Axel F — Harold Faltermeyer
#365Songs: June 8
A music professor claimed 11-year-old Harold Faltermeyer had perfect pitch.
No SYNTH WEEK would be complete with mention of Mr. Faltermeyer.
The young, classically trained piano student lived a double life with Chopin and 1960s rock ‘n roll. He enrolled at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich and began working in a recording studio. Soon he was engineering major classical recording sessions with the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon. And then Giorgio Moroder hauled his ass to Los Angeles in 1978 to help him work on the score for Midnight Express. As a sidekick, Harold worked on albums from Donna Summer, the Pet Shop Boys, and Cheap Trick.
These are the circumstances that made Harold Faltermeyer.
And that’s enough of the Wiki-summary of Harold Faltermeyer. I wanted to touch on some of these facts because it’s a common practice to assume that those early synthesizer artists were nerds locked in their basement with a Casio DG20.
Within a few years in Hollywood, Moroder’s perfect-pitched prodigy had created three iconic pieces of music that would forever define the sound of 1980s cinema, quickly surpassing his mentor as the most sought-after electronic artist of the mid-80s.
In succession, Faltermeyer played and composed the themes for Beverly Hills Cop (1984), Fletch (1985), and Top Gun (1986).
The downside to creating such an iconic sound is that the imitators burn it to the ground in a short amount of time. By the end of the 1980s, the Faltermeyer sound — largely created by his beloved Roland Jupiter 8 and a Yamaha DX7— had become dated. 1992’s Kuffs represented his last major motion picture work until he returned to update the “Top Gun Anthem” for Top Gun: Maverick (2022).
His undisputed masterpiece remains “Axel F,” a 3-minute instrumental ditty that perfectly backed Eddie Murphy’s Axel Foley in the first Beverly Hills Cop. Totally composed on an army of synthesizers, the song reached #3 on the US Pop chart, #1 on Adult and Dance charts, and #13 on the R&B.
According to Faltermeyer, he used five different instruments to create the iconic sound. The aforementioned Roland Jupiter-8 provided the distinctive melody, a Moog 15 provided the bass, a Roland JX-3P provided the staccato horn-type sounds, a Yamaha DX7 created the marimba, and a LinnDrum contributed the drum track. All instruments were played by Faltermeyer.
It’s a perfect, methodical exercise in the give and take between sonic minimalism and excess. Rhythms come forward and recede. The high melody is just infectious — and Faltermeyer knows he can’t abuse it. By the song’s conclusion, I crave more. Play it again. And again.
Nostalgia clouds the beauty of the composition itself. There’s a tendency to consign “Axel F” or the era’s excellent synthetic compositions to a memory box, good for their time.
Nonsense. Pure drivel.
The 1980s work from Faltermeyer, John Carpenter, Vangelis, Brad Fiedel, Tangerine Dream, and, of course, Giorgio Moroder, belong among the finest film compositions. Period. Do not provide the conditional phrasing just because they’re assigned to a particular time and particular place.
Put on “Axel F” or any of these scores and take a morning walk, an evening jog, listen when distractions are low, attention high. Grant yourself the opportunity for immersion. To concede that these musicians contained an innate musicality that created everything from nothing. They built the foundation for an entire genre of music, paving the way for an electronic music revolution.
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