The #1 Hit Song “Let’s Hear It For The Boy” (1984) by Deniece Williams

It was the the anthem when I was fucking boys with popped collars who looked like Kevin Bacon.

No idea.

Moonfaced McDonalds connoisseur Ewwdwin do you always start a thread for any random old song that pops into your fat head?

I was a freshman at university when that came out. My junior year boyfriend always referred to me as The Boy, so I heard that fucking song everywhere we went. Listening to it again now…yeah, maybe it IS kinda catchy.

[quote]What a bop!!

OP, thanks for the chuckle.

It was corny.

George Duke who produced it said on a TV interview that he hated it back then, and STILL Hates it, even though it made him and Deniece a lot of money.

I still like it though.

R7 it’s a fun song but I can understand why he would hate it.

Deniece had to convince George Duke to produce it as she knew it would be a big hit. It's too bad she became a Gospel singer after the song became a massive hit for her. She had the perfect voice for Pop and R&B.

Deniece Williams had some great songs, like "Free." LHIFTB was pretty bad.

“Free” was a #1 hit in the UK

I wonder who that cute kid is (initially in the dunce cap) who dances with her. He's very good, charming.

Didn't she also do “It’s gonna take a Miracle” ??

Lovely song .

Black Butterfly is another Niecy classic.

Whitney came along. That's what happened.

is bop from kidz bop?

R16 Bop is what moonface OP Ewwdwin calls the songs that make him shake his jiggly tits.

Denise (a.k.a. Denasty) was too busy appearing on the 700 Club & other religious right shows to have another mainstream hit again.

She was probably in the top 20 celebs who appeared in such programming.

For anyone who is truly interested.

The little boy in the dunce cap is Aaron Lohr, who is now married to Idina Menzel.

One of Deniece's best friends of over forty years is Johnny Mathis, who came out as gay in the early 80's. I seriously doubt she's homophobic.

But she did go to the church that Donna Summer and Lisa Whelchel attended. Donna and Deniece helped fix Lisa up with her first husband.

Ive always loved the "No More Lies" theme from Lace 2 that she sung.

I like "I Never Knew Love Like This Before ."

Stop saying bop! You're not 17!

That was Stephanie Mills r23

I kind of hate this song, but I **LOVE** “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late”.

Thanks for the compliment, r23.

R21 No one said she was "homphobic" such as fearing gay people.

I was going 2 sign my post as J. Mathis but I knew someone would bring up her duet partner.

Folks who do anti-LGBT shows may tolerate being in their presence but don't see them as equals.

As for the rich & famous who went to her church, birds of a feather flock together.

I doubt that she has ever stood up to Donna or Lisa's anti gay remarks (Lisa's was more recent & documented with her blog).

The fact that she could be in the same room with Pat Robertson as he spread some of the worst lies about us (gay men trying to put AIDS tainted water in town water towers or recently saying gay men have secret rings that transmit HIV).

Here's some more awful stuff that ol' Pat has said but has Deniece ever distanced herself from any of these things?

Hated that shitty song.

Deniece made better dance tracks back in the 70s. Her best music was from that period.

This video is also cringe worthy as she is talking to an underage boy instead of a grown ass man.

No straight guy could've done a similar video with a young girl like that in the 80s.

Watching this video makes me think of 700 Club loving Sherri Sheppard & the way she smothers her poor challenged son.

Lisa Whelchel is not anti-gay. She calls out anti-gay Christians in this video.

Read her old blog if you can find it R33.

She was anti LGBT multiple times.

Maybe an old DL search will educate you on some of the stuff she said/done.

She even supported Exodus International (a "conversion therapy" group) =

People change r34

"Free", "Silly", "It's Gonna Take a Miracle", and "I've Got the Next Dance" were much better track. "Let's Hear it For the Boy" got played way too much.

Yes R35 & some people never apologize for what they said/did to others.

Some never try to undo the damage they've done.

They think they can restart their Hollywood career by deleting a blog & doing a couple interviews with a gay host like nothing had happened.

That some easily manipulated queens (who can suck up to any "star" for a sit down interview) can be so quick to forgive/forget speaks volumes why the anti gay folks continue to run wild over the planet in 2022.

Oh shut up r37.

R38 is Pat Robertson.

Silly is another good song. Too Much Too Little Too Late with that old queen Mathis was a #1 hit.

Nobody cares r39 take your soapbox to another thread.

Take Deniece's anti LGBT relationships to another thread on a gay forum?

Get real.

Take your admiration of this one hit wonder/bigot lover to TBN' s chat boards.

r42 you're the only one who has a problem. We're talking about her music, not her personally.

[quote]Whitney came along. That's what happened.

Whitney had already come along. "Let's Hear It For the Boy" was a lot more fun than anything Whitney was recording (all sappy ballads except for "How Will I Know").

Anyway, Deniece Williams decided to focus on the Christian market, because she was seriously Christian. And the Christian market was conservative and anti-gay, and I'm sure she went along to get along. It's not very admirable but I can't get whipped up into a frenzy about it like some of you can.

R43 The OP wondered why she didn't have more hits after this one &

I replied that she dedicated herself to the religious right's goals which are in opposition to ours.

I guess you're one of those people who can separate Hitler from his art?

Let's Hear It For the Boy was in '84. Whitney wasn't around until the following year.

Yes r45 Deniece Williams is worse than Hitler. We're all terrible people for reminiscing about a shitty pop song she sang almost 40 years ago. Now run along.

R37/39 etc…is the 700 club troll that derails threads with this shit.

She pissed off her record company when she did a gospel song at the 1985 Grammys instead of singing let’s hear it for the boy and they no longer had the incentive to push her as a pop star. She was also 34 in 1985 so the window of becoming a big pop star was small.

She had terrible taste in men during this time and married two religious grifters.

More importantly, Deniese also sang with Johnny Mathis on the Family Ties theme.

And R48 Is the born again Christian celebrity troll that can't stop drooling

over their crap & bumping up old threads about how great they all are.

May this thread die a proper death as all of the other forgotten ones about born again Xtian celebs.

R49 For many religious right stars money talks but human right abuses around the world should be ignored.

I'd rather have this song.

I always liked the Family Ties theme, "Without Us."

I love this underrated Pop gem that she also wrote.

She, without a doubt, influenced Mariah Carey (along with Minnie Riperton).

R46 true

Whitney wasn’t around until 1985 and didn’t blow up until 1986

By the end of the 80s, Whitney was firmly the #2 biggest female artist of the 80s and in the world behind Madonna and Denise was doing her Christian music thing

Sit Ubu Sit

[quote] This video is also cringe worthy as she is talking to an underage boy instead of a grown ass man.

The song cover romantic, platonic and familial relationships.

Fyi, it’s cringe worthy for someone to use the phrase “grown ass man”.

Does anyone know what the fuck r50 is babbling about? Did you rim Pat Robertson?

Are we sure the video isn’t her grooming the boy from young the way Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s wife did?

That final super-high sliding note followed by a few whistle notes right at the end foretold the coming of the Age of Mariah.

Anybody who grew up in a black household knows that Let's Hear It For The Boy is not her only hit. It may be her biggest pop hit, but she's had some iconic R&B singles that went on to be sampled by a lot of newer artists. She started off singing backup for Stevie Wonder as part of his backing vocals group Wonderlove. Here they are jamming with Stevie onstage back in 1974.

I've always loved her 1987 single NEVER SAY NEVER. Jermaine Stewart ("We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off") is singing backup vocals.

R60 fuck off with the race shit. She did have other hits before that song. The question was why was it her LAST hit. Not only.

She appealed to all people. More white people were listening to this song than black.

She was another singer who could reach those insanely high notes. She does it in the theme song from the Jay Leno/Pat Morita buddy cop film Collison Course

[quote][R60] fuck off with the race shit.

Unclench, cunt. A nerve was obviously hit, but that's your problem. Oh, and fuck you very much.

[quote]She did have other hits before that song. The question was why was it her LAST hit. Not only.

If you don't equate pop hits with being an actual hit then no, it was not her last hit. The aforementioned "Never Say Never" was a top ten R&B hit. But then again, you probably only think that a white audience can constitute a legitimate "hit."

[quote]She appealed to all people.

Duh.

[quote]More white people were listening to this song than black.

Again, duh. It was on the soundtrack to one of the whitest movies to come out of the '80s. But then again, a whole lot of black folks were jamming out to LHIFTB too, so...

The music video for the song clearly reveals that the song is about a faghag, her appreciation of her gay best friend and her belief that he loves her in return. The final sequence with all the gay dudes dancing and prancing makes it crystal clear.

Her unsung episode is pretty good. Her first husband was gorgeous and had an identical twin brother.

What am I? chopped liver?

Singing it at the 1985 Oscars. The same ceremony where Ann reinking performed her iconic dance/sing of “against all OF THE odds”

An eternal 80s bop

Love it, great song.

Stacy Lattisaw also became a gospel music performer.