Oh boy, can someone get the Power Station on the phone? The Running Man seems like a odd candidate for a power ballad, but hey, it’s the 80s. God knows what John Parr was thinking — the romance between Ah-nuld and Maria Concita Alonzo is so arbitrary I always forget they get together at the end.
Best bit: “Roll the dice! Make a brand new start!”
Stan Bush: Fight To Survive (Bloodsport, 1988)
The aural equivalent to a spinning kick to the face, Fight To Survive is an underrated example of what made the end credit song so great. Full disclosure: I wrote half this feature with this blasting in the background. The lyrics are absolutely insane, and that’s half the reasons why it is great. The other half is Stan Bush’s delivery. Following Transformers: The Movie, he knows his way around a big 80s anthem, and he delivers a great one for JCVD’s debut.
Best bit: “Ku-mi-te! Ku-mi-te! Ku-mi-te!” It makes me want to go to the gym right now.
Prince: Scandalous (Batman, 1989)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9YE_thiNc0
With his passing, it felt appropriate to include this, the Purple One’s surprisingly romantic closer to Tim Burton’s ’89 blockbuster. While the decision to end on a romantic ballad seems odd (the movie’s love story is not really the focus of the movie), Scandalous is a terrific, underrated tune that deserves wider exposure. It’s not pulse-pounding like the other tunes on this list (The decade-specific focus was the only thing stopping me from including U2’s Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me from Batman Forever), but it is great on its own terms. It’s a testament to how good the song is that its melody was used in Danny Elfman’s score.
Best bit: “Anything you’ve ever dreamed of/I’m willing to be…” How much better would that date scene have been if Michael Keaton had started singing this to Kim Basinger? Considering how ‘nuts’ he gets later on, it would not be outside the realm of possibility.
