Breath-taking

Today in Music History: November 8

There are songs that hit the charts. Then, there are films with the songs as the soundtrack that take the songs to an even higher memorable plane. Do the songs make the film or does the film make the song? Maybe it is simply a little of both. In either case, the song and the film are everlasting. Each become breath-taking.

Berlin, 1982. L-R: David Diamond, Rob Brill, Terri Nunn, John Crawford, Matt Reid, and Ric Olsen.

Berlin formed in Los Angeles in 1978 and is classified as an American  new wave/synthpop band. The band gained mainstream-commercial success in the early 80s when they made their first national impression with the provocative single "Sex (I'm A...)" from the gold-selling debut EP Pleasure Victim.

1986 Berlin started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Take Your Breath Away'. The song which was featured in the film Top Gun, was written by Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 1986.

Berlin lead singer Terri Nunn recalls in The Sunday Express magazine, October 1, 2006: "By 1986 we'd already been together as a band 13 years and were on our third album. We were approached by the producer Giorgio Moroder, who had worked with David Bowie and Blondie and was putting together the soundtrack for this movie Top Gun. He said, 'I've got this great ballad, it's going to be the sound of the summer, it's going to be huge, you have to do it.' I was happy to go ahead, but John Crawford (the band's songwriter, founder member and keyboard player) hated it - he kept saying it just wasn't our sound or the right direction for us as a band, and that if we didn't write it we shouldn't record it. But our label insisted it wouldn't hurt us, so we went ahead. The song didn't go straight to #1. In fact, it couldn't get any radio play at all but for some reason, someone at Columbia just wouldn't give up on it. They pushed it for a month and then it exploded." Source: Songfacts.com

And the music goes on beating to the rhythm of the changing times...