1 November 1986
Trivia fans, get yer hats! Before becoming the lead singer of Berlin, who were from California and not Germany, Terri Nunn auditioned for the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars and turned down the sizeable role of Lucy Ewing in ’80s TV soap Dallas. Giorgio Moroder co-wrote both ‘Take My Breath Away’ and ‘Danger Zone’ with the person who had fixed the brakes on his Ferrari. ‘Take My Breath Away’ had originally been offered to a different Californian new wave band, The Motels, whose lead singer Martha Davis later appeared in Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure as a Future Council member alongside the E Street Band’s Clarence Clemons. (‘Danger Zone’ had apparently also been shopped around to the likes of Toto and REO Speedwagon before finding its natural home with Kenny ‘Footloose’ Loggins.)
I’m spoiling you with this fact-stravaganza because ‘Take My Breath Away’ itself is mostly your standard mid-’80s gas-giant power ballad: big sweeping chorus; vague melodramatic lyrics (“Through the hourglass I saw you!” always sticks out in my mind); billowing synths; shirt-ripping emoshuns. Needless to say, it sold squillions and won an Oscar. That Moroder, also responsible for the pioneering ‘I Feel Love’ and the second-best Sparks album, apparently considers this his proudest achievement is a bit dispiriting. Maybe his priority was always that Ferrari: the need for speed.
