Songoftheday 6/12/13 - I've been chasing dreams for so long, just one step behind and then they're gone...

Irene Cara - "The Dream (Hold On To Your Dream)"
from the album ...What A Feelin' (1983) or D.C. Cab (Original Soundtrack) (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #37 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 3

Today's Song of the Day is by 80's movie theme queen Irene Cara, who had scored big hits with songs from Fame and Flashdance. The followup to the latter's theme, "Why Me?" became her first big non-soundtrack hit at the end of 1983. After that, Irene appeared in the movie D.C. Cab, which brought together talent like the A-Team's Mr. T, pre-crazy Gary Busey, and Wojo from Barney Miller. Hoping to strike gold again, the writing team of Giorgio Moroder (who wrote "Flashdance") and Pete Bellotte (who worked with Giorgio with Donna Summer at her height) along with Cara penned "The Dream", a sweeping number that clearly has Moroder's Donna Summer influences on it....

Though promoted heavily with a soundtrack including R&B stars like Shalamar, DeBarge, and Stephanie Mills, the R-rated romp fizzled when Mr. T's kiddie fans couldn't get in to the show, and while "The Dream" made the top-40, it didn't match the success of her last two singles. It did manage to get to #26 on the dance chart (probably on Moroder's name), but stalled down at #65 on the R&B chart.  Cara would do better next time by co-opting a little dance craze that was just getting started.

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Lastly, here's Irene on Solid Gold...

Up tomorrow: Hugh Craig gets a prescription for a hit.