written by Rob Brill

produced by Bob Ezrin

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Berlin’s an American pop/rock band based out of Los Angeles and

formed in the late ’70s, when lead singer Terri Nunn was a teenager.

Within two short years, their first single was out. It failed to chart—

as did its accompanying album—but yet made the ’88 Best Of Berlin

compilation. Berlin bounced around the quirky new wave sound on 1982’s Pleasure Victim and ’84’s Love Life, and settled more into a synth-pop groove by the decade’s latter half. To date, their biggest hit had been the naughty Pleasure Victim cut “Sex (I’m A...).”​ The Love Life album’s firstborn was “No More Words,” a hot track featured in the underrated movie Vision Quest—which was perhaps best known for the singing cameo by Madonna, and the birthplace of her hit “Crazy For You.” But all that would change for Berlin when 1986 came along. A song written for the Tom Cruise film Top Gun was first offered to fellow new wavers The Motels, who did not get around to recording it. Songwriter Giorgio Moroder had produced “No More Words,” and suggested Berlin. Before they knew it, the band had the single out—following Kenny Loggins’ mega-hit contribution “Danger Zone”—and nailed by far the biggest hit of their career, “Take My Breath Away.” “Breath Away” was also featured a few months later on the band’s ’86 album Count Three And Pray, which too gave way to the song featured on this page, “Like Flames.”

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“Like Flames” was a modest hit, but is the best for my personal proverbial money. March 1987 saw the release of its single, and its extended version which too is displayed here. The band had always boasted a bit of a dark edge in their lyrics and too the sound a bit, but here I feel Berlin’s at the peak of their bad-ass form. If hell had a theme song in the ’80s, here you’d have it. Now take a breath before it’s taken away, count three and pray, whistle along, and hit the highway to hell.

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While a few line snippets were melted into the extended version prior to the corresponding verses, the lyrics are the same, and I didn’t feel the need to duplicate them with this little added touch. I thought the listeners deserved credit for being able to discern the echoing words if they could follow the verses. I’m sorry I’m no longer able to find the extended version on YT, and so it’s not linked here, but like the full versions of all these songs, you may contact me for it if you’d like to hear it.

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Have notes to add? Let me know!

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YT:

full original version

music video

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Berlin’s official website