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Getting into the zone.
It definitely was a breakthrough time, Loggins says of the early 80s.
That was the beginning of a merging between rock and roll and movies.
No ones gonna write for that scene.
Lets make that happen.
Highway to Moroder.
That song found a little success, peaking at No.
60 on the singles chart.
According to Logginss memoir, it became something of a hit in gay nightclubs.
Nothing seemed to be working very well so … Jerry asked Giorgio to write something.
Giorgio came up with the track that became Danger Zone.
(Moroder, in a 2020 interview withThe Guardian,simply said, The imagery was perfect.)
Up to that point, they thought they had a different act, Loggins says.
I think it was either Toto or Mickey Thomas and Jefferson Starship.
The urban legend around Danger Zone is a bit more complex.
Straight-ahead rock and roll.
He moved some stuff around and had a few ideas, Whitlock recalled.
Hes masterful in how he uses his voice and extremely adept at recording.
If I write it myself, Im usually much more connected to the lyrics.
With somebody elses song, you have to act it, he says.
Especially the chorus, the way I pronounced danger zone was very Tina.
She has that southern accent that kind of reminded me of the English accent.
They gave me a lot of headroom there.
I just went with my gut.
All we knew was that they were investing deeply in it, he says.
Tom Cruise had not yet becomeTom Cruise, so this was going to be a breakout movie for him.
They were putting a lot of money behind it.
Cleared for takeoff.
With the quick deadline, Loggins had to wait a while to hear the finished version of the song.
I was just super-pleased that it was the opening song.
He says it was the same with Footloose and Im Alright.
Thats a good slot to be in.
It never hit No.
1 but stayed in the top ten for six weeks, peaking at No.
2 behind Peter Gabriels Sledgehammer.
Still, Loggins is happy with the chart performance of the single, his second-best-selling song after Footloose.
Its always an exciting moment when your song is reaching up to No.
1, he says.
Its like watching a college basketball game, waiting to see if its going to cross over that line.
Danger Zone naturally became a staple of Logginss live sets, usually appearing in the encore slot.
CNN started using it as the background for dropping bombs on Baghdad.
I thought it was bogus what was happening, and I didnt want to be associated with it.
So I pulled it out of the show.
Thats how I wanted the song to be interpreted.
I started getting a lot of requests for it.
I actually did an episode ofArcherand got to be a bad guy, which was really fun.
Funny enough, it wasnt until 2016 that Loggins got to talk toTop Guns leading man.
I didnt meet Tom back then.
I didnt meet him untilwe did Kimmel together in 2016, he says.
That evening, I said, I know youre going to do the new one.
Is Danger Zone a part of the newTop Gun?
And he said, It wouldnt beTop Gunwithout Danger Zone.
He stuck with that.
I think its going to be a huge hit, he says of the sequel.
It is amazing that its over 30 years since the first one.
I had no awareness of how long its been.
To have it still stick around as such an iconic film and still matter, its incredibly lucky.
