"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 Fireand 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
notalso appear on a John Parr album.
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 music video features all seven of the main cast of the
film
St. Elmo's Firelooking 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.
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".