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.
Familiy facts
Harold was born October 5th, 1952 in Munich and grew up in the large family compound outside Munich which is still in possession of the family and is still called “home”
His parents Hugo and Anneliese had a small construction company
He has a three year younger brother named Ralf who joined his first group MELODIC SOUND as drummer and saxophone player at the age of twelve. Ralf now ownes one of Munich’s traditional restaurants so called OPATIJA. www.opatija-restaurant.com
Harold has three children, Elena Melody (26) and
twins Bianca and Florian (24)Lives partly in Munich and Los Angeles
Divorced his first wife Karin in 2005.
Lives with journalist and PR agent Birgitt Wolff
The Other Side
Harold is basically a country boy who loves the outdoors and nature
His hobbies include Golf, Tennis, Climbing, Mountain hiking, Scuba diving and downhill skiing. Beside that he is a passionate hunter and fly fisherman.
Harold holds a commercial pilot’s license and a type rating on the Cessna Citation Jet 525
Time permitting, he vanishes into his own little butchery where he produces sausages and cures ham
He also owns a private brewery where he brews beer specialties for his friends
Harold has a passion for old Bavarian farmhouses and woodwork. “The smell of cut lumber means
something really special to me,” he states. “I love to work with wood, in fact I am something like a hobby carpenter.”