Giacomo Giorgelli Hansjoerg Moroder was born in Ortisei, Val Gardena, Italy on April 26th, 1940. Giorgio comes from a long line of talented and well known people. Sculptors, painters, writers, true artisans of Italys rich culture. It was only natural with all those talented genes flowing through his blood that little Giorgio would too become an artist. His family was not poor and Giorgio grew up in relative comfort. Between 1953 and 1959 he attended the Artistical School in Ortisei and then the Geometry School in Bolzano. He started playing the guitar at age 16 and by the time of his graduation, at age 19, he was consumed with music. Between 1959 and 1966 he toured Europe in a variety of relatively unknown bands. The exception was his tenure with The Happy Trio, which boasted the fortune of playing for a gala at Londons Savoy Hotel as the high point of their resume. By 1967 Giorgio had landed in Berlin and decided that touring with bands was not where it was at it. He instead focused on songwriting and demo recording. He had made recordings earlier with his cousin Alex and felt his talents were destined to be best realized in that area. Between 1967 and 1970 he made demos for other artists and began writing for himself and others. He had his first taste of success with Ricky Shaynes Ich Sprenge Alle Ketten. In 1971 he moved to the more musically rich Munich and continued his writing and formed his first studio in his Arabella House (Musicland Studios). His production with Chicory Tip led to a local smash hit with Son Of My Father. When released in 1972 in America it bears the banner of Giorgio, credit is given to vocals by Giorgio & Friends. The song became a huge American hit and gave Moroder his first taste of international fame. In 1972 Giorgio met fellow aspiring musician Pete Bellotte, with whom he formed a production partnership. The two wrote and produced Giorgios Son Of My Father album, released here in America on ABC/Dunhill Records. For the next few years the two wrote constantly, often recording demos for artists in the hopes of selling their song. For one session they hired a local American girl to sing on a demo they were recording to send to Three Dog Night who recorded for ABC/Dunhill as well. The song didnt sell, but it formed a bond with the singer, Donna Summer, that would change music forever. They began using Donna for session work as well as recording her as an artist. Her first hit for the duo was Hostage. The success prompted an album, 1974s Lady Of The Night, but it failed to create a buzz and the trio continued writing, producing and singing. In 1975, Bellotte, Moroder and Donna Summer created the epic song Love To Love You Baby. The rest is disco history as they say. Donna, Giorgio and Pete had major success throughout the 1970s, for more on that leg of Giorgios career see the Donna Summer biography on my Artists Page D. This page is about Giorgios work as an artist in his own right. Between 1972 and 1976 Giorgio produced, wrote and recorded for such diverse artists as Mireille Matthieu, La Chateau, Peter Maffay, Schloss, Donna Summer and of course...himself! Following Son Of My Father, Giorgios next release was 1974s Giorgios Music. Containing German language recordings of Good Grief Christina, Cigarettes, Women And Wine and Lonely Lovers Symphony, the album was not licensed to an American label. It did however receive favorable reviews and sales were decent in Germany. Besides writing with Pete Bellotte the album features Giorgio collaborating with Michael Holm and Lesley Prost. The ten tracks are A Stop International Production by Giorgio. This rare album is a collectors item. His 1975 release Einzelganger was the first release on the newly formed Oasis/Casablanca label (OCLP-5001). Its also credited as Einzelganger by Einzelganger. With tracks like Why, Ruin, Love Song, Basslich, and Good Old Germany Giorgio shows off his handy work with early synthesizers and they are a prelude of his work to come. His next record was the first to establish Giorgio as an artist in his own right in the relatively new disco scene. 1976s Knights In White Satin was a brilliant cover of the Moody Blues classic from 1967. Giorgio wedged In The Middle Of The Knight between the cover track on side one to form a brilliant medley. The album also featured his first 12 single I Wanna Funk With You Tonight. During 1976-1977 he found time to produce Donna, himself, Roberta Kelly and form/produce the Munich Machine. The Munich Machine was actually his coterie of singers and musicians that he used on his various creations. From this point on Moroder was dominating the club charts either as a producer or an artist. Many believe the rock group Kiss was responsible for Casablancas success and its been referred to as the house that Donna built, but truth be known, it was Giorgio that directly impacted Casablancas early success with his albums and those he produced for the numerous artists that clamoured to work with him. His next release was 1977s From Here To Eternity. A continuous mix of throbbing Euro-disco complete with vocoder effects and this statement on the back cover: Only electronic keyboards were used on this recording. The metallic beats, high-energy impact, and futuristic effects proved that Moroder was ahead of his time. The album was a #-1 club hit. Other work that year included a cut on the Trax album Watch Out! and producing an album for Munich Machine sax player Dino Solera entitled Classically Elise and the usual Donna Summer recordings. 1978 was another banner year for Moroder and his band of merry Munich music makers. First there was a second album for Roberta Kelly, then Donna Summer tracks for her movie debut in Thank God Its Friday. For which Last Dance won an Oscar. The second Munich Machine album, A Whiter Shade Of Pale. This classic consisted of originals, except for the title track, a clever electronic reworking of Procol Harems 1967 hit. This LP introduced Chris Bennett, a new young talent that Moroder had discovered, who handled lead vocals on most of the cuts. All of the songs feature incessantly repeated hooks, hypnotic rhythms and tight, crafty instrumentation, with synthesizers dominant in the mix. Giorgio followed this with a duet album designed to launch Chris Bennett properly. Though Loves In You, Loves In Me scored a widely popular hit with Love Now, Hurt Later the album missed its purpose of launching Chris as a star in her own right. Having moved to Los Angeles in the late 1970s it was only natural that Giorgios creative juices would be drawn to the expression that music and movies could make. His first foray into soundtrack recording was with Midnight Express for which he won the Oscar and Golden Globe awards for Best Original Score. In addition the track Chase has become somewhat of a club classic. For his next challenge Moroder resurrected the career of girl-group Three Degrees. After their success on Philadelphia International in the early 1970s they vanished from the charts. With New Dimensions they began a career high that put them at the top of the club play lists and breathed new life into their concert appearances. The prerequisite annual Donna Summer recording followed before Moroder took the expression of sight and sound to another level with his soundtrack for the wildly popular television show Battlestar Galactica. The 15:18 masterpiece Evolution was an instant club hit. The album eventually became more successful than the show. 1979 started off with the third and final Munich Machine album Body Shine. Sharing production duties with Gunter Moll and Stephan Wisnett shows Moroders increasing restlessness within this area of his recording career. It also probably accounts for the lack of a hit and the poor sales and charting it received. The annual Donna release followed. Moroders next challenge came with the Sylvers. The poor mans version of the Jackson Five, the Sylvers hadnt had a hit since their days with Capitol Records. Unfortunately this, their second Casablanca release, didnt remedy that. Disco Fever is one of my all-time favorite overlooked albums. The resulting lack of success can be attributed to the flood of disco releases in 1979. It may not have been the most natural match in music history, but the marriage of Sparks focus on oddball pop songs to the driving disco-trance of Giorgio Moroder produced the duos best album in years. From the chart hits Number One Song In Heaven and Beat The Clock to solid album tracks like La Dolce Vita, No. 1 In Heaven surprises by succeeding on an artistic and commercial level despite the fact that neither the Mael brothers nor Moroder tempered their respective idiosyncrasies for the project. Next came his album, Ooh La La for ultra mysterious Suzi Lane. Harmony was a #-1 club classic but nothing is known about Suzi before or after this treat. His next project was his own ground breaking historic LP E=Mc2. Over 30 computers were used to create this live to digital recording that spawned the hits Baby Blue and I Wanna Rock You. Another soundtrack was next. The Foxes album was more memorable than the Jodie Foster turkey of a movie. It included Fly Too High by Janis Ian, for which he added an additional song to her Night Rains album. 1980 started with another album with the eccentric Mael brothers (Sparks) Terminal Jive followed by yet another soundtrack. American Gigolo gave punk band Blondie their biggest hit with the thrashing Call Me. The annual Donna Summer release would be their last together for a dozen years, even though they recorded one more album in 1981, it wouldnt be released until 1996. Next up was his turn at producing Vogue model and French disco chanteuse Madleen Kane. Dont Wanna Lose You gave her sagging career a boost with 3-12 single hits. Another Three Degrees album 3-D gave us the memorable hits Jump The Gun, Red Light and Set Me Free. Another soundtrack followed, Cat People gave David Bowie a smash with Putting Out The Fire With Gasoline. Next was a collaboration with famed pianist Helen St. John resulting in the album Power To The Piano. The former Brooklyn Dreams singer Joe Esposito teamed with Giorgio for Solitary Men. Oddly enough Giorgio never produced Brooklyn Dreams outside of their performance on Donnas MacArthur Park Suite. In the early 1980s Giorgio was split between Los Angeles and a place he kept in New Yorks Greenwich Village. He recorded on both coasts but in New York he had started to dabble in art and sculpting and kept a studio just for that purpose. In 1983 he moved his atelier to Los Angeles and had his first exhibition of his neon works in the Neil Bogart La Cienega Gallery. On the recording scene he scored the film Flashdance which gave him his second Oscar for Best Original Song and two more Golden Globes. His next two projects paled in comparison, France Jolis Attitude and the Superman 3 soundtrack failed to produce any winners for the charts or the clubs. The Irene Cara album What A Feelin however spawned three more charters. A one-off with cult-priestess Nina Hagen gave her the smash Zarah and Debbie Harry scored Rush Rush from yet another Giorgio produced soundtrack, Scarface. He closed out the year with another soundtrack. Deadline U.S.A. (Shalamar) was the highlight of an otherwise dreadful movie. The D.C. Cab album undoubtedly sold more than the movie. 1984 started with Moroders work with Terri Nunn and Berlin. The Love Life album spawned a top ten club hit with No More Words and foreshadowed their biggest success as a team. Next was a couple of tracks for Janet Jackson sophomore release Dream Street. However it was brother Marlon that produced her hit, Dont Stand Another Chance. Giorgio did produce the Limahl song Never Ending Story for the same named film, which was a monster club hit. Another album with Helen St. John, Take Your Passion, failed to ignite an American interest and would be Giorgios last attempt for her. Two more soundtracks followed, both producing massive club charters. Electric Dreams sung by Phillip Oakey (Human League) and Thief Of Hearts sung Melissa Manchester, her last hit of any mention. That same Moroder courted controversy from film purists for his contemporary electro-pop score to the restored release of Fritz Langs silent-era masterpiece Metropolis. The soundtrack spawned several club hits most notably Freddie Mercurys Love Kills. Giorgio then produced Paul Engemanns Reach Out for inclusion in the Official Olympic Album L.A.-1984. 1985 began with a double-album greatest hits package entitled From Here To Eternity....And Back. It featured a stunning remix of Chase. Having scored soundtrack hits with Phillip Oakey (Electric Dreams) and Limahl (Never Ending Story) he produced full fledged albums for both. Phillip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder and Colour All My Days featured their respective soundtrack hits. Two one-shots for the soundtracks of Quicksilver and American Anthem followed before his next major project. One of the best-selling soundtrack albums of all time, Top Gun remains a quintessential artifact of the mid 1980s. The collections smash hits (including Berlins Take My Breath Away and Kenny Loggins Danger Zone) still define the bombastic, melodramatic sound that dominated the pop charts of the era. Giorgio picked up his third Oscar for Best Original Song and forth Golden Globe award for this must-have soundtrack album. Flaunt It Giorgios album for Sigue Sigue Sputnik, was unlike anything heard in the 30-plus years of rock & roll. Gunfire and explosions, bits of Mozart, then mad thunder-like guitar breaks, backwards vocals, and tons of reverberation all add up to one of Moroders most eclectic productions ever. The album sold nicely and introduced the group to the world at large. Giorgio finished out 1986 by having a widely acclaimed showing of his artwork at the Third Street Gallery in L.A. Next up was producing tracks for Amii Stewart and co-writing a song for Italian star Adriano Celentano before taking on three soundtracks in a row. Over The Top had Moroder producing Eddie Money, Sammy Hagar and Frank Stallone. Beverly Hills Cop 2 allowed Giorgio to produce Cory Hart and Jermaine Jackson while Summer School brought Moroder back together with Paul Engemann for one track. Big Trouble is a female band led by Moroder. In the tradition of the Monkees, Big Trouble was a female pop group put together by TV executive Fred Silverman. Bobbi Eakes (Miss Georgia 1983) was the lead singer. Big Trouble had one pop chart entry, Crazy World in 1987. 1988 started with Giorgio designing the 16-cylinder Cizeta Moroder Super Sport Auto, together with Claudio Zampolli and Marcello Gandini. It won First Prize at the Philadelphia Design Contest. Back to the studios for more soundtrack recordings. Two tracks for Rambo 3, then producing Jennifer Rush and Cheap Trick for Another Way and then Joe Pizullo and Koreana for Mamba. The work for Koreana on the soundtrack led to two full albums with them Hand In Hand (written for the 1988 Seoul Korea Olympics) and Living For Love. 1989 was a year of rest for Giorgio. He wrote two tracks for Italian singer Sabrina Salerno and did the soundtrack to one film, Let It Ride. The rest of his time was spent vacationing, painting, sculpting and fulfilling his other creative urges. 1990 started with Giorgio composing To Be Number One for the World Cup Soccer games in Italy. An album released under the banner of Novemberkinder, Grenzenlos, found Moroder working with another disco legend Michael Kunze of Silver Convention fame. Then Moroder produced two songs for Mr. Big to be used in the soundtrack of Navy Seals. He then produced a single, recorded by Japanese singer Seiko Matsuda, Halfway To Heaven that went to #-1 in Japan. Two additional tracks for Sabrina and the soundtrack to Never Ending Story 2 came next. The most important thing Giorgio did in 1990 was on July 14th he married the love of his life Francisca Gutierrez. They later had a son, Alex. Perhaps enjoying his new found married life Giorgios only project in 1991 was writing, producing, performing and remixing several tracks on Bonnie Tylers Bitter Blue album. As the 1990s unfolded Giorgio spent less time in the recording studio and devoted more time to his family and his art. Notable recordings in the 1990s include: Olivia-Newton John I Need Love (1992) and Carry On with Donna Summer (1992) for which he received his third Grammy Award. On the art side: in 1993 he made a computer art film that won two First Prizes at the Palm Springs Film Festival. He exhibits the Lips series (paintings and videos) at the Dual Woche, Hamburg (1995). An exhibition at the Chris August Work Shop in San Luis Obisbo, California and an exhibition with Buchowsky/Michael Monfort paintings at the Elms Lester Painting Rooms in London (both 1996). An exhibition at the Galerie Leidel in Munich, Germany (1997). And the opening of Giorgio Moroders Multi Art Park in Blankenburg Harz, Germany (1999). During the end of the millennium he had moved almost completely toward art & family. However since 2000 he has once again returned to the music field. In the past decade his achievements include: writing the score for Leni Riefenstahls final film, Impressionen Unter Wasser, a marine documentary in 2002. Writing Forever Friends for the 2008 Beijing Olympics (his third Olympic theme song). And producing Chris Coco, Beyoncé and Jessica Simpson amongst others. On September 20th, 2004 Giorgio was honored at the Dance Music Hall of Fame ceremony in New York, when he was inducted for his many outstanding achievements and contributions as producer, musician and performer. In 2005, he was given the title of Commendatore by the then President of the Italian Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. Moroder currently resides in Beverly Hills, California and continues with his art and dabbling in music. To read more about this living legend visit his web site at: giorgiomorodergallery
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 12:36:04 +0000
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