Cheesy '80s Songs About Heart and Soul and Overcoming and Winning and Givin' it All That You Got (RIYL Action Movies and Training Montages and Cocaine)

Good ones. Yeah, I thought about Fight Song and Katy Perry's Roar, which both fit the bill to a certain extent, but they're definitely not 80s.

Right, just riffing.

80s training-montage music does seem to have been a sausagefest

We must not, however, stop thinking about tomorrow

I feel like Kim Mitchell's cheesy '80s song about heart and soul and overcoming but compromising and not partying too hard should be here as a cool down number.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXnTbmPxv5g

I feel like Sammy Hagar's "Winner Takes It All" and Queen's "I Want It All" are the harder-edge of this idea

lol that Bryan Adams has a song called "We're Gonna Win" that sounds like he's trying to do Green Day

Irene Cara - Flashdance...What A Feeling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILWSp0m9G2U

the cheeziest and worst of them all! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_E2EHVxNAE

I don't want to bring negativity to this thread, but that doesn't match the feel at all. Right Here Waiting is just a ballad.

I do think "What a Feeling" fits the thread topic though, good pick.

If I ever have a chance to select music for a bitchin' 80s training montage, that will be a contender.

Yeah, the thing that I notice about all the women's contributions that I've found is that they are much more individualistic. Like, the Irene Cara song is definitely disco-influenced pop. We Don't Need Another Hero is like a pop-rock ballad anthem thing? And I was just sitting around trying to decide whether The Goonies 'R' Good Enough would qualify, and that's squarely in the 'Cyndi Lauper' genre.

But the songs by dudes that make up the heart and backbone of this list that I think Old Lunch was trying to get at - your John Farnhams, your Stan Bushes, your Jean Beauvoirs and Larry Greenes - they all played this this weird, interchangeable kind of arena rock.

They were men in motion. They were the best around. Nothin' was gonna break their stride. Because they had what it takes and they gave it all they had. They were the champions, my friend.

"We Don't Need Another Hero" is more about surrendering and losing than overcoming and winning.

Your point is well taken, but isn't it nobler to rise up to the challenge of their rivals?

They did their time and took their chances. Regrets? Perhaps they had a few, but they gave their all and overcame the odds.

regrets
I've had a few
but then again
i gave my all and overcame the odds

I heard "we don't need another hero" the other day on the radio for the first time in ages, and divorced from its context and video it was cracking me up that this iconic pop-rock ballad anthem has totally earnest lyrics about Thunderdome

Yeah, that's definitely a little jarring.

I was just the other day thinking about starting a thread for songs like that, when I was half consciously listening to an old Bobby Brown jam and had briefly forgotten about the part where he randomly starts rapping about the plot of Ghostbusters 2. See also 'Man in Motion' (which isn't a bad selection for this thread, assuming it isn't already in here somewhere).

But can anyone name any more of these by women?

Oh duh, Amy Holland's 'She's On Fire' from Scarface is an even better one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e03_Mk53OhQ

This thread inevitably reminds me of my middle school chorus teacher, a man with the unfortunate name of Mr. Fenicle, who wore a horrible toupée and still lived with his mother. Barely closeted, in other words, but a very sweet and kind man.

However, because it was a public school and religious music wasn’t allowed, we had to sing a lot of choral arrangements of pop songs, so that my first exposure to many iconic songs was through chorus— we did “Man in Motion,” “What a Feeling,” and “Eye of the Tiger,” so basically the sorts of songs this thread is about. Also, tho, some others, including “La Isla Bonita,” “The Rose,” and “Allentown.”

I was in his classes for three years, and it was my time spent in those classes that made me realize the juvenile nature of so much cruelty— I would be sitting red-faced in the corner as some other kid would keep asking Mr. Fenicle if he’d seen “Deez” that day. It made me so sad for him.

Then he would start pounding away at the piano and we’d be singing “Tropical the island breeze.” This was suburban Philadelphia.

The 1989 Gillette jingle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThDBf14qPsc

cosign Flashdance

I think this

“Man in Motion,” “What a Feeling,” and “Eye of the Tiger,” so basically the sorts of songs this thread is about. Also, tho, some others, including “La Isla Bonita,” “The Rose,” and “Allentown.”

Would be a pretty fly set for my 80s cover band. I could even just do this as an acoustic open mic set!

Not in that order, though. I would probably alternate the inspirational anthems with the soft pop jams, and add like three flute solos

I know at least two separate dudes who specialize in doing 80s/90s pop diva stuff as middle-aged male acoustic-guitar songs.

Nothing compares (ahem) to a tipsy middle-aged white dad who will totally play yr Pat Benatar, Paula Abdul, Miley, Mariah, etc., in a sparsely populated suburban brewpub on a Monday night

Tbh Mr. Fenicle had reasonable taste, I’ve wondered in retrospect what sort of music he was really into.

An avenue worth exploring: I've noticed that there are a few of these songs where they've been used more than once, but by different artists. For instance, many people know the song Nothing's Gonna Stand In Our Way as performed by Spectre General (aka Kick Axe) on the Transformers the Movie soundtrack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVkytQtvBWM

But here is it being performed in 1984 by John Farnham (aka RAD dude) for the soundtrack of something called Savage Streets*:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8B7RLEslMc

*"Crossbow-armed Brenda (Linda Blair) hunts down a Hollywood gang led by a punk (Robert Dryer) with a razor-blade earring."

Oh fuck, just discovered that Sue Shifrin, one of the writers on John Farnham's Break The Ice, also co-wrote Robbi Robb's In Time from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Definitely more on the ballad side of things than most of these montage songs, but what do you think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTYcOQnJaSI

An avenue worth exploring: I've noticed that there are a few of these songs where they've been used more than once, but by different artists. For instance, many people know the song Nothing's Gonna Stand In Our Way as performed by Spectre General (aka Kick Axe) on the Transformers the Movie soundtrack.

Ok, so this isn't quite the same, but here's Stan Bush doing John Farnham's Thunder In Your Heart. This is a newer recording from 2014.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGSSuziWX3A

Here's more Joe "Bean" Esposito. Cry of the City, from the 1986 film Knights of the City. Co-written by Stan Bush's The Touch collaborator Lenny Macaluso.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kvKD5kG9z8

Not cheesy or eighties, but relevant to the interests of this thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lttMHEdpZM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWO_dNQLehM

Shooting Star by Sylvie Vartan, a Euro-Pop singer from Bulgaria. It was written by Gloria Sklerov, who along with Lenny Macaluso wrote Thunder In Your Heart and Cry of the City.

Exemplary! Every note of the guitar solo was exactly as expected.

Maybe Lee Aaron fits in here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbMAai64t9Y

Trying to find my way into more fitness/sports video soundtracks. Here's Bobby Caldwell - Don't Quit from 1984's Body By Jake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b00L5_WJS6U

Bonnie Tyler with another entry for the ladies: Breakout, from 1990 German action sports drama Fire, Ice and Dynamite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nlWeTL4dtk

Going just on the song titles, I bet there are several more "givin' it all you got" tunes on the soundtrack:

Bonnie Tyler– Breakout
Chris Thompson / Marietta*– Never Give Up
Connie De Groot– Win It All
Moses P.*– Muscles
Chris Thompson– Wire It Up
Deep Purple– Fire, Ice & Dynamite
Roger Chapman– Eye To Eye
Rockafella (2)– Get Ready
Bruce Ingram– Out Of Control
Dominoe– Rock Noon
Isaac Hayes– Fly
Jennifer Rush– We Are The Strong
Marietta*– Thunder & Lightning

Was “Man in Motion” used recently in a show or something? I hear it a LOT, like last Saturday, where I heard it in both a CVS and a smalltown bar within an hour or so. It didn’t used to be this popular, what gives?

Featured in Stelmo Things iirc

ever heard the version he did for Tim Tebow?

i've been playing St Elmos for years, since basically it was popular, so I welcome this

Did anyone mention Secret of My Success by Night Ranger?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUcRFTD_KEE

Keep an eye on their horn section, which is comprised of 0.5 Motley Crue + 1 Weird Al Yankovic.

Thanks— I was wondering whether it had been featured in the 80s throwback show of the moment. Fwiw, I also welcome it, because I love it.

Pokemon theme is pretty much this

― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, July 18, 2018 11:22 AM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

the Pokemon theme song is heavily influenced by this genre.

― peace, man, Saturday, April 30, 2022 6:50 AM (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm sorry, Adam. I didn't mean to bite your post.

Having watched at least part of every single Pokémon show and movie when my daughter was into them a few years back, I was certain that the main 1990s theme was not the only example of a Givin' it All That You Got song.

Stand Tall, from Pokémon the Movie: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel (2016) composed by Ed Goldfarb and performed by Ben Dixon and The Sad Truth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hzzdzj-pD4

Stay Together, originally from the episode Time Warp Heals All Wounds (2006) and on the Pokémon X: 10 Years of Pokémon CD (2007). Written and performed by Nini Camps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBebZa0UiwI

I'm sure that there are more heart and soul songs in Pokémon, but I will need to do further research.

While y'all are posting actual great songs, I'd like to make a nomination for the category of Worst Example of This Subgenre: the mind-bendingly terrible song from The Garbage Pail Kids Movie - "We Can Do Anything (By Working With Each Other)". Hooooly shit, this may be the most garbage (ha ha) song in movie soundtrack history.

Imagine the don't-expect-to-sleep-for-a-month-after-watching-this visuals of the creepy life-size anthropomorphic Garbage Pail Kids (one of whom is not a kid, but a freaking alligator) attempting a just ghastly rap-adjacent synthed-up Smurfs theme. And hey, that's a non-union sweatshop in which they are working!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeeQ41VS2S0

That is terrible. That movie was such a disgrace to the Garbage Pail Kids.

my mom took me when I was 7. I loved it, but I also loved Superman IV at that age so little Neanderthal was stupid

Have we talked about John Waite's "Change" yet? It was on the Vision Quest soundtrack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vLQdsQsq68

Tangent: seeing the word "duchy" in the news led me to think of Musical Youth, and I went down the rabbit hole of their fate, and got tangled up in that of John (no relation) Waite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vLQdsQsq68

I've never heard it but damn, that's the fun cheese that I would expect from that soundtrack.

was the movie it was attached to any good

I like how worried he is about losing his hat

he does lose his hat, that's what "Missing You" is about