St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)

"Man in Motion" redirects here. For the Night Ranger album, see Man in Motion (Night Ranger album). For the song by Night Ranger, see Man In Motion (song).

"St. Elmo's Fire"
Song
B-side	"Treat Me Like an Animal", "Somebody Stole My Thunder", "One Love" (instrumental)

"St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)" is a song recorded by John Parr. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on 7 September 1985 and peaked at number six in the UK, Parr's home country.

The song was originally written by David Foster and John Parr for the Canadian athlete Rick Hansen, who at the time was going around the world in his wheelchair to raise awareness for spinal cord injuries. His journey was called the "Man in Motion Tour." The song was used as the theme song for the film St. Elmo's Fire and became a number-one hit for John Parr around the world and provided many awards and a Grammy nomination. Several members of Toto appear on the record. Strangely, this hit song did not also appear on a John Parr album - except on a very rare 1985 CD re-release of his self-titled album from 1984 in West Germany.

In popular culture

The song is briefly heard in an episode of The Simpsons, "Sideshow Bob Roberts"; it is supposedly a favorite song of Lisa Simpson.

The line "Gonna be your man in motion" is repeated by Jason Sklar in an episode of Cheap Seats.

It was featured heavily in the 2007 movie The Brothers Solomon.

The song is briefly heard in an episode of The Facts Of Life.

The song is sampled by Minneapolis rapper Knonam on his album [["[of the Blade]"]] on the song "St. Elmo's Fire".

Music video

The music video features all seven of the main cast of the film St. Elmo's Fire looking sadly through the foggy windows of a run-down and fire-damaged version of the St. Elmo's Bar set. The Canadian version of the video intersperses images of Hansen's trek.

Covers

It was remade by REO Speedwagon in 1989. REO Speedwagon's guitarist, Dave Amato, re-created the song on his solo album, Still Got It, which was released in 1995.

The Ventures performed an instrumental cover version of the song on their 2006 album, Major Motion Picture.

It was remixed by Tommyknockers in May 2006 with the title "New Horizon", which hit #43 in Britain, but failed to chart in the United States.

2-4GROOVES worked a version of the song in 2006 that was heavily remixed. It was titled "Writing on the Wall".

Chart performance

Chart (1985)	Peak position
Canadian Singles Chart	3
UK Singles Chart	6
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1
U.S. Billboard Album Rock Tracks	1
U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary	4