The Genius Of Giorgio Moroder

Introduction

The first song on the album that is on the player is "Together In Electric Dreams" by Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder which was written for the eponymous film. It is a favourite of mine and then I thought I must have done a Giorgio playlist on Vocal, and I haven't.

I love his iconic moustache and it is almost an equivalent, if different to Frank Zappa:

Without doing any research a load of songs came to mind and so this playlst will be extremely easy for me.

Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder - "Together in Electric Dreams" from the eponymous film

Steve Barron who made the film "Together in Electric Dreams." has said about its creation:

Giorgio Moroder was hired as composer and played me a demo track he thought would be good for the movie. It was the tune of "Together in Electric Dreams" but with some temporary lyrics sung by someone who sounded like a cheesy version of Neil Diamond. Giorgio was insisting the song could be a hit so I thought I'd suggest someone to sing who would be as far from a cheesy Neil Diamond as one could possibly go. Phil Oakey. We then got Phil in who wrote some new lyrics on the back of a fag packet on the way to the recording studio and did two takes which Giorgio was well pleased with and everybody went home happy.

Limahl & Giorgio Moroder - "Never Ending Story" from the eponymous film

Another great film lead track and I still watch this film a lot. My girls Kirsty and Juliet loved it as kids and probably still do now.

The song recently featured on the soundtrack for Stranger Things Season 3.

"From Here to Eternity" from the album of the same name.

Back to 1977 for this, and this was not my initial introduction to Moroder, but I actually bought the album on cassette. Given that most people at the time saw my taste as rock (and roll) and punk, this was one of the many songs I shocked people with. Given my love of German electronic music such as Neu! and Tangerine Dream, this should not have been too surprising.

Sparks - "The Number One Song In Heaven" album title track

Another title track and as soon as I heard this I went out and bought the album. Sparks and Giorgio Moroder, what a pairing. This is the title track, but the whole album is as good as this. Check out the other songs if you can do

Daft Punk - "Giorgio by Moroder"

I knew that these two had to collaborate at some point, and you get to hear Giorgio talking about his sound and then this becomes anther wonderful electronic piece.

Donna Summer - "I Feel Love"

This is the song to close this playlist, it was the first time I heard the work of Giorgio Moroder. I knew Donna Summer from the steamy "Love To Love You Baby" which I think was not approved of in certain circles.

It also confused certain of my friends who were into to electronic sounds at the time, but this was disco so they couldn't like it, but it was electronic so they could like it, and in the end, I think that they just gave up and accepted it.

One of the things is that the sound of this was caused by an error or fault in the synthesiser programming resulting in a slight secondary echoing note in the sequence that gave the song its unique sound.

Take a listen and you will see what I mean.

Thank you for reading and listening and I hope you have enjoyed my selections.