![\"Giorgio](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Giorgio-Moroder-Blondie-Split-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
(Credits: Far Out \/ Andy Witchger \/ Private Stock Records)<\/p>\n
Sat 3 January 2026 7:00, UK <\/p>\n
There are a handful of artists who can claim to have invented the sonic character of 1980s pop, one being famed Italian producer Giorgio Moroder<\/a>.<\/p>\n He might even just push Kraftwerk out of the way. While the D\u00fcsseldorf automatons stand as electronic music\u2019s big bang, their pioneering synth pieces didn\u2019t penetrate the core of popular culture as deeply as Moroder\u2019s shimmering Moogs and hypnotic sequencers. He\u2019d been plugging away for a while, dropping solo records as early as the late 1960s in a more psychedelic rock vein, before embracing the synths and becoming a sought-after studio whizz able to harness the latest futurist sounds.<\/p>\n In came Donna Summer\u2019s chromatic \u2018I Feel Love\u2019 disco gem in 1977, and jaws dropped across pop royalty and the depths of the post-punk underground. Not even \u2018Trans-Europe Express\u2019 was able to yield quite so ubiquitous a musical reach as Moroder\u2019s dazzling dance cut. Before long, Moroder\u2019s NRG touch would define the neon decade, lending his visionary pop chops to Sparks, Phil Oakey, and David Bowie, and composing the electronic scores of Midnight Express, Scarface, and The NeverEnding Story.<\/p>\n Yet, Moroder\u2019s finest moment after Summer\u2019s immortal Eurodisco would be pushed by Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Eager to bolster writer and director Paul Schrader<\/a>\u2019s Los Angeles escort thriller\u2019s commercial appeal, Bruckheimer nabbed Moroder to pen a tie-in single for 1980\u2019s American Gigolo, who sketched out a propulsive demo track initially intended for Stevie Nicks, before looking at the new wave\u2019s essential chart monsters.<\/p>\n By the end of the 1970s, Blondie was one of the biggest groups on the planet, standing shoulder to shoulder with Moroder among the era\u2019s pop peak. They were shaped by punk, however. Pulled into Moroder\u2019s fastidious tech-tinkering and extensive studio polish, Blondie\u2019s recruitment to cut American Gigolo\u2019s \u2018Call Me\u2019 theme as a live band would inevitably clash with the Italo-disco producer\u2019s studio practices.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were always fights,\u201d Moroder told Billboard. \u201cI was supposed to do an album with them after that. We went to the studio, and the guitarist was fighting with the keyboard player. I called their manager and quit.\u201d<\/p>\n Firstly, there were disgruntlements about the base \u2018lock\u2019 track; \u2018Call Me\u2019s underlying beat needed to keep in sync with the scene the number was dropped in. Blondie weren\u2019t thrilled with adding their takes on Moroder\u2019s work, but relented when explained to them the necessity for it to work on screen. Then there was the pace. Moroder was not a producer who wanted to waste time. While focused on the hardware, Moroder didn\u2019t otherwise want to spend any time longer than needed in the studio, rushing the band to get the job done in a manner they were unaccustomed to.<\/p>\n The final kicker was the use of session musicians. The New York block of recording was abandoned, in part by guitarist Chris Stein\u2019s perennially buzzing amp and a perceived struggle to stay on the required timecode. Moroder corralled a team of musicians back in LA to finish the song, including future \u2018Axel F\u2019 composer Harold Faltermeyer handling the signature keyboard solo, resulting in the soundtrack credits labelling Blondie as behind the vocals only.<\/p>\n Through frayed tempers and tense sessions, \u2018Call Me\u2019 would eventually see release to massive success, standing as one of the biggest-selling singles of 1980 and a Blondie classic. Keyboardist Jimmy Destri would duly play Faltermeyer\u2019s solo for all subsequent shows, and relationships hadn\u2019t soured enough to stop further collaborations, Moroder stepping into the producer\u2019s chair for singer Debbie Harry<\/a>\u2019s 1983 solo hit \u2018Rush Rush\u2019 for Scarface.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Andy Witchger \/ Private Stock Records) Sat 3 January 2026 7:00, UK There are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[50195,96,135065,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-349708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-blondie","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-giorgio-moroder","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}