Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (Italian: [dʒoˈvanni ˈdʒordʒo moˈrɔːder], Austrian German: [mɔˈroːdɐ]; born 26 April 1940) is an Italian composer and music producer. Dubbed the "Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering Euro disco and electronic dance music. His work with synthesizers had a significant influence on several music genres such as hi-NRG, Italo disco, synth-pop, new wave, house, and techno music.
While in Munich in the 1970s, Moroder started Oasis Records, later a subdivision of Casablanca Records. He is the founder of the former Musicland Studios in Munich, a recording studio used by many artists including the Rolling Stones, Donna Summer, Electric Light Orchestra, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Deborah Harry, Queen, and Elton John. He produced singles for Donna Summer during the mid-to-late 1970s disco era, including "Love to Love You Baby", "I Feel Love", "Last Dance", "MacArthur Park", "Hot Stuff", "Bad Girls", "Dim All the Lights", "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)", and "On the Radio". During this period, he also released many albums, including the synthesizer-driven From Here to Eternity (1977) and E=MC2 (1979).
He began to compose film soundtracks and scores, including Midnight Express, American Gigolo, Superman III, Scarface, The NeverEnding Story, and the 1984 restoration of Metropolis. Moroder's work on the film Midnight Express (1978), which contained the international hit "Chase", won him the Academy Award for Best Original Score and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. Along with British singer and composer Philip Oakey, he composed the titular track "Together in Electric Dreams" for the film Electric Dreams (1984), which reached No. 3 on the singles chart in the UK and top five in Australia. He also produced a number of electronic disco songs for the Three Degrees and two albums for Sparks, Number 1 in Heaven in 1979 and Terminal Jive the following year. In 1990, he composed "Un'estate italiana", the official theme song of the 1990 FIFA World Cup.
Moroder has created songs for many performers including David Bowie, Falco, The Weeknd, Kylie Minogue, Irene Cara, Bonnie Tyler, Janet Jackson, Madleen Kane, Melissa Manchester, Blondie, Japan, Sabrina Salerno and France Joli. Moroder has stated that the work of which he is most proud is Berlin's "Take My Breath Away", which earned him the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song after appearing in the film Top Gun in 1986; he had earned the same awards in 1983 for "Flashdance... What a Feeling" (as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for all of his work on Flashdance). In addition to the three Academy Awards and four Golden Globes, Moroder has also received four Grammy Awards, two People's Choice Awards, and more than 100 Golden and Platinum discs. In 2004, he was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame.
Giovanni Giorgio Moroder was born to Ladin parents on 26 April 1940 in Urtijëi, South Tyrol, Italy. His father was a hotel concierge. He has three brothers, one of whom is artist Ulrich Moroder. Moroder grew up in a mixed Ladin-, Italian- and German-speaking environment in South Tyrol, with his mother calling him Hansjörg (pronounced [ˈhansjœrɡ]), a German version of his two first names.
Moroder began teaching himself to play the guitar at age 15, inspired by Paul Anka's "Diana". At age 18, he began touring Europe as a professional musician. He performed at night, and during the day, made recordings with two Revox tape recorders. Moroder made his first steps in music in the Scotch Club in Aachen and then released a few singles under the name "Giorgio" beginning in 1963 after moving to Berlin, singing in Italian, Spanish, English, and German. Around age 25, he moved in with his aunt in Berlin, where he worked as an audio engineer. Ricky Shayne's single "Ich sprenge alle Ketten" ("I bust all the chains"), composed by the then-unknown Moroder and Michael Holm, became a German hit. His second hit was his and Holm's cover version of "Mendocino" by the Sir Douglas Quintet. After two years in Berlin, Moroder moved to Munich in 1968.
1969–1983: Contribution to electronic music
Moroder's 1969 single "Looky Looky" was awarded a gold disc in 1970. He then founded the Musicland Studios in Munich in the early 1970s. Moroder first incorporated synthesizers into his work during the making of his album Son of My Father (1972), on which he used a Moog synthesizer. Often collaborating with lyricist Pete Bellotte, Moroder had a number of hits in his own name, including "Son of My Father" (later a 1972 No. 1 hit in the UK for Chicory Tip), before releasing the synthesizer-driven album From Here to Eternity, a chart hit in 1977. That same year he co-wrote and produced Donna Summer's Moog-driven "I Feel Love", the first track in the Hi-NRG genre. The following year he released "Chase", the theme from the film Midnight Express. These songs achieved some chart success in the United Kingdom, the United States and across Europe, and disco-mania was spreading. Midnight Express and "Chase" brought him an Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1979.
Moroder released E=MC² in 1979. He released three albums between 1977 and 1979 under the name Munich Machine, the first of which remade several songs originally recorded by Donna Summer. He produced Sparks' album Number 1 in Heaven in 1979. Sparks hadn't made any synthesizer-based music before this album but they were inspired by the sound of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" and sought out Moroder to produce them. He also produced their following album in 1980, Terminal Jive. He composed and produced two film soundtrack albums: the first for Foxes, and the second for American Gigolo (both 1980). A double album of the Foxes soundtrack was released on the disco label Casablanca Records, which includes Donna Summer's hit single "On the Radio", which Moroder produced and co-wrote. The Foxes soundtrack contains a song titled "Bad Love", written and performed by Cher and produced by Moroder. The American Gigolo soundtrack featured "Call Me" by Blondie, a US and UK number one hit which Moroder co-wrote and produced. The combined club play of the album's tracks was number two for five weeks on the disco/dance charts.
Moroder wrote the soundtrack of the film Cat People (1982), including the hit single "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" featuring David Bowie, and produced the soundtrack for the film Scarface (1983). During its initial release, the album was only available in a few countries and strictly through import in the United States. Moroder-produced tracks included "Scarface (Push It to the Limit)" by Paul Engemann, "Rush Rush" by Debbie Harry and "She's on Fire" by Amy Holland.
1984–1993: Recognition and hiatus
In 1984, Moroder compiled a new restoration and edit of the silent film Metropolis (1927) and provided it with a contemporary soundtrack. This soundtrack includes seven pop music tracks from Pat Benatar, Jon Anderson, Adam Ant, Billy Squier, Loverboy, Bonnie Tyler and Freddie Mercury. He integrated the original intertitles into the film as subtitles as a means of improving continuity. Since the original speed was unknown, this choice was controversial. Known as the "Moroder version", it sparked debate in film circles, with outspoken critics and supporters falling into equal camps. Most critics agree that, the opinion of film purists aside, Moroder's version was a welcome addition. In 1984, Moroder worked with Philip Oakey of the Human League to make the album Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder, which was a UK singles chart hit with "Together in Electric Dreams", the title track to the 1984 film Electric Dreams. The same year saw him collaborating with Kajagoogoo frontman Limahl for his worldwide hit "The NeverEnding Story".
In 1986, Moroder collaborated with his protégé Harold Faltermeyer and lyricist Tom Whitlock to create the score for the film Top Gun (1986), which included Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" and Berlin's "Take My Breath Away". He wrote the theme song to the film Over the Top, "Meet Me Half Way", also performed by Loggins. In 1987, Moroder produced and co-wrote Falco's song "Body Next to Body". Moroder wrote the official theme songs, "Reach Out", for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and "Hand in Hand", for the 1988 Seoul Olympics and "Un'estate italiana" for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. On 12 March 1992, Moroder released his fourteenth studio album, Forever Dancing, his last solo project for years and he began a long hiatus in 1993. For two decades he released no new albums, focusing largely on remixes and visual art during most of the 1990s and early 2000s. With Daniel Walker he produced a soundtrack for Leni Riefenstahl's last film Impressionen unter Wasser. His song Forever Friends was featured in the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008.