Flashdance... What a Feeling

Did You Know?

• Moroder had Joe 'Bean' Esposito record a vocal demo of the song, but Paramount wanted a well-known female singer.
• Cara stipulated in her agreement to write the lyrics that she would be the one to sing the song.
• The song was recorded in a few days, and Cara felt her third take was her best.

Background and writing

Cara's big break came in 1980 playing Coco Hernandez in the movie Fame, whose soundtrack included two chart hits she recorded: the title song (number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100) and Out Here on My Own (number 19). After RSO, the soundtrack's label, went out of business, executive Al Coury convinced her to join his new Network Records; the title track from her first album there, Anyone Can See, reached number 42 during an 18-week run starting in November 1981.

In early 1983, while working on an album and looking for a producer, she was contacted by Paramount Pictures to provide lyrics for the new soundtrack song. Moroder had shown interest in working with her after her Fame success, but she was reluctant about being compared to another singer he had produced, Donna Summer. However, as Cara explained, with Flashdance they were thrown together by Paramount. Cara and Forsey were shown the last scene of the film, in which Alex auditions, to get a sense of the lyrics.

They were driven from the screening to Moroder's studio and, during the trip, came up with most of the words. Cara said she had no idea what the movie was about but thought it looked similar to Fame. She told Forsey the lyrics should describe the feeling of dance and credits him with the line that inspired the working title Dancing for Your Life. The song became a metaphor about a dancer being in control of her body and life, representing any goal.

Moroder felt the lyric what a feeling was right for the story but tried to incorporate the film's title; the closest they came was using the two words in separate lines. Only after the song was completed with the title What a Feeling was Flashdance added for promotional mileage.

Release and commercial performance

Because Flashdance was to be released on April 15, 1983, Cara's recording was issued as a scout single in March to attract the target audience, though Paramount doubted the film would do well. Bruckheimer said Polygram only shipped 60,000 copies of the soundtrack album, showing little faith. The May 7 Cashbox reported that by April 19 retailers had sold out of all Flashdance merchandise. On the April 2, 1983 Billboard Hot 100, the song began a 25-week run, including 14 weeks in the top 10—the longest top-10 run of 1983.

The May 28 Billboard marked its first of six weeks at number one. It also reached number one in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, and made the top five in Austria, Finland, Ireland, the UK, and West Germany. On the Adult Contemporary chart it peaked at number 4 during 24 weeks. On the Black Singles chart it spent 5 of 22 weeks at number 2.

The 12-inch remix spent 18 weeks on the Dance/Disco Top 80 chart, three of them at number one. On Billboard's Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1983, it ranked number 3.

Film context

Flashdance... What a Feeling is heard over the opening credits as a young woman rides her bike through Pittsburgh streets at sunrise, continuing as work goes on in a steel mill. In his dissertation on dance film musicals, John Trenz explained that the song functions as the audience's way into the story, since no other introductory information is provided. The mill workers use machinery representing the world made of steel, made of stone that Cara sings about.

As the chorus finishes the opening credits, the worker the film keeps cutting back to wears a welding helmet with Alex printed on it; the welder removes the helmet, revealing Alex is female, and she shakes her hair loose. Trenz wrote that the gender revelation seems to punctuate the lyrics What a feeling! Being's believing, I can have it all. In the February 1984 Jump Cut, Kathryn Kalinak noted an instance where the lyrics coincide with Alex's dialogue.

When her boyfriend Nick sees her dancing outside work, she explains that onstage the audience means nothing: I never see them. You go out there, and the music starts, and you begin to feel it. And your body just starts to move. This freedom is reflected in the lyrics When I hear the music, close my eyes, feel the rhythm wrap around, take ahold of my heart, what a feeling.

Aftermath

The song was included on Cara's follow-up LP What a Feelin', produced by Moroder. As she promoted new hits from that album and collected awards, she felt cheated by her record company. Despite her recent success, she had only been paid $183 in royalties from Network Records and demanded an explanation from Coury, who tried to appease her with gifts and promises. By the end of 1984 she had received only $61,343 and hired entertainment lawyers to get the money due and break free from the label.

In 1985 she filed a lawsuit against Al Coury Inc. and Network Records seeking $10 million in punitive and approximately $2 million in compensatory damages, claiming Coury withheld $2 million in composing and recording deals involving Flashdance. The treatment she received afterward caused her to suspect Coury initiated a smear campaign, warning other labels of her lawsuit so no one would sign her. She claimed that people who once welcomed her—from producers and casting agents to restaurant staff—now wanted nothing to do with her, and there was talk that her career had been destroyed by drug addiction.

When Network Records folded, Coury went to work for David Geffen, whom Cara believed also took part in vilifying her. After several law firms failed, she found Tom Nunziato, who focused the case as an accounting matter because the statute of limitations on fraud had run out. Cara was finally able to make her case before a jury.