• Footloose, written by Dean Pitchford and starring Kevin Bacon, celebrated its 40th anniversary earlier this year
• Pitchford, who also wrote classic songs for Fame, was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on June 13
• He and Bacon open up to PEOPLE about the honor as well as the lasting impact of Footloose at the organization’s induction ceremony

Footloose and its music became far more iconic than star Kevin Bacon or writer Dean Pitchford (who crafted the film’s script and co-wrote its songs) expected.

Months after the hit 1984 musical film celebrated its 40th anniversary, Pitchford was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame during a ceremony at the Marriott Marquis in New York City on June 13 — where Bacon (alongside his brother, Michael) and Deniece Williams delivered tribute performances to the 72-year-old Oscar winner.

“[Pitchford] was part of a group of people including the director and the producer who really wanted me to be in the movie — and the studio did not,” Kevin, 65, tells PEOPLE at the event. “I’ll never forget how hard they worked to try to convince the studio that I was the guy to play the part, and that’s something that I’ll always appreciate.”

Looking back on Footloose, which grossed $80 million on a $7.5 million budget, Pitchford recalls having no expectations regarding how the film would perform at the box office — and certainly not thinking about its eventual legacy.

“Who knew? I mean, it was a tiny movie. and we had no idea that it would last for 40 years and continue to be a cultural touchstone,” says Pitchford. “It gets referenced whenever there is a ban on dancing. It gets referenced whenever there are books being burned. It’s continued to somehow be relevant, and I’m very, very happy about that.”

Did Kevin think the film would make such a mark on culture? “No,” the actor says bluntly. “I figured the song would have a lasting legacy, but the movie… I mean, I like the movie. I think it’s cool, but how can you predict that?”

At the Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Gala, Kevin and Michael — a.k.a. The Bacon Brothers — performed a rendition of the film’s titular track. Originally recorded by Kenny Loggins, who co-wrote the song with Pitchford, “Footloose” topped the Billboard Hot 100 and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.

The raucous rock song, selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2018, is also Pitchford’s favorite from the film.

“I think it has to be ‘Footloose,’ simply because I’ve never been to a bar mitzvah, a wedding, a birthday party or graduation where that song hasn’t brought everybody up out of their chair,” says the musician.

The ceremony also featured a tribute performance of the other No. 1 hit from Footloose, “Let’s Hear It for the Boy,” by original vocalist Deniece Williams. Pitchford also performed “Once Before I Go,” which he co-wrote for Peter Allen.

In addition to feeling grateful for Pitchford helping him land the role of Ren in Footloose, Kevin is proud of his lengthy and successful career as a songwriter.

“It’s great when somebody works that hard and has that much success, and they get a little pat on the back,” he says of Pitchford. “Songwriters, sometimes, are people that kind of live behind the scenes, right? They’re not frontmen, and the fact that they get the chance to shine at an event like this, I think, is super cool.”

Having acted in Godspell, Pippin and countless commercials, written songs for the films Fame and The Lizzie McGuire Movie and worked as a director and author, Pitchford feels grateful to be recognized for his musical compositions.

“It’s overwhelming to be here tonight in the class of ’24 with all these other inductees. Nothing compares to it because it’s my peers who put me here,” he says.

Given his eclectic career as a multi-hyphenate talent, Pitchford didn’t necessarily expect to receive the honor. “I thought that perhaps because I bounced back and forth between the theater and film and pop music that no one in [the songwriting] area would claim me, and I would sort of like be an outlier all the time,” he adds. “This [induction] sort of says people paid attention. They heard what I was doing.”