Giorgio Moroder And Others Talk Donna Summer & Giorgio’s 10 Big Music Moments: Interview

9. “Take My Breath Away” by Berlin (1986) Giorgio Moroder’s career as a soundtrack producer seemed to be building to one undeniable zeitgeist moment in the 1980s: Top Gun. The Tony Scott-directed action movie cemented Tom Cruise as a household name, made Berlin and Kenny Loggins MTV staples in 1986 and earned Moroder yet another Oscar for his collection, for “Take My Breath Away.”

Berlin had already worked with Moroder on their 1984 single “No More Words.” Singer Terri Nunn explains how the band also landed Top Gun‘s love theme, “Take My Breath Away”:

“Pretty much anybody who was anybody in music was calling Giorgio. He was very expensive, and rightly so. We got him for one song, and he picked ‘No More Words.’ It was so fortuitous, because it just so happened that while he was in the studio with us producing that song, Top Gun came along.”

Berlin — “No More Words”

However, landing “Take My Breath Away” wasn’t an easy task for Nunn and the rest of Berlin. “I got lucky enough to get an invitation to try out for [the song],” she says. “[Giorgio] didn’t offer it to me. The project was so big and he was so big, they were trying out singers. There were quite a few before me that tried out for it, well-known singers. And why they didn’t get it, I have no idea, because they were all really good.”

The tipping point in Berlin’s favor proved to be when Nunn took home Moroder’s demo and deviated from what she calls the original, “stiff” vocal melody on the track.

“I kind of just pulled the notes out and held them over the chords longer, just because that’s how, to me, it felt more fluid, more sensual, more romantic,” Nunn recalls. “It worked for me better. I just threw that on his demo and he gave it to them. I thought it was good — it was how I wanted to sing it. And luckily, they liked it.”

The ultimate testament to the risk Nunn took with Moroder’s demo? “My favorite song on Top Gun is ‘Take My Breath Away’,” says Giorgio. “It has a good melody and a great performance by Berlin and Terri Nunn.”

Berlin — “Take My Breath Way”