Musical Montage: Dan Hartman “Talking to the Wall”
Fitness, specifically aerobics, was massive in the 80s, so much so that multiple movies were set in around gyms. There was schlocky horror like Death Spa and the more Cocktailesque Perfect, starring John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis. Travolta plays reporter Adam Lawrence, who works for Rolling Stone and is working on an article highlighting fitness clubs and how they are “the singles bars of the 80s”. Having had a bad experience earlier in her life with a magazine article, Jamie Lee Curtis’ gym instructor Jessie Wilson is icy at first but the two develop a romantic relationship and there’s also a crazy subplot where Travolta writes about and then has to testify in a case involving a drug-dealing businessman. There were tons of scenes in Perfect that needed snappy pop music and Dan Hartman was one of the musicians who delivered with his song “Talking to the Wall”. The previous year Hartman also contributed to the somewhat similar Breakin’ and had a hit song with “We Are the Young” in 1985 as well. Other big acts like Wham!, Berlin, The Pointer Sisters, and Thompson Twins were on the soundtrack as well but it didn’t really do anything on the charts. There’s unfortunately not an official music video for “Talking to the Wall” but you can check out the song with clips from the movie below.
