Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now

Not to be confused with Nothing's Gonna Stop Us or Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now.
For the Chicago song, see Chicago 18 § Track listing.

"Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now"
Single by Starship
from the album No Protection
B-side"Layin' It on the Line"
ReleasedDecember 19, 1986[1]
RecordedSeptember 1986
Genre
Length4:29
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Narada Michael Walden
Starship singles chronology
"Before I Go"
(1986) 		"Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now"
(1986) 		"It's Not Over Til It's Over"
(1987)
Music video
"Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" on YouTube

"Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" is a song co-written by Diane Warren and Albert Hammond[4] and recorded by American rock band Starship for their second studio album, No Protection (1987). It is a power ballad[5] duet featuring vocalists Grace Slick and Mickey Thomas and is the theme to the romantic-comedy film Mannequin.[6][7]

The song reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, Warren's first single to do so. Elsewhere, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" topped the charts in Canada, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, where it became the second-best-selling song of 1987. "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" received a nomination for Best Original Song at the 60th Academy Awards.

Background

In a radio interview, Hammond said that the idea for the song came from his impending marriage to his live-in girlfriend of seven years after his divorce from his previous wife was finalized. He had said to Warren, "It's almost like they've stopped me from marrying this woman for seven years, and they haven't succeeded. They're not gonna stop me doing it."[8] The song has been considered "feel good" propelled by a strong synthesizer beat.[9]

Reception

Cash Box called the song "an emotional duet by Mickie [sic] Thomas and Grace Slick" and "a blustery, expansive production."[10]

Commercial performance

The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 on April 4, 1987. In the United Kingdom, the song peaked at the top of the UK Singles Chart for four weeks and became the UK's second-best-selling song of 1987 behind "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. The song also reached the top 10 in six other European countries. It became the first chart-topping song to be written by Warren.[11] Grace Slick, at age 47, became the oldest woman to attain a number-one single in the United States,[12] surpassed only by Cher, who was 52 when her song "Believe" reached number one in early 1999.[13]

Music video

The music video for "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" was released in 1987. It features Kim Cattrall and shows Mickey Thomas pursuing a mannequin who comes to life, played by Grace Slick, and is intercut with scenes from the film Mannequin. Meshach Taylor makes a cameo playing his role in the film as window dresser Hollywood Montrose, as does Narada Michael Walden, the producer of the song, who appears with the band.

Towards the end of the video, viewers are shown that the band's members are also mannequins.

In media

The episode is featured in Season 1 Episode 8 of the American sitcom The Goldbergs.[14]

In The Skeleton Twins, the stars lip-sync to the song.[15]

The song is played in the episode called "Oh Mylanta!" of the fourth season of the ABC revival of the American game show Press Your Luck, when the winning contestant of that episode, Clifford of Onalaska, Wisconsin, completes the bonus round with no Whammies and wins over $300,000 in cash and prizes, including a game room, a Hawaiian honeymoon for his parents and tickets to watch the Green Bay Packers play the Chicago Bears at both Lambeau Field and Soldier Field with his wife for the next 10 seasons. The song plays as the show's announcer, Neil Ross, summarizes all of his winnings amidst the thunderous applause from the crowd before cutting to highlights from Clifford's time on the show.[16]

Track listings

  • 7-inch single
A. "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" – 4:29
B. "Layin' It on the Line" (live at Stopher Gym, Nicholls State University)[a] – 4:15
  • 12-inch single
A1. "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" – 4:29
A2. "Layin' It on the Line" – 4:15
B1. "We Built This City" (special club mix) – 7:00
B2. "Tomorrow Doesn't Matter Tonight" – 3:41

Personnel

Additional personnel

Charts

Certifications

Certifications and sales for "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now"
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[58] Gold 50,000^
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[59] Gold 45,000‡
Sweden (GLF)[60] Gold 25,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[62] Platinum 957,336[61]
United States (RIAA)[63] Gold 500,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The liner notes incorrectly list Louisiana State University as the location of Stopher Gym.

References

  1. ^ "Gold & Platinum - RIAA". RIAA. Retrieved November 18, 2023. STARSHIP - NOTHING'S GONNA STOP US NOW - Release Date - December 19, 1986 - Certification(s) Gold February 24, 1989 - Category - GROUP - Certified Units - 0.5 Million
  2. ^ Coffey, Russ (September 2, 2017). "theartsdesk Q&A: Musician Albert Hammond". The Arts Desk. Archived from the original on October 19, 2017. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
  3. ^ Breihan, Tom (February 10, 2021). "The Number Ones: Starship's "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now". Stereogum. Retrieved October 3, 2023. The end result is a fairly generic piece of '80s synth-rock, but it's the good kind of generic.
  4. ^ Nothing's gonna stop us now and the hit songs of Diane Warren MUSIC SCORE.D WARREN – 1991
  5. ^ "The 21 best power ballads". The Telegraph. July 23, 2015. Archived from the original on February 25, 2018. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
  6. ^ King, Alex P. (2004). Hit-parade – 20 ans de tubes (in French). Paris: Pascal. p. 340. ISBN 2-35019-009-9.
  7. ^ theguardian, 28 March 2014, Dave Eggers article, Dave Eggers: what's so funny about peace, love and Starship? Archived December 1, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
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  9. ^ The when, where, and who of pop lyrics: the listener's prerogative. T Murphey. Popular Music, 1989 – Cambridge Univ Press
  10. ^ "Single Releases" (PDF). Cash Box. January 24, 1987. p. 9. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
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  13. ^ Fields, Gaylord (May 7, 2012). "Believe". Rollingstone.com. Archived from the original on April 25, 2021. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
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