Harold Faltermeyer--Axel F (1985)

     Harold was born in Munich, Germany and from an early age showed talent at the piano, which eventually earned him a spot at the Munich Music Academy. He began with classical, but took a liking to rock as well playing the organ in his teen years with a combo. His talent caught the eyes and ears of Giorgio Moroder in 1978, who invited the young musician to Los Angeles to play the keys and help arrange the music to the "Midnight Express" soundtrack.
     This began a fruitful partnership where he assisted Moroder in producing music for Donna Summer and others. More importantly he found himself working more soundtracks such as, "American Gigolo" and "Foxes". He got is big break on his own in 1984, creating the music for the movie, "Beverly Hills Cop" in which the single, "Axel F" was taken. The song not only reached #3 on the pop charts here in America, but became a worldwide hit on the pop and dance charts.
     He followed this up by composing the music to the Chevy Chase film, "Fletch" in 1985 and teaming again with Moroder on the soundtrack to "Top Gun" in 1986.
     Faltermeyer continued to work scoring soundtracks for movies and computer games.

    

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Peter Cetera--Glory of Love (1986)

     One of the wonderful things about this blog, is that I get confess all things musical under the guise of "serious" writing. No matter how respected you are as a critic in your field, it still comes down to what you like or don't like...just like the reader.  Hopefully, you find these blogs interesting, and that the few times I have opinions, you agree with them. But the bottom line is that it's MY opinion, and your mileage may vary.
     Having said that I must confess that I have always loved Peter Cetera's voice. For those not old enough to remember, he was one of the singers in the group Chicago. For those who are older, you can remember during the groups first few years, they could actually rock....thanks to guitarist Terry Kath. There is a old You Tube video of the group covering the Spencer Davis Group hit, "I'm a Man". Hearing Cetera wailing away should put a smile on your face...especially if you think his career began with 80's version Chicago...

     After the death of Kath, the group began a slow turn into ballads as their bread and butter. Cetera led the way as the group had a renaissance in the early to mid 80's. By his solo output, one could only  suppose the group wasn't heading into Adult Contemporary fast enough, so Cetera  left for a solo career.
     His first hit was from the hit movie, "Karate Kid 2". I'm not a movie critic, but for some strange reason, although the acting we better in the first movie, I prefer the second one, and his voice seemed perfect for the song. Although it's obvious that he didn't quite know what to do with his hands during the whole video. It went to number 1 for two weeks and was the first of  5 top ten hits from 1986 to 1997. . Cetera still remains a favorite no matter if he's singing rock, or singing middle of the road pop ballads.

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Stephen Bishop--It Might Be You (1983)

   A few days ago, we featured a song that used in the movie, "Top Gun", and mentioned how that in the 80's, music and movies were blended together in way never done before. The best known example of an artist who took full advantage of this was Kenny Loggins. One that was successful in writing songs used for movies that flew under the radar was Stephen Bishop.

    Bishop's, "On and On" was a top 20 hit in 1977, but in the 80's was best known for writing music for Animal House, Roadie, The China Syndrome, Unfaithfully Yours, and the duet, "Separate Lives" which a number one hit for Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin from the movie, "White Nights". Of all of those 80's songs, this one from the movie "Tootsie" starring Dustin Hoffman reached the highest charting at
#25 in 1983.

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Berlin--Take My Breath Away (1986)

     Am not an expert on movies, but if I recall, the 80's became the first decade where the lines between popular music and film were blurred. Much of the emphasis in the decade has been on MTV and it's influence on music, but there was a great impact on movies as well. The cross pollination between the two is not unusual, as Elvis made a career of it in the 60s, but the movie was the usually the vehicle for selling the music. In the 80's, with the advent of the mini (and inexpensive) movie ads that were videos being pumped it televisions throughout the world, the music became advertisements for the movie.

     I'm not suggesting that the movies or music wouldn't have done well without the other (at the time Cruse was a red hot up and comer), but there is no doubt that the 80's were a time that's difficult to separate the music from the film that it is found on. Twenty-five years later, many think of Berlin as a one hit wonder, and it was their only #1 hit, but they had a top 40 song just two years before, and had been hitting the lower end of the charts since 1983. On the flip side, you cannot watch the movie without thinking of the song.....

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