An early 1980s Giorgio Moroder from the cover artwork of the 1983 album 'Solitary Men' by Giorgio Moroder & Joe Esposito.
The album contained re-recordings of 'Nights In White Satin' and Moroder/Bellotte's 'To Turn The Stone' - a song originally recorded by Donna Summer and also covered by Frida (from Abba) with Phil Collins.
This 1970s interview with Giorgio Moroder captured an important moment in the producer's career. Having established himself throughout the 1970s as a highly successful writer/producer of pop and disco, with an array of 'home-grown' acts such as Donna Summer and Roberta Kelly, Moroder would now focus on cracking the lucrative US mainstream market, breaking out of the 'disco' stereotype and working with artists from well beyond his usual sphere - as well as developing his film work and relocating his operations from Munich to Los Angeles.
It didn't take long. Within a year he, Summer and Bellotte had major US (and world) chart success with the album 'Bad Girls, and its hit singles: the rock-guitar driven 'Hot Stuff' and the risqué 'Bad Girls. Following the success of 'Midnight Express', film soundtrack offers for films like 'American Gigolo', 'Scarface' and 'Foxes' began to pour in. And in 1979 Moroder co-wrote and produced hits for Sparks, Japan, The Three Degrees and Blondie.
Collaborations with David Bowie, Cher, Janis Ian, Nena Hagen, Debbie Harry, Freddie Mercury, Pat Benatar, Irene Cara, Limahl, Berlin, Chaka Khan, Phil Oakey, Bonnie Tyler, Madleen Kane, Amii Stewart, Adam Ant, Jon Anderson, Shalamar and The Sylvers - amongst many others - were soon to follow in the 80s.
It could
be argued that Giorgio Moroder 'lost' his distinctive sound at this point
in the early 1980s. More truthfully, the growing abundance of cheaper
programmeable synthesisers and easy to use sequencers, in combination
with the absorption of 'disco' into the mainstream, meant that everyone
could now sound like him. It is interesting to note Moroder's avoidance
of the ubiquitous digital sampler (such as the Fairlight synthesiser)
during these years - probably the only way he could preserve some distance
between himself and the copyists.