"Holding Out for a Hero" is a song written by Jim Steinman and Dean Pitchford, originally recorded by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler. It was released in 1984 on the soundtrack to the film Footloose. It later appeared on Tyler's album Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire. It hit #96 for the first time in the United Kingdom in 1984, #2 in 1985, #69 in 1991. The opening couplet – "Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods?/ Where's the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?" – could be seen as an example of the ubi sunt motif in literature.
The song's instrumental break was reused from "Stark Raving Love" on Steinman's 1981 album Bad for Good. The song also appeared on a radio station in the game Saints Row: The Third, and plays in the background during the last mission.
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Famous quotes containing the words holding and/or hero:
“No collection of people who are all waiting for the same thing are capable of holding a natural conversation. Even if the thing they are waiting for is only a taxi.”
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“Typically, the hero of the fairy tale achieves a domestic, microcosmic triumph, and the hero of myth a world-historical, macrocosmic triumph. Whereas the former—the youngest or despised child who becomes the master of extraordinary powers—prevails over his personal oppressors, the latter brings back from his adventure the means for the regeneration of his society as a whole.”
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