It’s not like Italian composer Giorgio Moroder hadn’t tasted chart success early on his career, but following his association with Donna Summer and their world beating hit “I Feel Love,” Moroder’s association with Moog synthesizers became forever fused. It also got him his next gig – producing his first ever soundtrack to the film “Midnight Express.”

“In 1978 Neil Bogart and Peter Gruber, were involved with Casablanca (Records) and a film studio and they played (“I Feel Love”) to (Director) Alan Parker. He loved the feel of “I Feel Love,” so he asked me if I could record the whole score of the movie. And I said ‘I don’t have any experience!’ He said ‘Look, just give me something like “I Feel Love”” So that was easy since I had a prototype. I knew what to do.”

Arranged by composer Harold Faltermeyer, “The Chase”, features a bumping kick drum and Minimoog bass line that not renders the heart pounding drama of the main character’s descent into the hell of a Turkish prison, but eventually won Moroder an Academy Award.

Such was the song’s popularity at the time, Moroder would appear with his Oscar on German television, miming along to a recorded version of his hit on a Model D provided in studio.

Moroder continued to perform live with a Minimoog and in 1996 il maestro professed to the U.K. magazine Future Music: “If you want to make a good dance song, though, you still need the 303, an analogue drum machine (instead of a nice sounding digital one) and a Minimoog.”