Giorgio Moroder had an enormous impact on pop music through the late 70’s and particularly 1980’s but most casual music lovers would not know who he is. In some ways that is sad but in others it perhaps is a credit to his a being a Producer who helped his artists shine.
Giorgio is perhaps best known as the man behind Donna Summer’s I Feel Love song which was a total Disco powerhouse record and launched about as many disco acts as Smoke On The Water did guitarists. It is almost impossible to listen to a Disco or Hi-NRG record without hearing tips of the hat to (if not outright sampling of) Moroder. I can only imagine he must be a bit chuffed at how influential he was.
The other thing many will remember bearing the Moroder name is his Midnight Express soundtrack. He worked on many film soundracks and in the mid-80’sand scored a massive single with Phil Oakey, Together In Electric Dreams. He also wrote an alternate soundtrack using pop artists for the classic silent film Metropolis.
Moroder’s work often went on behind the scenes and in many ways this is where he had his greatest impact on guiding the course of pop music for several generations. A list of some of the Moroder produced songs is pivotal:
- Donna Summer’s I Feel Love
- Japan’s Life In Tokyo
- Blondie’s Call Me
- Limahl’s Neverending Story from the film of the same name
- Berlin’s Take My Breath Away from Top Gun
- Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s Flaunt It album
I was once DJing an event and a hip turntablist was coming on after my set of Retro 80’s and he was impressed that I had Moroder records and I was impressed that he was lacing Moroder in as “premium groove” under modern Techno.
Giorgio Moroder worked in the studio with top talent in people like Harold Faltermeyer (Axel F), Keith Forsey (Billy Idol), Pete Bellotte and others who went on to take what they learned with Moroder to create their own careers behind other artists. Moroder had a wonderful sense of what would make a good pop song with an infectious bounce.
I often used to say that if I was given a big enough record contract along with a producer I would, in order, ask for 1) Alan Parsons, 2) Giorgio Moroder or 3) Iva Davies (Icehouse).