Man Turns Heads In Laughter Dancing To Classic Movie Song 'Footloose' In Store

Apr 01, 2021 by apost team

The 1984 blockbuster hit "Footloose" is a cult favorite and for good reason. Not only is the storyline and acting engaging, but the music and dancing are also memorable. It is no wonder that people still adore this movie decades after it first came out.

This 2011 video out of Houston, Texas, exemplifies the excitement that this song can bring to the dance floor — even in the strangest of places. As this video will demonstrate, this infectious theme song can make anyone want to put on their dance shoes and get out there to boogie.

For this reason, it is not a surprise that "Footloose" was the song of choice for YouTuber Preston Leatherman when he wanted to film a performance of him dancing in public.

Of all places, Leatherman chose the Memorial City Mall in Houston as his dance floor. With his earbuds in tight enough so that only he could hear the song, he glides, boogies and flails around retail stores as if he is the only one there. The whole point of the video, as Leatherman’s description explains, was to dance in a public place to music that no one else could hear.

While some shoppers stopped to watch the crazy dancing man, others seemed to be completely oblivious to the situation — or at least they pretended not to notice. With Leatherman’s crazy dance moves, it’s hard to imagine that anyone didn’t see this young man jumping up and down in silence alongside Target shoppers.

However, the best onlookers were the ones who stopped to dance along with Leatherman even though they couldn’t hear the energetic track playing on Leatherman’s iPod.

Since Leatherman’s video hit YouTube back in 2011, it has spread far and wide across the internet, accumulating more than 2 million views, 13,000 likes and 1,000 supportive comments.

“Haha major respect, at least you can dance! If I tried to do this in public I'd probably be arrested for my embarrassing dance moves,” one user commented.

“Just wanted to say that the videographer and the editing are awesome and so well done...and of course the free spirited dancer is too!” another viewer wrote.

And let’s not forget the amazing song either, which is essential to Leatherman’s performance.

Kenny Loggins released the track as the theme for the 1984 film of the same name. “Footloose,” Herbert Ross’ musical drama, follows Ren McCormack, played by Kevin Bacon, who works to overturn an anti-dancing ordinance before senior prom at his Chicago high school.

The film’s soundtrack was widely lauded in the press, with Loggins’ “Footloose” receiving a Golden Globe and Academy Award nomination in 1985. Other well-known tracks from the film include John Mellencamp’s “Hurt So Good,” Foreigner’s “Waiting for a Girl Like You” and Quiet Riot’s “Bang Your Head (Metal Health).” But if one song stands out from the bunch, it’s Loggins’ “Footloose,” which has earned a legendary status in the film and music industry.

Despite the track’s remarkable success, the song has humble — even mundane — beginnings. As Loggins tells the story, he read his screenwriter friend Dean Pitchford’s script for the film as a favor, which got the songwriter thinking.

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“(The script) was not ‘Gone With the Wind’ — sorry, Dean — and he knows that,” Loggins told the Tennessean. “But I thought, ‘This is pretty good. This could be fun.’ And as a favor to Dean, not knowing it was going to be a favor to me, I considered writing with him. Then he came to Reno (Nevada) and we started jamming on ideas and stuff. But I don't think we actually wrote the song "Footloose" until we got back to my place in L.A.”

At that time Loggins had already experienced a good degree of fame thanks to the song “I’m Alright,” which he wrote for “Caddyshack.” The film garnered a cult following, and Loggins’ song topped the singles charts, making a name for Loggins in the film industry. With that said, “I’m Alright’s” success was nothing compared to “Footloose,” which grossed $80 million domestically.

"We didn’t expect ‘Footloose’ to be the movie of the summer back then,” Loggins explained in a 2011 interview with the Los Angeles Times. “We’d be lucky if it got any attention at all. But I remember sitting in the theater, the lights go out and the first thing I hear are the first few bars of my song. And the opening of the movie was all ‘Footloose.’ And I was pretty shocked. No one had told me that was going to happen.”

Loggins’ “Footloose” was so impactful that the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress added the track to its National Recording Registry on March 18, 2018.

“The film’s title tune, performed by Kenny Loggins, remains today deeply emblematic of the 1980s—fun, invigorating and, in its way, a little rebellious,” the Library of Congress wrote in their March 2018 briefing. “Co-written by Loggins and the film’s screenwriter, Dean Pitchford, the song would prove to be the biggest hit of Loggins’ long career (dating back to his work with Jim Messina from the early 1970s) and the biggest hit from the film’s multi-platinum soundtrack. Since its debut and initial 16 weeks on the Billboard charts, the song has served as the musical centerpiece for both the 1998 Broadway musical and the big-screen remake released in 2011.”

The energy that Leatherman brings to his public dance routine shows exactly why “Footloose” is such a big deal. The song is full of energy and spunk, and it’s almost hard not to dance when you hear someone play it. In that way, Leatherman’s video is the perfect tribute to the song’s decades long legacy.

In every frame, Leatherman gives the dance moves his all. Whether he’s in a Target or in front of a shoe store, he has so much energy that it almost looks like he’s going to hurt himself in some shots as he jumps and moves every which way. Luckily, this young man knows how to boogie.

If you like Leatherman’s wackiness, the YouTuber has a whole channel full of videos from guitar covers to original music videos. In fact, it seems that Leatherman is a musician himself, releasing the song “Give It Up” back in 2015.

The video has already been watched over 2 million times, making Leatherman’s dance performance a clear hit. Now is your chance to also join in on the fun. After you have watched this happy video, be sure to spread the joy to everyone you know. And tell us your thoughts: What do you think of Leatherman’s dance moves?