St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion) at 40
September 7, 1985, was one of those neon-lit cultural moments when pop music, Hollywood, and the making of a Canadian icon collided on the Billboard Hot 100. On this day, ‘St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)’ John Parr’s power ballad that had enough earnestness to fuel a Reagan-era pep rally hit Number One on the Billboard charts. The song stayed there for two weeks, sharing air waves with Huey Lewis & the News’ ‘The Power of Love’ and Bryan Adams’ ‘Summer of ‘69’, blaring from car stereos with T-tops popped off.
Kids across North America lived out their big hair, big movies, and big feelings. Teen angst was the blockbuster genre of the day. The Brat Pack starred in The Breakfast Club (arguably still great) and then St. Elmo’s Fire (perhaps less so great, depending on your tolerance for Rob Lowe’s thin-sounding saxophone). Somewhere in this cultural stew of Final Net hairspray and synth hooks came the story of the Man In Motion.
That man was Rick Hansen. In September 1985, Rick was still in the early stages of his two-year Man In Motion World Tour to raise awareness of the potential of people with disabilities and the urgent need to remove barriers to full participation in daily life. At that moment, he was wheeling through Moscow, Russia.
Meanwhile, Joel Schumacher’s film St. Elmo’s Fire was still in theatres. The title references St. Erasmus of Formia, patron saint of sailors, whose namesake phenomenon, a blue glow dancing on ship masts before lightning, was sometimes seen as a good omen. In the movie, though, St. Elmo’s was a Georgetown bar where six good-looking friends worked through every glamorous problem in their young adult lives with another round of drinks.
Producer David Foster was tasked with delivering a hit single for the soundtrack. He enlisted British rocker John Parr, best known for ‘Naughty, Naughty’, but John was stuck on the lyrics. David showed him a news clip about Rick’s Man In Motion World Tour. That was the spark John needed.
He later said he saw inspiration in the form of a flesh-and-blood man pushing himself around the world for a good cause. He wrote the lyrics ambiguously enough to keep the studio happy while weaving in Rick’s story. For instance: “All I need's this pair of wheels” wasn’t Demi Moore’s Jeep, it was Rick’s wheelchair and “For once in his life a man has his time” wasn’t Emilio Estevez finally kissing Andie MacDowell, it was imagining Rick’s return to his hometown in Vancouver.
Released as the lead single, ‘St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)’ burned its way to the top. It peaked at #1 in the United States, #6 in the United Kingdom, and became a global hit, eventually earning John a Grammy nomination.
Its music video, shot in a frantic 24-hour window before John flew back to England, featured the Brat Pack actors gazing through foggy windows at the bar. The Canadian version wove in footage of the Man In Motion World Tour, images of determination and sweat powering a pop song that, while definitely of its era, carried something real.
The song became inseparable from Rick’s Tour. Wherever he wheeled, “Man in Motion” was playing, turning a film tie-in into a global soundtrack for shifting perceptions of disability into ability.
“’St Elmo’s Fire’ became my anthem,” said Rick. “Wherever I was wheeling on a road, street, or highway in the 34 countries I crossed, I would hear that song and smile and dig a little deeper to keep pushing forward.”
Forty years later, ‘St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)’ still glows with a cultural voltage. While the film has aged into a kitschy time capsule, the song remains tethered to something larger, speaking to the hope, possibility and the determination within all of us to reach our potential.
Lions Studio in California.
Check out the videos from Rick, John Parr, and David Foster discussing the 40th anniversary of the ‘St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion) song! We are proud to be celebrating the legacy of the Man In Motion World Tour. Keep checking our channels for 40th anniversary stories and updates as we honour the dream of creating a world where everyone can go everywhere.
