"Danger Zone" is a song, with music composed by Giorgio Moroder and lyrics written by Tom Whitlock, which American singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins recorded and released in 1986. The song was one of the hit singles from the soundtrack to the 1986 American motion pictureTop Gun, the best selling soundtrack of 1986 and one of the best selling of all time. According to Allmusic.com, the album "remains a quintessential artifact of the mid-'80s" and the album's hits "still define the bombastic, melodramatic sound that dominated the pop charts of the era."
Background
Film producersJerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, along with music supervisor Michael Dilbeck, had over 300 songs to employ on Top Gun. Testing compositions against the dailies of the opening scenes at the aircraft carrier, nothing satisfied them, and Bruckheimer asked soundtrack producer Giorgio Moroder to write something. With the help of songwriter Tom Whitlock, he composed "Danger Zone" and had Joe Pizzulo record a demo. With the approval of the producers, soundtrack distributor Columbia Records requested Moroder to have "Danger Zone" performed by an artist signed by the label. The bandToto was originally intended to perform the track, but legal conflicts between the producers of Top Gun and the band's lawyers prevented this. Bryan Adams was approached to allow his song "Only the Strong Survive" on the soundtrack and perform "Danger Zone", to which Adams declined any involvement, feeling that the film glorified war, and he did not want any of his work linked to it. REO Speedwagon was also approached to perform "Danger Zone", to which the group declined due to not being allowed to contribute any of its own compositions to the soundtrack. Corey Hart was also approached to perform "Danger Zone," to which he declined, preferring to write and perform his own compositions. Eventually, the film producers offered the song to Kenny Loggins, who would recall his assent to recording "Danger Zone" as "a very snap judgement". Whitlock went to Loggins' Encino home, and once shown the lyrics, the singer added his own improvisations. Reaching #2 on the BillboardHot 100, "Danger Zone" would be Loggins' runner-up career record - bested only by his 1984 #1 hit "Footloose" - but in a 2008 interview Loggins would indicate that recording "Danger Zone" was his sole career regret: "It doesn't represent who I am as an artist." According to TMZ, Kenny Loggins has confirmed that "Danger Zone" will be featured in the upcoming .
A music video was released in May 1986 to promote the single. The video was directed by Tony Scott and featured footage of Loggins singing, as well as clips from the film Top Gun, which Scott also directed. According to the MuchMusic network's program Pop-Up Video, the U.S. Navy described this video as "the most effective recruiting poster ever produced".
