John Parr is actually a very nice person. i am disabled, and had pondered riding my powerchair to D.C. as a protest for Disabled Rights. i was able to contact Mr. Parr directly via email, and requested using this song as the song i would use for the protest ride, since it already had that connotation. He emailed me the next day, saying it would be just fine, and to let him know when i would be making the trip, and he would possibly either do a remix or updated version for the protest, and possibly join me for a part of the journey. i was amazed, even though it had been years since he had been in the public eye(at least in the US), that he was so open to helping and lending his song and name to the cause, but indeed, he is a really nice guy. Then my Mother got ill, and i had to set the protest aside so i could take care of her in my home, which i still do to this day. Mr. Parr was completely understanding and supportive, and said again, if you ever do this, just let me know. For showing such humanity (even though i wasn't a real fan of the music), i still will say hell yes he deserved better. -Just wish he had never recorded "Naughty Naughty"
Part of a long tradition.. In the 60s British invasion bands sang with American accents. After the British invasion, American bands tried to sing with British accents.
The Schumacher Batsoundtracks fall into a genre that was VERY popular in the 90s: Soundtrack WAY Better Than The Actual Movie See also: Judgment Night, Spawn, and many, many more!
@@jamesoblivion It really was such a *thing*. A320 is my favorite Foo Fighters song and does not deserve tied to that hideous Broderick Godzilla, and consequently barely available anywhere. At least most of the songs from City of Angels managed to escape it and fly free.
@@jamesoblivion okay when I listened to the spawn soundtrack I thought "hmmm, getting metal/rock acts to collaborate with electronic and hip hop acts for a movie ost? that's pretty interesting and unique!" and then I saw that judgement night did the exact same thing, so... as someone who wasn't alive back then, was this just a weirdly specific *thing*?
John Parr, Stan Bush, Joe Esposito, and Robert Tepper belong to a subgenre I call "hero rock". Inspirational, never-give-up, you-can-succeed movie themes. It's actually one of my favorite subcategories of music. And John Parr was the most successful of the four, simply because of "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)".
Tom Breihan in his "The Number Ones" column on Stereogum I think, hit the nail on the head for why "Man in Motion" was so huge. It was a grandly optimistic, motivational you-can-do-anything rocker that broke through in ways that the St. Elmo Fire movie didn't. The lyrics are when you really look into it, may be ridiculous but they're ridiculous in all the best ways. Like with John Parr, you could genuinely believe that he's celebrating his own striving.
I'd like to point out how Meatloaf is playing a guitar adorned with the Union Jack in that Rock and Roll Merceneries video. He's pretty much openly mocking Parr right to his face.
The film this song is from was absolutely eviscerated by Siskel & Ebert. In fact they hated it so much that they included in in their "10 worst Movies of 1985".
Troodon I’m a big fan of 80s Cinema and this one eluded me for years. Finally saw it on TV several years ago. Absolutely hated it. Connected with none of the characters, felt like lint collecting would’ve been a better use of my time.
To be fair, I think Ebert's biggest complaint was that they made Rob Lowe getting drunk and crashing his car into a joke. It wasn't a perfect movie, but it didn't deserve zero stars.
I'm surprised that you didn't mention some of the powerful magic that propelled this beyond Parr's other songs. Music written by David Foster, production by Foster, with a backing band that included several people from Toto and backing vocals from guys in REO Speedwagon and Mr. Mister. This song is pure 80's to its core.
@@nickrustyson8124 Oddly enough, if you go by which one is covered most on RU-vid, I think it would be Kyrie, not Broken Wings. (Me, I like the whole album both of those come from, so...) But that's the problem right there, they really aren't a one-hit wonder. They are a two-hit wonder, with an additional three somewhat forgettable hits. That said, I wouldn't mind seeing Todd give them the full treatment anyway because I'm sure the video would be great.
In grade 7 I was awarded a Rick Hansen award( pretty much for vein 's good person) and they blasted this song while I was walking on stage. I love this song so much
Pair of wheels: this song has infuriated me for years because I thought "pair of wheels" was referring to a car ... which would mean the car has only two wheels? or that each two-wheel set counted as one pair? Every time I heard it, it hurt me. Bless you, Todd, for taking the pain away. On a side note, I went through something of a crisis a few months back. I had to stay out of my head, and driving around listening to your best and worst lists for hours at a time turned out to be the best -- really, the only -- way to cope. You didn't know it, but you were at my side during some of the darkest days of my life, and I will always be grateful for it.
'Restless Heart', outro song for 'The Running Man' movie, is another great John Parr song. He played Paris in the musical of the same name and hit it out of the park. He was amazing!
2gether was the name of that fake Mtv boy band. "You took my sweater my hat/ I can not find my cat/ The hardest part of breaking up/ Is getting back your stuff"
@@qwertyTRiG They had some hilarious (and catchy) songs. The band was made up of actors, including Chris Farley's brother. They all still act occasionally... except the youngest member, who sadly died at 16 due to pneumonia after having cancer as a child.
It cracks me up seeing the cast of the film moping around looking intensely serious in the music video, like it was something really meaningful and poignant they were doing instead of filming a corny music video for a corny Dad rock anthem for a corny brat pack movie no one remembers. Like, I still think about it occasionally and smile, five years after watching this.
My memories of this song are being 8 (and my brother 6 or 7) and having my babysitter make up (extremely literal) interpretive dances to this song and making us perform them for her and her friend's amusement.
I know this video is old, but I swear I come back for the New Jersey line. Being born and raised in NJ, I can safely say I've seen John Parr look alikes all points north south east and west here in the great Garden State. Hysterical.
Johnny Parr's 'Naughty Naughty' was in the movie 'Near Dark'. That is definitely a movie you should check out as this song is in one of the most brutal death scenes an 80's movie can have.
@@sendnewbsskydiving7616 Yeah, fair enough, but people talk about it like it's some sort of under appreciated piece of genius. It's not. Presumably you're talking about the kid dying scene, and yeah it's a really good scene, that evokes genuine emotion, but "one of the most brutal" death scenes from the 80s? Not even close. This was the decade of some of the best horror movies that have been made to this day, that took brutal death scenes (Hellraiser?) to whole new levels of brutality. Unless you're talking about the bar scene, in which case, lol.
That whole summer when SEF came out, it was always the movie the ushers forced us to go see every time we tried to sneak into an R-rated movie after buying tickets for a PG or PG-13, so I wound up seeing it like five times. It was intended as punishment, and it was punishment.
He actually made the film Tigerland, about a disobedient recruit at a military training base, that was really good. It was Colin Farrell's breakout role. He made it after Batman and Robin.
Dylan Woodson I don't really consider Phantom a dud, per se. The only real problem with it was the casting and the direction. Gerard Butler can't sing and Patrick Wilson gave one of the worst performances of his professional career, but otherwise, it was okay. It certainly followed the story of the musical closely enough.
Even before Todd made this joke explicitly, all I could imagine in my head as soon as I first heard this song were highlight clips of Hulk Hogan barreling his way to the ring waving the American flag, and of the Hulkster giving his opponent the leg drop. And I’m a wrestling fan who knows damn sure what Hulk’s actual iconic theme music was; this song just fits that well.
i was high school president when rick hansen came through my canadian hone town 300 miles from the end of his journey ...i still have the pic of me handing him a cheque from our school...and this song played as he came and left the stage...rick hansen did something truly amazing
his face screamed British to me. when you said something about new jersey I was surprised for a second until you said he was British. and then I was like. "that explains why he looks British".
How is there any difference between Americans, British, new new Zealanders and Australians? It's all the anglo sphere and we all are from the same people.
@@TheRetroManRandySavage Why do Europeans look different then Africans? Why do Asians look different from Europeans? Why do Africans look different from each other? We all come from the same people. It is because of local geographically isolated ethnic groups. Even if two groups of people come from the same group of people originally if they are geographically isolated from each other they will evolve to be at least somewhat unique from each other based on local environment and geography. Also genetic variations of the individuals that formed and then founded those two groups (it is possible for siblings to each be in a separate group and very similar genetics to be in both groups. But even then unless they are identical twins their genetics are still notably varied from each other). This is exasperated by local cultural views on attractiveness and selective sexual mating based on that (meaning while blonds may have lots of kids in one group in the other blonds may have not while red heads or people with brown hair have lots of kids. Meaning after a few generations one group has almost nothing but blonds while the other has almost nothing but brown or red hair).
This song brings back many, happy, proud memories. I competed with Rick Hansen (and Terry Fox) and was in my 20s when Rick did the Man In Motion tour. Very very proud to be a Canadian. I've seen the movie but have no memory of it so this song is all about Rick.
This song was in heavy rotation on MTV for months, like if you left the channel on for more than half an hour for much of 1985 you were almost guaranteed to see it, and it would remain a staple at the channel for years.
The man in motion is Rick Hansen a Canadian who rolled across the world in his wheelchair and this was his theme song as well as st elmo's fire.....it was allover Canadian radio in the 80s, I remember because he came through the city of moose jaw and visited my school
LOL 2gether was the fake parody boyband. The funny thing is they actually could sing. They had a rival boyband called whoa!, and if you listen to their song "rub one out" It was about masturbation. I don't think the age demographic was really aware of that unless they really listened to the lyrics lol.
I remember when the movie came out. I think it was MTV's first movie. I bought the soundtrack. I was in middle school at the time. 2ge+her I think was how it was written? It's been a hot minute.
@@Melissa-wx4lu Personally, I've always wondered why the general public of the year 2000 such as yourself took an honest-to-God *parody* of boy bands seriously enough to have them open for Britney Spears
I’ve seen St. Elmo’s Fire last night, and I can confirm that it is as bad as Todd made it out to be. Like I can’t say Schumacher trying desperately hard to be John Hughes and failing isn’t as awful as Batman and Robin, mainly because St. Elmo’s Fire doesn’t assault the senses with bad puns and obnoxious corniness as Batman and Robin, but it is just as infuriating! Like about ten to fifteen minutes in, Demi Moore tries to force that one guy from Pretty in Pink into a gay relationship when he is straight... Also when I see John Parr flying with angel wings taped to his back, am I the only one that is reminded of Crowded House?
Interesting fact: John Parr was born in the same Nottinghamshire town (Worksop) as Bruce Dickinson, the lead singer of Iron Maiden and Hollwood actor Donald Pleasence (the original Ernest Stavro Blofield in You Only Live Twice and Doctor Sam Loomis in the original Halloween)
This my absolute favorite song. The only song that is on my cleaning playlist twice. Been watching your videos for forever and never knew you had done an episode about it/him. Nice!!
as a Canadian who grew up in the 80s - holy shit yes I have heard of this song. It was EVERYWHERE. They even modified the music video to include shots of Rick Hansen as well as (possibly instead of? I forget) the movie.
I'm sorry, "love grammar" sounds like a okay title..... because I thought he was saying "love grandma" .....yeah..... I appreciate that Meatloaf has a union jack to match the stars and stripes...... I can't help but think ML was taking the pisd.
My ex wife used this song as her alarm in the morning. She slept through the whole thing about four times in a row every time. I heard this song every day for four years.
I guess you can say John Parr was... Sub-Par! HEEEEEEEEEEE! And where did this come from!? I've been subscribed for quite a while, browsed through his videos on this channel, and I didn't know this existed until it showed up in the Recommended section. Sheesh. Maybe I missed that "Welcome To My Life" review I've been wanting as well...
Man this song used to get me absolutely pumped! I've probably heard it hundreds of times in my life and never known what it was called, or what the majority of its lyrics were. Sweet video!
I recommend the whole John Parr debut album. Aside from St. Elmo's Fire, there are some real slices of hard rocking 80s cheese on there if you don't mind some slightly dumb lyrics. Love Grammar and Naughty Naughty are great products of their time.
The Mainstream Rock Chart measures radio airplay, and Naughty Naughty got a lot of it. It got plenty of exposure on MTV, too. So it was far better known than its #23 Hot 100 peak would suggest.
John Parr not to long ago, was interviewed on My 80s Playlist on the Virgin Radio UK RU-vid channel. He's obviously older looking now when compared to his "St. Elmo's Fire" heyday, but he still has his mullet believe it or not.
