carmen and performed by Ann Wilson of Heart and Mike Reno of Loverboy; Sammy Hagar (“The Girl Gets Around”); his old partner Gore (“Never” by Moving Pictures); Bill Wolfer (“Dancing in the Sheets” by Shalamar); and the master of bombast, Jim Steinman (“Holding Out for a Hero” by Bonnie Tyler).

Ross suffused the film in music. The dance scenes were obvious spots for inclusion, but Ross managed to make scenes like playing chicken with tractors into mini music videos. Cross-pollinating an old-school movie musical aesthetic and the quick-cutting popularized by MTV, Ross managed to make a movie that functioned alternately as a drama and a dance musical without short-changing either side.

“Holding Out for a Hero” (Uploaded to YouTube by Bonnie Tyler)

Released on February 17, 1984, the $7.5 million film would make ten times its budget in American alone. Buoyed by positive word of mouth in a year full of hits, Footloose finished seventh at the box office behind Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Gremlins, The Karate Kid, and Police Academy. It’s also fair to say that the continued popularity of the soundtrack kept the movie in the front of people’s minds for months. In a year where only five albums would be No. 1, the soundtrack itself topped the album chart for an astonishing 10 straight weeks (for the record, the other four chart-topping albums in 1984 were Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Prince and the Revolution’s Purple Rain, Huey Lewis and the News’s Sports, and Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A.).

“Dancing in the Sheets” by Shalamar (Uploaded to YouTube by UniDiscMusic)

Of the nine songs, six were Top 40 hits, three went Top 10, and two went all the way to No. 1. “Footloose,” “I’m Free (Heaven Helps the Man),” “Let’s Hear It for the Boy,” “Almost Paradise … Love Theme from Footloose,” “Dancing in the Sheets,” and “Holding Out for a Hero” made the Top 40. “Almost Paradise … Love Theme from Footloose” cracked the Top Ten at No. 7, and “Let’s Hear It for the Boy,” and “Footloose” both hit No. 1. On Billboard’s year-end chart, “Footloose” was the No. 4 song of 1984. Both it and “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” were nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Song, but lost to “I Just Called to Say I Love You” by Stevie Wonder (from The Woman in Red).

Footloose has stuck around in American culture ever since. The songs are all staples of ’80s radio. The movie was remade into a Broadway musical and then remade on film in 2011. In the wake of his musical success with this film and the earlier Caddyshack, Kenny Loggins was anointed “The King of the Soundtrack” and would go on to even more movie music success with the likes of Top Gun and Over the Top; his high profile at the time also saw him named one of the featured artists on “We Are the World.”

The “Kevin Bacon scene” from Guardians of the Galaxy (Uploaded to YouTube by JoBlo Movie Clips)

Bacon, of course, went on to be one of the hardest-working and most recognizable actors of his generation. His ubiquity inspired the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game. In 2014, an extended joke celebrating Bacon as a legendary hero for the events of Footloose appeared in the hit Marvel film Guardians of the Galaxy and was continued into Avengers: Infinity War; that bit led to Bacon playing himself in the subsequent 2022 The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special and, via photo, 2023’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Pitchford would continue write hit songs (like Whitney Houston’s “All the Man That I Need”), movie music, and prose fiction. Ross directed for years on Broadway and in Hollywood before his 2001 passing; of his later work, perhaps the best loved is Steel Magnolias.

The movie musical survives today, but aside from a few luminaries like Damien Chazelle, rarely are they constructed from an idea by a central creative figure and then brought to life by songs written by that same person. At a cultural moment where some of the biggest talents in history were releasing albums and an overflow of classic films was hitting theaters, Pitchford’s idea managed to plant one foot in each section of ground before dancing for all it was worth. After all, it’s 40 years later and we’re still talking about it. As Ms. Williams might have sung, let’s hear it for the man, and his movie.