Eight Arms to Hold You (song)

"Eight Arms to Hold You"
Song

"Eight Arms to Hold You"' was a song recorded for the soundtrack to the film The Goonies. The song was recorded by a studio group called Goon Squad that was put together by producer Arthur Baker. It was utilized in a scene in the film where the character Data puts a loud tape recorder (blaring the song) into the mouth of an octopus to fend it off. The scene was deleted from the film and the song did not appear in the theatrical release of the film. (The song is still heard, although barely audible, during the scene when Chunk first enters the Walsh residence) The soundtrack producers had anticipated the track would be a big hit and so even though it wasn't actually in the film, a single was released on both 12" and 7" vinyl. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart and peaked at number eighty on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop singles chart.

The "octopus scene" was replaced for broadcast on the Disney Channel, in order to make up for time removed due to objectionable content. It was also included in a deleted scenes featurette in the 2001 DVD release.

Eight Arms to Hold You later became the title of a Veruca Salt album, which depicted an octopus in its cover artwork. The phrase was the working title for The Beatles' film Help!.

Track listing

12" single

1. Vocal
2. Bonus Beat
3. Dub

7" single

1. Edit
2. Dub