“Danger Zone” is a song, with music composed by Giorgio Moroder and lyrics written by Tom Whitlock, which American singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins recorded and released in 1986. The song appeared on the soundtrack to the 1986 American motion picture Top Gun. Dann Huff, lead vocalist and guitarist from ’80s hard rock group Giant, performed guitar on the selection. The bass line is a classic 1980s sound comprised in the main of a plucked bass sound from the ubiquitous Yamaha DX7 synthesizer, with the drums being provided by the LinnDrum (a drum machine designed by Roger Linn) which also appears on hundreds of other 1980s pop hits. A tenor saxophone joins in near the end of the song.
Category: 80’s
Stevie Nicks – Edge of Seventeen
“Edge of Seventeen”, also known by the alternate title “Just Like the White Winged Dove” drawn from the first line of its refrain, is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks, the third single from her successful 1981 solo debut album, Bella Donna. Written by Nicks to express the grief resulting from the death of her uncle Jonathan and the murder of John Lennon during the same week of December 1980, the song features a distinctive, chugging 16th-note guitar riff, and a simple chord structure typical of Nicks’ songs.
Sandra – Everlasting Love
Music track: Sandra – Everlasting Love (Remastered 1992)
In late 1987 and early 1988 “Everlasting Love” was a hit in several European territories as rendered by German singer Sandra. Born in 1962, Sandra was familiar with the song via the 1968 Love Affair version; she’d say of the song: “I have always loved it…Even as a little child I heard that song and I said that I would like to sing it sometime.” The video shot for Sandra’s version featured the singer and Austrian model Rupert Weber playing lovers at different points in history beginning with Adam and Eve.
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everlasting_Love#Sandra_version
Dire Straits – Money for Nothing (live at Wembley)
Knopfler modelled his guitar sound for the recorded track after ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons’ trademark guitar tone, as ZZ Top’s music videos were already a staple of early MTV. Gibbons later told a Musician magazine interviewer in 1986 that Knopfler had solicited Gibbons on how to replicate the tone, adding, “He didn’t do a half-bad job, considering that I didn’t tell him a thing!” Knopfler’s “not a half-bad job” included his duplication of Gibbons’ use of a Gibson Les Paul guitar (rather than a Fender Stratocaster), which he plugged into a Marshall amplifier. Another factor in trying to recreate the sound was a Wah-wah pedal that was turned on, but only rocked to a certain position. The specific guitar sound in the song was made with a Gibson Les Paul going through a Laney amplifier, with the sound coloured by the accidental position of two Shure SM57 microphones without any processing during the mix. Following the initial sessions in Montserrat, at which that particular guitar part was recorded, Neil Dorfsman attempted to recreate the sound during subsequent sessions the Power Station in New York but was unsuccessful in doing so.
Joe Cocker – Unchain My Heart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pALWIj9ketA
“Unchain My Heart” is a song written by Bobby Sharp (1924-2013) and recorded first in 1961 by Ray Charles and in 1963 by Trini Lopez and later by many others. Sharp, a drug addict at the time, sold the song to Teddy Powell for $50. Powell demanded half the songwriting credit. Sharp later successfully fought for the rights to his song. In 1987, he was also able to renew the copyright for his publishing company, B. Sharp Music. The song was a hit for Charles when released as a single in late 1961. Accompanied by his Raelettes, Charles sang about wanting to be free from a woman “who won’t let (him) go”. It was also accompanied by his longtime saxophonist, David “Fathead” Newman and other members of Charles’ band. The song reached number nine on the pop singles chart and number one on the R&B singles chart and was the working title of Charles’ 2004 biopic Ray.