"Sara" is a song recorded by the American rock band

Starship A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for traveling between planetary systems. The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 1882 in '' Oahspe: A Ne ...

which reached number-one on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart on March 15, 1986. It was sung by Mickey Thomas, of the newly renamed band Starship, from their first album '' Knee Deep in the Hoopla''; for this single,

Grace Slick Grace Slick (born Grace Barnett Wing; October 30, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter, artist, and painter. Slick was a key figure in San Francisco's early psychedelic music scene in the mid-1960s. With a music career spanning four decades, ...

provided the backing vocals. The recording became one of the best-selling singles of 1986 in North America. It was the band's second number-one hit after the song "

We Built This City "We Built This City" is a 1985 song by American rock band Starship. It was released as their debut single on their album '' Knee Deep in the Hoopla''. It was written by English musicians Martin Page and Bernie Taupin, who were both living in Lo ...

" hit the mark a few months earlier in 1985. It also became the band's first number-one song on the

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

chart, where it remained for three weeks. Although written by Peter and Ina Wolf, the song was named for Thomas's wife at the time, Sara (née Kendrick).

Reception

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an onli ...

'' called it a "melodic ballad

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has a biting rock edge led by Mickey Thomas’ riveting vocal" and said it has "an ethereal chorus and shy guitars."

Music video

The music video for "Sara" prominently features actress

Rebecca De Mornay Rebecca De Mornay (born Rebecca Jane Pearch; August 29, 1959) is an American actress and producer. Her breakthrough film role came in 1983, when she starred as Lana in '' Risky Business''. She is known for her role as Debby Huston in the Neil ...

as the song's titular character and Thomas in a storyline about a relationship ending, on a

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farm in the midwest, with frequent flashbacks to what is presumably Thomas's character's childhood and the

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, alt ...

that wrecked his home and took the life of his beloved mother. It ends with a panoramical view of the farm, with Thomas walking down the dirt road Rebecca drove down, and another dust cloud coming in.''Somebody to love?: a rock-and-roll memoir'' Grace Slick. 1998. The flashback portions of the music video were set in the 1950s and directed by Francis Delia.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References