Generation 1  Generation 1 / Music

A History of 'The Touch' - How Stan Bush Wound Up In The Transformers Hall of Fame

Vulture.com has posted an article detailing the history of "The Touch," arguably the song that defined 1986's The Transformers: The Movie and possibly even the character of Optimus Prime himself. Not originally intended for Optimus Prime but Sylvester Stallone, the song laid dormant for many years until Stan Bush's first appearance at BotCon coincided with Boogie Nights' use of the song. Keep reading for excerpts and a link to the full story!

In the mid-'80s, Bush was a musician and guitarist with a couple of albums to his name and no breakout hit. Inspiration struck when Bush and the song's co-writer, Lenny Macaluso, found themselves discussing Iron Eagle, a better-off-forgotten Gossett Jr. vehicle about jet pilots.

Bush recalled the origin story to me in an interview: "There's a scene in the movie where Gossett turns to this young pilot and says, 'Kid, you've got the touch,' and we were like, Yeah! What a great song idea!"

They wanted to write something anthemic enough to meet one goal.

"We wrote the song with the Stallone movie Cobra in mind," Bush said in his amiable southern drawl, picked up during his childhood in northern Florida. "We wanted to get it on the soundtrack. But the record label, they got it in the Transformers movie instead. We thought, What in the hell is that? An animated movie about robots? Really?"


---------

By sheer coincidence, that same year, Bush was invited to the fourth-ever "BotCon" convention for Transformers fans, held in Rochester, New York. To his surprise, fans had been revering "The Touch" for more than a decade, and he was asked to perform at the convention. At first, he was a little thrown off and irritated that everyone was focusing on this one-off song from so long ago.

"It's a double-edged sword," he said. "You have to thank goodness that there's something you're known for, I suppose. At least it's a positive song."

Data Center

Member Comments

~ NO MEMBER COMMENTS YET ~
start the coversation with yours

ADD YOUR COMMENT NOW
(Membership Required)

Transformers Shops

Advertise Here on TFormers.com

Shop Online for Transformers United

Transformers Shopping



More Generation 1 News & Reviews



Advertise on TFormers.com








This site uses cookies for site configuration, advertising, and analysis. By using this site you accept our policies - Read Full Site Policy OK
Sign Up For The TNI Newsletter And Have The News Delivered To You!


Forums Communities: Toy Fans - Marvel Fans - Transformers Fans

@ToyNewsI Socials: Facebook - Twitter - Instagram

@MarvelousNews Socials: Facebook - Twitter - Instagram

@Tformers Socials: Facebook - Twitter - Instagram

@JediInsider Socials: Facebook - Twitter - Instagram

Entertainment News International (ENI) is the #1 popular culture network for adult fans all around the world.
Get the scoop on all the popular comics, games, movies, toys, and more every day!

Contact and Support

Advertising | Submit News | Contact ENI | Privacy Policy

©Entertainment News International - All images, trademarks, logos, video, brands and images used on this website are registered trademarks of their respective companies and owners. All Rights Reserved. Data has been shared for news reporting purposes only. All content sourced by fans, online websites, and or other fan community sources. Entertainment News International is not responsible for reporting errors, inaccuracies, omissions, and or other liablities related to news shared here. We do our best to keep tabs on infringements. If some of your content was shared by accident. Contact us about any infringements right away - CLICK HERE