Trivia / Giorgio Moroder

• Breakaway Pop Hit: Has a knack for writing soundtrack songs that eclipse the actual film.
  • "On The Radio" (performed by Donna Summer) from Foxes.
  • "Call Me" (performed by Blondie) from American Gigolo.
  • "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" (performed by David Bowie) from Cat People.
  • "Together In Electric Dreams" (performed by Moroder and Philip Oakey) from Electric Dreams.
  • "Love Kills" (performed by Freddie Mercury) from Metropolis.
• Career Resurrection: Twice.
  • His '60s/early '70s bubblegum pop ("Looky, Looky"; "Son Of My Father", famously Covered Up by Chicory Tip) had made him a kind of laughing stock of the music scene. Then in 1977, while he was producing Donna Summer, he made "I Feel Love"—a revolution in disco music: He replaced the usual elements taken over from funk with a driving, semi-electronic 1/16th beat which was partly even played by a machine. He had gone under as a maker of musical Narm—and resurfaced as one of the pioneers of Electronic Music, making Electronic Dance Music before there was Electronic Dance Music.
  • His other big comeback was in 2013 and not quite as spectacular. Daft Punk, big fans of his, got the opportunity to make a track with him in which he tells the listener about his career. This exposed a new generation of listeners to him. He regrew his Porn Stache and became "the world's oldest active DJ".
  • In the late 1970s, both Sparks and The Three Degrees achieved career resurrections through albums he produced for them.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: He's said in several interviews that the song he's most proud of is "Take My Breath Away (Love Theme from Top Gun)". Happily for him, it's also one of his biggest hits.
• Follow the Leader: As a pioneer of electronic dance music, many other acts followed his lead. But it happened the other way round as well: his Music From Battlestar Galactica album followed the lead of Meco's Star Wars And Other Galactic Funk.
• He Also Did: ...the financial backing of the first production sports car with a 16-cylinder engine, the Cizeta-Moroder V16T.
• Production Posse: Besides his co-producer Pete Bellotte, Moroder's posse in the Munich disco era included bassist Les Hurdle, keyboard player Thor Baldursson, woodwind player Dino Solera, and drummer Keith Forsey. Forsey in particular appeared on just about everything Moroder and Bellotte produced in the 70s, and went on to contribute lyrics to several of Moroder's 80s film soundtracks. In the 80s, when Moroder was based in Los Angeles, his regular collaborators included vocalists Joe Esposito, E.C. Daily, Beth Anderson and Paul Engemann, and guitarist Richie Zito. Keyboard player and sometimes co-producer Harold Faltermeyer spans both eras.

---