"Take My Breath Away" is the name of a love song from the
film
Top Gun(1986). The song was written by Giorgio Moroder
and Tom Whitlock, performed by the band Berlin. It won the
Academy Award for Best Original Song as well as the Golden
Globe Award for Best Original Song in 1986.
"Take My Breath Away" was the first single from the
soundtrack album and was released in 1986 as a split single
alongside the song "Radar Radio":
The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on
September 13, 1986 and became number 1 in the UK for four weeks
in November 1986.
"Take My Breath Away" is available on both the original
Top Gunsoundtrack album and the expanded edition. The
song was also featured in several of the band's best-of and
remix albums:
Best of Berlin 1979-1988,
Master Series,
Greatest Hits Remixed(which includes a "Mission UK
Remix" version),
Live: Sacred & Profaneand
Metro Greatest Hits. "Take My Breath Away" was one of
the only songs not written by Berlin's John Crawford that they
had performed on any album up to that point.
"Take My Breath Away" was re-released in October 1990 to
coincide with the first television showing of
Top Gun(by ITV, on the evening of October 6) as well as
Peugeot's new television advertising campaign for the 405 model
range. The re-release reached number three in the UK singles
charts.
The music video features scenes from the movie
Top Gunintermingled with Berlin's singer Terri Nunn
performing the song in blue coveralls walking between pieces of
planes in a windy aircraft boneyard (part of the Mojave Air
& Space Port) at night. Bandmates John Crawford and Rob
Brill are shown relaxing in the yard and then following Terri.
This video clip can be seen occasionally in VH1 Europe's Top 10
Movie Soundtracks program. This video was re-released within
the 2004 DVD Collector's Edition.
In 1994 has The Flying Pickets released a Acapella-Version
of this song on him Album The Original Flying Pickets: Volume 1
and is 4:34 long. The B-Side of this cover is the cover of Road
to Nowhere.
American pop singer Jessica Simpson covered "Take My Breath
Away" and released it as the third single from the album
In This Skinin 2004. Her version was produced by Billy
Mann. Simpson chose to cover this song because she felt that it
was the theme song of her relationship with her then husband,
Nick Lachey. Simpson's version was also included on the
compilation album
Now That's What I Call Music! 16(from the U.S.
Now!series). The remix is seen on
Much Dance 2005. It also received heavy airplay on
Mainstream Urban stations.
The video shows her driving through a southwestern desert.
She stops to fill up with gas, and then arrives at a diner
where she watches lovers in motion. The music video peaked at
#5 on MTV's TRL and spent a total of 12 days on the
countdown.
"Take My Breath Away" became a number-twenty hit on the Hot
100, as well as a top ten hit on the Top 40 Tracks and the Top
40 Mainstream charts. The song also became another number-one
hit for Simpson on the Hot 100 Singles Sales. Although the song
did not break records of any sorts, it performed decently on
the other tracks it charted on: the Adult Top 40, the Adult
Contemporary, the Hot 100 Airplay, the Hot Dance Club Play, and
the Hot Digital Tracks. In late 2005 it received a gold
certification by the RIAA.
The song has been performed by other artists; the band
Copeland performed it on their album of cover songs,
Know Nothing Stays the Same, and it was translated into
Cantonese and covered by Sandy Lam.
The Christian rock band Relient K also covered it as part of
their "Top Gun Medley" on a few of their tours.
Originally Martha Davis of The Motels was asked by Giorgio
Moroder to make a demo of the song. Her demo version is
available on The Motels'
AnthologylandCD.
Also to be found on YouTube under the listing for a Romanian
band by the name of Activ, but unsure as to its validity due to
not finding it on their website Activmusic.ro.
Diana Ross covered the song in 2007 for her album
I Love You(US only; the song does not appear on the
European edition).
X Factor 2008 finalist Ruth Lorenzo covered the song for the
first live shows, and secured a place in the second round.
Though not strictly a cover, Swedish electro-pop band The
Knife released a song called "You Take My Breath Away", a song
that contains some melodic allusions to the Take My Breath
Away, and a direct lyrical reference in the line "I wanted to
get laid to
'Take my breath away'"
My Morning Jacket has a rendition on one of its Early
Recordings discs. It ends with a clip from the film Top
Gun.