Features

The soundtrack to the 1986 Tom Cruise action film Top Gun was an unqualified hit, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard album chart in late July that year, and staying on top for three weeks. Its biggest hits are instantly recognizable even today – Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” and “Playing with the Boys” and Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” remind moviegoers of specific scenes in the film. Even “Top Gun Anthem,” Harold Faltermeyer and Steve Stevens’ instrumental theme, conjures images of fighter jets silhouetted against an enormous sunrise.
 

38 years ago, Public Image Ltd., the musical collective John Lydon called home after the disintegration of the Sex Pistols, released their fourth studio album, a somewhat troubled LP which ended up the subject of significant controversy within the band and led to a major split within their ranks.

35 years ago, Echo and the Bunnymen released their self-titled fifth studio album, an LP which remains their most successful US effort to date despite failing to crack the top 40 of the Billboard 200.

37 years ago, the global jukebox came alive in London and Philadelphia as the epic charity concert known as Live Aid took place. Its goal: to feed the world.

When you hear Kenny Loggins’ No. 1 hit “Danger Zone,” what comes immediately to mind? Probably Tom Cruise, or Navy fighter jets, or pilots with names like Iceman, Jester and Maverick. In other words, you think of Top Gun, the 1986 action flick that made a movie star of Cruise and a pop star of Loggins.