One of my all-time favorite songs comes from one of the worst films of all time, 1984’s Streets Of Fire. Not Dan Hartman’s “I Can Dream About You,” a #6 hit properly heralded just this morning on Twitter, but the much lesser known “Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young” by Fire Inc., which peaked at a paltry #80 on the Billboard Hot 100 nearly 28 years ago this week.
Billed as “A Rock & Roll Fable,” Streets Of Fire stars Michael Paré, Diane Lane, Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Rick Moranis, and Willem Dafoe. Set in seedy, unnamed environs, Lane plays a kidnapped rock star whose soldier ex-boyfriend Paré returns to rescue her. I won’t even go into the ridiculousness of the rest, except to say that Lane’s performance earned her a Razzie nod for Worst Supporting Actress. (Some scenes were shot in Chicago, so the film does have that going for it.)
Ry Cooder did the score for Streets Of Fire, while future Interscope Records president/American Idol mentor Jimmy Iovine supervised “special musical material,” including “Sorcerer,” penned by pal Stevie Nicks and performed by Marilyn Martin (with Nicks on backing vocals, who later recorded it for 2001’s Trouble In Shangri-La). The soundtrack was originally meant to feature a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets Of Fire” (from 1978’s Darkness On The Edge Of Town) but The Boss, though also a close Iovine associate, refused to give his permission.
Thank goodness, because in its place came “Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young,” one of two original songs credited to Fire Inc., a studio band comprised of producer Jim Steinman (Meatloaf, Bonnie Tyler, Celine Dion) and vocalists Holly Sherwood, Laurie Sargent (Face To Face), Rory Dodd, and Eric Troyer, plus a cadre of musicians. “Tonight” closes Streets Of Fire, while the other, “Nowhere Fast,” provides the film’s opener.
Both tracks bear Steinman’s unmistakable Wagnerian stamp, but while “Nowhere Fast” is good, it cannot touch “Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young.” Steinman’s studio mantra has got to be “Go big or go home,” and Fire Inc.’s epic conflagration — comprised of 72 tracks of vocals, according to lead Sherwood — is out of control in the greatest of ways. Dramatic, outsized, and outrageously hooky, I can’t believe “Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young” didn’t catch fire.
The single got my attention (and my money) in the summer of 1984 because the music video for “Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young” was played endlessly on an a fledgling Chicago TV station, shown alongside other memorable clips from Prince (“When Doves Cry”), Madonna (“Lucky Star”), Scandal (“The Warrior”), Tina Turner (“What’s Love Got To Do With It”), Laura Branigan (“Self Control”) and The Time (“Ice Cream Castles”). It was an amazing time for pop music, and easily one of its best ever years, thanks to a mix of huge hits and underground songs like the unforgettable “Tonight,” which still has me dancing for the restless and the brokenhearted:
Originally planned as a trilogy until its disappointing box office returns, Streets Of Fire has finally gotten an unofficial sequel of sorts. Road To Hell, which stars original SOF actors Paré and Van Valkenburgh, was largely shot in 2008 with additional scenes filmed last October in Las Vegas. The trailer prominently features a new version of “Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young.”
Purchase Fire Inc. – “Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young” via iTunes.
