written by Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock

produced by Giorgio Moroder

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I’m making this page on June 26th, 2021, the 60th birthday of

Berlin’s lead singer and frontwoman Terri Kathleen Nunn.

Happy Birthday, TN—big big big six-oh!!

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Now, if you’ve checked out my earlier entries on the site, you might

know that the later 1986 song “Like Flames” is my favorite Berlin song, but their monster smash “Take My Breath Away”—also known as the love theme from Top Gun—’s not far behind. Penned for them by Tom Whitlock (words) and Giorgio Moroder (music), this is the Berlin song on which everyone can agree—the one everybody knows. The song whose chorus anyone can belt at the drop of a proverbial hat. The be-all and end-all of Berlin hit singles. #1 peak in four countries including their native America.

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I touched down on a bit of the history of “Breath Away” on my “Like Flames” page—the introductory Berlin page, which normally also serves as a mini-biography of the given act and said act’s career. But the tidbit of trivia I remembered about it is that this song was originally offered to fellow California new wavers The Motels. Their demo of “Breath Away” exists—and in fact sounds very close to Berlin’s—save of course for Martha Davis’ distinctive voice (“only the lonely... only the lonely can play...”). Giorgio’d produced Berlin’s 1984 Love Life cut “No More Words,” prompting him to think of Berlin for the song. Apparently, Martha and her Motels demoed the song, but when Giorgio and Tony Scott (the director of Top Gun) heard Terri and Berlin’s version, they felt they had to go with them.

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“Breath Away” also appeared a few months later on, on “Like Flames”’ album, Count Three And Pray. It was released as a double-a-side single together with Kenny Loggins’ Top Gun anthem “Danger Zone”—written by the same songwriting team of Tom and Giorgio. What else can we say about the song, really... except that its title is a perfect reflection of the impact the song continues to make on so many of us today. Hope Terri has her breath back now so she can make a wish and blow out the candles. 60 candles is going to require a big one. Haunted by the notion, somewhere there’s a cake in flames... like the same flames reaching out from the sun?...

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Have notes to add? Let me know!

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YT:

full version

music video

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Berlin’s official website