The Pointer Sisters' 1984 hit "Neutron Dance" nearly never happened, having faced resistance at every stage of its creation before becoming one of the group's biggest successes. Its unlikely journey, from a reluctant songwriter to a wary lead singer to a film that rejected it outright, illustrates how a song can succeed despite the odds stacked against it, ultimately propelling the Pointer Sisters to the commercial peak of their career.

Songwriter Allee Willis, disillusioned with the music industry after 70s hits like Earth, Wind & Fire's "September", reluctantly wrote the track with Danny Sembello for the film Streets Of Fire, only for its producers to reject it. The Pointer Sisters' June Pointer was initially uneasy about the "neutron" imagery before agreeing to record it for their 1983 album Break Out. The song instead found fame as placeholder music for a car chase in Beverly Hills Cop, and that exposure helped it reach No. 6 as a single in late 1984, becoming one of four Top 10 hits from the album.