“Holding Out for a Hero” – Single by Bonnie Tyler from the album Footloose and Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire
B-side “Faster Than the Speed of Night”
Released January 1984 (US) / April 1984 (UK)[1]
Recorded September to December 1983
Label CBS / Columbia
Composer Jim Steinman
Lyricist Dean Pitchford
Producer Jim Steinman
Charted No.34 in US; No.96 in UK; No.19 in West Germany; No.19 in Canada; No.8 in Finland.
Paramount Pictures asked Bonnie Tyler to record a song for the soundtrack to the 1984 film Footloose. She agreed on the condition that Jim Steinman, who was her producer at the time through CBS/Columbia, could work with her on the project. Steinman wrote the song with Dean Pitchford, who co-wrote every song on the soundtrack album. Tyler was invited to the Paramount film studios in Los Angeles to watch the film rushes to see how “Holding Out for a Hero” would fit into the plot.
The accompanying music video for “Holding Out for a Hero” was produced by Jeffrey Abelson for Parallax Productions, directed by Doug Dowdle, with the concept by Keith Williams. It was filmed at the Grand Canyon, Arizona, and at Veluzat Ranch, California. It was the second video released to promote Footloose while featuring no movie footage in the video.
The video sees Tyler escaping from a burning house; the video is set primarily in the vicinity of the burning house and on the edge of the Grand Canyon – interspersed with shots of angelic background singers in white dresses. Evil cowboys dressed in black, carrying neon whips appear before Tyler, threatening her; a cowboy hero dressed in white, brandishing a revolver, appears on horseback and the evil cowboys flee on horseback, with the hero in pursuit. As the song fades out, the hero cowboy appears in front of Tyler.
