15 February 1986
We’ve just had ‘Walk Of Life’ helped to number one by a gimmicky video, followed by ‘Only Love’ as a prominent soundtrack theme, and now here’s a chart-topper by grace of both. ‘When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going’ was from the movie The Jewel Of The Nile and its video featured the three stars—Kathleen Turner, Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito—as Billy’s white-tux-wearing backing singers.
There are some nice sunny ‘oohs’ by the record’s actual backing singers throughout, especially in the middle section when the music briefly drops out, and the Billy Ocean of the fantastic 1977 hit ‘Red Light Spells Danger’ sounds right in his wheelhouse here, but that’s a pretty meagre return on investment. This marketing department concept of soul-pop is a bright plastic football bouncing down the middle of the road, but not in a fun way. If you find its title witty and motivational, or if you like charmless Indiana Jones imitations with an extra helping of dubious portrayals of ‘foreigners’, then this is for you.
