2 May 1987
Have you ever actually watched the movie Mannequin, or does the video for ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’ suffice? I feel the video gives me all the Mannequin I need; the full movie itself would only be a let down. This is our first number one from the pen of Diane Warren, whose US soft rock and power ballads will be a fixture of our charts for the decade to come. It was co-written by Albert Hammond, whose other collaborations include ‘One Moment In Time’, ‘The Air That I Breathe’ and Albert Hammond Jr of The Strokes.
Maybe it’s because I have happy childhood memories of going to the cinema in 1987 when US comedies like Mannequin were all the rage, and because I have happy childhood memories of 1987 in general, but I’ve always liked ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’. Unlike the stagey melodrama of many subsequent Warren hits, it’s breezy and charming. Grace Slick’s raspy voice gives it character and swagger; her performance prefigures that of another ’60s icon we’ll soon see on a later 1987 Irish number one duet. Starship’s other big ’80s hit, ‘We Built This City’, also puts some cheesy fun into US soft rock. They’re no dummies!
