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Review of Top Gun (Harold Faltermeyer)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... without hesitation on the long overdue 2024 set featuring
the songs and full Harold Faltermeyer score from this iconic 1980's
soundtrack.
Avoid it... if you expect Faltermeyer's abrasive action material to compete favorably with the drama and heroism of his two original themes for the score, not to mention his many interpolations of Giorgio Moroder's song melodies.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Top Gun: (Harold Faltermeyer/Giorgio Moroder)
Already at the top of their game by 1986, film producers Jerry
Bruckheimer and Don Simpson teamed with flashy young director Tony Scott
and the United States Navy to create the ultimate tribute to
testosterone in Top Gun. Skeptics of the movie lamented the
significant involvement of the Navy in assisting the shooting of a film
seen as many as a glorifying advertisement for fighter pilot
recruitment. The story shows the overflowing masculinity of the Top Gun
naval flight school as the best pilots of their generation compete with
each other for pride, women, and enemy kills. While helping launch
actors Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer to new heights, Top Gun is
better respected for its capturing of flight footage for the fighter
planes, models sometimes involved but many of the most impressive scenes
shot with the real thing using the extraordinary cooperation of the
airmen and ships of the Navy. A romantic side story was elevated late in
the shooting process to give the film a broader appeal, but the tone
still remained rooted firmly in the loins. With Scott at the helm, it's
no surprise that the style of the movie was conceived as one giant music
video, with the combination of overwhelming soundtrack and fast cuts in
the editing room ushering in a new method of dazzling audiences.
Synthesizer expert Harold Faltermeyer had struck gold with the
Bruckheimer and Simpson duo on Beverly Hills Cop and there was no
doubt that he would continue the collaboration with them for Top
Gun. Faltermeyer had the benefit of partnering with Giorgio Moroder
and utilizing the massive array of Yamaha and other synthesizers that
Moroder had been using during the early 1980's for both film scores and
songs of immense popularity, though by the time Top Gun rolled
around, Faltermeyer had reached an equal footing. Still, the assignment
proved challenging for Faltermeyer, in part because he had difficulty
finding the right theme and tone of action material for the score and
also due to the multitudes of last-minute changes made to the edit of
the movie.
While Faltermeyer's primary focus with Top Gun was its largely electronic score, he had intended to write a variety of songs to combine with his score, just as he had done successfully in the past. With time short, however, he enlisted Moroder to conjure several songs, and after a few false starts with rejected entries, Moroder hit the nail on the head with the soundtrack's famous two songs and a few additional ones. In true music video fashion, the soundtrack blends the songs and score extensively, the melodies from the two top Moroder songs and Faltermeyer's own song interpolated into seven prominent score cues. The songs for Top Gun remain its famous calling card, the album featuring mostly Moroder and Faltermeyer's ideas selling endless millions of copies and remaining the unofficial soundtrack for Paramount's theme parks for more than a decade thereafter. The film also featured a handful of older source songs, but the original ones are dominant in the placement. It was a rare circumstance in which the spread of all the songs on the popular soundtrack album was employed in the film to some degree. Moroder's two chart-topping hits are "Danger Zone" and "Take My Breath Away," the former adapted as the unparalleled representation of coolness involving the aircraft and carriers of the Navy. Kenny Loggins' performance of "Danger Zone" was a last-minute replacement and proved to be among his career calling cards, the song's presence so important to the concept that it made a return in Top Gun: Maverick decades later. Earning an Academy Award and countless other awards, however, was the iconic romantic rock ballad, "Take My Breath Away," which epitomizes that entire genre and decade of music with perfection. The wet ambience of Berlin's vocals and the song's instrumentals, with its extraordinary and bloated bassline presence, is classic to the era. The impact of Moroder and Faltermeyer's talents in writing catchy basslines for their songs and themes cannot be understated, the instrumental backing of these two songs rivaling Europe's "The Final Countdown" as the most memorable from mainstream rock of the time. No doubt, "Take My Breath Away" wouldn't have succeeded without its riff. Vital to the success of the songs in Top Gun is the common vocabulary Moroder and Faltermeyer use in the progressions, instrumentation, and general demeanor of the works. Some of the remaining songs veer off towards other genres of music, but they all still maintain a core personality and quality that supported the whole. With the songs placed liberally throughout the score, this sense of cohesion plays a huge role on screen. The memorable riffs from the two leading songs would have an outsized impact on Faltermeyer's interpolations in the score, too. Less successful is his reworking of his "Mighty Wings" song into the score, its progressions not as engaging. But "Danger Zone" and "Take My Breath Away" define no less than three score cues each and serve as equals to Faltermeyer's two original themes dedicated to solely the score. Most of the praise the composer has received for Top Gun through the years has been via his "Top Gun Anthem," which is the main identity that graces the moments of victory in the film. Written originally for Faltermeyer's Fletch, the idea was transitioned to this movie instead, where it thrives with the lead guitar performances of Steve Stevens. The theme's bassline alone opens the score in "Main Titles" with a sense of anticipation, and the melody on guitar erupts during the first combat scene in "Cougar Chased by Mig/Mav Flips the Bird" and in "Tower Flyby," both brief but vital renditions. The latter makes good use of the theme's ascendant bridge sequence in between the stylish electric guitar statements of the main melody. The composer accesses the "Main Title" instrumental backing on its own once again for "Carrier Ready Room and Takeoffs," dropping the melody smartly to denote a sense of build-up. Notable is a very brief clarinet solo for the anthem opening this cue, a touch reprised in "Viper's House Pt. 1." The fuller format of the theme and its secondary lines from "Tower Flyby" returns in "Return to Carrier" at the end of the film and is summarized in a long suite format for the album, where it receives the official "Anthem" moniker. Essentially an extension of the songs' personality and performance inflection, this theme won Faltermeyer a Grammy award independently and was an obvious and necessary inclusion in Top Gun: Maverick as well. More intriguing and emotionally beneficial to Top Gun for some of its most ardent fans is Faltermeyer's other original theme in the score, one for death, loss and memories. Sometimes associated directly with the Goose character, this acoustic guitar identity captures the emotional needs where romance isn't involved. The composer develops it nicely throughout the score, its presence evolving from "Mav and Goose in Room," "End Locker Room and Photo," and "Memories" until it achieves outsized power with the electric guitar performances in "Viper's House Pt. 2." This idea also appears in the sequel score and is a nice respite from the score's suspense and action sequences, which are Faltermeyer's weak point in Top Gun. His material for the combat scenes comes across as a more abrasive variant of equivalent cues in his two Beverly Hills Cop scores. The pounding synth motifs in "Board of Inquiry" are among his harshest recordings, akin to The Running Man. When he tones it back to achieve a sense of lighter drama with gravity, as in "Viper Comes Down on Mav," the results are somewhat anonymous. That said, the success of the main anthem and loss theme are what float the score, along with the interpolations of "Danger Zone" in "Carrier Takeoffs and Landings," "Mav Goes to Fightertown," and "Aerial Sequence" and the infusion of "Take My Breath Away" into "Dinner at Charlie's," "Mav Says Goodbye to Charlie," and "Love Scene." Generally speaking, some listeners may find fault with the repetitive nature of the score, but that was simply the method of operation for both Moroder and Faltermeyer when crafting their scores at the time. With the thematic duties spread further across so many song and score melodies here, however, the five or so distinct ideas in the score range widely enough to keep the work from becoming overly monotonous. The exception to that observation might be the three cues in the middle of the score that all adapt "Take My Breath Away" in succession; anyone who hears that bassline in their nightmares will find that sequence tiresome quickly. Some quibbling can be made with the harsh edges to the action scenes, music that Faltermeyer found quite difficult to fine-tune, but these portions represent the minority of the whole. In the end, the score is a really good match for the tone of the story and uses the song melodies at just the right times. The original 1986 album for Top Gun ranks among the top-selling soundtracks of all time, featuring the original songs recorded for the film and Faltermeyer's anthem arrangement of the score's main theme. Re-issued countless times on LP records and CD, that presentation was finally expanded in 1999 for a "Special Edition" that includes a handful of extra tracks. Most of them feature the source song inclusions on screen, but a remix of one of the Loggins songs and an arrangement of Faltermeyer's loss theme were also provided. The latter was pivotal, because it illuminated the score's second theme that had been totally unreleased at the time. Enthusiasts of the score amazingly went without a fuller release of Faltermeyer's work until 2024, when the La-La Land Records label provided the complete score on one half of a 2-CD set and all the previously released song and score tracks on the second. That 5,000-copy product was immensely popular up front, often out of print as the label attempted to keep up with demand. At a price point of $30 and with the immense popularity of this soundtrack, it was easy to predict that a pressing of 5,000 would be insufficient. That's in part because the presentation of the score is so comprehensive. The inclusion of all the songs is absolutely key, even for those seeking just the score, because they are an undeniable and inextricable part of the whole package. (It also allows listeners the two older album arrangements of the score.) The score-only presentation on the first CD condenses many of its shorter cues into long suites, which is actually a detriment to the listening experience, especially since there are obnoxious fade outs and cross fades everywhere. Still, the score and the songs sound magnificent, the mastering for this album remarkably crisp and resounding, betraying the score's age. Rounding out the expansion are three 1985 demo recordings of the anthem that each have their own appeal in their instrumental balance. (The melody itself was locked in by then.) Two short, unused cues are offered as well, "First Shot of Mav and Goose" using the anthem's guitar prominently and "Don't Worry About the Mig" presenting a lighter variant on "Take My Breath Away." Overall, the 2024 set is, despite its occasionally awkward presentation of the score cues, an outstanding tribute to this critical success story of the 1980's. This soundtrack was the pinnacle for the Moroder and Faltermeyer partnership and will forever be remembered for its absolute dominance in the mainstream.
TRACK LISTINGS:
1986 Columbia Album:
Total Time: 39:05
1999 Columbia/Legacy Album: Total Time: 56:26
2024 La-La Land Album: Total Time: 147:14
NOTES & QUOTES:
The inserts of the commercial albums generally contain no extra
information about the score or film. That of the 2024 La-La Land album
contains extensive information about both.
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2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Top Gun are Copyright © 1986, 1999, 2024, Columbia, Columbia/Legacy, La-La Land Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 8/16/24 (and not updated significantly since). |
