Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now

This was the third #1 single for Starship (after "We Built This City" and "Sara"), but the only members of the group who actually participated in the recording of the song were vocalist Grace Slick and Mickey Thomas, and guitarist Craig Chaquico. Producer Narada Michael Walden preferred to use his veteran session players to round out the instrumental backing, and he programmed the LinnDrum himself. Walden was one of the hottest producers of the time, coming off hits for Whitney Houston "How Will I Know" and Aretha Franklin "Freeway of Love." He told Songfacts: "I always dug that '60s thing with Grace Slick. She's a very outspoken women. We're all from the Bay Area, so it's like family. I actually played the drums when I laid the track out. I got Grace to come in, flipped it around so instead of the low part, she wound up singing the highest part. I gave her the highest part and she just killed it. That's when I realized it could be a smash. And when I got happy in the studio, she got happy."

Starship were originally called Jefferson Airplane, then Jefferson Starship, and then Starship. "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" was the biggest hit for any version of the group, spending two weeks at #1 in the US and four weeks at #1 in the UK.

This song had enormous hit potential. It was written by Diane Warren and Albert Hammond. For Warren, it was her first #1, but she had already written hits for Laura Branigan ("Solitaire") and DeBarge ("Rhythm Of The Night"). Hammond had established himself with "When I Need You" for Leo Sayer and his solo hit "It Never Rains In Southern California." The producer Narada Michael Walden and the group Starship were very reliable hitmakers, and the song got lots of promotion from being featured in the movie Mannequin, which starred Andrew McCarthy (an original Brat Pack member) and Kim Cattrall (who played Samantha Jones in Sex And The City).