Pop quiz: Do you recognize the following verse? ‘Take me out and show me off and put me on the scene / Dress me in the fashions of the 1980s / You’re a man, no in-between / You know what your words can mean.’
If so, then you must be intimately familiar with the full-length version of Blondie’s chart-topper ‘Call Me,’ the opening epic of this gold-selling LP. Those oft-forgotten lines — along with chorus rejoinders like ‘call me into overtime’ — turn up halfway into that eight-minute anthem, setting the tone for the rest of dance-music maven Giorgio Moroder’s Giorgio Armani-sleek score, most of which reconfigures that smash’s motifs with help from keyboardist Harold Faltermeyer three years before his own breakout hit, ‘Axel F’ from ‘Beverly Hills Cop.’ Did you also know the tune had first been offered to Stevie Nicks? Likewise, the starring role in Paul Schrader’s second of his four ‘night walker’ stories (‘Taxi Driver’ was the first) was initially given to John Travolta, then offered to Christopher Walken and (what?!?) Chevy Chase (that would’ve been awful) before Schrader locked in his first choice, newcomer Richard Gere. Alluring neo-noir though this remains from one of cinema’s criminally underrated directors, let’s set aside its compelling mystery and Gere’s gear (the first on-screen penis attached to a Hollywood star) and stick to the topic at hand: marvelous Moroder and his seismic impact on movie music at the time. The Italian composer instantly rose to international prominence via Donna Summer’s digital disco classic ‘I Feel Love’ and soon after won the Oscar for ‘Midnight Express’ while producing Summer’s ‘Last Dance,’ which took home the best song trophy, for ‘Thank God It’s Friday’ (both from ’78). Then came this, and ‘Foxes’ and ‘Flashdance’ and Schrader’s remake of’ Cat People’ and De Palma’s ‘Scarface’ — and another Oscar, for penning Berlin’s ‘Take My Breath Away’ for ‘Top Gun.’ No wonder Daft Punk turned him into a centerpiece on ‘Random Access Memories.’
#SoundtrackSunday 015:
‘American Gigolo’
Polydor, 1980
d: Paul Schrader