Before Lady Gaga’s ‘Hold My Hand,’ Berlin ‘got lucky’ with ‘Top Gun’ hit
nypost.com“Hold My Hand,” the new single from the movie’s soundtrack.But when Berlin recorded “Take My Breath Away” — the Oscar-winning smash that sent the hearts of Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis soaring in the 1986 original film — the band was hardly in Gaga’s superstar stratosphere.“We got really lucky because at the time we were nothing,” Terri Nunn, lead singer of Berlin, told The Post. “We had not had a hit at all.
We were an underground band.”But while working with Giorgio Moroder — the legendary producer of “Take My Breath Away” — on some other material, Nunn and Berlin got their big break. “He approached a bunch of other female artists who were way bigger than me and Berlin, and a few of them did demos, but the [‘Top Gun’] producers didn’t like them,” said Nunn. “So finally, I got a shot at it.
And they loved it.”Thirty-six years after Berlin’s synth-pop swooner was released, Nunn can hear echoes of the tune in the retro-’80s power balladry of Gaga’s “Hold My Hand,” which dropped earlier this week.“What I love about it is that nod to Giorgio Moroder’s production, because the drums are so big and reverbed,” she said, noting that Gaga was the perfect singer to pilot a “Top Gun” tune. “She’s a great writer, she’s a great artist.
If they can get her to do it, yeah, it’s a good choice.”After Nunn breathed a cool sensuality into Berlin’s 1986 chart-topper, the tune — co-written by Moroder and Tom Whitlock — followed Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” as the second hit single from the blockbuster “Top Gun” soundtrack.
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