Ever since the dawn of MTV and Friday Night Videos, the music video has significantly impacted musical tastes and pop culture. It might not be as extreme as when the Buggles declared that "Video Killed the Radio Star", but there is no arguing that the music video certainly could make or break a song's popularity. So this regular Flashback Video feature will serve to remember some of the music videos from the great '80s decade that made an impact on me in one way or another.
This issue we will cover "The Touch" by Stan Bush. The Transformers: The Movie was released in August of 1986 and featured two songs by Stan Bush. One titled “Dare” and then of course “The Touch” which was used as backing music for a battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron in the film. “The Touch” surprisingly never made the pop charts, but has gone on to be quite memorable to many who grew up in the '80s. I feel it's an excellent example of an '80s anthem, the tone and lyrics are inspirational and empowering. The actual music video features Bush performing along with Transformers movie footage playing behind him. If you have a connection and access to footage from one of the most popular toy lines and cartoons of the decade, you might as well take advantage and use it. Here is the music video for “The Touch” by Stan Bush…
I had the pleasure of an interview with Stan Bush and here is what he had to say when asked about creating the song:
“The Touch” kind of came together quickly. My writing partner on the song, Lenny Macaluso, got the idea for the title from the movie Iron Eagle. Louis Gossett, Jr. at one point in the film turns to the young fighter pilot and says, “Kid, you’ve got the touch.” We sat together and pretty much wrote the song in one day, did a quick (and very rough) home demo and, soon after that, my producer and I recorded the song in the studio as part of my album, Stan Bush & Barrage. There was something magical about the track. Something about the feel and uplifting lyrics, just made you smile. I knew something good would come from it.
Wow, that one line in 1986's Iron Eagle inspired the entire song. Another interesting bit of trivia is that they actually created "The Touch" for another film's soundtrack. It was originally intended for the Sylvester Stallone film Cobra, but ended up in The Transformers: The Movie instead. At first Bush was not sure about a cartoon about robots that changed into vehicles, but ultimately it probably worked out better being associated with the Transformers phenomenon. The song would have worked in almost any film that needed an inspirational anthem. If you don't have "The Touch" on your '80s work-out mix tape, you are missing out and need to fix that. "You've got the touch, you've got the power."
Hope you enjoyed another trip back to the '80s thanks to Flashback Video!