Circling back on some of yesterday's convo, today is the 37th anniversary of Top Gun being released. Celebrate with a game of shirtless beach volleyball.
He did a good job with Danger Zone last night, but think we should pass on that volleyball.
Was interested to follow up on Raz's comments on Danger Zone last night. Not even the second, third, ...or fifth choice.
Film producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, along with music supervisor Michael Dilbeck, had over 300 songs to employ on Top Gun. Testing compositions against the dailies of the opening scenes at the aircraft carrier, nothing satisfied them, and Bruckheimer asked soundtrack producer Giorgio Moroder to write something. With the help of songwriter Tom Whitlock, he composed "Danger Zone" and had Joe Pizzulo record a demo. With the approval of the producers, soundtrack distributor Columbia Records requested Moroder to have "Danger Zone" performed by an artist signed by the label.[3] Pizzulo's original demo version would later make a partial appearance in the 1987 TV movie Cracked Up.
The band Toto was originally intended to perform the track, but legal conflicts between the producers of Top Gun and the band's lawyers prevented this.[4] According to Steve Lukather, when the band sent their version to the producers, they were told that only Joseph Williams' vocal would be used, which the band deemed unacceptable and pulled out.[5] In a 2022 interview with AXS TV, Kenny Loggins revealed that it was Jefferson Starship that was the first act to be offered the track, but the band pulled out of the project.[6]
Corey Hart was also approached to perform "Danger Zone", which he declined, preferring to write and perform his own compositions.[7] Loggins said in a 2022 interview that Kevin Cronin told him he said no because the notes were too high.[8]
Eventually, the film producers offered the song to Loggins, who would recall his assent to recording "Danger Zone" as "a very snap judgement".[4][9] Whitlock went to Loggins' Encino home, and once shown the lyrics, the singer added his own improvisations.[3] Reaching number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, "Danger Zone" was kept out of the number 1 spot by Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer". It became Loggins' second-highest chart hit, bested only by his 1984 number 1 hit "Footloose". In a 2008 interview, Loggins said that the song does not represent himself as an artist.[9] (Wikipedia)
