“Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the
clouds… and there upon a rainbow is the answer to a never ending
story.”
Saturday Night
Fever. Urban Cowboy. The Breakfast Club. Back to the Future. Top Gun.
Pretty Woman. The Bodyguard. Singles. Titanic. All of these iconic
films produced equally iconic songs and top selling soundtracks. The
music associated with these movies was all over the radio and MTV,
and served as exceptional marketing tools for the motion pictures
themselves.
Today, the Dial
turns it’s receivers to movie theaters of the past to spotlight a
motion picture theme that has slipped into relative obscurity, even
though it’s associated with a well loved fantasy film. Ladies and
gentlemen, Rock biters and Night hobs, let me present “The
NeverEnding Story” by Limahl.
Coining his stage name from an anagram of his last name, Limahl,
(born Christopher Hamill of Lancashire, England), has the unique
claim of being a one hit wonder twice... well, at least in the U.S.
he’s a two time one hit wonder... he’s had other hits overseas.
Wait, how is it possible to be a one hit wonder TWICE??? Well, you
may recall a popular ditty called “Too Shy” (#5/‘83)
recorded by new wave group Kajagoogoo. Limahl was the lead singer of
that band. Shortly after that hit, he embarked on a solo career,
which led to his one hit as a solo act… the theme to the 1984 film
“The NeverEnding Story”. So, he’s been a
one hit wonder as the frontman of a group, and also as a soloist.
Cool, huh?
Peaking at #17 on
the U.S. Hot 100, and #6 on the U.S. adult contemporary charts, “The
NeverEnding Story” charted much higher in the UK at #4, and topped
the respective singles charts of Norway and Sweden.
The lyrics
broadly reference the events of the film, in particular, the
character of the Childlike Empress, and the final grain of sand from
Fantasia… “In her face, the mirror of your dreams”, and
“in your hand the birth of a new day”. It
also incorporates general fantasy story tropes, by mentioning stars,
clouds, and rainbows, and featuring the sound effects of wind layered
into the music.
However, when I
separate the song from the film, I see “The NeverEnding Story”
theme as a parallel to falling in love. The aforementioned line about
seeing your dreams mirrored in her face… perhaps that means love at
first sight. Isn’t it true that upon falling in love, a person
becomes filled with a euphoria and a great feeling of well being that
could indeed be symbolized with rainbows, stars, clouds, unicorns,
dolphins, and anything else associated with Lisa Frank notebooks? The
best, all encompassing love, can make a person feel like they are
floating above the world.
So maybe this
seemingly simple movie theme actually exists on two levels… that to
link to the narrative of the film, and that to describe a burgeoning
romance. And because of that, the two interpretations of the song are
intertwined, much like the two snakes featured on the film’s Auryn
amulet worn by the warrior Atreyu? (Yeah, I love this movie – just
let me geek out here…)
A clever feature
of the song is that it fades in from silence at the beginning
(as opposed to just beginning with the opening notes), and fades out
at the end, giving the listener the idea that the song is truly
never ending. The
effect is that it’s always playing somewhere in the breeze
at some time, and we just happen to catch a few moments of it each
time before it fades off to places unknown once more. I think this
tune is much more of a masterpiece than I originally gave it credit
for!
And, why wouldn’t
it be a masterpiece, when Georgio Moroder and Keith Forsey put their
production abilities behind it? Between the two of them, they’ve
significantly contributed to works by Donna Summer, Billy Idol, Irene
Cara, Berlin, Blondie and many others.
The music video
is quite simple, with just two people on a very basic set, and feels
much like Broadway performance. Interestingly, there are no movie
clips featured here, and I’m not sure why. I can’t imagine it was
due to licensing issues. Perhaps the record label (EMI) tried to keep
the cost of the video down by only featuring Limahl and his duet
partner (more on her in a moment), to avoid paying any actors that
would appear via movie clips they may have used. Actually, I respect
that there are no film clips here because many movie theme music
videos feature awkwardly shoehorned movie clips that break up the
flow of the visuals of the video. I like that they kept it
uncluttered for this one.
The female
vocalist that Limahl duets with here (even though she is uncredited
on the label), is Beth Anderson, but in the video Limahl’s backing
singer Mandy Newton convincingly lip syncs to Anderson’s vocals.
This is because Beth was not available to film any scenes for the
video, (given that she is based in Kentucky, and the video was filmed
in the UK), though Limahl and Anderson did perform the song together
on American Bandstand and Solid Gold.
As recently as
2019, the memory of this soundtrack cut crossed my mind, but I
immediately dismissed it as not worthy of being revisited without
even listening to it. Seriously… shame on me. But the unbelievable
events of this year which have drastically changed our lives and our
world have had me looking for any positivity wherever I could find
it.
So, last month I
watched the title film for first time in at least 30 years, and found
myself still enthralled by it’s themes of childlike wonder,
innocence, and overall message of hope for the future, even when
things seem their most bleak, and man, can we identify with THAT
nowadays! Afterwards, the theme song stayed firmly lodged in my mind…
much like it was… well… “never ending”. I knew then I was
wrong to have dismissed it.
Okay, perhaps the
theme hasn’t aged well, it’s very tied to it’s time with it’s
synth-heavy orchestration, and I know it could easily be derided as
“cheesy”. But the soaring melody and lyrics of fantasy and magic
return me to childhood innocence and hit me in the feels.
I’m also aware
that the tune recently enjoyed a huge popularity boost because it was
featured in the Netflix series Stranger Things. I
haven’t watched ST yet, even though tons of folks have suggested it
to me and it certainly sounds like a show that would be right up my
alley. One of these days I’ll get to it.
So take a flight
of fantasy with Limahl, and allow the music to sweep you away to
places unknown. Do you have any favorite movie music that you think
should have been a big hit? Drop me a comment below! And be sure to
stay tuned to Kyle’s Radio Dial, where the more you listen, the
more you remember!
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