‘High Gun’ Lyricist Was 68 – The Hollywood Reporter

Tom Whitlock, who wrote the lyrics for the rock anthem “Hazard Zone” and the chart-topping love music “Take My Breath Away” for the unique High Gun, successful an Oscar within the course of, has died. He was 68.

Whitlock died Saturday at a reminiscence care heart in Gallatin, Tennessee, a spokesperson on the Gorman-Scharpf Funeral Residence in Springfield, Missouri, confirmed. He had Alzheimer’s illness, mates advised the Springfield Information Chief.

Whitlock wrote each High Gun songs with Giorgio Moroder. Their relationship started when he mounted the brakes on the Italian composer’s Ferrari.

“Hazard Zone,” carried out by Kenny Loggins, was employed for the opening scene within the Tony Scott-directed, Tom Cruise-starring 1986 motion film, whereas “Take My Breath Away,” sung by Terri Nunn of Berlin, impressed the filmmakers to shoot extra scenes with Cruise and Kelly McGillis months later.

“Take My Breath Away” made it to No. 1 on the Billboard 100 in September 1986 and received the Oscar for greatest authentic music, whereas “Hazard Zone” reached No. 2 on the chart. The movie’s soundtrack offered 9 million copies.

Whitlock and Moroder labored on music for such different films as Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Over the High (1987) — they wrote “Meet Me Half Approach,” additionally carried out by Loggins — and Rambo III (1988). In addition they got here up with the themes for the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 1990 World Cup in Italy, “Hand in Hand” and “To Be Quantity One,” respectively.

Born on Feb. 20, 1954, Thomas Ross Whitlock performed with the Ozark Mountain Daredevils as a fill-in drummer and attended Drury School in Springfield. He moved to Los Angeles in 1983 to begin a band with mates.

Whitlock was at Davlen Sound Studios in North Hollywood serving to out a pal when he met Moroder, who had simply purchased the place.

To repair Moroder’s brakes, Whitlock “went to Pep Boys and acquired a pile of Castrol brake fluid. I had my instruments in my 1970 Volvo and I went out to the parking zone and bled out the outdated brake fluid and changed it with new,” he recalled in a 2014 interview.

Whitlock wound up with a job as an assistant on the studio. When Moroder wanted assist with lyrics, Whitlock jumped in. The composer had simply labored with High Gun producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer on the 1983 hit Flashdance.

Whitlock described working with Moroder: “I’d typically dangle with the singer for a bit to assist them be taught the music and heat them up after which Giorgio would are available in to nail it down and add harmonies and backgrounds,” he mentioned.

“I all the time wrote the lyrics exactly to his melody — my principle was that his decisions have been intentional and that he had such an unbelievable information of hit songs that I had no enterprise overreaching. Generally he may make a change whereas we have been singing and I’d modify on the fly — massive enjoyable!”

Survivors embody his sister, Mary.