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St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)
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Date Aired
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May 12, 2015
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Running Time
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15:35
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Todd plays "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)" on the piano.
JOHN PARR - ST. ELMO'S FIRE (MAN IN MOTION)
A one-hit wonder retrospective
Todd: Welcome back to One Hit Wonderland, where we take a look at bands and artists known for only one song. Today, I am filming the second of the requests I sold on Patreon. And today's patron gave me a couple options, but I knew instantly which one I wanted to cover
Video for "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)"
Todd (VO): See, I've said before that I didn't listen to much or any pop music when I was a kid, but there was one exception.
Todd: I don't remember where I got it, but I had this [very brief picture of the cover of...] CD of 80's movies themes that I played all the time, because it had [brief clips of Ray Parker Jr.'s...] "Ghostbusters" on it. It's also where I first heard [...and Huey Lewis and the News'...] "The Power of Love", [...and Michael Sembello's...] "Maniac", and a bunch of others. [...and the Blue Brothers' - "Gimme Some Lovin'"] So I still have super-fond memories of everything on that CD, [...and Phil Collins'...] even "Take a Look at Me Now", which is not a song you need to listen to more than once. And right in the middle of that CD, there was this.
- John Parr: I can see a new horizon
- Underneath the blazing sky
Todd (VO): This is "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)", the theme to the Brat Pack movie of the same name...minus the "Man in Motion" part, it's just St. Elmo's Fire.
- John: Take me where the future's lyin'
- St. Elmo's Fire
Todd (VO): I don't know how well people remember this song. It's not like I heard this song on the radio ever, except...
Todd: ...once, randomly, last week while I was writing this episode, which has to be a sign.
Todd (VO): And I know people don't remember the singer. Matter of fact, John Parr seems to belong to this weird sub-genre of rock—sweaty, hairy guys who weren't really flashy enough for MTV and made a living solely off of big pump-up soundtrack hits. You know, guys like...
Todd: ...Stan Bush...
- Clips of "The Touch" from Transformer: The Movie...
- Stan: You've got the touch
Todd: ...Paul Engemann...
- ..."Push It to the Limit" from Scarface...
- Paul: Push it to the limit
Todd: ...Joe Esposito...
- ... and "You're the Best" from The Karate Kid
- Joe: You're the best around
- Nothing's ever gonna...
Todd: Yeah, tie yourself to a well-liked movie, and your song's gonna have a surprisingly long shelf-life.
Todd (VO): And that definitely worked for John Parr. This was a #1 single in 1985, [album cover of Sports by...] Huey Lewis's "The Power of Love" [concert pic of...] and Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing"
Todd: '85 was apparently a good year for rock songs made by spectacularly normal dudes.
- John: I can feel St. Elmo's Fire burning in me
Todd (VO): Well, that's what we've got this week—a kick-ass, inspirational anthem with a weird title by a guy no one's heard of.
Todd: I live for this kind of music. Let's check this guy out.
- John: You broke the boy in me
- But you can't break the man
Before the hit
Transcript in progress