Italian musician Giorgio Moroder was asked by Jerry Bruckheimer , the co-producer for Top Gun , to write a song for the film. He first wrote " Danger Zone " which was recorded by Kenny Loggins. Happy with the result, Bruckheimer then requested a slower song for a romantic scene. Once Moroder had written the musical backing to what would become "Take My Breath Away", he recorded a demo which featured a distinctive bass sound on a synthesizer that would later be used on the actual recording.
Moroder gave the demo to lyricist Tom Whitlock. The two first became acquainted when Whitlock, a mechanic, fixed the brakes on Moroder's Ferrari , and informed him that he was also a lyricist. A demo of the song, sung by a background singer, impressed director Tony Scott and producers Bruckheimer and Don Simpson , who decided to film new romantic scenes between Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis to feature the song.
The song was first offered to The Motels , who much later released their original demo, which is fairly similar to Berlin's released version, on their compilation album Anthologyland Whitlock made a few changes to the lyrics before Terri Nunn recorded the vocals. The song peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot , and also topped the charts in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Ireland and Belgium.
Following the release of "Take My Breath Away", the band split over different points of view regarding the track: while Nunn viewed it as an opportunity that allowed the band to perform worldwide, Crawford disliked it as it had not been written or composed by any of them.
He later said: "None of us had ever heard it. None of us had anything to do with it. I didn't play on it. Nobody played on it. No one wrote it". In , ShortList ' s Dave Fawbert listed the song as containing "one of the greatest key changes in music history".
