"''Top Gun'' Anthem" is an

instrumental rock Instrumental rock is rock music that emphasizes musical instruments and features very little or no singing. Examples of instrumental rock can be found in practically every subgenre of rock, often from musicians who specialize in the style. Instru ...

composition and the theme of the ''Top Gun'' media franchise, including the original 1986 film ''

Top Gun ''Top Gun'' is a 1986 American action drama film directed by Tony Scott, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, with distribution by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., and was inspired by an a ...

'' and its 2022 sequel ''

Maverick Maverick, Maveric or Maverik may refer to: History * Maverick (animal), an unbranded range animal, derived from U.S. cattleman Samuel Maverick Aviation * AEA Maverick, an Australian single-seat sportsplane design * General Aviation Design Bureau ...

''.

Harold Faltermeyer Hans Hugo Harold Faltermeier (born 5 October 1952) is a German musician, composer and record producer. Faltermeyer is best known for composing the "Axel F" theme for the feature film ''Beverly Hills Cop'', an influential synth-pop hit in the 1 ...

wrote the music with

Steve Stevens Steve Stevens (born Steven Bruce Schneider; May 5, 1959) is an American guitarist. He is best known as Billy Idol's guitarist and songwriting collaborator, and for his lead guitar work on the theme to ''Top Gun'' – "Top Gun Anthem" – for w ...

playing

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

and Faltermeyer on the keyboard on the recording. In the film, the full song is heard in the film's ending scene.

Overview

An edited version of the song without the electric guitar is played in the opening sequence set aboard the

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...

deck during launch preparations - the music is set so that after the

F-14 Tomcat The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic aircraft, supersonic, twinjet, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experi ...

's engines are on full

afterburner An afterburner (or reheat in British English) is an additional combustion component used on some jet engines, mostly those on military supersonic aircraft. Its purpose is to increase thrust, usually for supersonic flight, takeoff, and comba ...

and the aircraft subsequently launches from the

catapult A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. A catapult uses the sudden release of stored p ...

, it immediately changes to "Danger Zone" by

Kenny Loggins Kenneth Clark Loggins (born January 7, 1948) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. His early songs were recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1970, which led to seven albums recorded as Loggins and Messina from 1972 to 1977. His ...

. This edited version would re-appear in a similar fashion during the opening scene of '' Top Gun: Maverick'', but with F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets and F-35s replacing the F-14s. In an interview for RedBull Academy in 2014, Faltermeyer recalled simultaneously recording keyboard parts for

Billy Idol William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is a British-American singer, songwriter, and musician. He first achieved fame in the 1970s emerging from the London punk rock scene as the lead singer o ...

's ''

Whiplash Smile ''Whiplash Smile'' is the third studio album by English Rock music, rock singer Billy Idol, released on 20 October 1986 by Chrysalis Records. After his successful album ''Rebel Yell (album), Rebel Yell'' (1983), Idol continued his collaboration ...

'' while also composing a melody for a scene in the movie '' Fletch''. Idol passed by the control room on a break and opened the door for a listen. He liked the melody and pumped his fist in the air, saying it was "Top Gun". In a 2002 interview with

AXS TV AXS TV is an American cable television channel. Majority-owned by Anthem Sports & Entertainment, it is devoted primarily to music-related programming (such as concert films, documentaries, and reality series involving musicians) and combat sport ...

, Stevens said Faltermeyer showed him a

Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, as in its logo) is a consumer-level analog recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video, commonly known as a video cassette recorder. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10, 1975, ...

copy of the film's

workprint A workprint is a rough version of a motion picture, used by the film editor(s) during the editing process. Such copies generally contain original recorded sound that will later be re-dubbed, stock footage as placeholders for missing shots or speci ...

and offered him to record the guitar section of the song.

Achievements

"''Top Gun'' Anthem" won a 1987

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

for

Best Pop Instrumental Performance The Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance was awarded between 1969 and 2011. *In 1969 it was awarded as Best Contemporary-Pop Performance, Instrumental *From 1970 to 1971 it was awarded as Best Contemporary Instrumental Performance ...

Music video

The song's

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

, directed by

Dominic Sena Dominic Sena (born April 26, 1949) is an American film director and music video director. As a film director, he is best known for directing the films ''Kalifornia'' (1993), '' Gone in 60 Seconds'' (2000), and '' Swordfish'' (2001). As a music ...

, shows Faltermeyer playing the piano and Stevens on electric guitar in a

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

with naval aircraft. This video was re-released within the 2004 ''Top Gun'' Collector's Edition DVD. Stevens used a

Hamer Hamer may refer to: People with the surname Hamer: *Hamer (surname) In places: * Hamer, woreda in Ethiopia * Hamer, Iran * Hamer, Idaho, United States * Hamer, Ohio, United States * Hamer, South Carolina, Unite ...

SS signature guitar in the music video but for the recording he used his

Charvel Charvel is a brand of electric guitars founded in the 1970s by Wayne Charvel in Azusa, California and originally headquartered in Glendora, California. Since 2002, Charvel has been under the ownership of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. H ...

San Dimas Glow and a 100-watt

Marshall amplifier Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, a ...

to record his part. He also used a

Boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, a ...

compressor pedal to add more sustain. There is only one guitar track throughout the entire piece, with the exception of the ending.

Availability

The song is available on both the original ''Top Gun'' soundtrack album and the expanded edition. A re-recorded version is also available on the soundtrack, '' Top Gun: Maverick (Music From the Motion Picture)''.

Personnel

– keyboards, synthesizers,

Roland TR-808 The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, commonly known as the 808, is a drum machine manufactured by the Roland Corporation between 1980 and 1983. It was one of the first drum machines to allow users to program rhythms instead of using preset patte ...

programming *

– electric guitar

Other uses

The theme was used in Bollywood movie ''

Darr ''Darr: A Violent Love Story'' ( ''Fear'') is a 1993 Indian romantic psychological thriller film directed and produced by Yash Chopra under his banner Yash Raj Films. The film stars Juhi Chawla, Sunny Deol and Shah Rukh Khan with Anupam Kh ...

''. The theme was played on organ as an intro to " Don't Need a Gun" during

's ''Whiplash Smile'' tour. A similar tune was found in the 1988

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

flight simulator ''

F/A-18 Interceptor ''F/A-18 Interceptor'' is a combat flight simulator developed by Intellisoft and published by Electronic Arts for the Amiga in 1988. The player mainly flies the F/A-18 Hornet, but the F-16 Fighting Falcon is also available for aerobatics, free ...

''. Rapper T.I. sampled the guitar riff for his song " Big Things Poppin'." On July 3, 2008,

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

released a free downloadable version of the "Top Gun Anthem" covered by

Steve Ouimette Stephen "Steve" Ouimette (born June 18, 1968) is a rock guitarist. He is known for performing a cover version of the hit song "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" (which was originally by the Charlie Daniels Band) for the video game '' Guitar Hero ...

for both the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

versions of '' Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock''. A remixed version of the song is featured as the official soundtrack for the ''Top Gun: Maverick'' DLC in '' Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown'', alongside " Danger Zone".

Charts

References

{{Authority control 1986 songs 1980s instrumentals Glam metal songs Music videos directed by Dominic Sena Rock instrumentals Songs from Top Gun Songs written by Harold Faltermeyer Songs written for films Film theme songs Columbia Records singles