Tom Whitlock may not ring a bell to most, but there’s a very good chance his work on the Top Gun soundtrack does.
Whitlock co-wrote five songs with Giorgio Moroder for the 1986 film soundtrack. Among those songs were, perhaps, the Tom Cruise film’s most iconic anthems: Kenny Loggins’s “Danger Zone” and Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away.” (Fun fact: Whitlock and Moroder won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Take My Breath Away.”)
Per The New York Times, Whitlock died at 68. The outlet noted, “His death was confirmed by Gorman-Scharpf Funeral Home, which did not cite a cause.”
In addition to his work on the Top Gun soundtrack, Whitlock and Moroder collaborated on other film soundtracks including Over The Top and Rambo III.