Flashback Soul: Irene Cara Rises to “Fame”

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    Baby, remember her name?

    In 1980, playing “Coco Hernandez” in the movie musical Fame, singer Irene Cara’s career took off for the stratosphere when the title track from that film hit #1 on the Billboard dance chart and #4 on the Hot 100.  The track also won “Best Original Song” at the 1980 Academy Awards.  (Cara would return to the charts, and the Academy Awards, three years later as the lead vocalist and co-writer of the Flashdance theme song, “What a Feeling.” )   The track is accompanied here by a charming, albeit primitive music video showing Cara dancing around the streets of Manhattan’s theater district.   A pleasant trip down memory lane indeed. 

     

    By Robb Patryk

    Baby, remember her name?

    In 1980, playing “Coco Hernandez” in the movie musical Fame, singer Irene Cara’s career took off for the stratosphere when the title track from that film hit #1 on the Billboard dance chart and #4 on the Hot 100.  The track also won “Best Original Song” at the 1980 Academy Awards.  (Cara would return to the charts, and the Academy Awards, three years later as the lead vocalist and co-writer of the Flashdance theme song, “What a Feeling.” )   The track is accompanied here by a charming, albeit primitive music video showing Cara dancing around the streets of Manhattan’s theater district.   A pleasant trip down memory lane indeed. 

     

    By Robb Patryk

     
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