Neutron Dance

"Neutron Dance" is a song written by Allee Willis and Danny Sembello which was introduced by the Pointer Sisters on their 1983 album Break Out.

The song became a Top Ten hit in 1985, its success augmented by being prominently featured on the soundtrack of the motion picture Beverly Hills Cop.

According to Allee Willis, "Neutron Dance" was written in hopes of being placed on the soundtrack of the film Streets of Fire: "We were told that there was a scene on a bus that was leaving town after there had been this nuclear holocaust, and that a '50s doo-wop black group was going to be at the back of the bus that the lead couple was escaping on ... Danny Sembello and I just met that day ...

"[2] Willis adds that the lyric theme of "Neutron Dance" was due to "all this stuff going on in my life: I don't want to take it anymore, I'll just stay here locked behind the door.

In Beverly Hills Cop, "Neutron Dance" was prominently featured during a key car chase sequence with whose action the song proved musically and lyrically compatible.

"[2] According to Ruth Pointer, although "Neutron Dance" proved effective when utilized in the rough cut of the film's car chase sequence, the producers of Beverly Hills Cop were disinclined to retain the song, instead asking Richard Perry to create a new similarly styled track to score the car chase sequence in the completed film: however, Perry demurred opining that "Neutron Dance" was a "one in a million song.

The music video stars the Pointer Sisters as discontented theatre ushers, and also features future Perfect Strangers star Bronson Pinchot as their boss and actor Gary Burghoff, best known from the M*A*S*H film and TV series, as the cinema operator; the setting was a cinema where Beverly Hills Cop was screening, allowing for the promotion of the movie via many clips from it being displayed in the video.

In March 1985 "Neutron Dance" became the fourth Top Ten single issued from the Break Out album rising as high as #6.