There’s a point in 1984’s classic film “Footloose” where a young and hip Kevin Bacon has the unenviable task of trying to teach a klutzy Christopher Penn how to dance. And like in a any good movie, the perfect song begins to play.
In this case, it’s “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” by Deniece Williams.
If you saw it at the cinema, you might have been tempted to jump out of your seat and join in on Bacon and Penn’s fancy legwork.
The upbeat song was the fourth single released from the “Footloose” soundtrack. The title track by Kenny Loggins stomped its way to three weeks at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1984, though “Holding Out for a Hero” by Bonnie Tyler was held back at number-34 that same month. Just weeks later “Dancing in the Sheets” by Shalamar danced its way to number-17 and Williams’s “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” kicked “Hello” by Lionel Richie out of the way to say “hello” to the top spot. It would remain there for two weeks, before it was Cyndi Lauper’s time for “Time After Time.”
“Let’s Hear It for the Boy” marked the second time that Williams topped the Billboard chart. Her duet with Johnny Mathis, “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late,” had done the trick in 1978.
”Footloose” would generate two more top-40 songs. The rock ballad “Almost Paradise” by Mike Reno and Ann Wilson hit number-seven in July 1984, the same month that “I’m Free (Heaven Helps the Man)” by Loggins topped out at number-22. (“Footloose” marked the only number-one of his career.)
”Let’s Hear It for the Boy” would bring Williams two Grammy nominations, for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. She would lose those races to Tina Turner for “What’s Love Got to Do with It” and Chaka Khan for “I Feel for You,” respectively. Both “Footloose” and “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” would receive Oscar nominations for Best Original Song of 1984. That prize ultimately went to “I Just Called to Say I Love You” by Stevie Wonder from “The Woman in Red.”
Despite being helmed by Herbert Ross, a 1977 Best Director nominee for the Best Picture entry “The Turning Point,” “Footlose” failed to earn any additional Oscar bids outside of Best Original Song. But it did feature a two-time Academy Award nominee and a future two-time winner. John Lithgow, who played the strict reverend who had banned dancing and rock music in his small town, had competed for Best Supporting Actor of 1982 for “The World According to Garp” and was up for the same prize for 1983’s Best Picture “Terms of Endearment.” (His second nom came around the same time that “Footloose” was let loose in movie theaters.) Those two Oscars instead went to Louis Gossett Jr. in “An Officer and a Gentleman” and Jack Nicholson in “Terms of Endearment.”
However, Dianne Wiest, who appeared as Lithgow’s “Footloose” wife, went on to win Best Supporting Actress Oscars for both 1986’s “Hannah and Her Sisters” and 1994’s “Bullets Over Broadway.” She also contended for the same award for 1989’s “Parenthood,” which went home with Brenda Fricker in “My Left Foot.”
And although he’s been steadily working in feature films for more than four decades, “Footloose” star Kevin Bacon has yet to be nominated by the academy. He has notably appeared in a number of Best Picture contenders, though, including 1991’s “JFK,” 1992’s “A Few Good Men,” 1995’s “Apollo 13,” 2003’s “Mystic River” and 2008’s “Frost/Nixon.”
Getting back to the voice behind “Let’s Hear It for the Boy,” Deniece Williams would never have a top-40 hit again. But she has since racked up four Grammy Awards, for Best Female Gospel Soul Performance (for “I Surrender” in 1987), Best Duo or Group Gospel Performance (for “They Say” with Sandi Patty also in 1987), Best Female Gospel Performance (for “I Believe in You” in 1988) and Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album (for “This Is My Song” in 1999).
While the number-one hit “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” missed at both the Grammys and the Oscars, it stands as one of the most upbeat, energetic and all-out feel-good songs of its day. And every time that it plays, “Footloose” fans must surely think back to Bacon and Penn moving to the music. Forty years later, let’s hear it for “Let’s Hear It for the Boy.” Let’s give the song a hand.
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