‘Hero’ Goes Platinum!
We are excited to announce that, according to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), “Holding Out for a Hero” by Bonnie Tyler has been certified Platinum in the UK as of July 2021, with sales in excess of 600,000.
“Holding Out for a Hero” was composed by Jim Steinman and Dean Pitchford for the soundtrack to Footloose in 1984. The instrumental originates from Steinman’s solo album Bad for Good on the track “Stark Raving Love”.
“Before we recorded it, I was invited to the Paramount film studios in Hollywood to view the rushes of the film,” Bonnie said. “It was in a little movie theatre with just me, my manager, and a few other people. It was the scene where Ren (Kevin Bacon) and Chuck (Jim Youngs) were playing a game of chicken, charging towards each other on tractors. Chuck jumps off first, but Ren’s shoelace catches on the pedal as he’s hurtling towards the other tractor. It helped me get a sense of the energy needed to perform the song.”
“Holding Out for a Hero” has become one of the most recognised songs of the 1980s. It reached the Top 40 in several European countries, and peaked at number 34 in the United States. It took a while to gain any success in Bonnie’s home country. As the fourth of seven singles from the Footloose soundtrack, it spent one week on the UK Singles Chart at number 96 in May 1984. From there, it became known as a “sleeper hit”, taking over a year and a half to gain any traction. Her record label reissued the song in September 1985.
“I had no idea that they’d re-released the song until I got a phone call from CBS inviting me to sing it on Top of the Pops. I was in New York at the time recording my next album, Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire, with Jim Steinman. I was on the first plane home!” After that, the song quickly shot to number 2 in the UK, just behind David Bowie and Mick Jagger’s Live Aid charity single “Dancing in the Street”.
The music video was filmed in California, with additional scenes at the Grand Canyon. “They were filming me from a helicopter and they almost blew me off the edge of the canyon! The cameraman shouted down his megaphone, ‘Sorry Bonnie, we won’t come so close next time!’ I said, ‘You won’t have a bloody chance to – I’m standing further back!'”
Bonnie later appeared in a parody of the music video, which saw David Copperfield levitating over the Grand Canyon.
The song was included as the final track from Bonnie’s 1986 album Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire, and she has since released three re-recordings.
Since its use in Footloose, “Holding Out for a Hero” has asserted itself as one of the most popular songs in film and television soundtrack history. It has appeared in Cover Up, Where’s Harry Crumb?, Bandits and Shrek 2.
“Holding Out for a Hero” went Silver in 2004, Gold in 2019, and now Platinum in 2021.