Still celebrating composer Jim Steinman’s birthday, today’s classic song of the day is one of his tunes from the 1984 movie, Streets of Fire. “Tonight is What It Means to Be Young” was the movie’s closer, sung in the movie by lead character Ellen Aim (Diane Lane). In reality, Ms. Lane was lip synching to a studio group called Fire Inc.
“Tonight is What It Means to Be Young,” like most of the songs in the movie, was produced by Jimmy Iovine. For Ellen Aim’s singing voice on this and other songs, he combined the voices of singers Laurie Sargent and Holly Sherwood; Ms. Sherwood sang lead on “Tonight is What It Means to Be Young” and Ms. Sargent sang lead on another Steinman tune, “Nowhere Fast.” Fire Inc., as the project was called, also featured male vocalists Rory Dodd and Eric Troyer and a bevy of top-notch studio musicians, including E Streeters Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg on piano and drums, respectively.
Streets of Fire was a flop when it was first released, going $14 million over budget and not recouping that loss at the box office. Thanks to home video (videotapes first, then DVDs), it eventually became a cult classic. The film, directed and co-written by Walter Hill, billed itself as “A Rock and Roll Fable” and very well could be a 14 year-old boy’s fever dream, filled with classic Studebakers, angry motorcycle gangs, stylishly choreographed fights, punchy rock and roll music, and a genuine damsel in distress. It was a beautiful-looking film, full of deep shadows, rain-slicked streets, and neon lights.
The movie starred a raft of up-and-coming young actors, led by Michael Paré as Cody, the hero; Diane Lane as Ellen Aim, his rock singer ex-girlfriend; Willem Dafoe as Raven, the leader of the motorcycle gang; Rick Moranis as Billy Fish, Ellen Aim’s annoying manager; Amy Madigan as McCoy, Cody’s tomboyish sort-of sidekick, and Deborah van Valkenburgh as Reva, Cody’s sister. The plot involves Raven and his gang kidnapping Ellen Aim and Cody, McCoy, and Billy Fish’s trek to rescue her.
The me, the highlights of Streets of Fire are the faux concert numbers, shot in a hyperrealistic style by cinematographer Andrew Laszlo. Ms. Lane, as Ms. Aim, stuns in a slinky red dress, supported by various actors pretending to sing backup and play their instruments.
The music for these sequences came from a variety of composers, including Dan Hartman (“I Can Dream About You“), Ry Cooder, and the aforementioned Jim Steinman. Mr. Steinman contributed the show-stopping final number that pushes the whole enterprise so far over the top there’s no coming down. It’s a melodramatic, operatic, and just plain gonzo production that starts at 11 and keeps going from there. It’s the perfect way to end a film that is itself excessive and over-the-top. I loved it.
Which brings us to today’s daily bonus video of the day, the end segment of Streets of Fire, featuring a concert bit that starts with “I Can Dream About You” and leads into “Tonight is What It Means to Be Young.” Prepare to enter a world where the beautiful, the brutal, and the brave all meet… in Streets of Fire.
