Post by erik on Nov 26, 2022 19:26:50 GMT -5
In memory of Irene Cara, who passed away on November 25th, this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight takes a look at her biggest hit, the title song to one of the biggest cinematic hits of 1983.
FLASHDANCE (WHAT A FEELING) (Irene Cara; Casablanca; 1983)—One of the rare artists who was both an African-American and a Latina (courtesy of her father being from Puerto Rico), Irene Cara, born in New York City in 1959, started in show business very early in life, at age 9, appearing in the 1968 stage play Maggie Flynn, where she played a Civil War orphan alongside the husband-and-wife team of Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy. She also started appearing in movies, beginning with 1975’s Aaron Loves Angela. But she achieved true superstardom when she appeared as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 film Fame, directed by Alan Parker, about students wishing to fulfill their dreams at the Fiorello LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts. Co-starring Debbie Allen and Meg Tilly, Fame became a huge box office hit that summer, and Cara’s recording of the film’s theme song hit #4 on the Hot 100. A little less than three years later, Cara’s vocal talents were shown on the soundtrack of another music/dance-orientated film, this one directed by Adrian Lyne, Flashdance. That film, starring Jennifer Beals as an aspiring dancer sweating it out in Pittsburgh, received mixed critical reactions when it was released in the spring of 1983, but it was among that year’s most commercially successful films. Its soundtrack was also a huge success (hitting #1 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart); and a lot of that success was ascribed to the film’s title song, sub-titled “What A Feeling”, which Cara co-wrote with the film’s two main music composers Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey. The song went on to spend six straight weeks at #1 on the Hot 100 (May 28th to July 2nd). Cara went on to win the Grammy for Best Pop Female Vocal Performance of 1983 for the song, over, among others, Linda ronstadt, in February 1984. Her career, however, was extremely sporadic after that; and on November 25, 2022, she passed away at the age of 63 of an as-yet-undetermined cause.
FLASHDANCE (WHAT A FEELING) (Irene Cara; Casablanca; 1983)—One of the rare artists who was both an African-American and a Latina (courtesy of her father being from Puerto Rico), Irene Cara, born in New York City in 1959, started in show business very early in life, at age 9, appearing in the 1968 stage play Maggie Flynn, where she played a Civil War orphan alongside the husband-and-wife team of Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy. She also started appearing in movies, beginning with 1975’s Aaron Loves Angela. But she achieved true superstardom when she appeared as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 film Fame, directed by Alan Parker, about students wishing to fulfill their dreams at the Fiorello LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts. Co-starring Debbie Allen and Meg Tilly, Fame became a huge box office hit that summer, and Cara’s recording of the film’s theme song hit #4 on the Hot 100. A little less than three years later, Cara’s vocal talents were shown on the soundtrack of another music/dance-orientated film, this one directed by Adrian Lyne, Flashdance. That film, starring Jennifer Beals as an aspiring dancer sweating it out in Pittsburgh, received mixed critical reactions when it was released in the spring of 1983, but it was among that year’s most commercially successful films. Its soundtrack was also a huge success (hitting #1 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart); and a lot of that success was ascribed to the film’s title song, sub-titled “What A Feeling”, which Cara co-wrote with the film’s two main music composers Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey. The song went on to spend six straight weeks at #1 on the Hot 100 (May 28th to July 2nd). Cara went on to win the Grammy for Best Pop Female Vocal Performance of 1983 for the song, over, among others, Linda ronstadt, in February 1984. Her career, however, was extremely sporadic after that; and on November 25, 2022, she passed away at the age of 63 of an as-yet-undetermined cause.