Last Action Hero

Album: Last Action Hero (1993)
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Songfacts®:

  • Last Action Hero was a big-budget Arnold Schwarzenegger movie with very big soundtrack. Original songs by Alice in Chains, Anthrax, Megadeth and Cypress Hill all appeared in the film, but it was Tesla that was tapped to record the title track.

    The song was slated to appear in a climactic scene where the villain hurls an axe at Schwarzenegger, but the song was relegated to the end credits. In fact, once the credits start, the AC/DC song "Big Gun" plays, which is followed by the Tesla track. So, really the only people to hear it were the folks waiting to see who the best boy or key grips were on the film, and possibly some young couples looking for some time alone.
  • Tesla doesn't write on spec very often, so this song didn't follow their typical workflow. The band, minus lead singer Jeff Keith, came up with the musical idea and the backing vocal where they sing "Last action hero." They then brought it to their frontman.

    "I'd never been approached by the band with a background vocal already established as a chorus," Keith said in our interview. "So I kind of had my hands tied."
  • Five singles were released from the Last Action Hero soundtrack, but this wasn't one of them. The surprise hit was the Def Leppard ballad "Two Steps Behind."

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