The Heat Is On - From "Beverly Hills Cop" Soundtrack

As MTV was picking up steam in America, movie producers started putting extra effort into their soundtracks, as a properly placed original song could become a huge hit from a blockbuster film, creating nice bit of synergy. A great example is Beverly Hills Cop, which gave us "Neutron Dance," "New Attitude" and "Axel F." "The Heat Is On" was written for the film by Harold Faltermeyer and Keith Forsey, and they needed a popular artist to sing it. The Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack album was on MCA Records, which Glenn Frey recently signed with. MCA asked several of their male rock singers to audition for the lead vocal for the song. At first Frey thought this wasn't something "rock stars" did, but he decided to go along, just for fun, never thinking they'd pick him. Harold Faltermeyer was impressed by Frey's vocal (the instrumental tracks were already recorded) and shocked Frey by using his version. It was Frey's biggest solo hit, reaching #2 in the US, where it was stymied by REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling."

Beverly Hills Cop starred Eddie Murphy as a cop from Detroit who shakes things up in California. Glenn Frey was born and raised in Detroit where he played in bands with names like The Mushrooms and Subterraneans before heading to Los Angeles and joining the Eagles. Another Detroit connection from the movie: Allee Willis, who wrote "Neutron Dance," is from Detroit and went to Mumford High School - notice that in the movie, Eddie Murphy wears a Mumford jacket.

The music video for this song was one of the first to use clips from a movie interspersed with performance footage. It did very well on MTV, as it never hurt to put Eddie Murphy on TV in the '80s.