Songoftheday 5/1/14 - Growin' up you don't see the writing on the wall, passin' by movin' straight ahead you knew it all...

John Parr - "St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)"
from the album St. Elmo's Fire (Original Soundtrack) (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's Song of the Day is brought to us by English singer/songwriter John Parr, whose mainstream rock debut "Naughty Naughty" nabbed him a top-40 pop hit in America in March of 1985. After touring with the soft-rock band Toto, Parr and producer/writer David Foster came together to write a song for the "Brat Pack" comedy/drama St. Elmo's Fire. named after the movie, the actual song itself was inspired by athlete Rick Hansen, whose "Man In Motion" tour (he's in a wheelchair) provided the subtitle for the single. With horns probably from Chicago (Foster was producing the group) and tourmates Toto backing him up, the song was a ready-made anthem for the typical 80's movie....

"St. Elmo's Fire" went to #1 on the American pop chart in September of 1985, while reaching #2 on the Mainstream Rock and #4 on the Adult Contemporary radio chart. It also was a big international success, becoming his first top-10 hit in his native Britain at #6, while going to #1 in Canada and top ten in Ireland, Austria, Sweden, and Switzerland.

It would be not only his only chart-topping hit in America, it would be the last time he would be in the top-40 in the U.S. After the success of the single, he re-released "Love Grammar" from his debut album, and then a sophomore record with the single "Blame It On The Radio", both which stalled in the 80's on the pop chart in America. Meanwhile, in England, John's collaboration with fellow bombastic rock singer Meat Loaf, "Rock N Roll Mercenaries", made it into the UK top-40 at #31 in 1986.

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In 2006, a remixed version of the song from the Tommyknocked retitled "New Horizon", which climbed to #43 on the British singles chart...