Throwback Video Of The Week: The Pointer Sisters “Neutron Dance”
In November 1983, the Pointer Sisters released their tenth studio album, Break Out. It was the highest charting release of their already successful career, reaching #8 in the U.S. and #9 in the U.K. The fifth single from that album, “Neutron Dance,” was written by prolific hit makers Allee Willis and Danny Sembello. They had hoped the song would make it onto the soundtrack for the 1984 film Streets of Fire. Instead, it was heard in a much bigger and better movie.
“Neutron Dance” became a top ten Billboard hit, thanks in large part to its inclusion on the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack. The action comedy film starring Eddie Murphy was a huge international box office success and many of the songs on the soundtrack benefited. That album made it to #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart in the summer of 1985.
The video features the Pointer Sisters playing disgruntled ushers working at a movie theater where Beverly Hills Cop is playing. Their boss, played by Bronson Pinchot (Beverly Hills Cop, Perfect Strangers), instructs them to seat the audience without getting distracted. This proves to be challenging for the fidgety sisters. Eventually, the moviegoers and even Pinchot himself are also gripped by the need to dance. That happened a lot in the ’80s.
Clips from Beverly Hills Cop are interspersed throughout the “Neutron Dance” video. The same was done in the videos for Glenn Frey’s “The Heat is On” and Harold Faltermeyer’s instrumental “Axel F.”
