Songoftheday 12/14/14 - Watching every motion in my foolish lover's game, on this endless ocean finally lovers know no shame...

Berlin - "Take My Breath Away"
from the albums Top Gun (Original Soundtrack) and Count Three & Pray (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's Song of the Day comes from the American new wave band Berlin, who had been one of the biggest domestic successes of the genre, landing a top-40 pop hit with "No More Words" in 1984. However conflict in the band on their musical direction caused everyone to scuttle ship save lead singer Terri Nunn and guitarist/sometimes boyfriend John Crawford. Giorgio Moroder, who produced "No More Words", took the now-duo and gave them a song for the upcoming movie Top Gun starring Tom Cruise. "Take My Breath Away", written by Moroder with Tom Whitlock (formerly his mechanic), the spacey ballad had just a pillow under Terri's vocals, leaving me to think Crawford just sat and collected the checks....

"Take My Breath Away" went to #1 on the American pop chart in September of 1986, while climbing to #3 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart. Intenationally, the single was the band's first world-wide hit, going to #1 in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, and the Netherlands, top-10 in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. It actually went back to #3 on the British chart in 1990. The song also nabbed both the Oscar and the Golden Globe for Best Song...

However, the price was the band's long-standing fanbase. By the time the next Berlin album was released, even including "Take My Breath Away", they lost momentum, not even making the top-40 on the albums chart, and a follow-up single, "Like Flames", that stalled at #82 on the Hot 100 (they had a top-40 hit in Britain with "You Don't Know", though). Trying to recapture their old-time new wave sound fizzled out their pull on new fans of the Top Gun track, while their older fans had dwindled. Crawford and Nunn broke up the band (and themselves), only to have Nunn reassemble a new lineup of Berlin in the 2000s. Also, a somewhat disastrous Band Reunited got the original lineup back together for a show, but in no time, Nunn was back with a "new" Berlin, where she is today.

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Here's the 1987 version of Berlin performing "Take My Breath Away" on tour...

 In 1991 a remix of "Take My Breath Away" brought the song back on to the pop radio airplay chart in Billboard, peaking at #60..

Eurodance cover band Soda Club featuring singer Hannah Alethea covered the song and took it to #16 on the British chart in 2002...

Two years later, Jessica Simpson released "Take My Breath Away" as a single, and climbed to #20 on the Hot 100 and #10 on the club play chart...

Finally, here's Terri Nunn with her Franken-Berlin with a live take of the song...

Up tomorrow: a Queen-ly monikered singer has a romance fit for infants.