10 Underappreciated Heart-Pounding '80s Montage Songs That Can Help You Face Any Challenge
Are you ready to accomplish goals, build that portfolio, win the trophy, and get that promotion? Are you ready to Rock! No… Well, these songs can help get you there. Build up your self-confidence and rediscover hope for the future with these underappreciated and occasionally downright obscure montage-style songs from the 1980s.
These songs also tend to appear during the epic climax of movies or episodes. I’ll be listing these songs from the most well-known to the most obscure. Hopefully, you’ll find one or two you didn’t know about before or have forgotten as the years went by.
1 - No Easy Way Out – Rocky IV
Song: No Easy Way Out
Movie: Rocky IV
Year: 1985
Artist: Robert Tepper
Not all montage songs are for uplifting training scenes. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can start building yourself back up. “There’s No Easy Way Out” hits a dramatic turning point in Rocky IV, when Rocky has to come to terms with Apollo Creed’s death and what it means for him.
The classic “Eye of the Tiger” tends to overshadow other songs from the Rocky films. Even Rocky IV is better known for the songs "Burning Heart" and "Living in America". This is still a classic, though. There are not many songs that deal with heartbreak and confusion that come with grief.
2 Through the Fire - Top Gun
Song: Through the Fire
Movie: Top Gun
Year: 1986
Artist: Larry Greene
“Through the Fire” has the distinction of being on one of the most popular soundtracks to ever sell 9x Platinum, and yet it seemingly never actually appeared in the movie. Supposedly, it is playing faintly in the background in the locker room scene when Goose says, “We did. We got Jester”. It is much like the music from The Goonies soundtrack, which was mostly incidental music as well. Perhaps that accounts for the song fading into relative obscurity compared to the big hits “Danger Zone” and “Take My Breath Away”.
This song sounds like it should have been played during the big finale. The fan-made music video by DJAtheu highlights just how well this song works with footage of the jets in combat. A perfect song to challenge yourself with.
3 – Scarface (Push It To The Limit) - Scarface
Song: Scarface (Push it to the Limit)
Movie: Scarface
Year: 1983
Artist: Paul Engemann
Perhaps you don’t consider this song to be particularly obscure. The movie has become a cult classic, and several songs, including this one, were used in Grand Theft Auto III. All I can say is that I wasn’t familiar with it until researching songs for this list. Scarface is a very violent movie, which means that anyone who avoids violent gangster films is much less likely to be familiar with the song.
“Push It to the Limit (Scarface)” plays after the lead character, Tony, has killed drug lord Frank Lopez and taken his place. He rises to the top of the criminal underworld and marries Elvira. The song, in this case, represents rising success, but at the same time, has an almost desperate, you’re going too far, element to it. If you can get past the violent source material, the song does a good job of representing the ‘make it big’ culture of the 1980s. Play it while trying to start a business or finalize a plan. Just remember not to go too far.
4 - We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) – Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome
Song: We Don’t Need Another Hero
Movie: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Year: 1985
Artist: Tina Turner
This one was popular in its time but seems to have faded from public consciousness. This is the second song by Tina Turner to appear in the movie, alongside the opening title song “One of the Living”. “We Don’t Need Another Hero” played during the ending credits and even charted in the US. The movie itself was considered something of a sellout with its PG-13 rating, but that allowed more people to be able to watch it at the time.
I don’t have much to say about this one other than to congratulate Tina Turner on her powerful vocal performance. The song is great for picking up the pieces and continuing on despite world-shattering events.
5 - Iron Eagle (Never Say Die) - Iron Eagle
Movie: Iron Eagle
Year: 1986
Artist: King Kobra
Now we’re getting into the more obscure. “Iron Eagle (Never Say Die)” is the theme song for the movie Iron Eagle. The movie had the misfortune of coming out the same year as Top Gun while sharing similar subject matter. There is no contest, however. Top Gun is hands down the better film. This song even lost out in popularity to the song “One Vision” by Queen, which was also featured on the soundtrack.
The film’s plot involves rescuing a captured US general from a fictional Middle Eastern country. His son leads the unsanctioned mission to save him and fly his jet to victory. The song is as cheesy as the plot, but that doesn’t mean you can’t lock on target and fly to victory too.
6 - Breakin... There's No Stopping Us – Breakin’
Song: Breakin'... There's No Stopping Us
Movie: Breakin’
Year: 1984
Artist: Ollie And Jerry
A movie perhaps better known for the memes surrounding its sequel, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. The film was based on a documentary about break dancing, so a soundtrack would of course be released alongside it. This is the ‘80s after all. Other popular songs from the album include "Freakshow on the Dance Floor" by The Bar-Kays and "Body Work" by Hot Streak. Whether or not you remember this song will probably be determined by how into both break dancing and movies you are.
The song plays in the memorable finale when the dance troop has to sneak into a fancy jazz audition. They are wearing formal attire and whip off the top hats and white gloves and even the sleeves of their shirts and start break dancing. They win over the judges and gain popularity. This is the perfect song for showing off what you’ve got and winning through unique creativity rather than conforming.
7 - Brave Hearts - Ernest Goes To Camp
Song: Brave Hearts
Movie: Ernest Goes to Camp
Year: 1987
Artist: Gary Chapman
The movie is fairly well-known, but the soundtrack never received an official release. At least not one I can find. There was a read-along book in the 80s, and I might cover that and more Ernest-related material at some point. I know he doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I always found him amusing.
This montage takes place while Ernest and the campers are preparing to fight back against the mine developer who wants to take the land from the camp. Gary Chapman was already known for being a Christian country music singer when he contributed the song “Brave Hearts” to the production of Ernest Goes to Camp. You can hear the Christian influence in his word choices for the song, although the song itself is not explicitly Christian and is, in essence, a ‘you and me are going to pull through this’ kind of song.
8 - Born to Lose - Animalympics
Song: “Born to Lose”
Movie: Animalympics
Year: 1980
Artist: Graham Gouldman
Graham Gouldman is a musician best known as a lead singer and bassist for the band 10cc. He’s also a prolific songwriter and wrote hits for the Yardbirds and the Hollies. Some of my favorite songs he has worked on include “Good Morning Judge” and “Say theWord”.
Animalympics is a parody of the Olympic Games with animal athletes and mimics the format of Olympic news coverage to tell the characters' stories. It was originally commissioned to be shown during the 1980 Olympics, but only aired the winter portion due to political issues surrounding the Soviet Union. A single film version was later released on home video and aired on the Disney Channel.
The song “Born to Lose” is for the character Bolt Jenkins, an alligator from the sewers who felt like a nothing until he became inspired while watching a high jumper on TV. He gets a Rocky-style montage as he trains to be the somebody he wants to be. “Born to Lose” has an emphasis on how horrible it can feel when nobody expects anything of you, and the world is stacked against you. I think acknowledging negative feelings and pressure helps give the song weight while providing motivation to succeed.
9 - Hold Back Tomorrow - The Raccoons
Song: Hold Back Tomorrow
Series: The Raccoons
Year: 1988
Artist: Lisa Lougheed
Lisa Lougheed is a singer and voice actress who provided the voice of Lisa Raccoon and sang many of the vocal tracks featured on the cartoon The Raccoons. She was still a teenager when she was hired for the show, and the music was released on the album Evergreen Nights.
The show remains a classic in its home country of Canada and among 80s cartoon fans, but isn’t really mainstream in the U.S. The music was high-quality for the time. Unlike many cartoons that try to have a song every episode, the music composed for The Raccoons was of near radio quality every time. However, some of them were reused in multiple episodes.
One memorable episode that played “Hold Back Tomorrow” was “Go For Gold” episode 13 from Season 5. This late series episode takes place after the villain character Cyril Sneer, a greedy millionaire, starts to see more character development. His kind-hearted and nerdy son, Cedric, has been friends with the titular raccoons throughout the series. Cyril finally feels like he can hand off his business to Cedric and retire, but after two charlatans set up a scam race, he tries to compete despite poor health. “Hold Back Tomorrow” plays while Cyril runs the race and Cedric worries that doing so might kill him. This is a good song for accomplishing any task with a deadline.
10 - Fire - Star Street
Song: Fire
Series: Star Street: The Adventures of the Star Kids
Year: 1989
Artist: Vesta Williams
And we keep getting more obscure. I think this song was used in the 5th episode of the Star Street cartoon titled “Miss Cosmos”. But I can’t find a copy of the episode to know for sure. I don’t know if this cartoon ever fully aired in the US. Several episodes were released on video from Celebrity’s Just for Kids label.
Like The Raccoons, Star Street featured a song every episode, and also like The Raccoons, most of them were pretty good. As far as I know, the soundtrack was never released, so the only way we have good quality versions of most of the songs is that the producer/composer Jos van Woudenberg uploaded them to his YouTube channel.
Vesta Williams has been in the music business for quite a long time. Woudenberg said the only way he could afford her was to have her sing two songs in one recording session for the soundtrack. The lyrics for the song were not ready yet, so the lyricist Pamela Philips had to come in during the recording session and write the lyrics in 10 minutes.
That is really impressive. The result is a song that sounds like it should have been near the top of the Hot 100, but which languishes in obscurity. I might dedicate an article to reviewing other songs from his show at some point.A perfect song for facing your fears and achieving a dream.
So there you have it. A list of 10 high-intensity songs from the 1980s. The kind of songs that you can scrub the floor, work out, or finally fulfill your dreams of world domination to. I know some of them weren’t super obscure, but maybe I woke up some dormant memories. I hope you enjoyed this list, and don’t forget to check out some of my other articles for some truly forgotten nostalgic content.
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