Original Score by Composer Harold Faltermeyer
Varèse Sarabande will release for the first time ever on CD, FLETCH – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack on October 12, 2018. On the same day Varèse Sarabande will release FLETCH – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack on vinyl LP. The FLETCH soundtrack dives right into the 80’s with stalwarts like The Fixx and Kim Wilde. “Bit By Bit (Theme From FLETCH)” performed by Stephanie Mills and “Fletch, Get Outta Town” performed by Dan Hartman highlight the soundtrack which includes the score from composer Harold Faltermeyer (BEVERLY HILLS COP, TOP GUN).
Cleverly disguised as a crime drama, FLETCH is the classic 1985 comedy starring Chevy Chase at the height of his SNL fame as Irwin M. “Fletch” Fletcher. Changing identity more often than his underwear, Fletch is an investigative reporter working on a racy drug expose when he is given an outlandish proposition. To assassinate a strange businessman (Tim Matheson) who wants to be killed so his wife will inherit more insurance.
The wily Fletch senses a scam, and soon he’s up to his byline in frame-ups, murder, police corruption and forbidden romance. It’ll be the story of the year, if he can stay alive to meet his deadline! This box office hit led to the sequel FLETCH LIVES.
ABOUT HAROLD FALTERMEYER
Born October 1952 in Munich, Germany, Harold Faltermeyer was raised in a countryside neighborhood just outside the city. The family played music as a part of daily life. His Grandfather was a gifted violinist, Grandmother had a beautiful classical Alto soprano singing voice and Harold’s Father Hugo played excellent piano. While Harold studied music at Munich’s prestigious, Hochschule fuer Musik full time, he also worked at the Deutsche Grammophon recording studio as a volunteer technician. He learned sound engineering, and was also honing his skills in electronic music, programming synthesizers, composing, arranging and conducting. This dedication paid off with his first big break – working as right-hand-man to Giorgio Moroder, producer of Donna Summer and pioneer of the Disco Movement.
Harold worked for nearly two years in Giorgio’s famous Musicland Studio in Munich before he got the chance to write songs for Donna Summer’s new album Bad Girls in 1979. Hot Stuff is still one of the all time Disco classics. Then, while working with Moroder in Los Angeles on American Gigolo, Harold met movie producers Jerry Bruckheimer and the late Don Simpson. In 1983 they offered Harold the opportunity to compose the music for their new feature Thief of Hearts. Soon after that, he was hired for Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop II. From 1985-1992 he wrote the music to several more successful movies – Fletch, Running Man, Fletch Lives, Fatal Beauty, Tango &Cash and Kuffs. Collectively these movies garnered 5 Grammy nominations, 2 Golden Globe Nominations and one Academy Award nomination.
Harold won two Grammys and several awards abroad. The theme from Beverly Hills Cop – AXEL F. was covered by various groups around the world. In 2005, two decades after its origin, the Crazy Frog version of AXEL F. became the biggest selling ring tone to date. The CD release of that version also hit the English charts and went straight to # 1, being one of the top selling single CDs in 2005.
In 1989 after the birth of his first child, Harold moved from Los Angeles back to Germany to raise a family but kept working in his Munich based Red Deer Studios. He produced the highly successful Pet Shop Boys album Behavior there in 1990. In 1991 he and his wife were blessed with twins. During 1992-1997 he spent the majority of his time in Munich working on several Euro Movies, TV Series and developing new artists. In 1997 Harold met Austria’s multi-platinum seller Rainhard Fendrich with whom he composed and produced a trilogy of very successful albums and also a musical – Wake Up, which had its premiere
September 2002 in Vienna’s famous Raimund Theatre. The musical played through January 2004 and had more than 300 performances with a total of 320,000 visitors. In 2006, Harold scored a chart-topping video game Two Worlds, and then turned his focus back to developing new artists for the European market from 2007 to 2008. In 2009, with all 3 children fully grown, the time was right to come back to Hollywood. First project up was John Stalberg’s debut feature High School (August 2009) staring Adrien Brody and Michael Chiklis. He then got the nod from director Kevin Smith and produced the music for Cop Out for Warner Brothers starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, released in 2010.
