"Let's Hear It for the Boy" is a song by Deniece Williams that appeared on the soundtrack to the feature film '' Footloose''. The song was released as a single from both the soundtrack and her album of the song's same name on February 14, 1984, by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the A ...

. It was written by

Tom Snow Thomas Righter Snow (born 1947 in Princeton, New Jersey) is an American songwriter. Biography Snow has written songs for Gayle McCormick "(Even a Fool Would Let Go" with Kerry Chater – a song covered by a number of artists including Kenny ...

and

Dean Pitchford Dean Pitchford (born July 29, 1951) is an American songwriter, screenwriter, director, actor, and novelist. His work has earned him an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for three additional Oscars, two more Golden Globes, ei ...

and produced by

George Duke George M. Duke (January 12, 1946 – August 5, 2013) was an American keyboardist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer. He worked with numerous artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and as a pr ...

. The song became Williams' second number one on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on May 26, 1984, also topping the

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire ...

and R&B charts, and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, behind "

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" is a song by the English duo Wham!, first released as a single in the UK on 14 May 1984. It became their first UK and US number one hit. It was written and produced by George Michael. The single was certified pla ...

" by

Wham! Wham! (briefly known in the US as Wham! U.K.) were an English pop duo formed in Bushey in 1981. The duo consisted of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. They became one of the most commercially successful pop acts of the 1980s, selling mor ...

. It was nominated for an

Academy Award for Best Original Song The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who have composed ...

, and was certified platinum in the US, gold in Canada and silver in the UK by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/ ...

Music Canada Music Canada (formerly Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA)) is a non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, manufacture, produce, and distribute music in Canada. It ...

and the

British Phonographic Industry British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the British recorded music industry's Trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards, the Classic BRIT Awards, National Album Day, is home to the Mercury Prize, and co-owns the Official Charts Company with ...

respectively. The music video was released in mid-April 1984. The song features background vocals from George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, who would go on to form the duo Boy Meets Girl. In 2011, country singer Jana Kramer covered the song for the remake of '' Footloose''. In 2017 the song was covered by UK

hi-NRG Hi-NRG (pronounced "high energy") is a genre of uptempo disco or electronic dance music (EDM) that originated in the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a music genre, typified by fast tempo, staccato hi-hat rhythms (and the ...

dance artist Allan Jay in aid of the Retired Greyhound Trust and their Let's Hear It for the Boy campaign.

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

for the song features Williams along with several young men, one of them being the singer

Aaron Lohr Aaron Lohr (born April 7, 1976) is an American actor. Early life and education Lohr was born in Crofton, Maryland. He is a graduate of UCLA, where he majored in theater. Film and television career Lohr portrayed the Dancing Boy in Deniece ...

as the young boy who is the first person to appear in the video.

Credits and personnel

– composition *

– composition * Deniece Williams – lead vocals, backing vocals * George Merrill – backing vocals * Shannon Rubicam – backing vocals *

– producer,

drum programming Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices and computer software, such as sequencers and workstations or hardware synthesizers, sampler and sequencers, to generate sounds of musical instruments. These ...

, keyboards, Memory Moog bass,

Prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the ...

synthesizer, synthesizer * Paul Jackson, Jr. – guitar * Paulinho Da Costa – percussion

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References