American Gigolo is the soundtrack album to the 1980 movie of the same name, starring Richard Gere and Lauren Hutton. The music was composed and performed by Giorgio Moroder and was released worldwide on the Polydor label. It peaked at #7 in the Billboard 200 Album charts. All the cuts from the soundtrack also went to number two for five weeks on the disco/dance charts.
"Call Me" by Blondie is the lead song for the soundtrack and its portion was played during the film's intro. The song, in the early stages an instrumental demo titled "Man Machine," had originally been offered to Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks, but Nicks declined and Blondie instead recorded the song with lyrics by lead vocalist Debbie Harry. The single, released on Blondie's label Chrysalis Records in February 1980, was a number one hit in both the U.S. and the U.K. and most other parts of the world, and became their second U.S. number one, after their commercial breakthrough with 1979's "Heart of Glass." The band also recorded a Spanish-language version of "Call Me," entitled "Llamame," released both in the U.S. and South America. Giorgio Moroder's instrumental track "Night Drive," another variation on the "Man Machine"/"Call Me" theme, was also issued as a single in certain territories. In 1981, the song was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The song lists at No. 44 on Billboard's All Time Top 100.
The song "Love and Passion" was written by director Paul Schrader and Moroder and was performed by Cheryl Barnes, and can be heard in the movie in the gay club scene (filmed at Los Angeles gay club The Probe, opened in 1978) where Gere's character Julian goes to seek help from Leon, his pimp, after realising he has been framed for a murder he didn't commit.
The instrumental "The Seduction (Love Theme)" a saxophone tune performed by German bandleader James Last and David Sanborn (uncredited) peaked at number 28 in the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1980.
American Gigolo was the second soundtrack album to be written and produced by Moroder in 1980, the first being Foxes, which included Donna Summer's hit single "On the Radio" as well as tracks by Janis Ian and Cher. Later that same year he also produced what was to be his and Summer's final full-length studio album together, The Wanderer. (1981's I'm a Rainbow was shelved by Geffen Records and remained unreleased until 1996.)
In 1978 Moroder had won an Academy Award for Original Music Score for his soundtrack to Midnight Express. In 1979 Donna Summer's "Last Dance" from Thank God It's Friday, produced by Moroder, won both an Academy Award as well as a Golden Globe for best song, and following the success of American Gigolo and Blondie's "Call Me" in 1980 he went on to compose and produce soundtracks to a large number of Hollywood movies all through the 1980s, such as Cat People - including David Bowie's hit single "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" (1983), Flashdance - including Irene Cara's "Flashdance...What A Feeling" (1983), Scarface - including Debbie Harry's "Rush Rush" (1983), Metropolis and Freddie Mercury's "Love Kills" (1984) and Top Gun including Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" (1985) - to name but a few.
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