You know, that movie with the awesome soundtrack that I crowned the winner of all soundtracks of all time? Well, that's mostly due to two songs: the one above, and "Maniac".
These songs are songs that you can't bypass when talking about 80's music. They're staples of an era when the music was fine and Jennifer Beals was even finer. Maniacally so, even. And that's where our Flashback Friday song this week comes from. Reaching number 1 on the Billboard chart in September of 1983, it proved to be just as much of a smash hit as the film. So, what makes this song work so well?
Well, part of it is the usage of the song in the movie to showcase the intensity of both the visual moment and the song. The two elements of the scene play off of each other extremely well. She's a maniac, the song is maniacal. It all works.
If I had to pick a favourite part of this song, it would be the guitar solo after that second chorus. It just adds a little extra punch to the flavour of the song. Just what the song needs, actually.
Now, there are rumours that this song was actually written for a very different movie, a 1980 horror film entitled Maniac. The legend goes that the lyrics were rewritten so that the song could be used for Flashdance. Which doesn't even sound like a convincing theory on its own, but when you also factor in the DVD release where the fact that the song was written for Flashdance shows up in the special features, you've got yourself a dead rumour. Urban legends: fun, but usually false.
That's really all I need to say about "Maniac". It's a fantastic dance song that was used appropriately to maximize its selling point, and it's got a wacky urban legend surrounding it. What more could you ask for? Well, maybe other than an all-expenses-paid getaway to Bora Bora. But let's not get greedy.
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