Harold Faltermeyer

Harold Faltermeyer

Harold Faltermeyer (* 5. October 1952 in Munich as Hans Hugo Harold Falter Meier ) is a German composer and producer .

Life

Faltermeyer was named "Harold" after his godfather, an American colonel.

Faltermeyer's career began in a small band in Vaterstetten near Munich. There he got to know Stefan Zauner , who later became a singer of the Münchener Freiheit , and founded Melodic Sound with him . After studying at the Munich University of Music , Faltermeyer worked as a composer in the USA for a long time .

He gained worldwide fame as the composer of Axel F , the instrumental theme song for the film Beverly Hills Cop with Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley in the lead role. Giorgio Moroder and Jerry Bruckheimer are considered to be his most important supporters and discoverers. After Axel F was nominated for a Grammy in the category Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 1986, he and rock guitarist Steve Stevens received this award a year later for the instrumental piece Top Gun Anthem , which was used as the music theme for the aviator film Top Gun was composed in the starring Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis .

Faltermeyer has composed and produced numerous film scores, including for Fire and Ice , Asterix in America , Running Man and Didi - The Double . He wrote one of the various theme tunes for the Formula One chart show and music for some computer games such as Jack Orlando . He co-produced the Pet Shop Boys album Behavior (1990) .

Harold Faltermeyer composed and produced the musical Wake Up together with Rainhard Fendrich (from 2002) and he has also been responsible for Rainhard Fendrich's successful CD productions for several years as a producer. Harold Faltermeyer was a permanent member of the jury in the Pro7 casting show Comeback - The Big Chance .

In 2013 Harold Faltermeyer composed and produced the Flying Bulls Anthem for the Red Bull Flying Bulls squadron . The official presentation of this work took place together with the guitarist Steve Stevens as part of the Scalaria Air Challenge at Lake Wolfgang. The chief pilot for helicopters of the Flying Bulls, Sigi "Blacky" Schwarz flew an aerobatics specially rehearsed for the song with a Bölkow Bo 105 helicopter during the performance . In addition to the air performance of the BO-105, Blacky, Harold and Steve competed with other Flying Bulls aircraft such as the B. accompanied the Alpha Jets and many others.

In 2014 he composed and produced the Wolfgang Fierek album published by Electrola on February 27, 2015 in his studio Sweet Home Bavaria .

Faltermeyer lives alternately in Los Angeles and Baldham near Munich, where his company Kilauea Musikverlag GmbH is also based. He has a private pilot license PPL-A and a type rating for a Cessna Citation Jet 525.

Discography

Albums

• 1988: World hits
• 1988: Harold F.
• 2002: His Greatest Hits (2 CDs)
• 2007: Two Worlds - The Album

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1985	Axel F.	DE2 (17 weeks) DE	AT4 (8 weeks) AT	CH2 (13 weeks) CH	UK2 silver (23 weeks)UK	US3 (19 weeks) US	Sales: + 300,000
	Fletch theme	-	-	-	UK74 (4 weeks) UK	-
1986	Formula One	DE62 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
2001	Axel F (Miami Burns)	DE40 (6 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	DJ ICON & Toxic Twins vs. Harold Faltermeyer

More singles

• 1984: Final Confrontation
• 1986: Top Gun Anthem
• 1987: The Race Is On
• 1988: Prophecy
• 1988: Must Be Paradise
• 1990: Muscles (with Moses P. )
• 1992: Olympic Dreams (feat.Joe Pizzulo)
• 1994: The Challenge - SW 19
• 2007: Play the Game (feat. Ambermoon)

Soundtrack / film music

• 1984: Didi - the double
• 1984: Beverly Hills Cop
• 1984: Fletch - The Troublemaker
• 1984: dreams come true at night
• 1985: fire and ice
• 1986: Top Gun
• 1987: Beverly Hills Cop II
• 1987: Fatal Beauty
• 1987: Running Man
• 1989: Fletch - the jack of all trades
• 1989: Tango & Cash
• 1990: blue blood
• 1990: Fire, Ice & Dynamite
• 1992: Kuffs - A guy to shoot with
• 1992: Sauerkraut ( Helme Heine )
• 1993: Two super guys in Miami (season 2)
• 1994: Asterix in America
• 1994: White Magic
• 1994: Zeit der Sehnsucht (German soundtrack)
• 1995: Frankie (TV series)
• 1997: Jack Orlando (computer game)
• 1998: The King of St. Pauli
• 2005: Looking for and finding love
• 2007: Two Worlds (computer game)
• 2010: Cop Out - loaded and unlocked
• 2010: greed

Author participations and productions

year	Title artist	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, artist , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1976	Do it again Rex Gildo	DE49 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	-
1977	Heaven Bonnie Tyler	DE24 (22 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
1979	Hot Stuff Donna Summer	DE5 (22 weeks) DE	AT3 (20 weeks) AT	CH1 (16 weeks) CH	UK11 silver (10 weeks)UK	US1 platinum (21 weeks)US	Sales: + 2,350,000
	Jump the Gun The Three Degrees	-	-	-	UK48 (5 weeks) UK	-
	My Simple Heart The Three Degrees	-	-	-	UK9 silver (11 weeks)UK	-	Sales: + 250,000
1980	Rapper's German G.LS-United	DE49 (4 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
	Sunset People Donna Summer	-	-	-	UK46 (5 weeks) UK	-
	Walk Away Donna Summer	-	-	-	-	US36 (11 weeks) US
	Cold Love Donna Summer	-	-	-	UK44 (3 weeks) UK	US33 (12 weeks) US
1982	The telly ... and all in color Udo Jürgens	DE60 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
	5 minutes to 12 Udo Juergens	DE66 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
1984	Square Rooms Al Corley	DE13 (17 weeks) DE	AT15 (6 weeks) AT	CH6 (10 weeks) CH	-	US80 (5 weeks) US
	The Heat Is On Glenn Frey	DE4 (16 weeks) DE	AT27 (2 weeks) AT	CH5 (12 weeks) CH	UK12 (13 weeks) UK	US2 (24 weeks) US	Sales: + 50,000
	Thief of Hearts Melissa Manchester	-	-	-	-	US86 (6 weeks) US
1985	Stir It Up Patti LaBelle	-	-	-	-	US41 (14 weeks) US
	Bit By Bit Stephanie Mills	-	-	-	-	US78 (6 weeks) US
	Spanish Eddie Laura Branigan	DE36 (12 weeks) DE	AT8 (14 weeks) AT	-	UK87 (2 weeks) UK	US40 (11 weeks) US
	Hold Me Laura Branigan	-	-	-	-	US82 (4 weeks) US
1986	Fire and Ice Marietta	DE10 (14 weeks) DE	AT10 (8 weeks) AT	CH5 (10 weeks) CH	-	-
1987	Shakedown Bob Seger	DE60 (3 weeks) DE	-	-	UK88 (5 weeks) UK	US1 (18 weeks) US
	Heart Over Mind Jennifer Rush	DE25 (10 weeks) DE	AT24 (2 weeks) AT	CH29 (1 week) CH	-	-
1988	All Systems Go Donna Summer	-	-	-	UK54 (3 weeks) UK	-
1989	The Challenge (Face It) Chris Thompson	DE5 (12 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
	Funky Cold Medina (A Bavarian in New York) Bayernpower	DE32 (12 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
	Yes We Can Artists United for Nature	DE15 (14 weeks) DE	AT27 (1 week) AT	CH4 (14 weeks) CH	-	-
1990	So Hard Pet Shop Boys	DE3 (19 weeks) DE	AT14 (10 weeks) AT	CH2 (11 weeks) CH	UK4 (6 weeks) UK	US62 (8 weeks) US
	Being Boring Pet Shop Boys	DE13 (17 weeks) DE	AT30 (1 week) AT	CH16 (7 weeks) CH	UK20 (8 weeks) UK	-
1991	How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously? Pet Shop Boys	-	-	-	-	US93 (3 weeks) US
	Jealousy Pet Shop Boys	DE20 (14 weeks) DE	-	CH14 (8 weeks) CH	UK12 (5 weeks) UK	-
1992	Axel F. Techno Cop	DE30 (9 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
1993	I Feel My Heart Is Burning Chaya	DE67 (10 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
1997	Blond Rainhard Fendrich	DE99 (1 week) DE	AT1 × 2 Double platinum (16 weeks)AT	-	-	-	Sales: + 100,000
1998	He's the King Bonnie Tyler	DE95 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
	Hermann Maier Mini Bydlinski & The Alarm Clock Combo	-	AT7 (11 weeks) AT	-	-	-
2000	The Chase Giorgio Moroder vs. Jam & Spoon	DE44 (5 weeks) DE	-	CH75 (5 weeks) CH	UK46 (2 weeks) UK	-
2001	Terribly straight Rainhard Fendrich	-	AT47 (6 weeks) AT	-	-	-
	I've never been to New York Udo Jürgens	DE53 (10 weeks) DE	AT58 (4 weeks) AT	CH48 (3 weeks) CH	-	-
2002	Fly with Me (To the Stars) DJs @ Work	DE30 (8 weeks) DE	AT46 (5 weeks) AT	-	-	-
2003	Hot Stuff Marilyn’s Boys	DE57 (6 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
	Axel F. 2003 Murphy Brown vs. Captain Hollywood	DE18 (11 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
2005	Axel F Crazy Frog	DE3 (23 weeks) DE	AT2 (23 weeks) AT	CH1 platinum (42 weeks)CH	UK1 platinum (17 weeks)UK	US50 gold (7 weeks)US	Sales: + 1,934,000

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Denmark 2005: for the author participation Axel F (Crazy Frog)  France 1980: for the production When I'm With You ( Sparks )  Canada 1985: for the author participation and production The Heat Is On (Glenn Frey) 1985: for the single Axel F Platinum record  Canada 1979: for the author participation Hot Stuff (Donna Summer)  Sweden 2005: for the author participation Axel F (Crazy Frog)

2 × platinum record  Australia 2005: for the author participation Axel F (Crazy Frog)  Belgium 2005: for the author participation Axel F (Crazy Frog)  New Zealand 2005: for the author participation Axel F (Crazy Frog) Diamond record  France 2005: for the author participation Axel F (Crazy Frog)

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	diamond	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Australia (ARIA)	-	-	2 × platinum2	-	140,000	aria.com.au
Belgium (BEA)	-	-	2 × platinum2	-	100,000	ultratop.be
Denmark (IFPI)	-	gold1	-	-	4,000	ifpi.dk
France (SNEP)	-	gold1	-	diamond1	1,000,000	infodisc.fr snepmusique.com
Canada (MC)	-	2 × gold2	platinum1	-	250,000	musiccanada.com
New Zealand (RMNZ)	-	-	2 × platinum2	-	30,000	nztop40.co.nz
Austria (IFPI)	-	-	2 × platinum2	-	100,000	ifpi.at
Sweden (IFPI)	-	-	platinum1	-	20,000	sverigetopplistan.se
Switzerland (IFPI)	-	-	platinum1	-	40,000	hitparade.ch
United States (RIAA)	-	gold1	platinum1	-	2,500,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	3 × silver3	-	platinum1	-	1,300,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	3 × silver3	5 × gold5	13 × platinum13	diamond1

swell

1. ↑ Harold Faltermeyer: Grüß Gott, Hollywood: My life between home and rock 'n' roll . BASTEI LÜBBE, 2016, ISBN 978-3-7325-2956-8 ( google.de [accessed on October 7, 2016]).
2. ↑ Homepage , accessed on July 21, 2014.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US

Web links

• Literature by and about Harold Faltermeyer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Harold Faltermeyer in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Harold Faltermeyer at filmportal.de
• Harold Faltermeyer official website (English)
• Harold Faltermeyer at Discogs (English)

• Author participations and productions at austriancharts.at