"Let's Hear It for the Boy" is a song by

Deniece Williams Deniece Williams (born June Deniece Chandler; June 3, 1951) is an American singer. She has been described as "one of the great soul voices" by the BBC. She is best known for the songs " Free", " Silly", "It's Gonna Take a Miracle" and two ''Bill ...

that appeared on the soundtrack to the feature film ''

Footloose Footloose may refer to: * ''Footloose'' (1984 film), a musical film ** ''Footloose'' (1984 soundtrack) ** "Footloose" (song), performed by Kenny Loggins * ''Footloose'' (2011 film), a remake of the 1984 film ** ''Footloose'' (2011 soundtrack) ...

''. 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, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. 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, eig ...

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 repertoir ...

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 more ...

. 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 th ...

, 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/o ...

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 a ...

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 th ...

respectively. The music video was released in mid-April 1984. The song features background vocals from George Merrill and

Shannon Rubicam Shannon Rubicam (born October 11, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter who is best known for being half of the mid-to-late-1980s pop duo Boy Meets Girl. Her husband, George Merrill, was the other half of Boy Meets Girl, best known for their ...

, who would go on to form the duo Boy Meets Girl. In 2011, country singer

Jana Kramer Jana Rae Kramer (born December 2, 1983) Gives birthplace as Detroit, Michigan, of which Rochester Hills is a suburb. is an American country music singer and actress. She is known for her role as Alex Dupre on the television series ''One Tree Hil ...

covered the song for the remake of ''

''. 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 The Greyhound Trust is a national UK charity, founded in 1975 with the vision of "A day when all racing greyhounds retire to loving homes and are treated with compassion and kindness. Originally founded as the National Greyhound Racing Club Reti ...

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 promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

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 W ...

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

Credits and personnel

– composition *

– lead vocals, backing vocals * George Merrill – backing vocals *

– backing vocals *

–

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

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 mus ...

, 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 s ...

synthesizer, synthesizer *

Paul Jackson, Jr. Paul Milton Jackson Jr. (born December 30, 1959) is an American fusion/urban jazz composer, arranger, producer and guitarist. He was born and raised in Los Angeles. Jackson knew by the age of fifteen that he wanted to become a professional musi ...

– guitar * Paulinho Da Costa – percussion

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References