Release Date: May
1980 (U.S)
Written by: Michael
Gore and Dean Pitchford
Produced by: Michael
Gore
Label: RSO Records
Formats: 7 inch, 12 inch
Versions: Album
Version 5:14, Single Version 3:48, Special 12 inch Mix 7:14, Instrumental
B Side: Never Alone
Certifications: U.S.
Platinum, U.K. Platinum, Netherlands
Gold, Canada Gold, Netherlands Gold
Written in 1980 for the Movie "Fame" it was one of the last songs on the Soundtrack to be completed. Lyricist Dean Pitchford stated it took weeks. The movie had already been filmed by the time the song was completed and the dance sequence from the movie was recorded to Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff".
Released in May 1980 in America the song steadily climbed the charts peaking at Number 4 on the Billboard charts and Number 3 on the Record World charts in September of that year. It became the 66th best selling single on the Billboard chart for 1980 and the 40th best seller on the Cash Box chart for that year.
"Fame" won best song at the 1980 Academy Awards beating out "Out Here On My Own", the first time 2 songs from the same movie were nominated in the same year.
In the U.K. the song failed to chart in 1980 however a re-release in 1982 coinciding with the broadcast of the Fame TV Series, saw the song spend 3 weeks at the Top of the Singles chart and become the second best selling single of 1982.
The TV Series version was recorded by Erica Gimpel and later by Loretta Chandler however when the Kids From fame Album was released RSO records refused to give RCA records permission to released the TV version. However a live recording was released on the Kids From Fame Live Album the following year.
The song has been covered by artists like Cher, Dionne Warwick and The Nolans.
"I wrote that line "I'm Gonna Live Forever". When Michael Gore played me the melody that he had come up with for the chorus. I listened down to it once, and I said, "Oh, you mean something like..." and he went back to the top and he was playing it down, and I sang, "Fame! I'm gonna live forever," and he stopped playing, and he went, "Oh my god! Write that down! I don't want to forget that!" And I said, "Oh, Michael, I don't think I could forget that one."
The rest of the song took forever to write. It was literally a month of six days, seven days a week, six hours a day of carving every one of those verses. But that line sprang out of my mouth. The writing was excruciating, because it was very tough to navigate. You know, the idea of fame is such a pumped up, almost self-congratulatory notion, like, I'm going to be famous. It was very tricky to navigate and write something that still had energy and gosh-golly about it, without feeling too self-satisfied.
Vivian Cherry, Vicki Sue Robinson, and Luther Vandross are the background singers on "Fame," and Luther Vandross is the one who not only came up with "remember, remember, remember..." but he also stacked the voices on top of, "I'm going to learn how to fly high." He did that. He made a couple of other contributions around the edges, but the "remember" was the major one.
When I did
"Fame," it never occurred to me that anybody would mishear Irene Cara
sing, "People will see me and cry, Fame!", but people have misheard
that as "die." And I was horrified to find that lyric sites would
write out the lyric to "Fame" and state as if it were fact that I had
written "people will see me and die." No. I had written "people
will see me and cry, Fame!" That would be their cry."
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